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User profile for user: virtuosity
virtuosity Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Contacts not syncing properly

I've got 617 contacts on my phone


I've got 533 contacts on my macbook

I've got 533 contacts on my imac

I've got 533 contacts in the cloud


For some reason, it stopped syncing new contacts I added on my phone some time ago, and I cannot get it to start syncing again. I've tried all the usual switch things off, and on again, including waiting, downing the phone, restarting the mac(s) in between - everything - the only thing this has done is I've now got 1066 contacts on my imac!!


This is driving me mad - anyone got any suggestions, other than switching things off and on again?


Thanks

Posted on Jan 11, 2014 4:47 AM

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18 replies
User profile for user: fromsouth
fromsouth
User level: Level 5
4,945 points

Jan 11, 2014 7:22 AM in response to virtuosity

One one of your Macs sign out of icloud

Use instructions to resolve your duplicates from here on one that macs.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ts4147


Instructions:

If you are using OS X Mountain Lion or Lion, both Contacts and Address Book have a built-in tool that locates and merges duplicate contact information. In order to effectively use the Look for Duplicates tool, you may need to run the tool a few times. Here's how:

  1. Open Contacts or Address Book.
  2. Back up your iCloud Contacts as described in the Contacts section of iCloud: How to back up iCloud data.
  3. Select Card > Look for Duplicates from the Card menu.
  4. Review the results, and click Merge when prompted.
  5. Repeat steps 3-4 until no duplicates are found.

    Sometimes it takes multiple passes to successfully remove duplicate information from Contacts. If you have repeated steps 3 and 4 six or more times and still are seeing duplicate data, you should quit Contacts or Address Book by selecting Quit from the Contacts or Address Book menu. Then reopen the application, and begin this process again starting with step 1.

  6. After you have removed the duplicates from your Contacts, back up your iCloud Contacts again as described in step 2.

Instructions over.



Go to icloud.com and delete all contacts - you can do that in one move

Login to iCloud at icloud.com. Click on the Contacts icon > gear icon (lower left) > Select All > Delete.


That will replicate to all devices within minutes and all your icloud contacts will be deleted from all devices.


Sign out from icloud on every device when contacts are gone (including deleting icloud account on the iphone)


Sign in to icloud on that one computer where you edited duplicates.


Merge with icloud and then sign in on all other devices.


Then fix your original problem by going to settings - mail contacts calendars on the phone and making sure default account is icloud (after all those changes it may already be icloud and that is what you want)

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User profile for user: virtuosity
virtuosity Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jan 11, 2014 8:08 AM in response to fromsouth

sorry, you've completely misunderstood me - i'm not bothered about the duplicates, I can fix that - it's the fact that I cannot get my iphone contacts to sync across my other devices - via iCloud. I just cannot get iCloud to sync at all - whenever I add a new contact on my iPhone, it just sits on my iPhone - it doesn't go to the cloud, nor can I force it to, and as such, it's not pushing my contacts down to my other devices (i.e. my Macs)


I've switched off my syncing option, cleared my contacts off my cloud, and then switch syncing back on again, and it's now been empty for the last 1 hour - there's nothing I can do to get it to recognise the fact that I have an iPhone and that it needs to sync with it.

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User profile for user: gail from maine
gail from maine
User level: Level 9
52,575 points

Jan 11, 2014 8:14 AM in response to virtuosity

Hi virtuosity,


Try deleting the iCloud account from the phone and then signing it back on again. When it asks if you want to keep your contacts on the phone during the delete, say Yes. When it asks if you want to merge your contacts with iCloud when you sign back on, say Yes.


Just to double-check - you are on Wifi or, if you are on cellular, do you have an internet connection? (just checking....)


Cheers,


GB

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User profile for user: virtuosity
virtuosity Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jan 11, 2014 11:16 AM in response to gail from maine

I am certain Gail thanks yes - I only have 1 Apple ID.


The problem I don't think is the macs - they're in sync with the cloud as you can see from the # of contacts above - if I add a contact on my mac, it's pushed to the cloud and to all my devices, including my phone.


