iCloud Contacts NOT Syncing with MAC - FIX

I had this same problem and Apple Support advised me to take the same steps the OP proposed. It did, of course, cause the loss of all groups and photos, but I was willing to do it to get rid of the problem.

Unfortunately, after a few months, the problem is right back again.

I think one of the other posters may be onto something about photos causing the problem. I suspect that adding photos on the Mac rather than on the phone may be causing corruption of some contacts, but I can't be certain that's the problem. We do absolutely need a fix from Apple on this.

It would be helpful to be as specific as possible when providing answers. For instance, your step 2 is compound. Is the first half of the sentence just a general comment or is there a means to make sure all contacts are up to date, and if there is, what is that means. Then, how to you "Export ALL" contacts to a vCard? I've looked through all of the menus and combed the window, but there is nothing that I can find that says anything about exporting contacts to a vCard.

I went through this process and it eventually worked but it was a bit messy.

I must have had a corrupted file somewhere because only a portion of the contacts would re-import. I was a bit panicky about the thought of losing several hundred contacts that I needed.

After numerous attempts at importing the various backup files I created, finally one worked, but only after I restored my phone from a backup version.

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

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....

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.

Hello!

This is really, yes really a GOOD trick, answer, ... to restore CONTACTS on your devices! I had this problem too and went trough the same 'CALL-SUPPORT'-CAN'T-HELP from Apple. At least I will be able to reset and sync my contacts once for ever!

Glad to have read your clear explanation!

Thank you!

Pansel

Hello!

This is really, yes really a GOOD trick, answer, ... to restore CONTACTS on your devices! I had this problem too and went trough the same 'CALL-SUPPORT'-CAN'T-HELP from Apple. At least I will be able to reset and sync my contacts once for ever!

Glad to have read your clear explanation!

Thank you

Hello all Mac and Other people with this Contact-Sync problem,

Which seems to be old fashion but CAN be a great help is to PRINT all the contacts and put them on a safe place...

One can compare which contacts didn't sync and which not. It is also fine to HAVE the Contacts 'for real'.

Thanks to all of you!

Pansel

One thing I should add. When I deleted all the contacts on my Mac, I then checked iCloud.com and discovered two "rogue" contacts still up there - so, I deleted them manually, as suggested. It was the rogues that I believe caused the sync failure in the first place....Now, AOK as mentioned previously.

Actually, after some testing I see that the contact photos are good. The exercise did not remove them.

They get synced with your iPhone in the first place and re-synched to iCloud.com after turning the iCloud setting back on.

I have had the same problem, but didn't want to go to some of the extreme lengths suggested below. I have a mac mini, a MacBook pro and several iPads and iPhones. My mac mini is my most used machine, living on my desk, and it was from that that contacts were not syncing. A few users have commented on there being a possible issue with photos in contacts, so I thought I'd test that. I only had one contact with a photo assigned - my own. I deleted the 'my card', then recreated it without a photo. Hey presto! All worked fine. I then added the same photo via my iPhone to my contact, and all is still syncing and working - so there is I suspect some issue with older macs running the latest IOS that means adding photos to contacts causes a problem. Pretty simple fix, but an irritating bug that took a long time to resolve. I would suggest that anyone having this issue at least tries this fix before resorting to some of the other more drastic solutions suggested in this post.

Hi, why would you wanna export your contacts.

You need to deselect the iCloud for Contacts on your iPhone (don't remove them from there). Then they are saved only on your iPhone.

Then u delete the iCloud Contacts which and also remove them on your Mac.

Then you turn on iCloud for Contacts on your iPhone again and select 'Merge'.

Voila, they will appear on your iCloud and on your Mac again.

Sync works again.

I've already described this procedure in one of my posts.

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.