Siri has my son's contact info as default

[james.dylan]

Hi, just installed Sierra on the Macbook Pro. When I set it up, I remember it asking "What do you want Siri to call you?" or something like that, and I typed in "James". Now, after a few days, I decided to use Siri to ask about the weather, and it replied "It's 72 degrees, Toby." Toby is my kids name. I asked for MY contact info and it brings up HIS info! Even though I am logged into MY account (he doesn't even use this computer). When I open contacts, I see my info, showing "me" highlighted, so that is right. I even deleted Toby's contact info (it was just a phone number). We are all on iCloud, and me and the wife and kid all use family iCloud. I went there and deleted his contacts from icloud, even. No good. Siri still thinks I'm my kid. I even said "Call me James!" and all it did is add a nickname of James to HIS contact info! Where is this contact info; his iphone? I don't even have his contact info on my computer anymore! Is this a bug, or is he messing with me? If I am logged into MY account, and MY info shows up in users (Toby isn't even listed as a user on my laptop), everything in the laptop is in MY name, Siri should know that. I tried to get Siri to "Use James Dylan as me" or "I am James Dylan", even "I am not Toby!" it replies "I can't do that, you have to do that yourself in contacts." I feel like the astronaut in 2001, arguing with HAL. "I'm sorry, James, but I can't do that." I am also having an existential crisis.

 

[fischersd]

Hi, just installed Sierra on the Macbook Pro. When I set it up, I remember it asking "What do you want Siri to call you?" or something like that, and I typed in "James". Now, after a few days, I decided to use Siri to ask about the weather, and it replied "It's 72 degrees, Toby." Toby is my kids name. I asked for MY contact info and it brings up HIS info! Even though I am logged into MY account (he doesn't even use this computer). When I open contacts, I see my info, showing "me" highlighted, so that is right. I even deleted Toby's contact info (it was just a phone number). We are all on iCloud, and me and the wife and kid all use family iCloud. I went there and deleted his contacts from icloud, even. No good. Siri still thinks I'm my kid. I even said "Call me James!" and all it did is add a nickname of James to HIS contact info! Where is this contact info; his iphone? I don't even have his contact info on my computer anymore! Is this a bug, or is he messing with me? If I am logged into MY account, and MY info shows up in users (Toby isn't even listed as a user on my laptop), everything in the laptop is in MY name, Siri should know that. I tried to get Siri to "Use James Dylan as me" or "I am James Dylan", even "I am not Toby!" it replies "I can't do that, you have to do that yourself in contacts." I feel like the astronaut in 2001, arguing with HAL. "I'm sorry, James, but I can't do that." I am also having an existential crisis.

Have you not setup Siri on your iPhone previously? (I know I wasn't prompted similarly when I installed Sierra - thinking it's because I've been using Siri on my iPhone for some time).

Often when people do family sharing, they mistakenly use a single iCloud account (thinking this is a good way to share contacts, etc). This can cause all kinds of mayhem in terms of how you interrelate for FaceTime, messages and other cloud aware applications (including Siri).

Grab your son's phone - make sure he has a unique apple ID. (make sure everyone in your family does). Make sure that Siri properly identifies him on his phone and you on your phone.

No sharing of an Apple ID - that's only going to cause problems.

 

[Shofar]

Hi guys.

For what it's worth, am having the same problem as james.dylan, wherein my iMac is registered to me with my details in Contacts set at 'Me'.

My wife can sign into the iMac with her Apple credentials - not the same account - but hasn't logged in for weeks.

When I installed Sierra there were no Siri-specific questions but it has decided I am my wife and it is impossible to convince it otherwise.

There is no way I can find to change it's little old mind and, as said, my wife and I do not share an Apple ID. The only settings that link us are that I have included her in Family Sharing and her Contacts account is also enabled on my desktop. Disabling that account and restarting does not change anything.

Also, my iPhone has had Siri going for the years that it's been around and is set to my contact details, so when I ask Siri on the phone for my contact details, they come up correctly.

Any advice would be most welcome.

POSSIBLE WORK AROUND:
This seems to be working for me - for the last few minutes at least!
Went into Contacts and changed my contact details by selecting another person's details and under Card menu set Make This My Card. Still had my wife's contacts account enabled.
Switched Make This My Card back to the 'real' me a minute later and asked Siri to show my contact details and it came up with the right card.
What seems to have happened is that by doing the steps above, Contacts de-selected my wife's card as primary and made mine the only one with the silhouette (my card) icon. If I disable her Contacts account and re-enable it, Contacts then re-adds the silhouette as well as mine and Siri then gives her details as the 'primary' contact.
Have recreated it a couple of times.
Hope this makes sense!

