Why won't iCloud sync contacts to my iPhone?

[illjazz]

I migrated my MobileMe account to iCloud. All seems good save for two things:

1. iCloud won't sync my contacts to my iPhone. I can see the contacts on icloud.com and in my Mac's address book, but on the phone my contacts list is completely empty, even though I have contacts sync turned on in the iCloud settings on the iPhone. I've tried enabling contact sync and reenabling. Nothing. I even deleted the entire iCloud account from the iPhone and added it back. Nothing. Contacts won't sync to the iPhone.
2. Mail for iPhone can't get mail from iCloud. I keep getting "Cannot Get Mail - The connection to the server failed" when I try. On iCloud.com, however, all mail is there. I've added the iCloud account explicitly in Mail for Mac as well and all mail downloads fine. It's only on iPhone that it doesn't work.
   

Are these maturity pains for iCloud? Because I don't see what I'm doing wrong...

 

[illjazz]

Ok, nevermind #1. I decided to just start from scratch and used Find My iPhone's wipe feature (always wanted to do that!) to completely wipe my iPhone. I then set it up as a brand-new iPhone. iOS 5 makes it such a joy to set up your iPhone without ever needing to connect to a computer. Once I was done with the initial setup, iCloud was set up, the wireless network was set up, Find My iPhone active and working... most of what you'd want to be set up was up.

Contacts suddenly synced. Could be a coincidence, of course.. perhaps Apple's iCloud servers are sorting themselves out as we speak and my contacts suddenly syncing is the result of that. I don't care either way. Contacts do sync now.

iCloud Mail still won't work on the iPhone, however. I sent a test email from my Gmail account and I see it on icloud.com but on the iPhone, Mail keeps refreshing without ever showing new messages. Strange.

 

[kmalbe]

Lucky for YOU

I've been through all that- with the same CRAP results. Contacts disappear from iPhone about 80% of the time. Calendar events sync TO the iphone about 1% of the time- and only after about 12 hours. Sometimes hard reboot of the phone brings back the contacts but usually not. ALso the "phone" icon disappears so you can't even DIAL a number using the keypad.
Events sync just fine between Outlook and icloud.com but events never make it to the phone. Have spent hours on the phone with apple- either they won't ADMIT iCloud isn't ready for prime-time- or they don't know how to fix it.
Each LONG phone call ends with, "Well, I'm sure that will work- so just wait till it finishes running and if it still doesn't work- call us back"
I'm LOSING MY MIND !!!

 

[garzarate]

What I did to sync my contacts from ICloud to my Iphone was that I opened up "Settings" then clicked on "iCloud" turn on "Contacts" pressed on "merge". Then after that I turned "Contacts" back off, then a message came out that said "Keep on My iPhone" or "Delete from My iPhone". I pressed "Keep on My iphone" and all my contacts were back on my phone. I hope that helps with your problem.

 

[aDRock1154]

I've been through all that- with the same CRAP results. Contacts disappear from iPhone about 80% of the time. Calendar events sync TO the iphone about 1% of the time- and only after about 12 hours. Sometimes hard reboot of the phone brings back the contacts but usually not. ALso the "phone" icon disappears so you can't even DIAL a number using the keypad.
Events sync just fine between Outlook and icloud.com but events never make it to the phone. Have spent hours on the phone with apple- either they won't ADMIT iCloud isn't ready for prime-time- or they don't know how to fix it.
Each LONG phone call ends with, "Well, I'm sure that will work- so just wait till it finishes running and if it still doesn't work- call us back"
I'm LOSING MY MIND !!!

That's A LOT of issues my friend.. I wonder what the conflict(s) is/are?

 

[mstrike]

If you are having contacts somewhere (icloud.com, mac address, backup) you will be fine!
Restoring them and updating to icloud.com will fix half problem.
Important, login to icloud.com to make sure the contacts are there!

Other half and the main solution is clash between new separate settings in iOS 6 for icloud (above mail, contacts, calendars) and mail settings with icould account. Here are the steps:

1. Delete first icloud account in mail settings (if you have all the contacts in icloud.com erase them from iphone)
2. Delete the separate main icloud account
3. Restart iPhone (just in case, but might not be necessary)
4. Enter the user name and pass in the main icloud account
5. You should have now synced all the contacts from your icloud.com

This worked for me!

 

[Mr. French]

If you are having contacts somewhere (icloud.com, mac address, backup) you will be fine!
Restoring them and updating to icloud.com will fix half problem.
Important, login to icloud.com to make sure the contacts are there!

Other half and the main solution is clash between new separate settings in iOS 6 for icloud (above mail, contacts, calendars) and mail settings with icould account. Here are the steps:

1. Delete first icloud account in mail settings (if you have all the contacts in icloud.com erase them from iphone)
2. Delete the separate main icloud account
3. Restart iPhone (just in case, but might not be necessary)
4. Enter the user name and pass in the main icloud account
5. You should have now synced all the contacts from your icloud.com

This worked for me!

Thank you so much!! I was losing my mind earlier!

 

[buffhel]

Thank you so much!! I was losing my mind earlier!

worked for me too. thanks!!