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JayMiller3 Author

Level 1

44 points

Contacts Address Book- iCloud v. Internet accounts

In Contacts, the computerized address book app, on a MacBook Pro, why when a contact is added does it sometimes go into an email account listing in Contacts and other times it goes to the iCloud account in Contacts?

What is the nature of the two different listings and is there any reason to have the email accounts to allow Contacts to sync across Apple devices? IE, is anything lost if I delete the email account lists within Contacts and just use the iCloud one?

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.13

Posted on Dec 1, 2021 2:43 PM

Top-ranking reply

medwds

Level 4

2,122 points

Posted on Dec 1, 2021 3:39 PM

Instead of or in addition to storing your contacts in iCloud, you can sync contacts from some email providers, like Google, to the Contacts app on Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. There are a few reasons you might do this:

You also access the other provider via webmail or on a non-Apple device. For example, if you use Gmail in a browser, it will autocomplete contacts from your Google account but not iCloud.
You want to keep a separate address book for each email address, especially if one is personal and the other is for work.
You already stored your contacts with the other provider before using iCloud, and see no reason to change.

If you have an email account on your Mac that you don't want to see in Contacts, but you still need in other apps like Mail or Calendar, you can disable just the Contacts switch in System Preferences > Internet Accounts.

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Contacts Address Book- iCloud v. Internet accounts

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