How to sync iPhone contacts created from Messages with iCloud?

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How to sync iPhone contacts created from Messages with iCloud?

No matter what I try, I cannot get a large number of contacts from my iPhone (13 mini running iOS 18.5) into my iCloud contact list. I have often created contacts from within Messages (when I receive a text and then create a contact from the sender), and I think these are the contacts that don't sync properly. The All Contacts list shows 222 entries, but the All iCloud list only shows 120. I have spent a lot of time reading suggestions - nothing has worked. This is a very strange black hole! I just downloaded all of the vcards from both lists and am tempted to delete all of my contacts everywhere, and then upload the vcards as new contacts in one list. I would appreciate any suggestions you have - thanks.

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iPhone 13 mini

Posted on May 30, 2025 9:22 PM

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Answer 1

sk8gal Author

Level 1

45 points

Jun 2, 2025 5:22 PM in response to sk8gal

I finally called Apple Support, and a helpful rep went through a series of steps that led to the discovery that somehow new contacts were being added to my Yahoo contacts instead of iCloud. Although I was able to download my Yahoo contacts, most of them wouldn't upload to Apple Contacts successfully. The names loaded, but the rest of the information was blank, even though all of the contact information was visible in the downloaded file. Because I don't have a huge number of contacts, I ended up adjusting the blank ones manually. This was a very cumbersome process, one I hope I don't have to do again.

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How to sync iPhone contacts created from Messages with iCloud?

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