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User profile for user: CEastoodX
CEastoodX Author
User level: Level 1
25 points

Not all contacts will transfer

I just purchased an iPhone SX Max. Im coming from an iPhone 7 plus. I backed up my iPhone 7 plus and then transferred everything to My new iPhone SXM. For some reason, not all contacts would transfer. All contacts I've entered into my iPhone 7 Plus over the past year will not move over. They still show on my iPhone 7 Plus but, not on my iPhone SXM. everything else transferred over correctly. All of my apps and email accounts and so on transferred over.


So, I started trying to fix this by syncing all contacts to the cloud from the iPhone 7 Plus. In the process, I had to purchase 200 GB of cloud storage just to fit all content. After the iPhone 7 Plus showed the cloud backup to be complete, I turned on iCloud contact sync on the new iPhone SXM. Nothing happened.


Next I tried to manually backup the iPhone 7 Plus contacts directly to my iMac via iTunes by lightning cable. Of course to do this, I had to turn off iCloud contact sync on both phones. After the backup was complete, I connected the iPhone SXM to the computer and completed a sync with the "sync contacts" box checked under info. This did not work either. As a matter of fact, It took the contacts I already had on the iPhone SXM and duplicated and triplicated all of them.


I then went online to iCloud.com and logged into my account. Upon checking my contacts there, I found that none of the contacts that I am missing were listed. Mind you these are the contacts that are currently on the iPhone 7 Plus and I had just completed a Cloud contacts sync from said iPhone. They should have been there.


I went back and did all of the above steps multiple times in all different orders. Nothing will transfer the contacts to my new iPhone SXM. This has gotten extremely frustrating. I spent several hours yesterday just trying to setup the new iPhone SXM via iTunes with the lightening cable. Turned out I had to use the new cable because the iMac apparently did not like the old cable; who knew?


Both phones are using the same apple ID and both are completely u. I have way to many contacts in the iPhone 7 plus to sit here and share them all with my new phone 1 by 1. At this point Im going to completely wipe the iPhone SXM and start over. I don't think this will fix my issue but, if it does I will post an update. Otherwise someone please help me.


Thanks.

iPhone XS Max, iOS 12, Iphone 7 Plus

Posted on Sep 26, 2018 7:10 PM

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User profile for user: Moozito
Moozito
User level: Community Specialist

Posted on Sep 27, 2018 3:15 PM

Hello CEastoodX,

Congratulations on your new iPhone! I understand that contacts from your iPhone 7 Plus are not syncing to your iPhone XS Max. You've done some great steps to isolate possible causes. I would be happy to help with what to do next to get your contacts syncing properly.

Let's start by isolating where the contacts are saved to on your iPhone 7 Plus. You can do so by going to Settings > Passwords & Accounts, select an account and turn Contacts off. After that, check if the contacts have disappeared from your Contacts app. Repeat this process until you are able to determine which account the contacts were synced to.

If the iPhone 7 Plus has not been updated to iOS 12: open the Contacts app, tap Groups at the upper-left, tap on account to deselect it. Tap Done then check if the contacts disappeared from your device.

If you're still seeing contacts in the Contacts app after trying these steps, it's likely they are being saved to your device and not synced to an account. If that is the case then try turning on iCloud contacts again from Settings > [your name] > iCloud. If you're asked if you want to Merge or Cancel, tap Merge.

The time it takes to upload your contacts from the iPhone 7 Plus to iCloud will vary depending on the speed of your internet connect, as well as the number of contacts being uploaded. Here are some additional troubleshooting steps to try if your contacts will not sync to iCloud:

Get help using iCloud Contacts, Calendars, or Reminders - Apple Support

Cheers!
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Question marked as Best reply
User profile for user: Moozito
Moozito
User level: Community Specialist

Sep 27, 2018 3:15 PM in response to CEastoodX

Hello CEastoodX,

Congratulations on your new iPhone! I understand that contacts from your iPhone 7 Plus are not syncing to your iPhone XS Max. You've done some great steps to isolate possible causes. I would be happy to help with what to do next to get your contacts syncing properly.

Let's start by isolating where the contacts are saved to on your iPhone 7 Plus. You can do so by going to Settings > Passwords & Accounts, select an account and turn Contacts off. After that, check if the contacts have disappeared from your Contacts app. Repeat this process until you are able to determine which account the contacts were synced to.

If the iPhone 7 Plus has not been updated to iOS 12: open the Contacts app, tap Groups at the upper-left, tap on account to deselect it. Tap Done then check if the contacts disappeared from your device.

If you're still seeing contacts in the Contacts app after trying these steps, it's likely they are being saved to your device and not synced to an account. If that is the case then try turning on iCloud contacts again from Settings > [your name] > iCloud. If you're asked if you want to Merge or Cancel, tap Merge.

The time it takes to upload your contacts from the iPhone 7 Plus to iCloud will vary depending on the speed of your internet connect, as well as the number of contacts being uploaded. Here are some additional troubleshooting steps to try if your contacts will not sync to iCloud:

Get help using iCloud Contacts, Calendars, or Reminders - Apple Support

Cheers!
Reply

Not all contacts will transfer

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