Problems with Time Machine backup of Contacts

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Problems with Time Machine backup of Contacts

My contacts are all synched via my iCloud account (although I don't have iCloud Drive enabled.)

I accidentally deleted a contact in Catalina 10.15.4. I attempted to restore with Time Machine by having Contacts open on my desktop and starting TM. Unfortunately, Contacts closed, and Finder appeared.

I then did a test on another Mac with 10.15.4. I added a test card to Contacts. I then went into TM and saw the contact in the Contacts app. When I went to previous TM backups it was still there! I closed TM, deleted the contact, and waited for another backup. I then could not find my test card in a snapshot in TM that should have had it.

So my question is Does TM really backup contacts??? (Not for me).

iMac with Retina 5K display, macOS 10.13

Posted on Apr 14, 2020 6:44 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

MoonJ.

Community Specialist

Apr 16, 2020 12:46 PM in response to wa1oui

Hello wa1oui,

Since you're syncing through iCloud, do you have Contacts turned on in System Preferences > iCloud on the machine in question? If you do have it turned on, then the entries in Contacts are stored in iCloud and not on the Mac. Therefore they are not part of the Time Machine backup.

While you will see the entries in the Time Machine backup, the data is syncing from iCloud. This is similar to how Mail works. With Mail you typically access the contents from an email service provider server, and any changes which are made on one device are seen on all devices, including the webmail portal.

If you go to the iCloud website, sign in and click on Contacts, you should see the same entries there as you do on your other devices. If you make a change on any of the devices, it will appear on all others, and in iCloud.

To see if you're able to restore the missing contact from iCloud, you'll want to look into the information in this article: Restore contacts, calendars, and more in Settings on iCloud.com.

If you do not have Contacts selected in System Preferences > iCloud, then you'll want to Contact Apple Support for more assistance with the Time Machine backup.

Cheers.

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Answer 2

chuck_3rd

Community Specialist

Apr 14, 2020 7:45 PM in response to wa1oui

Hello wa1oui,

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities! From your message it sounds like you are trying to use Time Machine to restore Contacts which were deleted.

You mentioned that you have your Contacts synced through your iCloud account. If they are only stored in iCloud, then no, Time Machine will not be backing up that data. Any entries which are saved to your Mac, would be backed up with Time Machine.

Since your contacts are in iCloud, check out the troubleshooting steps in this article to restore you contacts: Restore contacts, calendars and more in Settings on iCloud.com.

All the best.

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