Contacts only sync one way

I am finding that, since the introduction of iCloud, what used to be beautifully transparent syncing of information on my iPhone, MacBook and iMac, has become increasingly complex and nontransparent. My devices do not sync. All efforts following these kinds of directions have failed. I want a world without "the cloud". Back to the past when I managed my own data here at home and my devices talked to each other without having to go to the iCloud. So much for wishing....

Please try the following…

1. First check that all your settings are correct, that contact syncing is checked on all devices (system preferences > iCloud on a mac and settings > iCloud on a iPhone, iPad or iPod).
2. Make sure the contacts you are adding are added to your 'iCloud' group and not an 'On My Mac', 'On My Phone' or other non iCloud group (you can do this by checking in groups), non iCloud contacts will not sync.
3. If you are sure that everything is set up correctly and your contacts are in the iCloud group, you might try unchecking contact syncing in the iCloud settings, restarting your device and then re-enabling contact syncing.