How to share icalendars, and contacts across users with iphones

Hi dlamm2424,

Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.

If you set up iCloud on your MacBook Air and iPhones, you will be able to sync data (such as contacts and calendars) between all of the devices. With this method, you will essentially be sharing your Apple ID (iCloud account) with your husband:

iCloud: Set up iCloud on your devices

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH2609

Best,

Jeremy

You can "share" an iCal calendar. But I am not sure about Contacts at the moment. Besides sending them over via Air Drop. This won't allow either of you to update a change at the same time. Yet again, doing a change to one contact is easy.

I am not home ATM, so forgive me if I leave a step out.

To share a calendar. You can right click on the list of a calendar you want to share. The menu will give you an option to add an invitee. Put your husbands email, preferable attached to his iCloud account. Send the request and when he accepts it. Both you and him will be able to make changes. (Though you may have to change a setting to allow that to happen, I forget if that is set on by default or off.) This is done on the Mac.

As for sending contacts. You can send the contact's information via Air Drop on the iPhones. In each contact down at the bottom there's the "Share Contact". That can be sent via Air Drop or other listed means. However, this is done one contact at a time. You might be able to do an entire list or selected on the Mac faster. Again, I can't remember.

I'll get back to you in 10 hours if you still need help.

KOT

dlamm2424 wrote:

Its what the guiness told us to do at the store.

Maybe you should drink something less potent! lol

The Scotch will tell to even sillier things

(Sorry, couldn't help it.....I'll go now!) 🙂

Cheers

Pete

The genius at the store was right (what on earth are you thinking jeremy_v?).

Avoid using multiple Apple ID's on one device otherwise you are signing in & out of accounts to do app upgrades etc. It's not fun. You also risk the ominous warning "You can't change Apple ID's on this device for another 90 days".

Personally I use Fruux since Apple dropped calendar sharing via MobileMe (when they made this useless iCloud).

My girlfriend can access my calendar & can add & delete events etc. We can access them on iOS & on our Macs etc.

https://fruux.com

It just works once you follow thier setup guide.

It will also share contacts, but I have no experience with that.

It's also free for limited use.

dlamm2424 wrote:

thanks for the laugh....( bad) spelling and sometimes it's unintended consequences is my bane. I'm not a great keyboard sort either. D

Me too. I put 'to' instead of 'you'!

lol

I hope youget your issues sorted.

Have you posted this in th iCloud forums as well? Might be well worth it.

https://discussions.apple.com/community/icloud

Cheers

Pete

Hey watch it with the typo talk you two.

KOT

Ok, I am home now and I can see how it's done...

Open iCal and Select Calendars to show the list of Calendars.

Right click the Calendar you want to share with your husband.

Select "Share Calendar..."

Enter his name/email address.

Make sure that "Public Calendar" is Not checked.

Click "Done".

An email is sent to him.

He'll then open his email and click on "Join Calendar"

icloud.com will open up for him so that he can sign in.

From there I assume that it'll be easy for him to figure it out. I can't really do it since I don't have two icloud accounts.

As for the Contacts. It's much easier to send him contacts from the Mac. As you can select more than one at a time and send them all at once.

Select the Contacts you want to share, Press and hold the "command" key as you select the contacts. So you can skip over some or what not.

Once done selecting them, Right click and select "Export vCard..."

Label it as you wish and save it.

Email him that file.

When he opens it up, it may ask him if he wants to accept these contacts. When he does, it'll self populate in his Contact list.

This is assuming that he has his own username on the Mac computer. Though it may still work if he's still sign into icloud.com from the Calendar process above.

Edit, I just emailed a file of 10 contacts to my other email address. Even though it's not an "iCloud" account. I was still successful into importing those 10 contacts with a single click.

KOT

Kingoftypos wrote:

As for the Contacts. It's much easier to send him contacts from the Mac. As you can select more than one at a time and send them all at once.

Select the Contacts you want to share, Press and hold the "command" key as you select the contacts. So you can skip over some or what not.

Once done selecting them, Right click and select "Export vCard..."

Label it as you wish and save it.

Email him that file.

