How to easily Force-Sync your Contacts on iDevices

It's now 5 years later, but these days, you don't have to go into Groups. Just pull down on the Contacts list to initiate a sync.

Three years later and non-syncing is still a problem. I too no longer had a sync button in Contacts with iOS 9.1, so I tried turning off auto sync and deleted my iPhone contacts. I then restarted my iPhone, since the operation seemed to not want to end, and lo and behold the sync button was back! I turned Contact syncing back on and all the contacts from my Mac loaded properly.

thanks! this is great... not even the guy i talked to at apple care knew this... they suggested that i remove contacts from the background on my iphone and then open it again. and that didn't work.

The same sync option works for Calendars.

1. On your iOS device open Calendars
2. Select Calendars (in upper left) to show all your calendars
3. Press the sync icon at the bottom left (arrow in a circle)
4. Click on Done

All my calendar updates from my Mac finally showed up. Not sure why they stopped synching a couple of days ago - worked like a charm up to now.

Just noticed this changes a bit in IOS7.

Go to the groups screen as described above. But now in IOS7 there is no sync button. Touch the list of groups and drag it down and then let it go (similar to how you refresh email). This will force a refresh of the contacts or calendars.

Thank you so much! This was so incredibly easy, and it took 5 days to get a suggestion that worked. You are the best!!!

Also thanks so much. Is there a manual where this flick down feature is described?

Thanks very much!!

Thanks for that - just as a version check, this was still working today, on IOS8.4.

Here's another workaround if you really need to get the contacts into your phone and don't want to retype everything. It's a pain in the butt but it works.

I manage my contacts on a desktop Mac, which is then supposed to sync them through iCloud on my iPhone and iPad, They sync immediately on the iPad but no longer sync on the iPhone. This just recently became a problem. None of the suggestions here have worked for me.

So, once the contacts sync from the Mac to the iPad I go to each contact on the iPad and either text or email it to the iPhone. I then open the text or email on the iPhone and use the "create new contact" option. They are now added.

If there is still a syncing issue with iCloud then if you edit a contact it may or may not sync across devices but at least you've got a starting point.

the sync button is gone from top left now but you can drag down the list of groups to get it to sync just like when reading emails

I too don't have a sync button on iOS 9.1 and the "drag down groups to sync" trick didn't work for me either (others claim it was removed in iOS9).

Luckily, this thread has a collection of weird workarounds to force a sync at least with Google without toggling contacts sync off/on or restarting the device. The following two says worked for me:

• Going to Settings -> iCloud (which incidentally triggers Google sync(?!)), then switching to Contacts.
• Going to Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Gmail -> Account -> tap in any field (Name, Email or Description) but don't make any changes -> Done, switch to Contacts.

I've tried everything, and everything doesn't work. Including the one where you toggle off "Contacts" on iCloud Settings, erase the contacts listed stored in the iPhone, then toggle on "Contacts". iCloud is then supposed to repopulate the Contacts app. Well, it didn't repopulate. The night before a business trip and my Contacts have disappeared.

Finally, I was forced to wheel out the heavy artillery just to kill a gnat; signed out of the iCloud account then signed back in. Thank god that worked because I had no tricks left. That's really putting too much data at risk (photos, email, documents, the whole iCloud shebang) just to force Contacts to sync the 6 new addresses I put in via my iMac.

So summarizing what worked for me. Go to Settings>iCloud then scroll down and tap on the red (for a reason!) "Sign Out". Follow the process through and once signed out, go back to Settings>iCloud then log in, follow the process through again, this time hold your breath.

Apple has got to fix this.

I gave up on my usual attempts with dragging the Group button, which worked with my older iPhone (and maybe on the new one under older iOS versions).

Here's what worked for me recently, at least a few times so far:

iPhone 6S, iOS 9.2.1

Go to Settings. Choose iCloud.

For Contacts: Slide the button to "Off." Tap "Cancel." Do NOT select either the "Keep" or "Delete" options.

With luck, the Contacts have synced.

Worked on my iPad mini 4, too.

Although my iPhone (5s) seems to always eventually get contacts syncEd with changes on other devices, it is often not up to date for too long.

A trick that sometimes works for me is to edit one of the contacts already on my iPhone. (E.g., add "xx" to contact's note.)

Apparently this causes the iPhone to want to sync contacts. 🙂

YMMV, of course.