Missing setting for contacts: default account

Question

Missing setting for contacts: default account

Last week all my contacts disappeared from my iphone 4s. I also have an ipad and they are all there. I tried turning Contacts off and then on again for icloud, gmail, and my work exchange account, but still no contacts.

After going through every single setting on both devices, the one difference I am finding is that the ipad has a setting for me to identify a Default Account under Contacts (as well as a default calendar under calendar). The iphone does not have this setting - it only has a default account setting under mail (set to my gmail account).

I would have expected that if there were only 1 default available that it would then have synced the contacts from that location at least. It didn't. There are no contacts available from anywhere.

How do I get my contacts back on to my iphone?

iPhone 4S, iOS 7.0.4

Posted on Jan 1, 2014 12:22 PM

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Answer 1

May 14, 2014 5:11 AM in response to misanthropic789

Here is what happened with my icloud.

Contacts in icloud.com can sync with the contacts on my iphone and ipad. Anything I edit on my ipad, will reflect on both my icloud.com contacts and my iphone. But, any contacts edited on my iphone, will not effect both icloud.com contacts and ipad. Yeah, it is confusing.

I looked for the "default account" under contacts. It was missing on my iphone, but available on my ipad. But after a while, the "default account" was missing on my ipad too!!! However, the syncing is still the same as I explained above.

I checked on my wife's iphone, and surprisingly, the "default contact" is available on her iphone. I did took a picture of it, just in case it goes misssing like it happened on my ipad.

This is kinda a bit annoying. Because you expect to add contacts on your phone, and not on your ipad most of the time. Now, it is the other way round.

I guess this is a problem Apple is still trying to solve.

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Answer 2

ALR11

Level 1

9 points

May 31, 2015 9:31 AM in response to wanorashidi

Default Contact will only be visibe when there are more than one contacts group. If you have just iCloud contacts added, then this option won't be visible. If you add another contacts say for eg., gmail contacts then the Default Contacts will become visible. I had this problem yesterday, I added another contact group & Default Contacts became visible for me.

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