I have a few Apple Macs, two iPads and two iPhones - this had me stumped for a day or so but have worked it out, so hope it assists someone.
Migrated from Mobile Me to ios5, backing up (IOS5 device - SETTINGS - ICLOUD - STORAGE & BACKUP) took 8 or so hours and the Contacts would not sync from any ios5 device, no matter what I tried or tests I ran - going through the Contacts database in www.icloud.com showed for some reason 30000 contacts that mobile me had added by itself, random duplicates of Contact entries. iphone 4 was sluggish, hanging at times. My first impressions of ios5 were not good!
Ensure the Contacts database accessible through www.icloud.com is the exact one you want to start ios5 with and TURN OFF CONTACTS in your ios5 devices. As a precaution, I did the following, but now I know it works now you can just delete all the CONTACTS on your ios5 devices so long as you have a copy of the Database accessible at www.icloud.com.
On all devices BUT ONE I chose to delete the Contacts completely (SETTINGS - ICLOUD - CONTACTS TOGGLE ON OR OFF) from your ios5 device when you are asked, DO NOT KEEP ON IPHONE!! NOTE, AS ABOVE - ENSURE YOU HAVE A COPY OF YOUR DATABASE ACCESSIBLE AT WWW.ICLOUD.COM.
Highlighting the Contacts at www.icloud.com using SHIFT or CMD and the Delete Option (Options 'STAR WHEEL' in botom left hand corner of Contacts) saved a few hours deleting and pruning the database, took a couple of hours but worth it - some contacts had generated 4500 duplicates in Mobile Me for some reason! Deleting the duplicate entries was laborious, often the page would hang when deleting thousands of entries in one go - persevere and be patient, it all works!
When the Contacts Database has been slimmed down everything starts to work again
Now on your ios5 devices turn the Contacts ON (SETTINGS - ICLOUD - CONTACTS TOGGLE ON OR OFF) - assuming you are connected to a Wi-Fi network, the Contacts Database populates and updates in about 30 seconds.
With the route I took, the danger was for me on the one iphone/ios5 device I had kept a copy of all the contacts as a precaution, TOGGLING CONTACTS to ON would simply undo all the pruning and editing I had done and leave all devices hanging with a bloated CONTACTS database again. I switched to Airplane MODE, disabling the 3G and WI-FI, and turned CONTACTS ON - then after it had sorted itself I turned Contacts OFF and deleted everything from the iphone/ios5 device that I had kept everything on as a precaution. As soon as I switched off Airplane mode, turned CONTACTS ON, 30 seconds later I had a pruned and working CONTACTS Database in ios5, hurrah!
No idea why MobileMe generated almost 30000 duplicate database entries, I use the equipment extensively for simple work purposes across a range of devices. Can't believe I can be the only Mobile Me member who will experience such problems but all is working fine now in ios5 - FYI, OFFICE for MAC will not sync documents across your ios5 devices, you have to buy/download from the App store PAGES and NUMBERS.
Migrated from Mobile Me to ios5, backing up (IOS5 device - SETTINGS - ICLOUD - STORAGE & BACKUP) took 8 or so hours and the Contacts would not sync from any ios5 device, no matter what I tried or tests I ran - going through the Contacts database in www.icloud.com showed for some reason 30000 contacts that mobile me had added by itself, random duplicates of Contact entries. iphone 4 was sluggish, hanging at times. My first impressions of ios5 were not good!
Ensure the Contacts database accessible through www.icloud.com is the exact one you want to start ios5 with and TURN OFF CONTACTS in your ios5 devices. As a precaution, I did the following, but now I know it works now you can just delete all the CONTACTS on your ios5 devices so long as you have a copy of the Database accessible at www.icloud.com.
On all devices BUT ONE I chose to delete the Contacts completely (SETTINGS - ICLOUD - CONTACTS TOGGLE ON OR OFF) from your ios5 device when you are asked, DO NOT KEEP ON IPHONE!! NOTE, AS ABOVE - ENSURE YOU HAVE A COPY OF YOUR DATABASE ACCESSIBLE AT WWW.ICLOUD.COM.
Highlighting the Contacts at www.icloud.com using SHIFT or CMD and the Delete Option (Options 'STAR WHEEL' in botom left hand corner of Contacts) saved a few hours deleting and pruning the database, took a couple of hours but worth it - some contacts had generated 4500 duplicates in Mobile Me for some reason! Deleting the duplicate entries was laborious, often the page would hang when deleting thousands of entries in one go - persevere and be patient, it all works!
When the Contacts Database has been slimmed down everything starts to work again
Now on your ios5 devices turn the Contacts ON (SETTINGS - ICLOUD - CONTACTS TOGGLE ON OR OFF) - assuming you are connected to a Wi-Fi network, the Contacts Database populates and updates in about 30 seconds.With the route I took, the danger was for me on the one iphone/ios5 device I had kept a copy of all the contacts as a precaution, TOGGLING CONTACTS to ON would simply undo all the pruning and editing I had done and leave all devices hanging with a bloated CONTACTS database again. I switched to Airplane MODE, disabling the 3G and WI-FI, and turned CONTACTS ON - then after it had sorted itself I turned Contacts OFF and deleted everything from the iphone/ios5 device that I had kept everything on as a precaution. As soon as I switched off Airplane mode, turned CONTACTS ON, 30 seconds later I had a pruned and working CONTACTS Database in ios5, hurrah!
No idea why MobileMe generated almost 30000 duplicate database entries, I use the equipment extensively for simple work purposes across a range of devices. Can't believe I can be the only Mobile Me member who will experience such problems but all is working fine now in ios5 - FYI, OFFICE for MAC will not sync documents across your ios5 devices, you have to buy/download from the App store PAGES and NUMBERS.
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