iCloud Contacts Will Not Sync

I have searched and searched but cannot find a simple guide to using iCloud. I have set up iCloud on my iMac and 4G iPhone (correctly I think) but cannot find any simple explanation of how I use it. How do I ensure that changes I make to (say) iCal on my iMac appear shortly on my iPhone and vice versa and how do I ensure that changes I make to (say) Contacts on my iPhone appear shortly on my iMac? How do I make use of the iCloud storage facility. In other words, what buttions do I press?

RB

Oxford England

If you make any change to your contacts or add an event to iCal, you will within seconds see it sync from the input device to your other devices as long as they are connected to the Internet. Best thing is to just try it. There are no buttons to sync as iCloud will do it all for you.

Can't say much on the storage. I don't use that functionality. I use Dropbox at the moment. ICloud doesnt look like it supports non iWork's products at this time.

I am able to sync calendar & contacts to my PC (Outlook 2010 running Windows 7) & Mac (Lion OS) with iCloud ( the syncing is bi-directional) but can not get iCloud to sync with my iPhone (4s) or my iPad (#1 running iOS 5). When I try to sync my mobile devices with iCloud they just keep trying to sync without success. The little circle icon just keeps spinning. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

This is exactly the problem that I was having and it was related to the Contacts. See some of the previous discussing in this thread for some ideas and my previous entry to see how I fixed it.

Hey! I have followed instructions and now I have a huge problem.

When I try to import back the contacts, the app just freezes and closes by itself. I have tried it four times, restarted the computer, tried it again and still nothing. I am going a bit crazy here. Please help!

Then I dragged in the vCard which had all of my contacts into iCloud.

Sorry... How do you do that?

There seems to be a general theme here around partial synchronisation of Contacts (and Appointments).

I've spent 2x 1 hour sessions on the phone with an Apple Support person trying to resolve my problem - so far to no effect. In fact the situation with my iPhone 4S has deteriorated in that the battery life is almost running down as I look at the screen - my iPhone 4S even managed to drop from 41% to 32% whilst in Flight Mode! I've now reverted back to my iPhone 4 in an attempt to reduce battery drain (single core) - I'm travelling on business and I simply cannot afford not to have a working phone.

So what could be going on...

I've noticed I've started getting a load of system logs (Settings / About / Diagnostics & Usage / Diagnostic & Usage Data) on both iPhones since upgrading to IOS5 which I don't recall having seen on my iPhone 4 under IOS4. Also in Settings / Mail, Contacts, Calendars... - at the bottom of the screen I have a greyed out message "Loading Contacts, Calendars..." which never seems to complete. Could this be the cause of the battery drain? Another observation - I cannot delete my iCloud account or turn off any services other than Mail and Find my Phone.

iCloud is presently a disaster for me. I'd go back to MobileMe in an instant...

Tif -

To drag the vCard into iCloud Contacts:

1) Log into iCloud and bring up the Contacts

2) Go to Finder and select the saved vCard (I use the trackpad on my MacBook Pro)

3) Hold onto the vCard and switch back to the iCloud Safari window (I use Command Tab)

4) Drop the vCard into the iCloud Contacts

Scubaman33 -

Try putting it in airplane mode and then deleting the iCloud account or turning off Contacts. You may have to reboot between putting it in airplane mode and deleting/turning off.

I am finding this problem for my fiancee's iphone since the update to 5.0.1 which we did yesterday. We've had her local address book on her mac and iphone4 synching and backing up via iCloud since it came out.

After the update yesterday, some contacts that were showing up icloud (on her phone and online) are now deleted. The local address book on her mac also has some missing items, but includes others?!!? I have tried the list of import/export suggestions on this thread and no luck.

Any help/thoughts? First time I've seen this before.. :S

I'm having the exact same issue, the "Loading Contacts, Calendars ..." is at the bottom of mine. I have been to the apple store, called tech support, etc. Nothing. I'm having the same issue on my iPad using the same iCloud account. When I try to turn off something like Notes, or a Calendar It just spins "Turning Off Notes". Mine to kills the battery, you can feel the back of it getting hot.

Did a test this morning. Turned off all in Airplane mode like described above. Turned on Contacts, phone still locked up. Turned all off, turned on calendar and it works fine.

Ok this fixed mine.

• Airplane Mode,
• Reboot
• Turn off Contacts, leave contacts on iPhone
• On the iMac in Address book, Command A (select All) delete all contacts
• Verify they are gone on iCloud website
• Turn off Airplane mode,
• Turn on contacts
• Everything sync'd on my iPhone and iPad fine after that.
• Changes on any device showed up in the others and iCloud

My issue seemed to be around the contacts

Thank you. This worked perfectly for me!

The problem I was having (and unfortunately, still am having), is that I can't add a new contact from my Mac. If I add the contact on my iPhone, everything works. If I EDIT a contact on my Mac, that works. BUT...if I add a new contact from my Mac, the iPhone and iCloud never get notified. So, I'm stuck having to remember to always use iCloud or the iPhone to start the new contact, then I'm free to edit it on the Mac or elsewhere.

I tried the steps Stephen outlined and everything ended up with all of my 765 contacts, but it didn't fix the problem. When I added a new contact on my Mac, iCloud and the iPhone never got updated with that new client, so my Mac shows 766 contacts, while iCloud and the iPhone still show 765.

MobileMe use to have an icon in the toolbar that you could force an update, but I don't see any option for that with iCloud. Not sure that forcing an update would help anyway, since the Mac DOES seem to be sending updates, as any edits I do on the Mac work. It's just new contact records that never make it to iCloud.