Question about icloud contacts on a MBP

[nikobe]

I recently bought a macbook pro (which I love). At the time of buying under the guidance of the store rep, I synced all my contacts from my Iphone over the the MBP.

I have since set up icloud and all my contacts are on there too.

I now have 2 copies of all my contacts showing on my MBP, one set under on my mac and one under icloud.

My question is this - should I delete the "on my mac" contacts or leave them there. If I delete them, will I be able to view my contacts if I have no internet access?

If I don't delete them, how would I go about syncing the "on my mac" contacts with the icloud ones? I deleted a contact from "on my mac" but then couldn't figure out how to repopulate the list from icloud.

Any help would be gratefully received. I did a search but couldn't find the answer. Most discussion seems to be about syncing contacts between a mac and an iphone.

Thanks.

 

[nikobe]

Does noone know the answer to this or is my question not clear? Cheers.

 

[paulsalter]

The 'On my Mac contacts are now redundant and can be deleted, its the iCloud section that is syncing, the only reason you might want them is if you have a non iOS device that is syncing contacts

The iCloud contacts work fine without a internet connection, they are cached locally for this reason and then any changes made while offline are sent up to the server when you next have a connection

Best to make a backup of contacts before deleted just to be safe, File->Export->Address Book Archive

 

[nikobe]

The 'On my Mac contacts are now redundant and can be deleted, its the iCloud section that is syncing, the only reason you might want them is if you have a non iOS device that is syncing contacts

The iCloud contacts work fine without a internet connection, they are cached locally for this reason and then any changes made while offline are sent up to the server when you next have a connection

Best to make a backup of contacts before deleted just to be safe, File->Export->Address Book Archive

Superb, thanks a lot!

 

[d21mike]

The 'On my Mac contacts are now redundant and can be deleted, its the iCloud section that is syncing, the only reason you might want them is if you have a non iOS device that is syncing contacts

The iCloud contacts work fine without a internet connection, they are cached locally for this reason and then any changes made while offline are sent up to the server when you next have a connection

Best to make a backup of contacts before deleted just to be safe, File->Export->Address Book Archive

Regarding this. Since the Contacts (and I assume Calendar and Mail) are Cached locally are they in a particular file that is being backed up with Time Machine. If so, where is it. My experience on Windows while using Outlook, you would have a PST File even for Email Accounts that are IMAP. In that PST File you also have the Contacts and Calendar. Now, if you only download the email headers I would assume that is all that would be there. I mine setup to download everything including attachments.

 

[paulsalter]

Regarding this. Since the Contacts (and I assume Calendar and Mail) are Cached locally are they in a particular file that is being backed up with Time Machine. If so, where is it. My experience on Windows while using Outlook, you would have a PST File even for Email Accounts that are IMAP. In that PST File you also have the Contacts and Calendar. Now, if you only download the email headers I would assume that is all that would be there. I mine setup to download everything including attachments.

mail is backed up in your Library folder under mail, but unsure where contacts/calendar are stored locally

this link is about MobileMe (same situation with iCloud) and Apple do not recommend the normal methods for backing this up (downside imo)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4226

I usually archive my calendar/contacts at least once a month to a folder that Time Machine will backup

 

[nikobe]

The 'On my Mac contacts are now redundant and can be deleted, its the iCloud section that is syncing, the only reason you might want them is if you have a non iOS device that is syncing contacts

The iCloud contacts work fine without a internet connection, they are cached locally for this reason and then any changes made while offline are sent up to the server when you next have a connection

Best to make a backup of contacts before deleted just to be safe, File->Export->Address Book Archive

I just got round to sorting this out, but I can't actually find a way of deleting "all on my mac". Does anyone know how?

It wouldn't really matter too much, but in FaceTime, the contact list takes entries from iCloud and my mac so the list is duplicated.