Are my Address Book contacts in iCloud or On My Mac?

Is there some reason why, since iCloud, we have to have duplicates of every Contact in our Address Book?
Additionally, when I'm cleaning up my Address Book on my MacBook Pro (10.7.3) there's no way to tell if a contact is in "On My Mac" or "iCloud".
I have seen no clear discussion of this. If I change an entry for "John Q Smith" in my Address Book, why doesn't it "Unify" as they do on my iPhone? I end up with two different Address Book entries, one in either iCloud or "On My Mac" with the changes and another without the changes.
There is no field on an "Address Book" contact indicating its source ["On My Mac", or "iCloud"].
Why do I need two entries for every entry in my Address Book? This issue has been correctly identified and treated on the iPhone — I get a "Unified" classification and a change to the Contact happens synchronously.

I am already configured for, and using iCloud as my default account.
If I select "All Contacts", I have duplicates of every entry in my Address Book.
When I select the corresponding option on my iPhone, I get "Unified Contacts" — this is GOOD and SMART — when I change a 'Unified' contact on my iPhone, all the entries are synchronously changed. This is how Mac OS X 10.7.3's Address Book should be treating these entries. Is there not an option somewhere to activiate this same feature?
IF I REMOVE "ON MY MAC" FROM MY ADDRESS BOOK ACCOUNTS, I WILL BE UNABLE TO SYNCHORONISE MY ADDRESS BOOK WITH ANY OTHER SERVICE SUCH AS GOOGLE OR YAHOO. This is highly undesireable. As lovely and singular as is Apple and it's products, there are other services in the world with which I must coordinate and this is beyond my control.
It looks like, from the responses above, that I will be editing every duplicate Address Book contact for the foreseeable future if I want to have non-Apple sync-able contact database as well as be on iCloud, which I do love.

Similar Messages

My address book contacts in icloud

Hi All,
I cannot seem to sync my address book contacts in icloud. I have search for some info online which suggested that I go into my address book preferences and set it up to icloud but this option does not show in the preferences.
Any advice?
thanks.

You need Mac OS X 10.7.4 or later to use iCloud and have the iCloud system preferences pane.

How can i move all my address book contacts to icloud?

I think I now understand the two accounts I have in Contacts - one for On my Mac and one for iCloud. The On my Mac account is the complete one. Can I move the whole thing into teh iCloud account so that it syncs with my oher Mac and my iPhone?

I jus found the answer to my question at:
Winston Churchill Poulton-le-Fylde, UK
Re: sync with AddressBook
Dec 30, 2011 10:33 AM (in response to ralphfromworcester)
Many thanks Winston!
Meg

On my outlook on computer i show in address book contacts-icloudcontactsmobile- icloud mobile how do you sink them or get rid of them which is the most important i have iphone and ipad

dell computer windows 7
outlook 2010
iphone 4
I am unable to sync new contact from iPhone to outlook
Not very computer literate have ipad also
help

Quit Safari.
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From the drop down select "Reset Safari".
Uncheck the box next to " Remove saved names and passwords".
Click "Reset".
Empty Caches
Safari > Preference > Advanced
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Develop menu will appear in the Safari menu bar.
Click Develop and select "Empty Caches" from the dropdown.
Turn off Extensions if any, and launch Safari.
Safari > Preferences > Extensions

Getting my address book contacts on my iPods- problems!

hello brilliant mac users!
here is my predicament.
i have an eMac running 10.4.3
i have a 60 gig colour iPod {photo}
i have a 4 gig nano
i use Address Book and iCal on my mac - they are my life.
i have 745 cards in my address book- they are in 4 different groups.
up until a few weeks ago i had both my iPods set on the following settings via iTunes:
Contacts:
Synchronize Address Book Contacts {ticked}
Synchronize all contacts {selected}
{same for the iCal}
and everything was hunky dory.
perfect.
but now i am getting only, 20, 40, 5, 70 contact "cards" showing up on my iPods!?
i have changed the settings in iTunes to every combination i can think of.
i have done resets of the ipods
i have done restores via the iPod updater
i have done factory resets
i have wiped the iPods in every way i can think of and updated them with every different way i can think of in iTunes.
i have dragged a back up of my address book into "notes" / "contacts" - nothing.
i am seriously getting annoyed and have no idea what is going on...
as i typed i did an iPod update again
and after updating all my address book contacts,
{as i said on my mac there is i have 745 cards}
i have 19 contacts on my iPod?!?!
and in Calendars- it's all perfect.
please help!

still no solutions?!
could custom fields in the address book be a problem?

