Address Book / iCal / iCloud sync - best way?

I am getting used to iCloud, but trying to determine the best way to add contacts and update calendars. When I add a contact to my iMac Address Book "All on my Mac", the contact doesn't populate via iCloud to my iPhone. I also show duplicates when I look under "All Contacts" in my iMac Address Book. It works fine when I go to iCloud.com. My contact is synced to my iPhone.
What is the best way to do this? Am I missing something?
Also - for my Calendar syncing - I am running into similar problems. I have added iCloud to my iCal. When I add a calendar entry to iCal, it doesn't populate on my iPhone or in iCloud. But when I enter a new calendar entry on iCloud, it syncs fine.
Again - suggestions? Am I missing something?

I am finding out that iCloud (web) approx. stores 50% of my contacts and some 80% of my calendar appointments. Why so? At least the sync tool from MobileMe was making sure that, once synchronised, the databases were identical.
When do you expect either a workaround or a fix of this bug?
I also read the answer to the above comment: it can't be that iCloud web is the only source or the master for entering information. That would be not an elegant solution.
Looking forward to reading your answers and advices.
Cheers
Catherine

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Address Book doesn't sync UP to iCloud, but syncs back down..

(Sorry, Winston, and maybe Roger, I must be developing Alzheimer's ..I just cannot understand how this iCloud system works..)
I've searched through hundreds of queries and answers, but cannot find a similar problem ..but maybe I simply haven't looked hard enough.
Question on behalf of my good lady ..and I've been tearing my hair out over this for WEEKS..
She has 3502 contacts in her Address Book on her OS X Lion 10.7.4 MacBook Air. She has two iPhones. They're both running iOS 5.1.1. She has enabled iCloud on ALL these three devices, using her @me.com identity and appropriate password.
She updates Address Book contacts ONLY on her MBA - for sync'ing to her phones - and she does NOT update any Contacts info on her phones in order to have them transferred BACK to her Mac. That's how she prefers to work.
The only way that her Address Book contacts will sync UP to iCloud from the Mac appears to be to select 'All on My Mac' within Address Book, and to Export as vcards to a file on her Mac, and then, in the online iCloud Contacts webpage, to Import that file of vcards. All well and good, but that seems to ignore all her various Groups; everything ends up bundled all into one group. (Perhaps each Group in her Mac's Address Book needs to be separately Exported and then Imported, but surely it shouldn't be as long-winded as that.)
(About 402 of these contacts are not accepted by the online iCloud Contacts, although they seem to fall within the requirements of not being too many, not being too large, etc. But that's a separate problem which I'm still investigating ..maybe the names are formatted incorrectly; I'll keep working on that separately..)
Anyhow: by explicitly Importing all those Address Book contacts into the iCloud Contacts, they then immediately start to get distributed - correctly! - to her iPhones ..but also back into the Address Book on her Mac, thereby DUPLICATING them all in Address Book! (They CAN be seen as SINGLE entries by choosing 'All iCloud'.)
I cannot understand the opaque instructions in all of the iCloud documentation. NONE of the documentation which I've studiously read (online, in System Prefs, in every Help file I can find) seems to indicate a DIRECTION for this iCloud sync'ing.
WHERE - if there is such a place - does one specify that contacts should go only UP FROM the Mac, and not BACK DOWN to the Mac?
There seem to be options only to turn ON sync'ing (or off), but not the DIRECTION of sync'ing, or which device(s) take precedence. (..In iTunes - when sync'ing phones to a Mac with a cable - there's a preference to over-write EITHER the host Mac with data FROM a phone, or to over-write an iPhone's data with data FROM the Mac..)
So I'm asking..
(a) Can one specify a DIRECTION when turning on sync'ing for a device?
(b) With iCloud sync'ing turned ON on a Mac, is there any known reason why Address Book contacts should not send themselves UP to the iCould, instead of having to be manually Imported?
(c) Does one Export Groups individually? ..But what if a name is in more than one Group ..does it get duplicated online in iCloud?
(d) Is there not the intelligence within the iCloud facility for the system to NOT distribute back, or duplicate, contacts to the device which is the SOURCE of those contacts? Should it not do a comparison between iCloud and a device, and then recognise that those contacts already exist on the remote device, and therefore NOT distribute them BACK again to the SOURCE? (..Or am I having too high expectations?..)
Many thanks in anticipation, and I'm so sorry to be such a nuisance if this has already been answered a zillion times before.
(Yes, Winston; she has almost as many iPhones as you have AppleTVs!)
All best wishes,
David.

