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ljpanetta Author

Level 1

26 points

iCloud contact labels changed with latest iOS 16 upgrade

I have been using Apple contacts syncing with my iPhone & MacBook for past 5 years with no issues. Over that time, when I add a contact, I will give it a label for the Phone#, address, and email. For example, I might list 3 phone numbers for a contact and change the labels to be: mobile, work, work fax. Same concept for email and address. These are standard labels in Apple address book. Occasionally I might create a custom label.

With the iOS 16 upgrade, over half my contacts lost their labels and switched to a generic label like: phone, email, address. Now when I want to go message a person that might have 3 phone numbers, I have no idea which one is the mobile number versus a fax number. I’ve tried manually fixing a few from the MacBook side or iPhone side, but after a day the labels switch back to a generic label again.

Anyone have a clue what this is about?

Posted on Sep 25, 2022 4:20 PM

Top-ranking reply

J.Patrick

Level 1

60 points

Posted on Jan 6, 2023 7:26 AM

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.

View in context

85 replies

Jan 11, 2023 2:55 PM in response to LEVMW79

@LEVMW79 - This is exactly what's happening with me as well... just that I have only iPhone which is synching.

weciiiaz

Level 1

18 points

Jan 13, 2023 12:44 PM in response to LEVMW79

I stopped backing up my contacts to iCloud a while ago. Eventually, the problem comes back - sometimes it takes three weeks.

jduchan

Level 1

14 points

Jan 28, 2023 3:13 PM in response to ljpanetta

Adding one more voice to the choir.

My workplace uses Microsoft365 extensively...has anyone tried just moving everything out of iCould and into MS Contacts?

jhp635

Level 1

8 points

Feb 3, 2023 2:43 PM in response to ljpanetta

Me too. What was Apple thinking?

jduchan

Level 1

14 points

Mar 5, 2023 5:01 PM in response to gkap

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?

Mar 5, 2023 5:24 PM in response to jduchan

I only have an iPhone. So definitely Outlook on iOS was my problem.

jduchan

Level 1

14 points

Mar 5, 2023 6:04 PM in response to bobbyfromsandiego

Alright, that's good to know. I'll give it a try. Thanks!

weciiiaz

Level 1

18 points

Mar 9, 2023 7:15 AM in response to weciiiaz

Good morning. After deleting two CUSTOM LABELS last night at 1902H, this morning, only 12H later, I find the CUSTOM LABEL "MOBILE" is back, but not "HOME."

Mar 26, 2023 2:37 AM in response to ljpanetta

Good luck with Apple, people!!!!

jhp635

Level 1

8 points

Mar 26, 2023 2:58 PM in response to arcsv

The last I looked into this, all the contacts must reside in iCloud to use custom labels. I think I used my MacBook to move my contacts. It looks to me that Apple is trying to push the use of iCloud.

iCloud contact labels changed with latest iOS 16 upgrade