puzzling behaviour: contacts and notes

Question

Level 4

3,118 points

puzzling behaviour: contacts and notes

I have two separate problems with iCloud on my iMac.

1 My contacts are duplicated 8 times on my iMac - when I open the Contacts app, everything appears 8 times (all the names, folders etc) and for each contact there are 8 iCloud cards.

This doesn't happen on my Air, nor on my two iPads, which all function correctly.

When I go to my iCloud via Safari, there is also only one copy, as there should be.

2 My Notes don't update on my iMac - any notes made on another device (eg my Air or iPad) do not appear in the iMac's Notes app under the iCloud heading.

Again, my Air and iPads both function correctly.

Clearly, something is amiss on my iMac, but I can't find any troubleshooting procedure for it. It isn't question of resolving duplicates - all 1016 contacts are duplicated 8 times, but looking for duplicates finds only about 150.

Can anyone help?

Thanks!

I'm in Mavericks 10.9.2.

Posted on Apr 5, 2014 8:25 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Apr 5, 2014 8:34 AM in response to John Potts

Sign out of iCloud on your iMac, restart the iMac and sign in again. When asked to delete data say yes (it will be restored from the iCloud copy)

Reply

Answer 2

John Potts Author

Level 4

3,118 points

Apr 5, 2014 9:16 AM in response to Csound1

That fixed the Notes problem - they now appear. Thanks very much for that!

It didn't fix the Contacts problem. I now have 6 copies of everything, rather than 8.

After restarting and going to the iCloud panel in SysPref, I saw that I was already signed in and the Contacts box was already checked. The other boxes were not.

I deleted all data for all checked boxes when signing out.

Reply

Answer 3

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Apr 5, 2014 9:24 AM in response to John Potts

Uncheck contacts, then open the Contact app and verify that all iCloud entries and duplicates are gone.

How many Contact groups are there in Contacts, look in the lefthand sidebar, what appears (other than iCloud)

Post back.

Reply

Answer 4

John Potts Author

Level 4

3,118 points

Apr 5, 2014 9:33 AM in response to Csound1

When I unchecked Contacts it immediately rechecked itself. I deleted the data and I noticed that in the Contacts app I was down to 5 duplicates.

So I unchecked it again - again it immediately rechecked itself. Again, I deleted the data and I was down to 4. So I repeated that process until now I am down to just one.

So that seems to have solved it.

Do you know why it kept rechecking itself automatically?

I guess if this happens again, all I need to do is repeat this process - though I do hope it's cured now!

Reply