iCloud Contacts failing to sync after High Sierra

An interesting aspect: My (old) MBAir (also running High Sierra) does not have this issue; still syncs contacts with iCloud nicely.

It is only my new MBP (running High Sierra) that does not sync contacts correctly with iCloud.

Not a consistent High Sierra issue? Thoughts?

Still seems a macOS / iCloud issue though.

I am curious to see if this is temp resolution, and the problem returns. I do not have pictures in contacts, so I cannot test this. I have been looking for other apps that may influence contacts on MPB but I cannot find anything but Skpye, but this was ruled out a few posts ago. I am still stuck and and still waiting for Apple to get us a fix. Hope one arrives soon.

I performed the above and things worked for a few days, then once again

stopped working.

Again, a formal fix from Apple is required.

On Thu, Jan 4, 2018 at 6:43 PM, Apple Support Communities Updates <

So my question is what change did you make that caused it to stop working? Do you know? Did you add a new contact? If so where was the contact added iOS or MBP. Contact changed? Picture added? One field in existing contact? Something small caused the issue to start again.

I do not believe that the photo's have anything to do with this issue. I have double checked and found that I have no photos. I do not use any Facebook hooks into my stuff, but my guess is that it does grant access to certain things if you let it. IE access to contacts.

I worked on this issue yesterday looking for something in my contacts that would cause an issue. I could not find anything. I was looking for a rogue character, something that would cause an issue with syncing. Something anything....nothing.

What still bothers me is that certain fields will sync and others will not.

I keep learning towards a bad or bad records that got out of sync, and causes the issue. I am trying to figure out a way to compare what is in the cloud and what is on my MBP. It is very tough to trouble shoot because of the lack of detail that I can get to in the logs etc.

I had already applied my fix and tested it before reading that. No need to go through all those steps… My fix works fine or I wouldn’t have posted it. Trust me.

Forgive me but “Macsterguy” has fixed many issues that calls to Apple support could not fix... Hahaha

This alleged solution does not work for myself. I renamed the AddressBook,

launched Contacts, and see a new AddressBook is created.

Results are the same, I can go to www.icloud.com and create a new contact,

which syncs with all devices including Mac with high Sierra.

on my iphone7, when I create a new contact - it never is updated to my Mac,

other devices, or other iOS devices.

On Fri, Jan 12, 2018 at 6:14 AM, Apple Support Communities Updates <

Thanks, I now understand this process better.

I was unaware of the Contacts/Groups selection prior - possibly this

default setting changed recently.

On Sat, Jan 13, 2018 at 3:28 AM, Apple Support Communities Updates <

So Macterguy's fix seems to be working and holding for me. I have done extensive testing after making this simple change and things are working again. I made the change over the weekend and have added at least a dozen new contacts and made numerous changes on ipad, iphone and MBP all changes are reaching all devices as expected. Simple fix. THANK YOU Macsterguy!!!!

Let me be clearer: I did all the extreme solutions (deleting all possible bad AddressBook files in Library Cache, Containers, Preferences, etc; I also turned off iCloud syncing on my Mac, and restarted, and then turned syncing on again). All the new contacts that hadn't been syncing from iCloud successfully synced to my Mac! Great!

BUT.... actually not so great, because the underlying problem hasn't changed at all. New or updated contacts entries on my Mac Contacts aren't syncing to iCloud, nor are iCloud alterations syncing to the Mac. (My iPhone and iCloud are syncing perfectly.)

Furthermore - these forums should not have a big happy green "Solved" next to solutions that don't really work.

Macsterguy I honor your efforts, and tried your solution. Like some other solutions, it did get my Contacts to repopulate from iCloud, successfully. But sadly, only the first time - later changes still do not sync between Contacts and iCloud.

I guess I'm missing something regarding the images. It used to be that I could add a new contact on my iPhone, with only first name, last name, and phone number(no images). Within seconds, I could see the new contact appear on my MacBook and iPad in the address book. Now, even after performing the fixes on this thread, that syncing doesn't take place. Now, I can add a new contact on my iPhone, with only first name, last name, and phone number. However, the contact appears on my iPad, but not my MacBook.

Good addition (you were just ahead of me, I was about to add the iCloud suggestion too 🙂). Adding pictures via iCloud does not break syncing and shows your changes nicely on all Contacts instances on Mac, iPhone, etc. Also modifying a just synced record on your Mac does not break the sync thereafter.

Like MattBeef I found I had suddenly acquired a load of pics with contacts that I am pretty sure I didn't add myself. When I looked at the photos they had come from Facebook, i.e. they were that person's facebook profile pic. I wonder if there's some glitch in there that tries to do some kind of sync with facebook and puts a load of images with their contacts, and in the process breaks the sync to iCloud. Also, one of the things I have never done, because I don't trust it, is to sync my contacts with facebook, insta or any other social media, so it's not that I don't think. I'm not techie enough to know whether that's even a possibility but I've been a tech user long enough to know that computers are tricky beasts!

That's great Thank you! What's odd is that it doesn't seem to mind images in contacts that were already there and brought over from iCloud, but goes bonkers if you add an image to a contact from within the desktop Mac application ...