Peachtree55
Level 1
(21 points)
Q: Many Contacts no longer merged
Hi,
I have an Android phone, use a gmail & an iCloud email account, I have all my contacts both in iCloud & Google Contacts. In some earlier version of OSX there was a specific syncing option for gmail contacts in "preferences", which I used. Later OSX's made it easier by just ticking the "Contacts" box for each email account in "preferences" under "email accounts".
I cannot say exactly when this happened, but yesterday I went to Contacts on my iMac, clicked on "All Contacts" & all the older contact cards were separate (Nearly, but not all, newer cards are merged & show both email addresses). Clicking "Find Duplicates" did not help, so just to clean up things I went though & merged all the unmerged contacts. OK, done I thought.
Later on in the Day, I turned on my MBP, out of interest looked at Contacts, & exactly the same contacts were unmerged. Ok, I went through the whole list again & merged.
Today I had a look in my iPad & exactly the same unmerged contacts!
No changes to any of these devices, or new email accounts added or deleted. Certainly a few weeks ago all cards were merged.
I know in the big scheme of things it doesn't matter, but I find it strange that once I have merged a Contact on one device, it does not get "fixed" on other cloud-linked devices. And why this happened is also a mystery.
Both iMac & MBP on El Capitan 10.11.5, iPad on iOS 9.3.2
Any thoughts happily received!
iMac (27-inch, Late 2013), OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)
stuckboss
Community Specialists
Hi Peachtree55,
Welcome to the Apple Support Communities! From what you are describing, it sounds like a large portion of your contacts are no longer merged across your devices. I know how handy it is to have all your important contacts easily accessible. I'll be more than happy to provide you with some troubleshooting suggestions.
To begin with, make sure that you have a recent backup of your data. Check out these articles for details:
How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac
Once that's done, I'd recommend that you try to re-sync your contacts via iCloud. To do this, you are going to turn off your Contacts on any device where you have iCloud enabled. After you turn off Contacts, restart all of your devices. When you're back up and running, re-enable Contacts on each device and then check to see if that has corrected the issue. This article has more information:
Get help using iCloud Contacts, Calendars, or Reminders
I'd specifically recommend these sections:
Turn off iCloud Contacts, Calendar, or Reminders and turn it back on
- Tap Settings > iCloud.
- Turn off Contacts, Calendar, or Reminders.
- If you see your calendars or reminders on iCloud.com or any of your devices, you can choose Delete from My [device]. If not, choose Keep on My [device].
- Wait a few minutes, then turn on Contacts, Calendar, or Reminders again.
Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch
Hold down the Sleep/Wake button, then drag the slider to power off. Turn your device back on.
Turn off iCloud Calendar and iCloud Reminders, then turn it back on
- Quit the Calendar and Reminders apps.
- Choose Apple menu > System Preferences and click iCloud.
- Deselect Calendars and Reminders (or Calendars & Reminders on OS X Mountain Lion).
On OS X Mountain Lion and Mavericks, click Delete from Mac when asked.- Close System Preferences and wait about a minute.
- Choose Apple menu > System Preferences and click iCloud.
- Select Calendars (or Calendars & Reminders on OS X Mountain Lion).
- Open Calendar and Reminders.
Restart your computer
After you restart your computer, see if you fixed the issue.
You may also want to try disabling Contacts across your devices, completely signing out of iCloud, and then restarting each device. This may help to clear out any data hang ups.
Have a fantastic rest of your day!