David, nice to hear from you again, hope you are well.
This user tip might help you understand how accounts work with Address Book.
I believe you have duplicates because you have two sets of contacts. "iCloud" and "On My Mac". Once you have created all your contacts in the iCloud account, you should delete them from On My Mac.
You can move contacts simply by dragging and dropping from one account to the other, you don't need to export them all to the desktop (although doind so will serve as a good back up if all goes wrong). You should note that this copies them though rather than simply move them, so you'll need to delete the old set when you are done.
As for preserving groups from the On My Mac Account, you can't but you can simplify recreating them by copying contacts (drag and drop) from an on my mac group to an empty group in iCloud.
Not sure about the contacts that you are struggling to move.
Many aspects of iCloud are difficult to understand, have a mull through what I've said so far and come back if everything still doesn't fall into place.

ICal and Address Book no longer syncing with iPhone - HELP!

HELP!
I am a long time Apple user and rely heavily on my iPhone to keep me where I need to be, when I need to be there. I have an iPhone 4 and it is running OS 6.0.1. Everything was working fabulously until recently. Sadly I don't know when the problems started--when I updated to OS 6 OR when I updated iTunes to version 11. Either way, my iCal and Address Book no longer sync with my iPhone. And to add insult to injury, my phone is no longer automatically detecting the AT&T microcell I have in my house. I have to reboot my phone every time I come back in the house--talk about annoying.
I am not super techy, so I am hoping someone can help me with this. I LIVE by my iPhone and as a self-employed person, I can't afford for this device to stop giving me information. I also don't want to do entries on my phone AND computer everytime something changes. I do not want to go back to the more reliable paper calendar and address book.
I have iCloud turned on, and it appears to sync my address book with my iPhone. But I seem to be a mess with iCal and my desktop. And between iCal/Adress Book on my computer and iPhone, nothing is talking.
HELP!!!!

I think my company updated Exchange on Friday and since then I cannot sync with Mac Mail, Entourage does not seem to be working either?
Any fix found

In address book & iCal each of our accounts are listed as iCloud can this be changed?

I have a family Me.com account, all now in the cloud.
In address book, iCal etc each of our accounts are listed as iCloud any way of renaming them to match the person?
Mail is fine.
Many Thanks
Phil

Hi Dave,
Funny you mentioned 1932, as the birthday entry in my 'Address Book' is the 06/04/1932.
Since it is not before but actually within 1932, is this what's causing the issue?

Address Book 2011 Not syncing with iCloud

Just recently my Address Book stopped syncing with iCloud and I can't figure out why. I have tried logging out and back in to the software and iCloud and signed out of Apple in system preferences. The Address Book software on my iMac 2011 has been a little buggy, in that it keeps showing double entries that are not picked up with "find duplicates." Those duplicates don't show up in iCloud, my iPhone6, my iPad mini (original mini with out ios 8 upgrade) and my macbook pro. I am still running Lion on the iMac. I can't see a way to upgrade or reinstall just the Address Book. I guess the only way to get a new version is to upgrade to Yosemite. I just don't want to do that right now, but I would like my other devices to have my updated Address Book entries from the Address book on the iMac.
Also, when I look at ICloud settings it shows the iPhone6 and Macbook Pro (with Yosemite), but not the iPad or the iMac. I have turned on iCloud on the iPad and I am signed in to iCloud on the iMac through System Preferences.
Any thoughts?