On iCloud we are currently getting frequent "Contacts has stopped responding" error message. We are a small company that accesses our address book contacts off-site.

On iCloud we are currently getting frequent "Contacts has stopped responding" error message. We are a small company that accesses our address book contacts off-site. Any solutions?

I've deleted all future appointments from the Hotmail calendar.
I've left the iPad overnight "thinking" about removing Calendar from iCloud and gave up this morning.
My son has school information on the iPad.
Please help???
Regards,
Anthony

Contacts per iMac address book: 1,301 iCloud: 1,486 iPhone 4s: 1,508 iPhone 4: 1,489 How can I make them all the same?

My address book has been an intense problem for me for a while (i.e. even pre-iPhone 4s/iCloud). Before I upgraded, my iPhone 4 had thousands of duplicate contacts. The address book was up to ~7,500 even though what was then Mobile Me had somewhere in the 1,000 to 1,500 range for contacts. So after I upgraded, I attempted to fix it by doing the following:
I connected my iPhone 4S to the iMac (after I set it up with the latest iPhone 4 backup), went to the iTunes info tab for my device and unchecked syncing for any address book contacts, calendars, email accounts. And then I synced it. This didn't work. I believe my contacts were still at ~7,500.
So next I tried checking just the Sync Address Book Contacts option on the info tab which then allowed me to check contacts under the Advanced/Replace Information on this iPhone section at the bottom of the info tab. This made my iPhone contact list further balloon up to 13,000 + contacts.
So the next thing I did (still in the info tab) was to select Selected Groups under the "Sync Address Book Contacts" section of the info tab. I believe I still had the option to replace the info on my iPhone selected. I then selected one of my contact groups that had no contacts in it. Why would I create a contact group with no contacts in it? I didn't. I created some smart groups and prior to my iPhone 4s upgrade I noticed the smart groups contact lists I spent some time setting up were not populated with anything. Same with some of the non-smart group contact lists I had created.
After telling it to only sync that empty group and to replace the contents on my iPhone I ended up with 1,508 contacts. Why I didn't end up with either zero or the same number as in iCloud is beyond me. This at least seems closer to my true number of contacts but as mentioned in my subject above the number of contacts differ between all three places (iPhone 4s, iCloud and iMac address book). I also noticed that my wife is no longer in my iPhone 4S or in iCloud as a contact but she is listed in the iMac contacts which has fewer contacts than the other two places.
So I believe that in all three locations, there are situations where the address book includes contacts not in the other two locations, and vice versa (excludes contacts that are in the other locations). Can somebody help me understand how I can truly sync my contacts so that they are identical in all locations? This has been a huge problem for me since the Mobile Me roll out and sadly continues to persist now that I've migrated to iCloud.
Blah, I am so fed up with this persistent issue.

I assume you never got a solution. My own painful story is here:
http://tech.kateva.org/2012/06/icloud-transition-went-as-expected.html
I've given up on Lion/iCloud. I'll try Mountain Lion.

Since I moved to iCloud I can't Edit or Delete Address Book Contacts using my MacBook Pro

Is not funny at all, everything was fine using Mobile Me but since I switch to iCloud I can't Edit or Delete my Address Book Contacts using my MacBook Pro or my MacPro.
In my MacBook Pro, i open Address Book and on the left I have te list of all contacts, on the right the selected contact informations, below I only have "Add Contact" or "Share", my friend have "Edit" instead of "Add Contact".
If I click on "Add Contact" this is the result:
Are you sure you want to import 1 card? 1 card is a duplicate and will be updated.
Everything fine using my iPhone or the website.
Apple, what's going on?

Here is some information and instructions from Apple:
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3998
Please note that iCloud is geared towards being an instantaneous (and in some cases temporary) parking place for various things with iDevices; the access and useability from a computer is more difficult and, for most things, has to be done via the website icloud.com.

Why have my Address Book contacts disappeared after uploading to iCloud?

