iCloud Contacts Will Not Sync

Thanks, those steps helped a lot, even though I didn't follow them exactly.

I had noticed that on the iCloud website quite a few of my contacts had duplicated fields, like 4x the same address for example. So my steps were to have the contacts removed from the phone when I turned Contacts off and fix them on the iCloud website. I opened each and every contact in the editor, did any fixes that seemed necessary, and saved them again. I wanted to make sure that every entry had been touched by the editor and in the background maybe corrected by saving it, even when I didn't have to fix anything.

I didn't have any duplicate contacts because I already had removed them before my problems started. And since I removed them on the iCloud website and had at least two contacts where I got an error message when I tried to remove them, I suspect that *that* may have started the problems.

I add a new contact in my Mac's AddressBook, and it does not show up in iCloud. It "does not just work" like most other things Apple makes. What secret, magic, hidden tweak do I need to find to make sure that when I edit AddressBook, the changes get pushed to iCloud? Isn't this how it's supposed to be able to work?

Ric,

The work around (until Apple fixes this), at least that works for me, was to make sure and at least add the new contact name from your device. I can edit an account from my Mac fine, once it's created. I just can't create it from the Mac or iCloud never sees it.

I filed feedback to Apple on the bug, but haven't heard anything back.

Kevin

Kevin - Yes, thank you. I will now edit/modify in iCloud, until Apple fixes this sync bug.

I cannot load contacts on icloud

1. I don't have mobile me.
2. I have an LION MBP & iphone 4s
3. no contact in any of my address books
4. don't have any power consumption issues
5. But no comms or help from apple

At least gmail still works.

Yeah, kind of the same problem here, but with a little twist. I'd like to follow these steps to solve this pesky issue (my contacts suddenly stopped syncing AT ALL between my Mac, iCloud and my iPhone).

The problem is that I can't edit ANY contact on my Mac or in iCloud, as weird as it sounds, so I can't be sure it will sync again when restoring everything. After editing a contact in my Mac, being text or a picture, after a few seconds it reverts automatically any changes! And in iCloud, after editing I always get this: "couldn't save your changes because of a server error". "Report to Apple", yes, yes, yes, many times now.

I insist on other threads there is a sync loop bug. I can add and edit my contacts in my iPhone, and though it never syncs to iCloud, the spinning gear spins forever, even during the night, draining my battery. I can't help wonder if this issue is related to the Lion battery problem, something about an iCloud syncing bug, affecting the batteries of Macs and iOS devices, besides the non-syncing data problem?

R.

Well I have 776 contacts on my macbook pro and only 178 on my iphone. I tried the solution mark suggested by saving everything as vcards, deleting and then copying back. That only achieved removing everything from my groups so I have to regroup everything. They all disappeared of icloud and now they are all back. But still only 178 on the phone.

Plus despite the 5.0.1 upgrade the battery does not last the day. iCloud is definetly in Beta still as a service.

I have the same issue of Address Book crashing when I try to restore from the vCards. From what I found online, the cause of the crashing might be that I have created "custom" fields in Address Book (for example to save someone's twitter or skype account).

So... I'm stuck

MarkyMarksocal's Oct 19 info was a great help, but I have a further problem. I carried out his instructions -- turning off Contacts on the computer, in iCloud,and in my iPhone and iPad and restoring the vCards to the computer. When the Vcards reappear on the computer there is,correctly, only one name for every address entry.

However, when Contacts are turned back on on the iPhone and the iPad, the emptied files appear with each name and address duplicated.

I have gone through the entire procedure twice, wiping everything clean, but when Contacts on the iPhone and iPad are turned back on, every item is duplicated.

Can anybody suggest a possible explanation? I did have more than one active iCloud account originally, but I eliminated all but the main one.

I agree. iCloud is not ready for prime time. Little quirks challenge the overall integrity. Fix it Apple! But where can we get Apple to hear our concerns. I feel like the one throwing the hammer in Apple's Big Brother Commercial.

I have nearly 700 contacts in a variety of groups associated with various jobs that I do. I noticed that some of th groups were not syncing all of the added contacts. After putting in lots of business cards on my iMac I called it a day. The next day I pulled out my iPhone 4S and looked for a contact in one of the groups. In my counselors group I was 20 contacts short.

However the new contacts ARE on the iPhone.

So did a couple of the steps above with the erasing and exporting and clearing and what not.

Here is what is going on.

Not all of the contacts in groups will move from iMac to iCloud. For example in GROUP I will will have 3 contacts. On iCloud in GROUP I will have only 1 contact. Same on the iPhone.

Now if I create a new GROUBA and input the same 3 contacts on the iMac, the name of the group show up on iCloud but the contacts do not.

If create a new GROUPB on the iCloud and input the contacts, they appear on the iMac.

***?

All of my contacts on the mac have been exported and re-uploaded. The default account is iCloud. The sync settings across everything is iCloud.

I'm ready for a new patch.

discovered something else quirky:

When I deleted all of my contacts/exported them in vCard format to reimport, I kept the names of the groups that I have.

In these old groups I'll have 42 counselors on my iMac but only 9 show up in the group on iCloud.

When I create a new group on the iMac and copy/drag the same names in 'Counselors' to the new group 'counselors' I see that all 42 show up on iCloud.

So it seems that the above fix on OCT 17 worked, but that I needed to also delete all of the groups as well and create new ones from scratch.

It is a long workaround and I've wasted a lot of time figuring this out. I'm not too happy that every time I turn around there is another problem with things not working with my iOS and iMac devices (MobileMe, multiple Apple IDs, Pages documents between iPad and iMac and iCloud, and other things). However, considering that I have to also use crummy Windows PCs and a Blackberry for my work all the time and how often I find myself cursing at those accursed things, I am not griping too much.

I still have faith that Apple will fix the bugs.

Glad I am not alone. When I bought my mac I was under the impression that they tested products before releasing them out into the open. Not only Siri is under Beta but looks like the entire iCloud should be classified as Beta.

Sorry but all the angry and bewlidered posts are correct. The fact that there are so many sync crises is testament to the fact that the iCloud platform simply isn't stable enough to be marketed - so it's just as well they don't yet charge for this shambles of a service. There really is no panacea for this and each time you sort it out it will probably soon fail again. iCloud is not fit for purpose.

Not only does it frequently fail to sync correctly, notably with Outlook, but Apple's support on this is primitive. The term "sync" (or anything like it) fails to appear in the help notes so if sync doesn't happen seamlessly you're stuffed. Or you can wade through all these community notes where we try to sort out Apple's mess for them. The irony is that Apple is supposed to be stable, relaible, trustworthy, intuitive and consumer-friendly. It simply isn't true.

SHAME ON APPLE for causing all this grief and then disappearing to leave customers to sort the grief out for themselves.

Usually the best you can do is backup your data, remove your calendar and contacts from your PC, Mac or iPhone and then start over.

Better still, can anyone recommend an alternative for syncing calendar and contacts?

I had planned to buy a Mac laptop this week but am now having second thoughts. I have an iPhone 3GS and have recently intalled icloud. Now all of my contacts and appointments have disappeared from Outlook 2010 on my pc. I was hoping to change over to Apple completely because it was supposed to be more trustworthy and problem free. Now I find myself in the middle of this debacle and no one seems to have the answer. Although the icloud calendar and contacts is there, when I try to access them I get the error message: - "The set of folders cannot be opened. The information store could not be opened."

Are Macs prone to probems such as this? I see that people have been experiencing similar problems with iCloud for a number of weeks with no response from Apple. Is this usual? I have spent many hours this weekend trying to find an answer to the problem and really can't spare the time.