How to merge Contacts on all devices and iCloud?

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Level 1

27 points

How to merge Contacts on all devices and iCloud?

Greetings All,

My Contacts lists appear to be different on my Mac (MacBook Pro, Mid 2010 w/ MacOS 10.13.6) and my iCloud. On my Mac the Contacts lists "All iCloud" and "All on My Mac" do not contain the same contacts and I would like to make it so they both contain all of my contacts. I use an old iPhone (3GS, jailbroken) which has my most up-to-date contact list, but this iPhone is not connected to my iCloud. I don't believe this iPhone could be connected to my iCloud even if I wanted it to be(?). I connect and sync the iPhone to iTunes on my Mac once a month or so to back up the contact information. Does this sync process copy my iPhone contact information to the Contacts app on my Mac? I also use an iPad Pro 10.5 w/ iPadOS 14.6. The iPad is connected to my iCloud. How do I merge all of my contact information so Contacts on my iPhone, Mac, iPad, and my iCloud are up to date and contain all of the same contacts?

Also: I will be retiring the iPhone 3GS in the near future and I plan to begin using an iPhone SE (1st generation) at that time. I would like to make sure all of my Contacts issues are resolved before I make this switch, so I can make a fresh start with the iPhone SE and have all of my Contacts available on it. Will it be best to restore the iPhone information from iTunes on my Mac to the new iPhone or will it be best to manage this via iCloud? Or both? Please advise on this process as well.

Thank you for your help and support. All much appreciated!

Best regards,

iPhone SE

Posted on Jul 22, 2021 7:54 PM

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Answer 1

bailier

Community Specialist

Jul 25, 2021 12:44 PM in response to imorndew

imorndew,

Thanks for the additional details.

In answer to your first question, you can export your contacts from one section to the other by clicking a contact, then command-A to select all of them. After that, right click and select export vCard. After that, import the contacts into the other account. MacOS will recognize duplicates and ask you how to want to handle them. See more info for both below:

This will update one contact list with the info from the other without deleting any of the existing contacts. As to your iPhone, updating it to the latest iOS version it can run, iOS 6 in this case, would remove the jailbreak from it. If you're unwilling to do that, your best option is to continue to manually sync, however this method of syncing is becoming obsolete and may be discontinued in future versions of iOS and macOS.

One thing we'd recommend confirming if you're mainly adding new contacts through the iPhone is to check if your contacts for the On My Mac section and in the Contacts app on your iPhone are the same, as if you've been syncing them periodically in the past, they should be more or less the same information.

As to your second question, there is no approved way to update contacts on both your Mac and iCloud automatically as they're intended to be used with either one system or the other. iCloud does streamline this process by doing the work for you, however, you can continue to manually sync for so long as it is supported.

Cheers!

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Answer 2

sterling r

Community Specialist

Jul 23, 2021 5:27 PM in response to imorndew

Hi imorndew,

To make sure we're on the same page, it looks like you have an older iPhone, an iPad and a Mac, none of which have your contacts in sync? Or is it specifically only the iPhone that is out of sync, but the iPad and Mac do share the same contacts?

In short, the easiest way to sync your contacts is through iCloud. iCloud will automatically manage and keeps them up-to-date as you add or remove contacts by automatically making those same changes on your other devices. Provided your iPhone 3GS is on iOS 5, it can run iCloud and sync as well. See those details below:

Set up and use iCloud Contacts

If that isn't an option or preference, you can manually sync contacts via your Mac or PC and iTunes, which it sounds like you've been doing. However this doesn't copy your contacts info from your iPhone to your Mac, but rather from your Mac to your iPhone assuming you have Contacts checked to be synced. This would allow you to replace the contacts on your iPhone with those on your Mac.

Use iTunes to sync your iPhone, iPad, or iPod with your computer

As to your iPad, you cannot use iCloud Contacts and sync your contacts via your computer at the same time, one or the other must be selected. If you intend to use your new iPhone with iCloud, it may be best to leave the iPad be for the moment until you update the iPhone. Otherwise, you can toggle Contacts off on the iPad under Settings > [your name] > iCloud. This de-syncs the iPad from iCloud regarding contacts and allows you to overwrite the contacts on the iPad with those on the Mac. A copy of your contacts as they currently are will remain at iCloud.com.

Let us know if you have any further questions.

Cheers!

