How can I sync my iPhone contacts to my Mac and vice-versa, without losing them? Can i do it with iCloud?

Hello there, Seta.

You are correct that this can be done with iCloud. The following Knowledge Base article provides some great instruction for syncing contacts:

iOS: How to transfer or sync content to your computer

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1296

Particularly:

Contacts, Calendars, Bookmarks, and Notes

You can sync contacts, calendars, bookmarks, and notes with other applications on your computer. This allows you to keep all your information in sync across multiple computers and iOS devices. The settings for these items are all in the Info tab for your iOS device in iTunes. With your iOS device connected to the computer, select your iOS device. Then click the Info tab.

For details on syncing content on your iOS device with your computer, click the sections below.

Contacts

To sync contacts with your computer, choose "Sync Contacts with" within iTunes for Windows, or "Sync Contacts" in OS X v10.8, or "Sync Address Book Contacts" in OS X v10.7 and earlier.

You can sync your contacts with:

• Microsoft Outlook 2003, Microsoft Outlook 2007, Microsoft Outlook 2010 (Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8)
• Windows Address Book (Windows XP)
• Windows Contacts (Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8)
• Address Book (Mac OS X v10.7 and earlier)
• Contacts (Mac OS X v10.8)
• Microsoft Entourage 2004, Microsoft Entourage 2008, or Microsoft Outlook 2011 for Mac

Notes:

• When syncing contacts, you can choose to sync all of your contacts or only selected groups. The option to sync selected items may not show up until after the first sync.
• You can select a group of contacts to which all new contacts created on your iOS device will be added.
• Additional options for syncing include syncing your contacts with Yahoo or Gmail/Google Mail. You will need to configure it with the user name and password for your Yahoo or Google account.

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities.

Cheers,

Pedro.

Make sure you’re on ios5, then sign up for a free iCloud account. Enable it on all your devices (macs, pcs, phones), and your contacts will stay in sync automatically.

How to Transfer Contacts From Computer to iPhone
http://www.ehow.com/how_2059455_transfer-contacts-computer-iphone.html

Sync Outlook for Mac calendars and contacts to iPhone
http://www.officeformachelp.com/2011/11/sync-outlook-for-mac-calendars-and-conta cts-to-iphone/

Pedro,

Is that information out of date with the latest Mavericks upgrade? It appears those options aren't availble any longer. I woud like to still sync locally if there is a way to do so. I've searched other threads and most involve 3rd party software or creating a server. Any suggestions?

Cheers mate

I am having the same issue and then continue to have multiple entries for one person . I need to get this figured out. The info button in itunes is no longer there- the link and answer given does not apply as Pedro stated.

Thank you

hello,

i thought that my contacts were automatically syncing to my macbook, ipad etc. but i just went to look for a number in my iphone that wasn't in my macbook contacts. i assumed it was like my photostream etc, but it's not. should it be this UNintuitive and hard to sync contacts?

i have mavericks on my macbook, and up to date IOS on my iphone 5s and ipad.

can someone please tell me how to sync my contacts via ALL my devices? do i do it from my macbook, or from my iphone? i have an icloud account, and someone on this thread said if i had an icloud account 'it should be syncing automatically', but it's not.

thanks

w

WHY do I need to use iCloud....I don't want my data on any cloud I want a direct sync connection from my computer to my iPhone or iPod. I don't want to use SyncMate either it's another cloud based solution and who knows who they are. What happened to the direct connect? Does APPLE really need my data? Or are they selling everyones data to the alphabet soup agencies just like Goggle does?

There is a free of charge BETA tool called copytrans contacts which will help you transfer iPhone contacts to your computer.

After that, import the contacts from your computer to your iCloud by logging in to iCloud on your computer and pointing to "Import".

What does the technician told you? please remember! 😟

Im using Iphone 5s and MacBook Pro late 2013

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.

As far as I know, using iTunes to sync data of iPhone is the usual way for many users. But the sync is one way. So you can only sync iPhone contacts to Macusing iTunes on your Mac. For the other way round, you can use FonePaw iOS Transfer to directly import contacts to Mac.

I have this question also. Why do double the work?