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Resolved Contacts not syncing between phone and ipad

N

noSpeed

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 13, 2010
196
236
Hi,



For some reason, I can’t get my contacts to sync between my iPad and my iPhone. I’ve noticed that a few of the numbers I’ve put on my phone in the last few months don’t show up on the iPad. I can send/receive iMessages and emails from either device just fine, but it’s not sending the new contacts from my phone.



I’ve gone to settings-> Apple ID-> iCloud-> Apps using iCloud and cycled contacts on both devices simultaneously, but still no joy.



What am I missing?



Running the latest iOS on both devices.
 
Hi,

Both devices are on the same account. When I go to iCloud.com, I don’t see any contacts at all. I see photos, notes and find my phone, but no contacts.
 
When you say you don’t see any contacts in iCloud.com, does that mean you don’t see the app or you don’t see contacts in the app? When you log into iCloud.com > Account Settings, do you see both your phone and iPad as devices there? Have you tried Account Settings > Restore Contacts while logged into iCloud.com?
 
Last edited:
My first question is, are you sure your contacts are in iCloud? Since you see no contacts at iCloud.com, that suggests they may be in another mail account - Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, a corporate Exchange server, etc. - all of these are capable of storing contacts.

You can determine which account newly-created contacts are added to by going to Settings > Contacts > Default Account (change that if you prefer new contacts be added elsewhere).

Next, be sure those accounts are actually logged in:

Go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts
Tap on each account you have setup - if you're not signed in, you'll generally either see a link to sign-in, or you may get a popup asking you to sign in.

Accounts that can store contacts will have a toggle for Contacts. If a particular account's Contacts toggle is OFF on iPad but ON for iPhone (or vice versa), that's a potential cause for your missing contacts.

You can also test your login by using the Mail app to send yourself a test email: From: [username@domain] To: [same username@same domain]. If your login is good, the test message should make the round-trip

Next, do this on both iPhone and iPad:

In the Contacts app select Groups. Does it display just iCloud, or are there other mail accounts listed as well? Is there an On This iPhone/On This iPad group?

You can determine what contacts are in which of those Groups by de-selecting the blue check-marks for all but one Group at a time (click Done after choosing the one Group to view).

Once you know which accounts have your contacts, you'll have a better idea of where your problem(s) may be. For example, you may have a contacts-bearing account setup on iPhone that is not setup on iPad (or vice versa).

If you have On This iPhone/On This iPad, it means you have contacts that are not being synced to the cloud at all. You can force those to be added to your iCloud account:

Turn Contacts OFF in Settings > [your name] > iCloud.
You'll be asked if you want to keep the contacts on your iPhone/iPad - say yes
Turn Contacts ON in Settings > [your name] > iCloud
You'll be asked if you want to merge the contacts on your iPhone with iCloud - say yes
 
BrianBaughn said:
When you look at Contacts>Groups on your two devices are all of your contacts in the same group?
Click to expand...
I see the option for groups on my phone, but not the ipad. I’ve got both gmail and iCloud checked on the phone though.
 
Namara said:
When you say you don’t see any contacts in iCloud.com, does that mean you don’t see the app or you don’t see contacts in the app? When you log into iCloud.com > Account Settings, do you see both your phone and iPad as devices there? Have you tried Account Settings > Restore Contacts while logged into iCloud.com?
Click to expand...

I don’t see the app at all. I can dig through, and find both devices, but even in the account settings, I don’t see a prompt to restore contacts.
 
noSpeed said:
I don’t see the app at all. I can dig through, and find both devices, but even in the account settings, I don’t see a prompt to restore contacts.
Click to expand...
OK, so something is definitely broken then if you don’t see the Contacts app in iCloud.com.
 
BasicGreatGuy said:
Manually add the contacts via iCloud on the web and you should not have any more problems with syncing across devices.
Click to expand...
noSpeed won’t be able to do that if he can’t see the app in iCloud.com.

@noSpeed, did you do each and every one of the steps suggested by ApfelKuchen?
 
ApfelKuchen said:
My first question is, are you sure your contacts are in iCloud? Since you see no contacts at iCloud.com, that suggests they may be in another mail account - Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, a corporate Exchange server, etc. - all of these are capable of storing contacts.

You can determine which account newly-created contacts are added to by going to Settings > Contacts > Default Account (change that if you prefer new contacts be added elsewhere).

Thanks. I had the default set to gmail. I’ve switched it to iCloud. Still nothing.

