lost "on my mac" contacts & calendar -they show as in icloud only - how can I get back "on my mac" as well

Export the iCloud account (in Mail) import it to the On my Mac account (in Mail) now you have it in both places. If you view 'All Contacts' there will be duplicates, don't delete any.

Once you have done as I suggested you will have a local backup of your contacts, so you are safe,, please export the accounts and we will go on.

I have this problem and want to try your suggestion but can you explain how to import and export "in mail"? I could not find that.

Export what, email? contacts?

Explaining what you want to do would help.

To move iCloud calendars to 'On My Mac' please follow the second set of numbered instructions here:

http://www.wilmut.webspace.virginmedia.com/notes/icloudmovecalendars.html

Obviously once done the calendars will no longer appear in iCloud.

To move Contacts please see Winston's post:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3645725?answerId=17264939022#17264939022

but reversing what he says so that you export from 'iCloud' and import into 'On My Mac'.

Sorry, I was trying to follow the exact instructions you had posted above to solve a similar problem. When I switched to icloud and my calendars merged, I now have duplicates of all my events that are older than a couple of months... recent events and going forward are not duplicated. The more problematic is that NONE of the events older than two months are showing up on my iphone 4S. In trouble shooting I found instructions and was trying to get the "on my mac" calendars back. So I came accross your suggestion above. Maybe this does not apply to me.

Don't know about your duplicate calendars issue, but if you aren't seeing older events on your iPhone calendar, go to Settings>Mail,Contacts,Calendars>Sync (in the Calendars section) and set this to a longer time period.