iCloud Contacts NOT Syncing with MAC - FIX

I have this problem on my iMac but not on my MacBook and iPhone.

I found this solution which does not require deleting all the iCloud contacts and this solution can keep all the contact photos.

This is copy from:

Re: iCloud Contacts failing to sync after High Sierra

I have found a solution that works for me.

1. quit Contacts
2. open ~/Library/Containers and delete anything with addressbook in its name
3. open ~/Library/Application Support and delete anything with addressbook in its name
4. open ~/Library/Preferences and delete anything with addressbook in its name
5. open ~/Library/Caches and delete anything with addressbook in its name
6. opened System Preferences : iCloud and uncheck contacts
7. restart your mac
8. when it boots back up open System Preferences :iCloud and check contacts

a little spinner spins saying "setting up"

Once that's done then open Contacts and wait. I have around 5000 contacts so it took about 10 minutes to fully sync.

I've been plagued with this issue for a few months now. Apple techs had me do everything including reinstalling MacOS. Absolutely nothing worked. The OP's solution "worked" but it was not a permanent fix. As someone else mentioned, this only "catches up" whichever device was missing contacts or not syncing (iMac in my case). I also don't use facebook for my contact photos, so for about 6 weeks i've been slowly having to add my contact photos back (hey, at least I get to use new pics!).

Someone else in this thread linked to another forum that had a VERY simple solution and it looks like it has worked just fine.

Here are the steps:

1. close the contacts app
2. go to ~/Library/Application Support/
3. rename the AddressBook folder to something like AddressBook(old) just to be safe
4. open the contacts app
5. it will create a new AdressBook folder that syncs to icloud properly
6. if it's all dandy delete the renamed AddressBook folder

(credit to user nectarina for this solution!)

Highly suggest you try this solution before the OP's more extreme solution.

I think I've found that the answer is right under our nose. When I created the address book on my Mac and it asked me where I wanted my Contacts to be kept and I checked On My Mac. Seems really logical that that is where you want them to stay - locally. And then I assumed they would then sync with my iCloud account just like Calendar and other features. All of these other fixes just didn't seem right to me. Sure they work, but only short term. So I took a chance and went into Contacts settings on my Mac and checked iCloud as the location I wanted to store my contacts. In a few minutes every contact was everywhere, on all my devices. No copying, pasting, backing up, etc., etc. So far it's working. Even pictures of contacts.

I had the same issue, but the solution for me was to go into the Contacts preferences, under accounts and change the "fetch" frequency from "automatic" to "every minute" - Then everything synced up.

Might be helpful to some 🙂

Regards,

Brian

Brian Yip's solution worked perfectly for me. No loss of photos or folders. All of my contacts are syncing perfectly between all my devices now. Thank you!

THANK YOU from Brazil!

During the process, I just found out a corrupted contact (May be the cause of the sync failure?). I had more than 2000 contacts. When I dropped the Vcard on contacts, it just added the first 95 contacts. I deleted the contact #96, and restarted the whole process. It works perfectly! And the pictures I had to remove the Facebook account from the Internet Accounts on System Preferences and added it again. In a few minutes the pictures started to pop up on contacts! Just missed the pictures that I added manually. All contacts are syncing in my 3 computers, iPhones and iPads!

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I was at my wit’s end with this!

Note: the first time I tried this didn’t work. I needed to have all three of my Macs running (so I had to drive to the office at church on my day off in the snow); I also had to manually delete one contact that stayed on my iPhone after I deleted them all in iCloud. Then, it worked. This may help someone else who syncs many devices.

It had been months with no help from Apple. I was thisclose to losing my mind.

This fix does work. But as some comments point out, photos of contacts will disappear. I think photos in contacts may be causing the problem. I followed this fix and had contacts syncing from my MacBook to the iCloud. Then I added a few of the photos I had lost and syncing to iCloud broke again. I've just redone the fix suggested, kept photos out of my contacts, and everything is still syncing. So I'd suggest an addendum to this fix - follow the steps outlined, but don't include any photos with your contacts - ever.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone has had a different experience.