UPDATE:
After a few hours Siri has randomly changed the primary contact back to my wife!
Time to switch this piece of crap off. It couldn't find its arse with both hands anyway, so no practical use in it for me.
Good luck!

 

[HallStevenson]

I ran into this as well a while ago. My daughter is under my Apple ID using the 'family' option and somehow it got mixed up on my MBA (pre-Sierra). The screwy part is, my (new at the time) MBA had no knowledge of her, her Apple ID was never used on this machine, etc, etc, but Siri thought it was her laptop.

I still don't remember how I resolved it either, but I did. The "Make this my card" option was grayed out, so I know that wasn't it. I can only recall that after I made some changes, they only went into effect and stuck, after I logged out, restarted, and logged back in. One thing to try as a start is to un-check "Contacts" in the iCloud settings. Then do the logout part...

 

[Shofar]

I ran into this as well a while ago. My daughter is under my Apple ID using the 'family' option and somehow it got mixed up on my MBA (pre-Sierra). The screwy part is, my (new at the time) MBA had no knowledge of her, her Apple ID was never used on this machine, etc, etc, but Siri thought it was her laptop.

I still don't remember how I resolved it either, but I did. The "Make this my card" option was grayed out, so I know that wasn't it. I can only recall that after I made some changes, they only went into effect and stuck, after I logged out, restarted, and logged back in. One thing to try as a start is to un-check "Contacts" in the iCloud settings. Then do the logout part...

Hi mate.

Tried all the logging outs, resets, disablings, reset again and deep discussions with Siri about stereotyping and the like but, still, Siri is convinced I am my wife and refuses to acknowledge my true feelings!

 

[fischersd]

Hi mate.

Tried all the logging outs, resets, disablings, reset again and deep discussions with Siri about stereotyping and the like but, still, Siri is convinced I am my wife and refuses to acknowledge my true feelings!

You guys have to be doing something odd with iCloud for it to be getting the two contacts confused.
I'd remove any common contact info from your wife's contact card from your phone.
Likewise, do the same thing on hers - as well as any Mac's that you have.
You're not using a common Apple ID to share a contact list, right? (that almost always ends badly).

 

[Shofar]

You guys have to be doing something odd with iCloud for it to be getting the two contacts confused.
I'd remove any common contact info from your wife's contact card from your phone.
Likewise, do the same thing on hers - as well as any Mac's that you have.
You're not using a common Apple ID to share a contact list, right? (that almost always ends badly).

Hi thanks for the input.

We use different Apple ID's. The only things we have in common on the iMac is Family Sharing with me as the administrator. Also, my wife's email account, contacts, reminders etc., were enabled.

After logging her out of everything and completely separating us on Mac and iPhones (logged into different Apple ID's), I restarted and the problem remained. Even to the point that with everything of hers logged out, when I send an email it has my photo in the top right hand corner, which only exists in her Contacts (which are not active on my side of the Mac) and not in mine.

If I had hair I would be pulling it out, as I have the only Administrator account on the Mac and she is listed as a user, yet it seems to 'prefer' her details and such when I am trying to do something.

It's all on its head at the moment so please you guys, get the coffee pot on, smoke something inspiring and...

 

[HallStevenson]

Go to System Preferences, iCloud, Account Details, then the Contact tab. Does your wife's info show up there at all ? It shouldn't hurt if it does - my daughter's is there on my iMac that I just got 2-3 weeks ago and I definitely didn't put anything related to her on here. It's definitely pulling the data from online somewhere. Anyway, even if it's listed, is your account the "Primary" ?

While you're in that set of menus, un-check "Contacts" from the iCloud sync list (for the next step).

Next, open the Contacts app. There should be just (2) entries - Apple and yourself. Next to your name, is there a small avatar of a person's head and shoulders ? If not, select your name, click Card from the menubar, then "Make this my card". Save that or whatever it prompts and exit this app. Logout and then back in and try again. Do not check the Contacts in iCloud yet.

 

[Shofar]

Go to System Preferences, iCloud, Account Details, then the Contact tab. Does your wife's info show up there at all ? It shouldn't hurt if it does - my daughter's is there on my iMac that I just got 2-3 weeks ago and I definitely didn't put anything related to her on here. It's definitely pulling the data from online somewhere. Anyway, even if it's listed, is your account the "Primary" ?

While you're in that set of menus, un-check "Contacts" from the iCloud sync list (for the next step).

Next, open the Contacts app. There should be just (2) entries - Apple and yourself. Next to your name, is there a small avatar of a person's head and shoulders ? If not, select your name, click Card from the menubar, then "Make this my card". Save that or whatever it prompts and exit this app. Logout and then back in and try again. Do not check the Contacts in iCloud yet.

in iCloud Account Details, my wife's details are not there at all. When I check under Internet Accounts it tells me that my wife's account is not the primary.

