Contacts not syncing between devices

Question

Level 1

16 points

Contacts not syncing between devices

I have a MacBook Pro running OS X El Capitan 10.11.6, an iPhone 6S Plus and an iPad Pro both running iOS 9.3.3.

My problem: I am having a conversation in Messages on my phone. I switch over to Messages on my laptop, and the conversation is there, but the contact is just showing the person's phone number, no name. In another instance, a text conversation I'm having on my phone will be visible on my tablet, but the contact information is missing. I most frequently enter new contacts on my phone, occasionally on my laptop, and almost never on my iPad. My understanding was that syncing Contacts between devices should take care of this. Why isn't it? Shouldn't it just automatically add them to whatever list is being kept and sync them?

On both devices, I've selected to sync both my iCloud Contacts and my Gmail Contacts. I have synced both devices to my laptop numerous times. I have updated all my devices and my laptop to the latest software as of July 21, 2016.

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)

Posted on Jul 21, 2016 10:41 PM

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Answer 1

Jul 22, 2016 12:26 PM in response to chellspecker

Please try the following…

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).
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.
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.

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Answer 2

Malignance

Level 5

4,511 points

Jul 22, 2016 6:42 AM in response to chellspecker

Contacts should sync to all the devices with properly configured settings. Just to check...

iOS go Settings > iCloud > Contacts

OS X go menu > Preferences > iCloud > Contacts

Be sure the settings are enabled on all three devices.

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

685,221 points

Jul 22, 2016 12:22 PM in response to chellspecker

Try going to iCloud.com to see if the items are there and whether they are from the device or the computer. That should show whether the device or the computer isn't syncing. If the computer, try going to System Preferences/iCloud and stop syncing. Wait a couple of minutes, then recheck syncing. If the device, go to Settings/iCloud and do the above. You can also try signing out of iCloud and then sign in again.

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