Next, be sure those accounts are actually logged in:

Go to Settings > Passwords & Accounts
Tap on each account you have setup - if you're not signed in, you'll generally either see a link to sign-in, or you may get a popup asking you to sign in.

Accounts that can store contacts will have a toggle for Contacts. If a particular account's Contacts toggle is OFF on iPad but ON for iPhone (or vice versa), that's a potential cause for your missing contacts.

I’ve got contacts selected green under iCloud here.

You can also test your login by using the Mail app to send yourself a test email: From: [username@domain] To: [same username@same domain]. If your login is good, the test message should make the round-trip

this works. All my emails pop up on both devices.

Next, do this on both iPhone and iPad:

In the Contacts app select Groups. Does it display just iCloud, or are there other mail accounts listed as well? Is there an On This iPhone/On This iPad group?

only my phone has an option for groups. I have both gmail and iCloud selected. No other options are available.

You can determine what contacts are in which of those Groups by de-selecting the blue check-marks for all but one Group at a time (click Done after choosing the one Group to view).

EDIT

So I've found that I've got 2 groups- gmail and icloud. The gmail contacts aren't showing up on the ipad. How do I send the gmail contacts to icloud? I'd rather not log in to ogmail on my ipad.

Once you know which accounts have your contacts, you'll have a better idea of where your problem(s) may be. For example, you may have a contacts-bearing account setup on iPhone that is not setup on iPad (or vice versa).

If you have On This iPhone/On This iPad, it means you have contacts that are not being synced to the cloud at all. You can force those to be added to your iCloud account:

Turn Contacts OFF in Settings > [your name] > iCloud.
You'll be asked if you want to keep the contacts on your iPhone/iPad - say yes
Turn Contacts ON in Settings > [your name] > iCloud
You'll be asked if you want to merge the contacts on your iPhone with iCloud - say yes
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
OK, so you did some of the steps. Once you’ve had a chance to do all of the rest, let us know how it goes.
 
If you don't see Groups on your iPad, it means that only one account is set up for Contacts (Groups doesn't appear unless there are groups to chose from). You can see which account is setup at Settings > Passwords & Accounts. First, you should see both your iCloud and Gmail accounts there. Then you need to tap on each to see which has Contacts ON, and which doesn't.

Note: When you switched the Default Account from Gmail to iCloud, that only affects newly-created contacts. Any contacts created prior to changing the setting will have been created in Gmail. What that means is you need to have both Gmail contacts and iCloud contacts enabled on both your iPhone and iPad (in Settings > Passwords & Accounts and also Contacts app > Groups) in order to see all the contacts.
 
ApfelKuchen said:
If you don't see Groups on your iPad, it means that only one account is set up for Contacts (Groups doesn't appear unless there are groups to chose from). You can see which account is setup at Settings > Passwords & Accounts. First, you should see both your iCloud and Gmail accounts there. Then you need to tap on each to see which has Contacts ON, and which doesn't.

Note: When you switched the Default Account from Gmail to iCloud, that only affects newly-created contacts. Any contacts created prior to changing the setting will have been created in Gmail. What that means is you need to have both Gmail contacts and iCloud contacts enabled on both your iPhone and iPad (in Settings > Passwords & Accounts and also Contacts app > Groups) in order to see all the contacts.
Click to expand...

OK. I'm starting to see it now. So indeed when I select the gmail group on my phone, I find the contacts that are not showing up on my ipad. The question now is, how do I transfer or merge those gmail contacts with icloud, so they'll be backed up, and show on the ipad?
 
So I finally sorted it out. I had a few contacts that were only on my gmail list. I exported them from gmail to ios Vcard format, them imported the vcard, and deleted the ones that were duplicated.

Thanks again to everyone who helped, particilarly @ApfelKuchen for taking the time to write that detailed post.

What's interesting though is that when i log in to icloud.com on my phone, I only see some icons. On my ipad, I see all the icons (including the contacts icon).
 
noSpeed said:
What's interesting though is that when i log in to icloud.com on my phone, I only see some icons. On my ipad, I see all the icons (including the contacts icon).
Click to expand...
For a long time you wouldn't have been able to see all the iCloud icons on iPad, either - it's a fairly recent addition to iPad. This is an Apple decision that the browser-based version of those features aren't needed on iPhone/iPad since folks already have the apps, the user experience would be sub-optimal, or some such.

You can "Request Desktop Website" (which has all features) by tapping the AA (Reader View) icon on the left side of the Search bar
 
Ah. Thanks. Never been to the site before yesterday. Even on the desktop site , the icons are the same. Good to know the ipad is different.
 
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