Have unchecked Contacts from sync and opened the Contacts app. The entries there are On My Mac (which was saved to my computer when I de-selected Contacts earlier today) and Smart Groups. See attached.



Yes, the avatar is there but the only contacts now showing are the ones On My Mac as listed.

Have logged back in and have not checked the Contacts in iCloud yet.

 

[HallStevenson]

I wish I could remember the steps I took. Then again, it was a combination of stupid, non-intuitive steps.

 

[Shofar]

I wish I could remember the steps I took. Then again, it was a combination of stupid, non-intuitive steps.

Ah, my own tried and tested methodology in action!

Will mess around and then see if one of the neighbour's has a spare ten-year-old to troubleshoot my system in about five minutes...

 

[Shofar]

Just as an update.

I removed all connections with my wife's details by removing her card from contacts, closed her email account on my side of the Mac, cancelled family sharing and made sure our iPhones were logged into our own accounts. I went into both iCloud accounts and made sure we had no crossover, and that in Contacts my details were selected as My Card, restarted the machine and then left it for about 12-hours.

After the wait I restarted the machine again and made sure I was the only one logged in and started Siri. When I asked it to show "My details", it still brought up my wife's details. When I said to it: "Show my wife's details", it pulled up mine.

It is convinced that I am my wife and it seems that there's nothing I can do to change its mind.

Any thoughts?

 

[fischersd]

Just as an update.

I removed all connections with my wife's details by removing her card from contacts, closed her email account on my side of the Mac, cancelled family sharing and made sure our iPhones were logged into our own accounts. I went into both iCloud accounts and made sure we had no crossover, and that in Contacts my details were selected as My Card, restarted the machine and then left it for about 12-hours.

After the wait I restarted the machine again and made sure I was the only one logged in and started Siri. When I asked it to show "My details", it still brought up my wife's details. When I said to it: "Show my wife's details", it pulled up mine.

It is convinced that I am my wife and it seems that there's nothing I can do to change its mind.

Any thoughts?

I thought you said you deleted your wife's contact card? (how can it display it if it's not there?)

I'm thinking gender reassignment surgery for each of you. Assume the other's identity - boom! Siri's fixed!

 

[Shofar]

I thought you said you deleted your wife's contact card? (how can it display it if it's not there?)

I'm thinking gender reassignment surgery for each of you. Assume the other's identity - boom! Siri's fixed!

I have no idea how my wife's card displays. I read a thread on Apple support where the guy had deleted a card some years before - don't have a link to hand - yet Siri decided he was he. At least he was a he!

Gender reassignment? Apparently Siri has already booked me in for next week and used ApplePay to secure an appointment. I hope it comes off of my wife's/husband/significant other's credit card...

It seems that if Siri is to be my Oracle then I have no choice but to comply. He does really know best, doesn't he?

 

[HallStevenson]

How about creating a new user on the Mac ? If you can skip the Apple ID login, try that. I'm not sure if Siri will work without being logged in with Apple though.

A second idea is to (temporarily) remove your contacts and see how that works.

Just trying to see if there's something stuck that's not related to iCloud.
[doublepost=1475965226][/doublepost]https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7675551?start=0&tstart=0

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7677193?start=0&tstart=0

In case you haven't saw these already....

 

[Shofar]

Hi HallStevenson

Firstly, thanks for persevering with this. It is much appreciated.

Okay, I followed the second link you posted and found I had to actually delete my wife's iCloud account which was being used to retrieve her email on my side of the Mac, instead of just disabling it. Also deleted her card from my contacts and made sure there was nothing of hers left on my side. Went into my iCloud account online and made sure there was no residual contact stuff there and restarted the machine.

I am me again. I feel validated and Siri and and I are now fully-fledged man cave buddies - at least he shows all the intelligence of one!

Sierra seems to be doing some strange things like changing some of my email settings and adding Game Centre accounts in Internet Accounts when there was nothing there before. Too many strange little things happening to mention, but the crux of the matter is, all is sorted out!

Thank again for all of the help.

PS. Hope this works for the OP.

 

[HallStevenson]

Nothing funny in my Internet Accounts on Sierra here. I only have iCloud and Google. Under iCloud, I only have Keychain and Find My Mac checked.

 

[Shofar]

I understand. I had my account, my wife's account and an email account, then all of a sudden a Game Centre account flashed up which I had to delete. It then briefly returned and went away by itself.

In my iCloud email account, Sierra changed some of the settings after I had checked they were okay a couple of days ago, and the odd email sent from my iCloud account never showed up in my sent folder.

All seems to be settled down for the time being, so I'll leave it be and see if any related issues get reported.

Thanks again.