transfer contacts from macbook to iphone

I have been struggling with the same dilemma for the last 40 minutes. It is unconscionable that they would not make this a simple function.... From reading the comments it sounds like they once had this feature(which should be standard, obviously- I mean addduuuuurrrrrr this is sooo basic, rudimentary, elemental- not having it is just insane) and did away with it in favor of forcing people to use the Cloud. Which I guess could be one or two motives, 1- promoting the Cloud- similar to the power move Google took in force integrated the Google+ GARBAGE into all other Google services(but failed miserably) or 2- Apple just want to data grab your contacts. Judging how this only relates to contacts and nothing else I'd wager the latter. Plus the NSA-Snowden leaks suggest a high amount of complacency & cooperation between Apple and the NSA in obtaining your information (http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/12/30/the-nsa-reportedly-has-total-acc ess-to-your-iphone/). Either way it has resulted in annoyance and huge amounts of wasted time on my end. Both scenarios are indicative of a complacent, self righteous company whome has likely lost sight of its customers. The more Apple products I own the more fed up I am becoming with the brand. I think here on out I may go only Andriod or alternatives for my technology needs. This type of BS just isn't worth the exorbitant premiums we pay for Apple products and also the moral hazard we incur by supporting their slave worker labor base in China-FoxCon or whatever.

How can I move my contacts from my MacBook Pro to my iPhone 4S?

I just transferred my contacts and calendar from an iMac running Mavericks 10.9.4 to an iPhone 4 running the latest IOS using only synchronization and without any problems. I just followed Eric Lock's instructions provided in the last post of the first page of this thread.

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.

JohanNicoJun 9, 2014 11:29 PM Re: transfer contacts from macbook to iphone
Re: transfer contacts from macbook to iphonein response to paulfecht

You can import an electronic business card, also called a vCard, into iCloud Contacts. If the vCard contains contact information for more than one person, each contact becomes a separate entry.

You may also follow the guide How to Transfer Contacts from Computer to iPhone

1. In iCloud Contacts, choose Import vCard from the Action pop-up menu , which appears at the bottom of the All Contacts list or a list of group contacts

2. Select a vCard to import.

The contacts from the vCard are added to the All Contacts group in Contacts. You can add the contacts to any other group by dragging them to the desired group.

I followed exactly what you wrote, I made it. Wonderful.

This is not true, see the solution above from ShawnfromME

I just did it. IOS 8.4 Mac OS 10.7.5

You don't need to download any software, simply go to the contacts in your MAC, in the pull down tab, select EDIT then SELECT ALL (contacts); go to FILE then EXPORT then on side tab select EXPORT VCARD. Save this onto your desktop, go to your desktop right click on the file (which will look like a Rolodex card) and click on SHARE, send your iPhone a text message and the phone will step you through the process of adding the contacts.

Here is a tip for if you have iCloud switched on and you want to replace all your contacts on your phone with your contacts on your Mac.

Plug in iPhone, launch iTunes, in Backups select This computer, click on info tab on left side (you will notice 'Sync contacts' is greyed out), On the phone go to Settings - iCloud - scroll down to Backup - turn off (on the phone now I think it says do you want to back up from your computer now, here say yes), scroll back up to Contacts - turn off, on the Mac you will see the Sync contacts is no longer greyed out - tick it - tick All contacts, scroll down to Advanced - tick Contacts, this will do it once once only make sure its NOT ticked next time (you only need to copy them once, so next time it will just sync), click Sync. When it has finished Eject your phone and your will see the contacts have copied from your Mac to your iPhone which is what you want. Hope this helps, Cheers.

- '10 years an Mac Apple hardware engineer and I still managed to delete my entire docs, pictures, movies, downloads folders using Time Machine back up because it decided to stop backing them up months ago without warning me! As there wasn't enough space on the HD! and didn't think it would be a good idea to tell me that! Thank you Apple Time Machine!'

Thank you so much ! so simple - why was everyone else trying to make it so complicated