Hi zacimac,
I'm sorry to hear you are having these issues with Address Book and iCloud. If you are having unusual syncing or duplicate issues between Address Book on your Mac running Lion and iCloud Contacts, you may find some of the info and steps outlined in the following articles helpful:
Get help using iCloud Contacts - Apple Support
If you see duplicate contacts after setting up iCloud Contacts - Apple Support
Regards,
- Brenden

ICal and Address Book have stopped syncing

For some reason, iCal and Address Book have stopped syncing between my MacBook and my iPhone. They had been syncing with iCloud but I noticed that some things aren't being updated. My photos are still being synced via Photo Stream just fine.
One other issue, when i go into System Preferences on my MacBook and click on iCloud, it wants my Apple ID password. But when I enter it, the spinning disks spins indefinetly. Doesn't connect. Then when I hit escape, it asks me if I want to delete my contacts or delete them from my Mac. (Yep I'm on the internet.)
I have also gone into Address Book prefs>Accounts and unclicked "Enable this account". When I do, some of my contacts dissappear and they reappear when I re-check it. So it seems like it is still seeing iCloud.
In iTunes I have checked Sync Contacts and Sync Calendars. I got a pop-up dialog box telling me that I didn't need to do that because iCloud wasn handling the Sync. But I checked them anyway. And I can't get them to sync on normal iTunes manual sync.
Any thoughts? I don't mess with iCloud often enough to know what should be happening. Thanks!

Not sure why, but now I have two of everything. GREATTTTTTT.

Since I'd installed the new version of iTunes, iCal and Address book do not sync with my iPhone 3GS through iTunes anymore and I get an error message stating that iTunes can not sync with this iPhone. Was must i do to correct this issue?

Since I'd installed the new version of iTunes, iCal and Address book do not sync with my iPhone 3GS through iTunes anymore and I get an error message stating that iTunes can not sync with this iPhone. Was must i do to correct this issue and if i must, how dI reintall iTunes without loosing my content?
P.S. I am able to sync postcasts and music though!

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3694
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3125
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299357

Sync Address book with icloud

Ok, I have an icloud account and i want my address book to be synced with my contacts on my icloud account. Seems like it should be easy but i am really struggling.Syjnce

You have checked Contacts in the list of iCloud ? Apple ... Sysyem preferences... iCloud...
In the same window click on Account details.. are they exact of your mail iCloud account ?
Then open Contacts and click on preferences... Account... Do you see on left your iCloud account and on right the box ic checked to use this account ?
Uou will probably also see a local account which could be used with google. Not interesting

Syncing Mac Address Book with iCloud

Hello, I am trying to sync my Mac Address Book with iCloud. All contacts that are created under iCloud on Mac Addess Book are immediately synced. But if I create a contact on the Mac book exclusively, that contact will not get synced with iCloud.
Does it mean that if we want to sync Mac address book contacts with iCloud, they should always be created under the iCloud category on the Mac? Can someone help me with this. I have checked all sync options are switched "on" and sync is working fine across all other apps.
Thanks,
Farhan

I believe the duplicate address books stems from the move from MobileMe to iCloud.
In system preferences I found an iCloud icon and also a MobileMe icon. I was logged in under both.
1) In the Address Book preferences I selected iCloud and unchecked Enable this account.
2) In the Address Book I selected iCloud and clicked on the minus “-” to remove that account – leaving only the local Mac address book.
3) I went into system preferences and logged out of MobileMe
4) In system preferences I opened iCloud and the “Contacts” was not selected (from above) and I selected it.
I got a dialog box asking if I wanted to merge the iCloud contact with the local contacts – clicked YES.
… spinning wheel for a minute … voila – only one address book account – iCloud with syncing to iCloud and my iPhone.

I can't sync address book with iCloud

For a time my Address Book is not sync' with my icloud. I have tried to turn it off and on, but no improvement! Can somebody give a tip?