The problem sits with my iPhone's ability to update the contacts in the cloudm so I think the problem is on my iPhone. I add a contact on my iPhone, and it just sits there in my phone - it doesn't do anything with it at all. So over the last few weeks - I now have a situation where I have 617 contacts on my phone, and 533 in my cloud, and all my other devices.


I've tried now just deleting all of my contacts everywhere, (after backing up) - EXCEPT my iphone. I've added 3 new contacts on my phone. I've now got 620 contacts on my phone, 0 in the cloud, and 0 on both of my macs and my iPad. I have then tried switching my iCloud contacts off, switch phone off and on, then switch iCloud contacts on - still got 0 contacts in the cloud. So I then tried your suggestion of removing the iCloud account on my iPhone, switched off my phone and on again, then added my iCloud account - and STILL zero contacts in my cloud account.


I've now done this about 6 times, and still does nothing, my iCloud is now on on all devices, including my cloud account and all my contacts are empty (apart from the 620 on my iPhone)


This is driving me mad - there should be some sort of force refresh...

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User profile for user: virtuosity
virtuosity Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

Jan 13, 2014 5:08 AM in response to gail from maine

I am running iOS7, I have all updates installed, including my Mac OSX versions across all my devices.


I've tried all of the above suggestions including the last 3 items from 'fromsouth', and I've seen that troubleshooting page before Gail thank you.


I've now lost count of the number of times I've gone through the exercise now - it would have been quicker to type them in manually. My contacts are now all screwed across all my devices and showing a different number of contacts in each one - and all the while, my contacts in my cloud account are still empty, and there's simply nothing I can do to refresh them without manually importing the contacts into it - which I can do, but it still doesn't fix the issue of keeping them in sync.


There's clearly something wrong here - maybe it's something less obvious like an account or config setting, or I've reached the maximum number of somethings - I don't know - but there's something wrong and I think it's more than a simple iCloud setting.


Really frustrated - I seem to the be the only person on the planet who cannot sync their iCloud contacts.... Grrrrr...

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User profile for user: Reconstripulate
Reconstripulate
User level: Level 1
0 points

Jul 31, 2014 9:11 AM in response to virtuosity

I kept making sure I had all my icloud, email, accounts, checked to sync with each other, what I did not realize, is that I need to add all the accounts first.


Keep in mind, if you have more than 1 icloud account and email account, such as I do (Work & Personal). You need to add an Icloud account on each device for each account.


Work Icloud Account (Office Imac)

Personal Icloud Account (Airbook)

Work Email (on all devices)

Personal Email (Phone, airbook, Ipad)


you have to add your "work" Icloud (office Imac) account to your "Personal" device (airbook) and vs. versa.


I had my work icloud account added to my work machine but not my personal Icloud account, because of this only my work contacts would sync with messages (ichat) on my imac.

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User profile for user: Yuan Oeij
Yuan Oeij
User level: Level 1
0 points

Sep 12, 2014 9:10 PM in response to Reconstripulate

I found the solution in this forum: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1711617,


which provides the link to this: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/100659/iphone-contacts-arent-syncing-to -icloud.


The solution that worked for me was this from that link was this:


I suggest you to try to reset your iCloud Documents.

  • Go to http://www.iCloud.com, sign in with your Apple ID. Click on
  • your name at upper-right corner > account settings Click Reset
  • Documents & Data Confirm reset(this will not erase anything, I just did it and it worked fine)
  • Restart your devices

See also : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5824

Hope that helps!

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User profile for user: ascotsgranny
ascotsgranny
User level: Level 1
15 points

Oct 19, 2014 12:24 PM in response to virtuosity

I have a problem syncing contacts from iPhone IOS 7 to my iMAC Address Book using iTunes.


Can anyone assist?


✅ How are conflicts resolved? There don't seem to be any preferences but I'm assuming iTunes should pop up with a message when there's a conflict asking which contact to use?


✅ New contacts on my iPhone are not syncing over to my computer


ℹ Note: I do not use iCloud -- it ruined my contacts and took much time to fix, so am happy to just sync my devices with iTunes. I would like to get rid of all references to iCloud if there were a way! 😠


This was easier with a Palm Pilot many moons ago!!

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Contacts not syncing properly

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