iCloud contact labels changed with latest iOS 16 upgrade

If you add your iCloud account in the app Microsoft Outlook on your iPhone, after 6 to 15 hours, the phones, adresses and emails labels of some of your contacts are changing. For example on 30% of my contacts, home address is changed to address, Mobile number is changed to Phone… in my iPhone contact app (but stayed ok on iCloud.com). I have been in contact with Apple support level 2 for 2 weeks before finding the solution to remove iCloud in account in outlook app.

It is Microsoft Outlook!!!! At least from my testing. It all started when I installed "Microsoft Outlook for Mac" on my computer at work so that I could check my Apple Mail. (Didn't want to use cellular data on my iPhone and my work Wi-Fi blocks Apple Mail.) Microsoft Outlook I think is using Microsoft syncing to Apple which screws everything up. Once I uninstalled Outlook on my work Mac contact phone "labels" would not change. I restored my contacts from logging to icloud.com and looked for an old date to restore. It's been not changing any Contact labels since I unassociated Outlook to anything Apple.

Same here.

The common problem seems to be Outlook, whether it is installed on desktop or installed on iphone. Personally I had it installed on iphone. I just had to delete the google account from Outlook (contacts synchronized on Google) and everything seems to be back to normal. However, among the Outlook mobile menus there is an option called "Focus Profiles" (I think they are the Full Immersion) from which it is possible to delete the synchronization profile by profile depending on what you want to combine. When in doubt, I totally deleted the Google account from Outlook since I had already configured it in Mail. ; )

Since I had removed my iCloud account from Microsoft outlook on my iPhone, all is fixed. So the problem is outlook.

I FOUND WHERE THE CUSTOM LABELS ARE COMING FROM!

I've posted a couple times in the last 24 hours with updates. The CUSTOM LABELS are being imported when you add a contact via TEXT from another iPhone user. I ran the test today with a coworker. He texted me a contact that had a CUSTOM LABEL "batphone". I added it to my phone. Then I checked another contact and wham-o, my existing contact now had the CUSTOM LABEL "batphone." I deleted the newly imported contact, but still had to go back and delete the "batphone" CUSTOM LABEL.

Be careful when importing contacts from other people if you care about your data.

In my case, my iCloud account was on outlook just to sync my calendar. And it was the problem. Did you verify in outlook on all your devices that you don’t have the iCloud ? For outlook it is an email account only in the options in the application at the bottom left. You can’t see that in the iPhone setup.

The problem may be with the gmail plateform for your contacts. I think that third party contact storage are not compliant with apple contact labels. To confirm it could be a good test to deactivate the contacts with yours gmail or other external accounts. In my case. All is fine since my contacts are only on apple iCloud plateforme.

Do you have a third party app for calendar or emails or contacts on your Mac, iPhone or iPad. If yes try to remove the iCloud.com account in those applications. It seems that this applications doesn’t support the labels. Now I am using only calendar, contacts and Apple emails and all is good.

Another clue this morning: Currently, I've cleaned up my contacts and there are no custom labels. I received a text (iMessage) from someone and clicked on their image to drop down and call them from the text chat. There were two numbers listed simply as "phone." I went and checked their actual contact card and the correct classifications were there: mobile and work. I have been backing up (and saving forever) my texts. I deleted the text chain and resent a text to the contact, then tried to call them from the drop down and the correct classifications (mobile are work populated from their contact card) were present. I'm wondering if once this custom contact overwrite "virus" gets in once, it just continues to circle. Or maybe it's coming through the iMessage (text) platform. I'm going to stop backing up my texts (iMessages) to iCloud to see if this puts this problem to bed once and for all.

I have some thoughts on this and while I think the issue goes back a few years, I think it still exists today. I have always synced with Outlook on my Win pc with iCloud. I do not have Outlook on my phone or iPad. I really like the custom fields on iOs but I think Outlook can't deal with these custom fields. A few years ago, after continuing to create new contacts (such as husband and wife in one contact) each with custom fields ; RE: Bob's email, Bob's cell, Cathy's email, Cathy's cell. It appears Outlook may attempt to sync this using field labels it thinks are ok and replaces the field names. Or it just loses the contact. I have had many contacts suddenly disappear. I have rebuilt contacts manually over time to adhere to Outlook and splitting the couples into individual contacts. That seems to work ok. So, If you are using MS Outlook, be aware.

Outlook was the issue for me. Unlinked the iCloud account and then my contacts stopped switching labels.

I removed iCloud account from Outlook and it appears to have stopped the changes. However, is there any way to restore previous contacts so you have the proper home, work, mobile phone assignments? Thanks!

I turned off "Contacts" for Gmail in Internet Accounts on my iPhone. So far the labels are "sticking." Wish me luck!

Did you remove iCloud from Outlook on your iPhone/iPad, Mac, or both?

Do we have a sense of which app (iOS or MacOS) is causing the problem?