Hi there, I've been advised to sync all my devices through iCloud and to use this as my default account (which I've done), but iCloud has half the amount of contacts than 'my contacts' and slightly less than 'on my Mac' Why does my iCloud account have less and do I need to have all my contacts on that account? Hope this makes sense... I just want one list that syncs with all my devices and I can create groups for mailing lists.
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Address book 'iCloud, all contacts and on my mac
- Thread starter Jimmy Cannon
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I think I know what to tell you but I'm not sure where your "my contacts" is coming from. Do any of your other internet accounts have contact syncing checked in System Preferences>Internet Accounts?
Thanks for your reply Brian. Sorry, It doesn't read 'My Contacts', there are: All Contacts (3121), All iCloud (1303), All on my mac (1953), and no other accounts have contacts checked.
First, do a File>Export>Contacts Archive to back up everything. This is for safety.
Now, the easy thing to do is click on the On My Mac contacts, click on one of the contacts, select all (command-a) and then File>Export>Export vCard. This will create a single vCard file with all of those contacts. If the contacts aren't still all selected do a "select all" again and then Edit>Delete cards. Now you should only have the 1303 iCloud contacts and you need to import those 1953 contacts that are in the vCard file into iCloud.
So, click on "All iCloud" then File>Import the vCard file you saved earlier. If there are duplicates you can let Contacts handle the merging.
Now, the easy thing to do is click on the On My Mac contacts, click on one of the contacts, select all (command-a) and then File>Export>Export vCard. This will create a single vCard file with all of those contacts. If the contacts aren't still all selected do a "select all" again and then Edit>Delete cards. Now you should only have the 1303 iCloud contacts and you need to import those 1953 contacts that are in the vCard file into iCloud.
So, click on "All iCloud" then File>Import the vCard file you saved earlier. If there are duplicates you can let Contacts handle the merging.
I had a similar issue the other day, with the bonus of what appeared like details of one card were getting mixed together with other cards' details (and maybe "linked cards" getting turned on).
What BrianBaughn said re: do a contact archive export. I do that once every two weeks for recovery sakes. Can be re-imported as well.
Don't remember the steps I did, but, might have to basically wipe everything. I first turned off iCloud on my iOS devices for contacts (with the "remove from device" option). Deleted contacts from Mac, import the archive. Select all and move to iCloud. Turn on iOS iCloud contacts on devices. The thing I don't remember is if I had to sign into iCloud website and delete everything from there before doing the archive import on Mac (usually, the issues I've seen are on iOS devices and just need to turn off & on iCloud to resolve, but this, several hoops to jump through before finding the right steps).
And: Calendar/reminders also have an archive export/import option. Another thing I save every two weeks.
What BrianBaughn said re: do a contact archive export. I do that once every two weeks for recovery sakes. Can be re-imported as well.
Don't remember the steps I did, but, might have to basically wipe everything. I first turned off iCloud on my iOS devices for contacts (with the "remove from device" option). Deleted contacts from Mac, import the archive. Select all and move to iCloud. Turn on iOS iCloud contacts on devices. The thing I don't remember is if I had to sign into iCloud website and delete everything from there before doing the archive import on Mac (usually, the issues I've seen are on iOS devices and just need to turn off & on iCloud to resolve, but this, several hoops to jump through before finding the right steps).
And: Calendar/reminders also have an archive export/import option. Another thing I save every two weeks.