I am using my MacBook Pro w/OSX Lion.
After having many, many problems with contacts, calendars and bookmarks in MobileMe, migrating to iCloud, encountering a huge mess of duplicates and even completely missing contacts I decided to start over. So I disabled the iCloud account on all Macs and IOS devices. I then ensured all contacts, calendars and bookmarks were deleted from the MacBook Pro. I then used the Address Book export I'd made just prior to the migration from Mobile Me to iCloud and imported this onto my MacBook Pro. I've completely gone though the Address Book and removed or merged duplicates and cleaned up all contacts with detail. I backed up my Address Book again at this point. I then logged into iCloud.com using my original Apple User ID (NOT the MobileMe/me.com account which I'm going to vacate) and ensured that there were no contacts in the cloud and I deselected the default calendars here as well. My intention was/is to begin by starting small and deal only with the MacBook Pro Address Book and iCloud Contacts. So after I confirmed there is no data in the cloud I go into the MacBook Pro System Preferences > iCloud > Account Details ensuring I was signed out of the me.com user and entered my original Apple ID I've had since I started using iTunes many years back. I quit the browser and the Address Book and verified the non me.com user was saved under the System Preferences. I then selected Contacts under these iCloud System Preferences and I was asked If I wanted to merge my contacts with those in the cloud. Because there were no contacts in the cloud I selected yes. The spinning indicator indicated that the upload was occurring. Now, there are no contacts in the cloud and the Address Book contacts are missing. Thinking that my doing the Address Book backup may have removed all the data from the Address Book, I deselected Contacts in the iCloud System Preferences, reimported the backup into Address Book that I'd just done, confirmed the contacts I just imported appear in Address Book and I reselect Contacts in the iCloud System Preferences and again I get the spinning indicator. Again, there are no Contacts in the cloud and the contacts are missing from Address Book.
What the heck am I doing wrong? I've simplified my original attempt with iCloud by concentrating my efforts to just contacts AND I'm only using the MacBook and the iCloud cloud and I've still got problems. I thought this approach would narrow down where the issue lies and allow me to monitor the process more easily but I seem to be worse off than before I'd tried to resolve the initial migration problems because now I have no contacts.
I'm new to Macs so if you have a solution, please help and please give specifics because I'm still learning the structure and don't understand a lot of the acronyms and jargon.
Thanx

If you have a back up file, I'd try turning off iCloud contact syncing on all macs from system preferences > iCloud –
DONE
as well as any secondary accounts from system preferences > mail, contacts and calendars –
DONE (this was confusing but I figured out that you meant System Preferences > Mail, Contacts & Calendars which is what you said in lowercase. For some reason without the capital letters I didn't clue in that Mail, Contacts and Calendars was an icon option under the System preferences and so I overlooked it multiple times. I see your use of "secondary account" which I note used also as a term in the User Tip link you referred me to view. Although, I still don't understand what this 'secondary' account is, I'm not interested in any secondary accounts because I've got my hands full with just iCloud for now. I did delete all accounts under the Mail, Contacts & Calendars).
If you have any iOS devices I'd do the same on those as well. –
DONE (not even introducing other Macs or IOS devices to the equation until I get the iCloud and MacBook syncing contacts correctly)
I'd log into iCloud.com and check my Address Book was empty and empty it if necessary –
DONE (it was empty already)
and then delete all contacts from every Address Book on every device
         DONE
Then I'd turn Address Book syncing back on –
DONE (This assuming that by ‘turn back on’ you mean System Preferences > iCloud and check marking the box next to Contacts)
and import my contacts from the backup file –
DONE (This assuming that by ‘import my contacts’ you mean importing the previously exported Address Book back up file back into the Address Book. I see contacts listed in the Address Book when I did this.)
No syncing seems to happen at this point?
you might also take a look at this User Tip, to ensure you understand the differences between the different accounts in Address Book before adding the contacts back.
         I did read this but understand is probably not an accurate term for my interpretation of what I read. I get that On My Mac will not sync with what is in the cloud and iCloud will sync with the cloud. In Address Book under the single head red ribbon I see neither account heading that is mentioned. I also was not asked at the time of import to select which ‘account’ I’d like the contacts setup under.
A) If there is no indication as to what Address Book account the contacts fall under, how does on find this out?
User Tips states
Your Address Book when synced with iCloud will have more than one account.
     My assumption is that I'm not synced with iCloud if I don't see either account option listed. I also would think that if I'm not synced and thus don't have more than one account then perhaps the All Contacts default to an On My Mac account but don't reflect an account heading of 'On My Mac’ as seen on the screen shot of the User Tips example.
Furthermore, User Tips also states
Default Account
Your 'default'account is set in address book preferences > general (the option is only displayed if you have more than one account).
         It would seem relevant to list which account your defaulted to even if you do not have more than one account because elsewise how are you supposed to know which account it is setup under?
B) How do you change which ‘account’ your contacts are setup under if they are under the wrong account?
         Assuming again that my contacts are ‘On My Mac’, then how do I move them to the ‘iCloud’ account of which is not listed?
C) Will any of this be affected by groups?
The five listings under All Contacts are groups that I set up as a sort of invitation list (so Christmas cards is one I’d probably setup this time of year). Although this question is secondary I would like to confirm that my interpretation of groups is accurate. I understand groups to be a sort of tagging of selected contacts from All Contacts but that the contacts in these groups are not duplicates to those in All Contacts. Is this correct? I ask because the User Tips states
To quickly duplicate a contact, drag it to your desktop, navigate to 'Groups', select the account you wish to duplicate to, double click the contact on your desktop.
            When reading this tip, I interpret that dragging and dropping contacts from All Contacts into a group would be similar to what is suggested in this tip which would indeed ‘duplicate’ the contact. I did drag and drop when I setup my groups so I’m concerned I duplicated the contacts in Address Book. I do not see two copies of the same contact under All Contacts though.
By the way, don't take it personally –
I don't, I have reading difficulties galore and am happy to accommodate if I can. I hope this is better. Helping you helps me if you're not struggling to read when thinking about the solution.
Thanx

