Contacts will not sync in iTunes - not using iCloud

I, too, am on an iPhone 6 with all latest software updates for iOS and Mac OS. Contacts will not sync using iTunes. I checked iCloud settings on the phone and on the Mac and there is NO iCloud syncing turned on for EITHER device. iTune sync of Contacts (and also Photos) just does NOT work as it is supposed to. Every once-in-a-while, the photos "decide" to sync but more often than not, they don't. Contacts - never sync (at least so far...) Oh, Apple - PLEASE fix this for those of us who do not use "clouds"!!

We know how to sync using iTunes. The problem is that contacts are not syncing as they once did until iMac upgraded to High Sierra. Groups deleted on Imac still show up on iPhone and I can't seem to delete a group on my phone. No additions or changes to contacts on phone show up on iMac and vice versa. Running High Sierra 10.13.1 on iMac and using iPhone 6s running 12.1.2. All other syncing works fine. What is going on with the contacts sync! This is untenable.

I have always synced my iPhone 7 with my iMac using a USB cable. I just sync Music and Contacts. (My Calendar uses iCloud.)

But for several months now my Contacts won't sync from iPhone to iMac using USB and iTunes.

I have been updating Contacts on both devices, so I can't just replace the information on the iPhone. I have 1307 contacts on my iMac and 1402 on my iPhone.

I have tried deselecting Music so only Contacts are selected to sync - no luck.

I have disabled "sync over Wi-Fi" as someone else suggested. (No, it doesn't sync over Wi-Fi either it turns out.)

I have restarted the iMac and iPhone, plugged them in and tried syncing - no luck.

I prefer to use USB than iCloud.

macOS 10.13.6

iOS 11.4.1

iTunes 12.8.0

iPhone capacity is 128GB with 6.3Gb free.

I reported this to Apple in August - no response.

I think the point that is being missed is that i do not want to use the cloud as it creates issues with data and availability, as i have discovered using cloud for calendar. It should work with a USB cable and if it doesn't then the sync should not be deemed as having completed!

thanks for tip though.

I give up - I've tried removing the noted fields and anything custom or special and it still will not sync. Will having the computer over-ride the iphone on next sync work? Or, will I have no contacts on my phone?

I just ran into this issue. Thank you for the guidance on resolving it! Can anyone comment on whether or not this is fixed or still an issue in Mac OS Catalina? At the moment it is still broken in the latest Mojave (10.14.6) with iTunes 12.9.5.5

Just speculation here, but my guess is it will never be fixed. Apple wants everyone to use the cloud, but it also tries to maintain an image of being privacy conscious. By keeping a local-sync feature it gets to pretend that it provides options for its privacy-conscious users. At the same time, Apple does not maintain the local-sync or provide a full-featured local sync—ever wonder why the Reminders don't sync locally—so many people are driven to use the cloud for convenience, even against their better judgment.

I don't want to be a conspiracy person here, but sounds like rampant progressivism at work - don't want to force some 'child' into the mold of "son" or "daughter" . That might mess up their 'gender identity' before they have decided what they want to be. eye roll.

I have a case open, 100639269156, on this. I think I've identified a bug with local sync: there are new "related names" values that local sync is rejecting. In my case those values were "son" and "daughter". If you bring up the OSX Console you'll see errors from AddressBookSync like this:

default 10:02:43.270179 -0500 AddressBookSync [0x7fbeb54087b0] |ISyncSession|Error| ISyncSession record validation failure: Value daughter pushed for enumeration property type on com.apple.contacts.Related Name is not an allowed value.

In the past, the only similar value was "child". Apparently, when these values were added to both the iPhone and OSX Contacts apps, the folks doing local sync didn't get the memo. What's really entertaining is that the bug is asymmetrical: You can sync a contact with these values *from* the iPhone but that same contact will cause all successive syncs to fail.

Is your sync is failing but you don't use these specific values/fields, perhaps there are other values/fields that have a similar issue. These are just the two to which I'm aware.

Charles.

HI-

I'm still struggling. I believe I fixed all my contacts on desktop - do I need to redo all the contacts on my phone to make it sync?

Thanks!

Tiffany

I've been struggling with this problem for months. I don't want to use the cloud and suspected that I was being forced into it. Thank you for this fix.

Hey Apple, fix the **** bug!!

Please

Thank you

I've deleted all custom fields and daughter and son. I kept "child". Still doesn't sync.