This last post by Brian Yip has worked for 2 days for me. I've tried adding contacts from various devices, as well as photos to the contacts, birthdays, and all is syncing the way that it should. I only deleted the listed files from my iMac, as the Air did not have a problem syncing.

Thanks Brian!

I was able to permanent fix this problem without deleting or doing any of the instructions below. If your mac (I have a MacBook Pro) running in High Sierra (2018 model). My contacts were not syncing with my mac, but were syncing with my iPad and Iphone. This is what I did:

1. verified all my contacts were correct on my iCloud account

2.then unselected my iCloud account to sync with contacts in "settings", internet accounts, selected iCloud account and "deselected contacts"

3. Deleted the contacts in my macbook pro

4. logged in to my iCloud again and verified my contacts were still in my iCloud plus I pay to backup my iCloud in case and verified that the last backup was July 1

5. in the bottom of my iCloud went to settings and selected "export vcard"

6. my Contacts were back in my Macbook Pro

7. went back to settings on my macbook Pro and selected settings, and activated contacts under my iCloud account again.

Done! Happy camper! solved it without waisting valuable time going to Apple store and/or on the phone. For some reason you sometimes have a corrupt contact in your mac that doesn't let you sync.

Hope this fix helps others. I usually don't post my fixes, but I thought I would appreciate if someone lent me a hand....

So, this worked for me and I wanted to share.

While doing some investigating I found that I had a separate carddev account under "internet accounts" that was exactly the same as my iCloud. At somepoint a separate login for the same account.

1. Delete the two contacts in the contacts app

2. Close Contacts App

3. Turn off iCloud contacts

4. remove extra account under Internet accounts

5. Enable iCloud

This solved it for me.

Well, I hit "Send" too soon on that one.

Here's what I did after losing my contact pictures and what seems to work. For me. For now.

1. Delete the contacts again from icloud.com

2. Wait for contacts to disappear from Mac, iPhone, iPad

3. Reboot all devices

4. Got to Settings on icloud.com and scroll down to the bottom of the page

5. Down there you'll find a link "restore contacts" (roughly translated, my iCloud is set to German)

6. Choose a backup from a couple of hours/days ago. Important: don't choose one of the backups that were automatically created, while you were trying to fix the problem

7. This may take a while (in my case with about 1000 contacts about 5 minutes)

8. In case you receive an error message (which I did) and end up with a partial restore (which I did): start over. For me it worked on the third attempt.

Did this solve the problem. Hard to say. All of my contacts are the same on all devices now. Changes are being synced across all devices, even those that were made on the Mac. However, it has only be a few hours since I came up with this solution and it might very well be that all goes back to sh*t by tomorrow. But for now …

This wasn't the fix for me. What was happening is that my antivirus blocked the service from mac to phone. Pita! Once I turned off two parts of the virus program, I was able to have everything syncing perfectly. Support said that with the last two High Sierra updates, they added a virus protection to the OSX. Would have been nice to know beforehand.

Definitely was photos causing the problem for me. I tried several of the other ideas listed here. What eventually worked was a painful process of going through every one of my Mac contacts to the photo if there was one. Once I'd done that all started syncing again. I suspect it was only a recent updated photo causing the problem, but I didn't know which one so I had to go through the lot.

The other way works as well!

Make sure your iPhone has the same contacts as iCloud.com. Turn off your contacts in the iCloud setting on your phone but KEEP it on your phone (do not use the option 'remove').

The remove all contacts on your Mac which will remove it on iCloud.com as well. If not, remove it there manually as well.

Then turn on Contacts in the iCloud setting on your phone again and choose 'Merge'. After a while they will be back on iCloud.com and download to your Mac. Syncing works again... create a test contact on your Mac and it appears on your phone, create a test account on your phone and it appears on your Mac.