How do I sync my address book contacts on my iphone and clear all other contacts on my phone (issue with icloud?)

When I purchased my iphone 4S, I had all my old phone's information transfer over to my new phone.
I organized my address book on my mac powerbook and then hoped to sync my computer's address book to my phone - in hopes of erasing all the junky contacts on my iphone and only having the my address book contacts on my phone.
I did all I could trying to make this happen (through iTunes) but it hasn't erased/replaced all of the contacts on my phone - I believe since my phone is synced to icloud. So I'm stuck with a very unorgaized contacts list on my phone...
How can I make it so I only have the contacts from my address book on my phone?
Thanks in advance,
Suzanne

Also, I just noticed that syncing my phone effected my calendar in that all my events now repeat. So instead of having one event schedule on a day, I have two of the same events scheduled for the same time.
It seems as if I can't sync my phone to my computer through iTunes and iCloud.
Help???
Suzanne

Number of address book contacts on MacBook Air using iCloud is one less than my other iDevices using iCloud. Is this a known bug?

Number of address book contacts on MacBook Air using iCloud is one less than my other iDevices using iCloud. Is this a known bug? I've checked for duplicates on my iDevices and I can't find any. Additionally, I have wiped all the data from the Application Support folder of the address book and re-connected to iCloud, but it always shows 308 contacts instead of 309 found on iCloud and the rest of my devices. Any ideas?

Number of address book contacts on MacBook Air using iCloud is one less than my other iDevices using iCloud. Is this a known bug? I've checked for duplicates on my iDevices and I can't find any. Additionally, I have wiped all the data from the Application Support folder of the address book and re-connected to iCloud, but it always shows 308 contacts instead of 309 found on iCloud and the rest of my devices. Any ideas?

Address Book Contacts are Gone

This is a really odd problem that has been going on for sometime now. It first started when I was running Tiger and the problem continues now even with Leopard. The problem is that periodically without warning, all of the contacts in my address book mysteriously disappear - I mean they are gone - deleted. At first, I thought this was an issue with .Mac syncing as I had it set to sync automatically every hour. I have disabled .Mac sync and now only sync manually so I know that it is not an issue with .Mac sync.
Earlier today I checked on my computer and everything was good, all of the contacts were in place. I put in my iPhone and hit sync and left the room. I know for a fact that my iPhone had all my contacts and I know that Address Book had all my contacts. When I came back to the computer a few hours later, Address Book is completely empty - the iPhone has lost all of it's contacts. I logged into .Mac on the internet and all of my contacts are still there. My last sync to .Mac was last night at 7:30. Back when I had .Mac sync set to automatic syncing, it was not uncommon for me to come in and find that all of my contacts would be gone in Address Book and on .Mac as well. I've tried contacting Apple about it and I never received any kind of a response.
Of course I can easily recover everything with my Time Machine backups, but this is perplexing me greatly. How in the heck can this be happening? Is anyone else experiencing anything like this? This is starting to drive me crazy as I cannot figure out how the Address Book is mysteriously losing contacts unless it is happening during the sync process with the iPhone. I would certainly love to hear any suggestions on how to remedy this issue as this is extremely annoying. Thank you.

OK, now I am worried and ticked off! I still dont have my contacts back in place...after spending now over 3 hours with three different apple experts. Where my address book contacts went to no one knows. No "experts" at Apple Care or at the local retail store "Genius Bar" seem to have any answers that are working! Even my .mac backup is not working when I try to "restore" my data from several backup dates before when my contacts vanished suddenly.
I have written several emails today to the .Mac support (Unfortunately only available via e-mail.... I had an apple care rep tell me that .Mac is not really Apple, but an outside firm that runs .Mac).
Here is my last email to .Mac support that I just sent out:
<<Apple and .Mac engineers out there: PLEASE help us. There is a bad bug going around where our contacts are being vaporized and making many of us go crazy. Help us get out of this twilight zone of losing all our contact data!!!!
Read all about it from many upset users at:
<a class="jive-link-external-small" href="http://">http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=6939388#69393 88
Then call me at (my phone number) so I can tell you whats going on with my case and HELP me get my info back! I have sent several other emails to you here today.
Thanks!
Marcel Howard D.>>
I hope this gets us all some help from the Apple Engineers and customer service.
1. What are the common details, including any error messages, related to our problems that we are discussing on this thread?

