iCloud won't sync all contacts from iPhone to iCloud

Hey guys, I’ve managed to solved it. Basically just go to the App Store and download any contacts back up app to your old phone. Have it saved and email a copy to yourself. Check the mail in your new phone and have it downloaded back into your phone. DONE! :)

This seemed to work for me regarding contacts that I created while owning an iPhone. However the contacts that I had imported from my previous non-iPhone didn't seem to transfer to my iCloud account. There is also a corporate account linked to my phone which could be possibly adding to my frustration. My only solution after searching all related topics related to this on Apple's discussion boards is below.

1. Follow all the steps outlined by "gophigure's" post
2. Sign into iCloud (you should be already with the 1st step(s)
3. Go to Contacts
4. Create a new contact

   use the same information

   1. First name, last name, email... keep them in the same field names
5. Go to your iPhone contacts
   1. You'll see that for a split second your "new" contact will show up, then nearly immediately go away
   2. it should now be linked to your iCloud account
6. Go to your device which you want to link the contacts with, now you'll see your "new" contact there

If there's a better solution, I'm willing to try it but do far this was the only way I could have any success 😐

This didn't work for me. I previously had an Android so most of my contacts were Google Contacts that had been transferred to my iPhone. I think the iPhone just doesn't have the feature of merging Google Contacts into iCloud. This is what I did instead, which was surprisingly easy and solved my problem: http://www.cultofmac.com/210971/transfer-google-contacts-to-icloud-simply-and-ea sily-ios-tips/

That did not work for me and I tried it twice just to make sure. I can restore my contacts from the backup on my Mac, but as soon as I try to backup in iCloud everything falls apart and I loose 100+ contacts. I've tried several methods over the past two days, no success. My misery started with a new iPhone. I'll restore again using iTunes from the previous backup on the Mac, which without fail restores my contacts perfectly, and then I'm done with iCloud moving forward.

My niece works for Apple and she just instantly fixed my missing contacts on my new iPhone by telling me to make sure the "contacts" was turned ON in all my emails accounts associated with my my phone. When I turned it on all my missing contacts appeared. She said sometimes contacts for whatever reason get associated with your email? About 30% of my contacts were missing they are all visible now.

This is under settings---mail----accounts---"outlook" or whatever mail you have. NOT iCloud mail. Hope this helps! Worked for me!

Do you also use another email account like outlook or gmail on the 4s? But you only want to use the iCloud email on your new phone. I suspect the missing contacts are part of the other email account. In that case you will need to create a file of the contacts and import them into your iCloud account.

I’ve tried all tips and tricks listed here but non is working for me. I remembered I’ve lost at least 20-30% of contacts when I transfer from my previous work phone to my personal phone (both are iphone 5s). Now the same thing is happening again from iPhone 5s to iphoneX.

Please help!

On your iPhone Contact app, tap on "Groups" at the top and instead of showing all contacts select "All on my iPhone" to see if you got any contact there.

If you notice there, you can locate contact either on your iPhone or on iCloud. Only iCloud located contacts are synced to iCloud.

I know this is an old thread, but since I had the same issue and finally solved it, I'll post this for future reference.

I had over 300 contacts on my iPhone 4 but only about 60 were showing up in iCloud. Saw lots of discussion, tried a few things, but here is the fix that worked for me.

1. Got to Settings

2. Go to iCloud

3. Slide Contacts option to Off (You'll get a warning, make sure you choose to save the Contacts on your phone)

4. Close out of Settings

4. Wait 5 minutes or so

5. Go back to Settings\iCloud

6. Slide Contacts option to On (You'll get a message asking to merge Contacts, say yes)

7. Go to Settings\iCloud\Storage & Backup

8. Select Back Up Now

That should do it. All of my iPhone Contacts are now in iCloud

Thanks, this totally solved my problem. I appreciate how easy it was to follow

OMG.... gophigure you totally rocked. Typiclly I hate coming to forums because its always tends to a bit of a fiddle**** when it comes to trying some suggestions that are offered. However I must say, I read yours, tried it, and it worked fantastically! Awesome job and thank you for sparing me a nite of staring at my screen with a blank look on my face.

Cheers

DDDswan

Thanks gofigure!

This worked perfectly from my Mac. And works for Calendar too!

Cheers,

Steve

Thanks for taking the time to post this.

It totally worked for me.

Regards

MIke

gophigure, you are a genius! This has plagued me since the day I got my iphone! Thank you for taking the time to post this and doing it in a clear way too. This worked like a charm and I don't think I even waited the full 5 minutes either.

Frustratingly, this didn't work for me. iCloud shows only three contacts from my iMac. Followed the script, waited about 10 minutes, finished the script to the letter, and still only three contacts in iCloud. Have been trying off and on to fix this for weeks, ever since I got an iPhone 5, which has downloaded my contacts from Yahoo, but has not uploaded them to iCloud (the three contacts in iCloud are also on my iPhone, so some synching has occurred, which adds to the mystery of why the rest don't sync).