That's fine for a 'one time import'. However the contacts will become out of sync as phone numbers & addresses change. It also becomes difficult to merge any changes (you have to re-export from both parties, merge the changes, export again, re-import to iOS replacing the old ones).

If you use Fruux or any other online calendar & contacts service it is possible to share the same contacts so that edits are shown to all users. You have a section for the shared contacts on the Mac too.

It is great for a family 'address book'.

It's how iCloud should work, but the Apple ID part makes it too easy to sign into the App store with the wrong details. It's made worse by the constant popups for signing in to do things (store updates, collecting mail, refreshing calendars) - "arghh, which ID does iCloud want?!"

Is there any way to share a group of contacts with another user in the same way as you can share calendars?

With iCal you can choose to share certain calendars so that any changes are updated on everyone's devices that the calendar has been shared with. I want to replicate that system with a group of contacts. I know this could be achieved by having contacts assigned to one iCloud account, that account being the one that is used on everyone's devices but that means that all the contacts would be shared. I have groups of contacts, personal, business etc. The business group of contacts contains all the relevant contact information for the client but also I use the notes section to record details of conversations etc. I would like to be able to share that group of contacts with a work colleague so that they could access up to date information on that client and also if either of us added new contacts the group would be updated on all our devices. However I don't want to share personal contacts which is what would happen if we shared the same iCloud account.

Any ideas anyone?

kimberleyallen wrote:

Is there any way to share a group of contacts with another user in the same way as you can share calendars?

There is no way within iCloud, but you could set up another CardDAV account and use that as the shared calendar.

I don't know if you can set up a second iCloud account in Contacts. I don't have another to test.

kimberleyallen wrote:

Is there any way to share a group of contacts with another user in the same way as you can share calendars?

With iCal you can choose to share certain calendars so that any changes are updated on everyone's devices that the calendar has been shared with. I want to replicate that system with a group of contacts. I know this could be achieved by having contacts assigned to one iCloud account, that account being the one that is used on everyone's devices but that means that all the contacts would be shared. I have groups of contacts, personal, business etc. The business group of contacts contains all the relevant contact information for the client but also I use the notes section to record details of conversations etc. I would like to be able to share that group of contacts with a work colleague so that they could access up to date information on that client and also if either of us added new contacts the group would be updated on all our devices. However I don't want to share personal contacts which is what would happen if we shared the same iCloud account.

Any ideas anyone?

My suggestion would be to open that "second" icloud account. Use it for you and your colleague(s). Then transfer every contact that you want to share onto that account.

Going to Settings---> Mail, Contacts, Calendars---> Add Account to add the new account, and set the Contacts to ON.

When you want to add/edit/delete a contact from that account. Just open Contacts---> Select Groups and select that account from the list. You can then add/edit/delete the contacts.

Going this route will keep your personal contact list separate from the professional list.

You can use iCloud, google, Yahoo, Outlook.com and others. Personally I'll stick with an IMAP service. As you can also use the Notes in the Notes app. *Separate from the Contacts Note section you mentioned.

KOT

Just be aware if you need to Add a contact. You must open the Contacts app, select Groups then click the top button until it shows "Show All Contacts". This will deselect all of the group lists. Then scroll to the group that you are sharing, select it and then add the contact. Doing this will ensure that the contact is added to that group.

KOT

I'm unconvinced by doing this via iCloud. It's too easy for popup dialogs to cause users to sign in to the wrong Apple ID & end up with no more Contacts on the device or make purchases by signing in to the the wrong account.

I don't see anywhere that Apple say multiple users are supported in iCloud, aside from the fact you can setup 'business' Apple ID's. Giving out the one username & password makes it difficult to update securely when people leave or lose devices etc. How many users are you talking about? Is everyone on the same iOS & Mac OS version or are there any Android or Windows users?

Personally I'd try OS X Server it's OK for shared contacts, it falls short when it comes to a realistic way for users to manage contact data alongside notes & call history etc. Contact 'note fields' are size limited IIRC and certain devices can have different size limitations for that field, so it's possible for one device to truncate the notes for other users.

You may be better off looking for a real CRM that can do the job/ info management if you need to see the notes clearly & keep the history correctly, or you can use the Notes app like Kingoftypos suggested, but they are not tied into a specific contact record so people will just have to search.