Contacts not in groups on my Mac but are in iCloud.com

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Level 3

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Contacts not in groups on my Mac but are in iCloud.com

I have a problem reconciling contacts on iCloud.com with contacts on my Mac.

I spent some time cleaning up duplicate contacts on iCloud.com and moving them back into groups (in many cases one duplicate contact was in a group while the other was not so I suspect this is a problem in how iCloud.com manages groups.)

After I removed the duplicates in iCloud.com, I selected the records in particular and moved them into groups on iCloud. However, when I look at the same groups on my Mac, there are fewer contacts in each of those groups. The groups appear to have the correct number of contacts on my iPhone. So the problem appears to be with Contacts on my Mac.

Is there any way to force synchronization of iClould.com and Contacts on my Mac?

iMac (24-inch Mid 2007), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Nov 22, 2012 8:59 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Nov 22, 2012 9:42 AM in response to Patricia W

First, open Contacts.

File > Export > Contacts Archive.

(This backs up your contacts on you Mac, just in case)

Now System prefs > iCloud.

Turn off Contacts and select Delete from Mac.

Then turn Contacts back on.

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Answer 2

Patricia W Author

Level 3

721 points

Nov 22, 2012 10:07 AM in response to Chris CA

Chris,

Thanks very much for the suggestion.

I the meantime what I did was export all of my contacts from iCloud and import them into my Mac. I then removed all duplicates to clean things up.

Now I want to go the opposite way. Do you have any suggestions about how to do this safely and much more importantly HOW DO I AVOID THIS IN THE FUTURE? (sorry for shouting but I am really concerned that this may happen again.

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Answer 3

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Nov 22, 2012 10:26 AM in response to Patricia W

Contacts on your Mac do not have anything to do with Contacts in your iCloud account. What exactly are you trying to achieve.

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Answer 4

Chris CA

Level 10

82,434 points

Nov 22, 2012 10:39 AM in response to Patricia W

So you first fixed everything in iCloud, making it the correct copy?

You then copied these to your computer and fixed them again?

Now iCloud is not the correct copy you want to keep?

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Answer 5

Patricia W Author

Level 3

721 points

Nov 22, 2012 11:56 AM in response to Chris CA

That is correct.

I was in a bit of a rush to get this working so I stopped sync from Contacts to iCloud, deleted all of my contacts & groups in iCloud and then started the sync again and specified to merge. This resolved all of my problems for the time being.

Very frustrating. I hope it doesn't happen again.

Thanks for your support.

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