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Answer 3

sterling r

Community Specialist

Jul 29, 2021 1:02 PM in response to imorndew

imorndew,

In answer to your follow up questions:

Yes, review those lists as if you've been syncing they should already be more or less the same. The discrepancies should be from new contacts added to the iPhone 3GS after your last sync.
Regarding your iPhone SE, it sounds like you intend to restore the backup from the iPhone 3GS to your newer SE when you switch over. That is what we'd recommend and you can review the steps to restore a backup from one device to another here: Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup. Once you set up the iPhone SE, you can then sign into iCloud and toggle Contacts on. That will upload the contacts solely on your iPhone and Mac to iCloud to then sync properly across all of your devices.
The easiest way to save this thread would be to pull it up in Safari on your Mac, and then click File > Export as PDF, it'll save the entire webpage as a PDF for easy reviewing.

Happy to assist, let us know if you have any follow up questions.

Regards.

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Answer 4

imorndew Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 23, 2021 10:04 PM in response to sterling r

Greetings sterling r,

Thank you for your response to my post and all of the information you have provided!

My apologies if some of what I wrote in my original post may have been unclear. To clarify; I believe my Mac and iPad both have the same contacts via iCloud, as they both are connected to my iCloud (with the exception being as described in number 1. below.). My old iPhone 3GS (w/ iOS 4.3.3) is not connected to my iCloud. I do sync and back up this iPhone 3GS to my iTunes on my Mac using a cable. I don’t believe I can connect this iPhone 3GS to iCloud, as it is jay ale broken and I would loose that setup if it was updated to the latest compatible iOS. Please correct me if I am incorrect about this.

The two general issues I would like to resolve are:

The Contacts application on my Mac shows "All iCloud" and "All on My Mac". These two lists appear to be different. I would like to merge these two lists, so all of my contacts are complete on both lists, or reduce the two lists to one all inclusive list. How can this be accomplished and configured so the lists stay in sync going forward?
I add new contacts to the Contacts app on the iPhone 3GS in daily life as needed, so this is my most up-to-date list of contacts. My hope is the "All iCloud" and "All on My Mac" lists in Contacts on my Mac can be merged and when I connect and sync/backup the iPhone 3GS to the Mac the contacts stored on the IPhone 3GS will be added to update the Contacts application on the Mac and also iCloud at the same time. This would be ideal. Can this be accomplished?

If 1 and 2 above cannot be accomplished, maybe I will have to consider trying to update the iOS on the iPhone 3GS and see if it can connect to my iCloud and sync all of the contacts on the iPhone 3GS to iCloud and my Mac and iPad(?). I would not want to attempt this if there was a risk of loosing the contacts stored on the iPhone 3GS, although in theory they should already be backed up to iTunes on my Mac.

Please let me know if this description is clear or if there are other details I should provide. Please kindly let me know what my options are and how I may accomplish 1 and 2 above. Thank you all for your help and assistance!

Best regards,

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Answer 5

imorndew Author

Level 1

27 points

Jul 26, 2021 7:33 PM in response to bailier

Greetings bailier,

Thank you for your reply and the provided information!

I will need to review the contacts saved to “All on My Mac", in Contacts on my Mac, and compare this list with the contacts saved in the Contacts app on my iPhone 3GS. If I understand correctly, syncing and backing up the iPhone 3GS to iTunes on the Mac should keep these two lists identical to each other(?). Please correct me if this is not the case.

I appreciate the information regarding how to select and import contacts to/from “All on My Mac" and "All iCloud" within the Contacts application on the Mac. I assumed there was an iCloud allow access setting somewhere which could be toggled to have these two lists automatically kept in sync with each other. Without your help I may have been continuing to look for a setting which doesn’t exist. Thank you.

As written earlier, I also have an iPhone SE (1st generation) which I plan on switching to in the near future. This iPhone SE is used, but like new and has been reset. I will make sure it has the latest available and compatible iOS installed before I begin using it. I plan to import/restore (not sure what is the correct terminology here?) the settings, information, and contacts saved from the iPhone 3GS to iTunes on the Mac to the iPhone SE when I set it up. Are there any issues or concerns I should be aware of before attempting to do this? Please kindly advise. Also; if the import/restore to the iPhone SE goes well, I assume the contacts can be updated on the Mac and iPad via iCloud once the iPhone SE is setup and connected to my iCloud. This may be another way of helping to work out some of my Contacts issue on the Mac(?). Does this make sense as well?

As an unrelated side question; can anyone please suggest the best/easiest way to save this entire thread so I can retain the helpful information if Apple deletes the post/thread? Print -> PDF?

Thank you once again for all of your help and assistance!

Best regards,

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How to merge Contacts on all devices and iCloud?

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