MobileMe/iCloud Confusion

[trashy]

So after upgrading to Lion I tried to set up iCloud. Easy enough on the iPhone. But on my MacBook Air, NOT so easy. Here's where I'm stuck...

I used a 3rd party app (Scrubly) to clean up my address book. Lots of duplicate partial entries in there! Afterwards, MobileMe/iCloud seem to want to synchronize my contacts, mainly by taking my existing cloud data (which includes all the old duplicate and partial entries) and overwriting my newly scrubbed desktop address book! That is NOT expected behavior!

To make matters worse, every time the sync window pops up, I have the option to synchronize or wait until later, but no option to cancel or stop!

I have read several people suggesting that I simply log out of MobileMe from the System Preferences panel. I would love to do that! Unfortunately, when I go into the MobileMe panel, there is no such option! All I can do is log in to MobileMe, which takes me to the web site, which prompts me to move my data to iCloud. I've done that a few different times now. It doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere.

Furthermore, when I go to iCloud.com and log in, I am taken to the 'find' window with no other options to see any of my data!

I'm beginning to think that file sync is just one area that Apple is never going to get right...

 

[Bernard SG]

If you have a clean contact list on your iPhone, just wipe your address book on the Mac (but prior to that, disable iCloud on the Mac!), then migrate your mac to iCloud and let it sync withe the iPhone's contacts.

 

[trashy]

If you have a clean contact list on your iPhone, just wipe your address book on the Mac (but prior to that, disable iCloud on the Mac!), then migrate your mac to iCloud and let it sync withe the iPhone's contacts.

No, the previous contact list being synced between my phone, my desktop and Gmail was quite tangled. The only clean, scrubbed copy is now on my desktop...

 

[d21mike]

When you migrated to iCloud it said it would pull your Contacts and Calendar from one of your iOS Devices so make sure you get those clean BEFORE you do the migration.

You may have multiple options to get this cleaned up but not sure the best. And I am only guessing somewhat.

1. Make a BACKUP of your Contacts (Address Book).

2. If you go into your Address Book can you see the "On My Mac" Contacts? And also your Contacts from iCloud? I have seen this for Mail and/or Calendar but not sure about Contacts.

3. If #2 is true can you COPY/MOVE you Contacts from On My Mac to iCloud List. Which I think will Sync up to http://www.icloud.com.

4. If #2 is false, can you EXPORT you Contacts and then import them into your iCloud Address Book. Which I think will Sync up to http://www.icloud.com.

5. MAYBE this is best: Go to https://www.icloud.com/#contacts and IMPORT you Contacts you exported from you master list. This should then update all connected devices.

AGAIN, http://www.icloud.com is the MASTER COPY. Get it right and it should keep everything else in SYNC.