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Synching iMac Address Book contacts to my iPhone 5 using iTunes 11

I just upgraded to iTunes 11 and am stuck regarding the synchronization process. How do you get iTunes 11 to sync my Mac Address Book contacts to my iPhone 5? There are no longer any options to sync my Address Book and any new contact details I've added to my Address Book are no longer synced to my iPhone! I'm using an iMac on OS 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. Thanks for any advice.

iPhone 5, iOS 6.0.1

Posted on Dec 9, 2012 5:32 PM

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15 replies

Dec 10, 2012 12:14 AM in response to PhillipfromNJ

in the Itunes interface when you have your device connected it will display a button with the name of your device or number of devices if you have more than 1. Simply click on the button and you will find you are in the familiar Device pages ie Summary, Info, Apps, etc


On the info tab you can set the options for contacts, calenders and Mail.


When finished click sync and the done at the top right to take you back to your library.


Alternatively click on View, Enable Sidebar will show it how it was in Itunes 10

Dec 10, 2012 6:24 AM in response to Steve Taylor1

Thanks Steve, but on the info tab there are no options for my contacts, all is says under Sync Contacts (and Sync Calendars as well) is the following:

Your contacts are being synced with your iPhone over the air from iCloud.

Ove-the-air sync setings can be changed on your iPhone.


No buttons or anything to change this, and when I go to my iPhone I don't see how I can change this to allow manual syncing to my Mac address book either. 😟

Dec 12, 2012 3:00 AM in response to PhillipfromNJ

I had the same issue, and synced my 2 iphones, 2 ipads over iCloud.

Therefore all Calendars and Contacts were the same on every device.

So if I make a change on any of the above devices, they sync within 3 seconds to all others. Works well.

I used to do it with previous versions of iTunes but that functionality has been removed.

Jan 1, 2013 10:56 AM in response to AndySek

You can still sync contacts using iTunes but by default this is turned off because it is assumed that you will use iCloud. To enable this, once you have connected you device click on it in the sidebar (you will need to enable the sidebar by first turning it on in the "View" menu if you haven't already done so). From the 'buttons' shown on the top choose "Info", Contacts is at the top of the information given. Check the tick box "Sync Contacts then click on the "Sync" button at the bottom right of the screen, now iTunes will sync contacts with you address book rather than iCloud - good think if you are stuck on Snow Leopard like I am with no iCloud support!

Jan 6, 2013 6:14 AM in response to PhillipfromNJ

You're quite correct Philip, apologies for not saying that was the first step. It's a bit scary too as it says that it is going to delete all your contacts. I guess I should also have suggested that you take a backup of your Address Book first (File/Export/Address Book Archive) just in case. Happy New Year - Nik

Jan 30, 2013 11:37 AM in response to nikg

I have the same issue as PhillipfromNJ. When I switch off the iCloud setting for contacts on the iPhone 5, I get the option to delete contacts or sve those already on the phone. I chose to save all the ones on the phone then turned off the iCloud setting on Contacts in the phone. When I go to iTunes, I can then check the Sync Contacts button uner info but then iTunes, uncommande, delets that check and gives me the message "iTunes could not sync information to the iPhone "...." because a sync session could not be started.


Any suggestions on how to proceed from here?

Jun 11, 2013 1:03 PM in response to nikg

Thank You so much nikg and PhillipfromNJ!!

That exactly solved the problem.

I didn't realize that Snow Leopard didn't have iCloud, so it makes perfect sense that the contacts wouldn't go through to my iPhone (Which had iCloud turned on as default)

It was only after I turned off the Contacts feature on iCloud that the contacts were able to go through.

The same appleis for Calendar.

Thank yo sooooo much!!!!!


I ended up upgrading to Mountain Lion anyway.lol

Mar 13, 2014 8:46 AM in response to PhillipfromNJ

Use your Mac Address Book and sync your iPhone with iTunes. From the Info tab, under Contacts, make sure to select “Address Book” from the drop-down menu before you sync.

I am not sure whether it works on Mac, but you can use copytrans contacts to transfer the contacts too (in case you do not want to use iTunes sync):


Finally, you can simply use the iCloud app and install it on your Mac. Make sure to enable iCloud contact sync on your iPhone. Then import contacts from your Mac to your iCloud application, this will move and sync the contact entries to your iPhone.

Mar 30, 2014 4:04 AM in response to SimonTTae

Thanks everyone, I followed all your instructions but there is no option for me to click on "sync contacts". It still says "Your contacts are being synced with your iPhone over the air from iCloud." I turned off iCloud, shut my phone off, and restarted it. Plugged it into iTunes and no contact syncing box appears. Calendar has synced. I just don't want to manually add all my contacts in. I have the iphone 5 and 10.6.8 OS. Any help would be much appreciated.

Jun 21, 2015 11:09 AM in response to mmfromnsw

I've never been able to sync Addressbook on my iMac and Contacts on my iPhone, nor have advisors at my local Genius Bar been able to figure out what the problem is.

I have an iPhone 4s, and an iMac still on Os X 10.6.8 (because I was advised that with the 4GB RAM of my 2008 iMac, upgrading to the OS versions from Lion onwards would slow up my machine).

My iMac being on 10.6.8 excludes the use of iCloud for syncing my iPhone with my iMac. So I continue to do it through iTunes.

With the iPhone linked by cable to my iMac I click on "Automatically sync when this iPhone is connected" clicked, and under Info click on Sync Contacts, with "All contacts" selected.

But no such syncing happens.

Instead, Contacts on my iPhone gets synced with some version of an addressbook on my iMac which derives from the days when I used to back up my Nokia 6300 via Bluetooth, and which seems to have been enriched since with the further contacts I've been putting into my iPhone. This happened when I had an iPhone 4, and has been happening since I've had an iPhone 4s, so it isn’t some fault with the phone

The problem not only means that I can't carry the contents of the Addressboook on my iMac with me on my iPhone. It also means that any new contact I put in my iPhone doesn't appear in the Addressbook of my iMac after I've done the syncing between my iPhone and my iMac; nor does any new contact I put in the Addressbook of my iMac appear after in Contacts on my iPhone after syncing with my iMac.

It's also been impossible, either for me or for the tech tech adviser at my local Genius Bar who has tried, to find on my iMac the mysterious version of the addressbook, with which my iPhone Contacts seems to be syncing.

I'd be really grateful for any help with this.

Synching iMac Address Book contacts to my iPhone 5 using iTunes 11

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