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Why won't my contacts on my iPod Touch sync to my Mac through iCloud?

I just downloaded Mavericks onto my Macbook Pro, and am trying to get my hotmail icloud contacts to sync TO my mac FROM my ipod touch. I tried everything. I tried turning off contacts in icloud on both my mac and my ipod, no luck. When I go to contacts on my mac, the only contact that shows up is the "iCloud" one. If I go on my ipod touch and go to contacts and click groups, there are two groups. One is "All iCloud" and one is "all hotmail", and they are both checked. All my contacts are there on my ipod touch when they are both checked. When I un-check "All Hotmail" on my ipod touch, and leave the "all icloud" group checked, the only contact that shows up is the same one that I saw on my mac. But that is my "All iCloud" contact. I want to know how to sync my "All Hotmail" contacts to my mac, which has all the contacts I need to sync to my mac. PLEASE HELP. and sorry if this was a bit confusing. THANK YOU

Posted on Feb 1, 2014 6:33 PM

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Posted on Feb 1, 2014 6:42 PM

The problem you are running into is that iCloud only syncs contacts that belong to the the iCloud account (group), not external accounts such as Hotmail. If you want to use iCloud to sync your Hotmail contacts you will have to copy them to iCloud, then turn off contacts syncing with your Hotmail account. To do this, do the following:


  1. On your iPod Touch, go to Settings>iCloud, turn Contacts to Off, choose Delete from My iPod when prompted (any iCloud contacts will still be in iCloud).
  2. Download the app My Contacts Backup. (If you have more than 500 Hotmail contacts to transfer to iCloud you will need the “Pro” version.) Use the app to backup the remaining contacts on your iPod (from Hotmail) as a vCard attachment to an email. Send the email to yourself and confirm that you have received it.
  3. Go to Settings>iCloud and turn Contacts back to On.
  4. Go to Settings>Mail,Contacts,Calendars>Default Account (in the Contacts section), and set this to iCloud.
  5. Go to Settings>Mail,Contacts,Calendars...tap yiour Hotmail account and turn off contacts syncing with Hotmail.
  6. Open the My Contacts Backup email and tap the attachment to import the contacts from the other groups back to your iPod, and to iCloud. All your contacts should now be in iCloud and appear on your Mac.
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Question marked as Best reply

Feb 1, 2014 6:42 PM in response to mateenm

The problem you are running into is that iCloud only syncs contacts that belong to the the iCloud account (group), not external accounts such as Hotmail. If you want to use iCloud to sync your Hotmail contacts you will have to copy them to iCloud, then turn off contacts syncing with your Hotmail account. To do this, do the following:


  1. On your iPod Touch, go to Settings>iCloud, turn Contacts to Off, choose Delete from My iPod when prompted (any iCloud contacts will still be in iCloud).
  2. Download the app My Contacts Backup. (If you have more than 500 Hotmail contacts to transfer to iCloud you will need the “Pro” version.) Use the app to backup the remaining contacts on your iPod (from Hotmail) as a vCard attachment to an email. Send the email to yourself and confirm that you have received it.
  3. Go to Settings>iCloud and turn Contacts back to On.
  4. Go to Settings>Mail,Contacts,Calendars>Default Account (in the Contacts section), and set this to iCloud.
  5. Go to Settings>Mail,Contacts,Calendars...tap yiour Hotmail account and turn off contacts syncing with Hotmail.
  6. Open the My Contacts Backup email and tap the attachment to import the contacts from the other groups back to your iPod, and to iCloud. All your contacts should now be in iCloud and appear on your Mac.

Feb 1, 2014 7:33 PM in response to randers4

I did exactly what you told me to do, and you did help me. But when I went to my e-mail and tapped on the attachment, and then everything reset. My mail reset and then I checked my contacts and it only showed that one contact that I mentioned before in the iCloud account. There are no other groups. Should I wait? Should I try again? HELP! THANK YOU

Why won't my contacts on my iPod Touch sync to my Mac through iCloud?

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