i want my current updated contacts saved in icloud...

Question

Level 1

24 points

i want my current updated contacts saved in icloud...

hello-

i just got a new iphone 6+. instead of having verizon add all my previous contacts onto it, i decided to add all my contacts individually to my new phone. i dont really know how to use icloud so please forgive me if my question has an obvious answer.

after adding all my current contacts to my new phone, i wanted to save them in icloud. i was given the option if i wanted to merge this contacts list with my contacts in my icloud. misinterpreting "merge" as "erase and update", i selected merge. well that was a mistake on my part.

so then i started the process all over. i added all my current contacts to my new phone again.

what i want to know is, how do i keep this current list of contacts saved in my icloud? i do not want those old outdated contacts currently in my icloud added to my updated contacts list....and especially not added to this phone.

i think my icloud has contacts saved from my yahoo mail accounts, my old iphone 5s and my old iphone 4s...so some contacts show up as 3 or 4 times.

any help, comments or suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

thank you for your time and for your assistance.

iPhone 6 Plus, iOS 8.3

Posted on May 8, 2015 8:51 AM

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Answer 1

sterling r

Community Specialist

May 10, 2015 9:28 AM in response to 33844

Hello 33844,

It sounds to me like you want to delete all the contacts you have in iCloud and replace them with the contacts you have on your phone. You can delete the contacts from www.icloud.com directly using this resource:

iCloud: Delete a contact

WARNING: When you delete a contact, it is deleted on every device that has the iCloud Contacts feature turned on. For example, if your iPhone and Mac have iCloud Contacts turned on, and you delete a contact with the iCloud Contacts web app, the contact is also deleted in the Contacts app on your iPhone and Mac.

In iCloud Contacts, do either of the following:

To delete a contact completely, select the contact in the All Contacts list, then press the Delete key. Click Delete in the dialog that appears.

To delete a contact from a group, click the group on the left, select the contact, then press the Delete key.
Deleting a contact from a group removes it from that group only.

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

All the best,

Sterling

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Answer 2

33844 Author

Level 1

24 points

May 15, 2015 9:36 AM in response to sterling r

hello sterling!

thank you for taking the time to read and respond to my question.

you are correct, i want to delete the contacts in my icloud and replace them with the contacts on my phone.

i had just backed up my phone on my pc before coming here.

i followed that link you provided. then i turned my icloud on on this phone. next i toggled contacts to on. i was asked to merge my contacts. fearing what happened last time i merged my contacts, i selected cancel. so then i decided to see what would happen if i selected merge. sure enough, as you might have guessed, it merged my icloud contacts with my phone contacts. so i went back and toggled contacts to off and was given the option to delete the contacts on my phone. i chose to delete...zero contacts on my phone.

i plugged in my phone to my pc and i did a back up restore on my phone. soon as the back up restore was complete, i checked to see that the proper contacts were back on my phone...and they were.

so now im back here with follow up questions....

in order for me to have my current and correct contacts on my phone stored in my icloud, do i need to merge the phone contacts with the icloud contacts?

and then after that merge, do i delete the incorrect contacts icloud?

again, thank you for your time!

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Answer 3

sterling r

Community Specialist

May 25, 2015 11:35 AM in response to 33844

Thank you for the update, and apologies for the delay. I was unexpectedly out of the office for a week. To answer your last two questions yes you will merge the contacts when prompted on your phone when you toggle on the Contacts option. And yes you can delete the contacts in iCloud if you need to after that but it may be more efficient to delete everything in your contacts at www.icloud.com first then turn on and merge the contacts on your phone.

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