Where are Address Book contacts stored in Mac Os X 7 Lion

Where are Address Book contacts stored in Mac Os X 7 Lion

Click the desktop to activate Finder.
Hold the option key down and click the "Go" menu in the menu bar and then select "Library" from the dropdown.
Library > Application Support > AddressBook

Trying to link Address Book Contacts with Outlook 2011 - iSync??

Hi There,
Would be grateful for some assistance.
I've got all my contacts and other things in iCloud - wonderful!
I've managed to get all my contacts from iCloud to show up in Address book.
I want to sync my address book contacts in Outlook 2011 - after three days of trying I'm still stuck.
I've checked the Syncing set up in Outlook, that appears to be correct.
I've checked addressbook, and other than having two folders one entitles iCloud (which has everything I need in it) and one entitled On my Mac, which has a couple of testers in it but nothing else, everything else seems fine.
I've checked that iCloud is synching into the iCloud folder in Address Book by putting some stuff on my iPhone and seeing it got pushed from the iCloud to my MacBook - all working fine there.
I have read lots of forum posts and keep seeing references to iSync, and how its on all Mac's but then I see people saying that its not on with Lion - I'm running Lion, and I can't find iSync...so this would seem to be true.
Can anyone tell me how I might achieve this sync process - I would much rather be using an integrated programme like Outlook...any thoughts

Enthusiast: I just got back from the Apple Store. This is the solution they suggested and seems to work. We got rid of iCloud contacts. We just set up Yahoo account in the "mail, contacts, calendars" of the iPhone. Under the "contacts" section we have the "default Account" set to Yahoo. When any additions/delete/mods happen then it is updated on Yahoo.
On the MacBook we deleted the "on My Computer" and deleted "iCloud" and then added the Yahoo account for synching. This is basically used as a secondary backup for the yahoo contact and used if using the computer. It is not necessary to use the computer for any of this.
I've been having lots of problems with Yahoo contacts. I had previously pulled in facebook contacts. This was NOT a good idea. I cleaned up my contacts, exported them out to CSV. Scrubbed some more. Imported them to a new yahoo account. Then deleted all contacts from my main Yahoo, permanently deleting them. Then imported my contacts. I did lose all my "lists" settings. That was a small price to pay.
Now iPhone, iPad and MacBook address book and Yahoo are all in sync.
I was shown at the store is to refresh the Yahoo webpage (CTRL R) and then refresh the contacts on the iPhone. There is a slight delay in update. iCloud is faster at it. But its best to avoid iCloud if you are using Yahoo contacts. Also avoid Facebook contacts. If you really want to use the Facebook feature, I would do it on a different account and then bring in the contacts that you want through an import.
I was having problems with Yahoo contacts and it might be that it was being flaky or they were experiencing problems ... because all of a sudden it started working again. I've seen similar problems with Yahoo Calendar.

My address book contacts keep disappearing and I haven't upgraded only updated. Any ideas?

My address book contacts disappear from the address book application, but when I check the library the files seem to be there. If I click on one of the files that should contain contact info, they are blank. I've restored the files twice from my time capsule and it works for awhile and then suddenly they seem to be missing again. I haven't upgraded to OS X, so the online support on address book does not help. I've only been maintaining the automatic updates. Any thoughts on my magically disappearing contacts? It makes synching my ipod a dangerous act.

ymcneil - thanks for the work around. But isn't it amazing Apple forces us to do this to maintain our privacy.
I live in Australia where there are good privacy laws protecting citizens. I do not want to be forced to use iCloud when the data sits in the USA with weaker privacy laws and also able to be seen by the US Government under the Patriot Act. Further I suspect Apple will interrogate my contacts and calendar for commercial purposes and I do not want that either.
I chose to synch my calendar and contacts with my iphone and ipad. I have relied for years on carrying around my phone with my diary on it. I can no longer do that.
Whoever made this decision at Apple has to be someone who knows little about the world. I can actually see EU regulators getting very annoyed by this.
I too woud like the itunes mac to iphone/ipad local backup given back.
In the meantime - thanks for the work around

Are my Address Book contacts in iCloud or On My Mac?

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