iCloud Contacts Sync Trashes My Outlook Contacts

I used your suggestion and was able to get my contacts back but now I get an error message when I try to send an email using my newly reinstated contacts. If I type the email address in directly the email sends successfully but if I get the email address from my outlook contacts the error: " Microsoft Outlook could not complete the operation. One or more parameter values are not valid." Any ideas on how to fix that one?? Thanks!

Sounds as if one of your Outlook databases has become corrupt. You can get lots of help if you just Google your problem statement. Can't assist any further, but there is masses of online help from Micfrosoft and Forums.

After installing the icloud control panel it did trash a few things in outlook. Contacts, Calendar, Reminders to name a few, but overall it worked ok. (Office 2007 on Windows 7/64). Then came a patch last week. Now having problems even loading outlook unless I launch it right after a re-boot. It has also affected iTunes. The programs will launch but do not respond. After signing out of iCloud and then uninstalling the program everything seems back to normal, including my contacts.

Something you might not be used to is the "check for duplicates" option in Outlook. If you got to the Tools/Options dialogue, under contacts settings you can have outlook check for duplicates. When iCloud wanted to create a duplicate, Outlook would have given you the option to merge instead. I am using iCloud and it works perfectly. I have set my default contacts folder to the iCloud folder so those are the ones that come up every time and because Outlook is looking for duplicates, I don't get the trashing you speak of. I believe it works retro-actively so you can select the option and aply the setting and Outlook will notify you if there are any current duplicates but I could be wrong on that one.

I don't even get "Contacts in the iCloud"!

Dear fiftysomething, I expect sympath from Apple! They should know better.

Great solution, Andrew! Thanks.

I'm trying to have a synchronised contact list between outlook and my iPhone / iPad... pretty common I think.

iCloud seemed a conceptual dream, but I'm having a bunch of problems...

Main one is that they synchronisation is broken..

1) there are a bunch of contact in iCloud on the web and iPad, but not showing in Outlook

2) I can't figure out the logic that causes a contact to sync properly... if I create it in Outlook it replicates to the cloud and then to the iOS devices (most of the time), but then they seem to get lost from Outlook?

3) even with all the priorities set in Outlook (other posts) "add to Outlook contacts" from an email still puts the user into the local contacts folder and then you have to manually move to iCloud

4) Similarly, trying to send an email from Outlook to a user that it stored in a contact in iCloud, checking names can't find the user on many occassions...

Apple are you working on this? Is anyone else having these problems?

What is the solution to the orignal problem: a synchronised contact list between outlook and my iPhone / iPad.

1) you have to display the iCloud folder in Outlook. It doesn't show automatically. Have you installed the iCloud control panel yet? It is required to do what you want.

2) if you install the control panel it will solve this issue as well. The iCloud is actually a shared folder that only gives access to your Apple ID. Items are moved out of the Outlook default folders and into the iCloud folder to give your devices access. You can't see your items because the iCloud folder isn't displayed.

3) problem here isn't Apple, it's Microsoft. They haven't made it so it can recognize or use a different default folder.

4) again, installing the control panel should solve this.

Thanks for the speedy reply.

1) Sadly, yes I do already have the iCloud control panel installed. and yes the iCloud folder is visible in Outlook. I can click on this shared folder and see a lot of the content that is in the cloud, but not all of it. If I access contacts on the iPad I see it all. If I access iCloud contacts via the web it is also there.... so it seems that sync iPad<>iCloud<>iPhone is working, but iCloud<>Outlook is only partly working.....

re 3) well that's not too surprising I guess....

re 4) iCloud control panel is installed and running, so not that...

I'm wondering if it is somehow a bug related to timezones... originally my account was set up in the UK and then I moved to the US. the timezones are now set to Pacific on Windows and San Francisco on iPad and iPhone. But as I thought this, i checked on iCloud and time zone was set to UK... I have now reset it to Pacific time...

I wonder if this somehow messed up the logic for synchronisation.

If so, how oh how do I get a clean restart using the iCloud contact base as the master?

... and to confirm my hypothesis... on iPad, iPhone and iCloud, there are 1685 contacts.

in the iCloud folder on Outlook, there are a total of 1565. I need to get a clean start and then see if the timezone alignment fixes this going forward... Anyone else had any problems with timezones?

This is going to sound stupid but is it possible that you have a filter applied in Outlook? Maybe text in the search field or a different view? Sometimes that happens to me and iirc Outlook only counts the visible entries not all entries. I would also try clicking the "refresh iCloud" button in Outlook. I know it's a long shot but might help.

Beyond that, I would uninstall and reinstall the iCloud control panel. It may be bugging. Just remember to back up your contacts before doing it. I lost all of my contacts due to operator error when I did it.

And Apple Support remains mysteriously quiet on this topic. Apple: tell all of us (many) in a step by step format how to recover our valuable contact info. I, like countless others, expected a better thought out process.

Waiting.

Wolfrus wrote:

And Apple Support remains mysteriously quiet on this topic. Apple: tell all of us (many) in a step by step format how to recover our valuable contact info. I, like countless others, expected a better thought out process.

Waiting.

It is up to you to safeguard your data, a backup is the simplest method, time to restore yours. If you do not have a backup that was an unwise decision.

That has to be the worst response ever... What good is installing and utilizing iCloud if you have to restore to previous settings?? Yes, back up is important, but if the software doesn't support what you are trying to use it for, what good is it????

The problem is not the iCloud. The problem is a momentary lapse in Outlook's logic. If in your settings it says to check for and delete duplicates, you will have an issue. When you install and run iCloud, it effectively just duplicates the contacts and moves them to a new folder on the web. In the split second when Outlook sees the duplicates it deletes both. If you had backed up your contacts, you could import them directly into the cloud. Iirc, Apple asks multiple times if you have backed up your data, thus, you can't blame Apple for your own ignorance.