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Level 1

0 points

bug in iTunes sync for contacts in address book

iTunes does not sync the address book contacts to the iPhone. It uses a copy that's been stored and saved at another time, but it does not use the current contents of the address book to sync. I am on the latest release of iTunes and the latest software version of OS Lion on a brand new iMac. In the "Info" section of iTunes, when selecting "Sync Address Book Contacts", and "All Contacts" is selected, iTunes should obtain the current copy of the contacts in the address book and dump it onto the iPhone, merging it with the contacts on the iPhone. If there is only 1 contact on the iPhone and 100 contacts in the address book, after the sync procedure, there should be 101 contacts on the iPhone. This should happen regardless of back up copies of the iPhone address book on the Mac. This process is simple and straight forward but broken and Apple should fix it.

iPhone 4, iOS 5

Posted on Oct 28, 2011 8:30 AM

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19 replies

May 18, 2012 4:08 AM in response to nycki3

IOS 5.1.1 / iTunes 10.6.2 / SL 10.6.8

had exact same iisue with 2 devices running 5.1.1, this worked for me:

1) backed up address book … File>Export

2) deleted all contacts in address book

3) deleted all files within: library>user>application support>address book

4) unticked sync contacts in iTunes - synced with device

5) open address book: import file (the backup file)

6) open iTunes: tick sync contacts and sync'd

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Level 2

305 points

Mar 19, 2013 7:53 AM in response to mariotheplumber

I'd also make sure to have a safe backup of your iPhone address book somewhere (not just the one on the Mac).

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Level 10

82,440 points

Mar 19, 2013 10:19 AM in response to aThanasi

aThanasi wrote:

I'd also make sure to have a safe backup of your iPhone address book somewhere (not just the one on the Mac).

Step 1 above covered it.

"1) backed up address book … File>Export"

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Feb 26, 2014 2:41 AM in response to elaine184

likelyhood is that you resolved it or no longer exists with later version of software, but:

IOS 5.1.1 / iTunes 10.6.2 / SL 10.6.8

had exact same issue with 2 devices running 5.1.1, this worked for me:

1) backed up address book … File>Export

2) deleted all contacts in address book

3) deleted all files within: library>user>application support>address book

4) unticked sync contacts in iTunes - synced with device

5) open address book: import file (the backup file)

6) open iTunes: tick sync contacts and sync'd

Reply

bug in iTunes sync for contacts in address book

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