If you are on a Mac running Mavericks, you have no other options right now. You will have to use iCloud or another cloud-based service.
~Lyssa

How to Sync Address Book, iCal and Safari bookmarks with Blackberry Storm

I recently purchased a Blackberry Storm and have been trying to sync my Address Book, iCal and Safari bookmarks without any luck. I downloaded the PocketMac SyncManager from BlackBerry but the sync fails when I connect the Storm to my MacBook Pro. Any suggestions as to how one gets this to work?

I read that Mark/space had problems and wasn't working very good..
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1792905&tstart=0
Though I did see a thread using Google mail -Take a look at that .
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8660300&#8660300
Brad

How to sync Address Book, iCal, Bookmarks

How to sync Address Book, iCal, Bookmarks between my iMac and Macbook?

{quote:title=Julian Wright wrote:}Do you expect everything to be free?{quote}
Geez, ya big meanie, give the guy a break. Not everyone wants to spend $50 on a syncing solution! He just asked a question, and you heap attitude on him about his finances. Not your business!
5480, syncing that information between two Macs is both easy and tricky at the same time. It’s easy because you really can just copy the files back and forth. But it can get tricky if, for instance, you were to change information on both sides. Then you’ve got two different versions! The general solution to this is to be pretty careful about only changing data on one side at a time. If you add some contacts on one side, don’t go working in Address Book on the other side until you’ve copied the new info over.
“Exporting” the data, burning to CD, and then importing it on the other Mac would be a total pain in the ***, though. Much too time consuming. What you need to do, if you don’t want to pay for a solution (I didn’t for ages), is just learn to hook your computers together on a network, and copy over the relevant files directly (no exporting, no CD burning). Address Book, iCal and bookmarks data is all stored in folders in your Library folder. You just copy it over! Be sure to quit the applications before moving the data.
Where exactly are these files, you say? How do you network? Figuring out the details is your homework assignment, but the method works. Good luck!

Trouble syncing iMac Address Book with iCloud Contacts

My iMac (OS 10.7.5) Address Book no longer syncs (in iCloud) with Contacts from iPhone 5 or iPad 1, since installing iOS 6.0.2.
Any solutions?

Hello Doc Dunc,
If you are having issues with syncing your contacts with iCloud, then take a look at the article below for some general troubleshooting to get it sorted out.
Get help using iCloud Contacts
http://support.apple.com/kb/ts3998
Regards,
-Norm G.

How do I change Syncing settings for Address Book, iCal, etc?

I remember when I setup my operating system, it asked what percent of changes
to Address Book, iCal, etc. I wanted to set between my computers, before I was notified. I think the default was 5%. But I'd like to change that setting. Does anyone know where I can find that?
Thanks,
Paul

Barney-15E,
Thanks that's it.
I always forget to open iSync.
I tried looking in the MobileMe.
Thanks,
Paul

Address Book won't sync with contacts on mobile.me anymore

I have a iMac 5,1 with MacOSX 10.6.4, mobile.me and an iPhone (4.0.2). For many, many years I have had Address Book which quite happily was in sync with the more recently acquired Contacts in Mobile.me. But now, my Address Book isn't syncing with Contacts. And the Contacts on my mobile phone syncs with the Contacts in mobile.me rather than with Address Book. I've tried all sorts of combinations of syncing to no avail. Can anyone please tell me how to ensure that Address Book syncs with Contacts in mobile.me and I would want Address Book to overwrite Contacts. The huge ongoing number of duplicates is another problem but there are many threads I can see that will help me solve that problem.
Thanks

I am having this problem, too. Gmail is my mothership, all the contacts and groups are hosted there, I just want to pull it down to my iMac and my MacBook.
The process seems to work fine on the iMac, but I sync an iPod to that Mac almost every day. I do not sync a device to the MacBook, and it does not get Address Book updates. I feel strongly that the mobile device plays a role in the sync. I will try to sync an iPod to the MacBook, and see what happens. This is a valid test, but I am not willing to erase my iPod every other day just to keep my Address Book up to date on my laptop. This should work better.
I wish there was a tool for contacts like Calaboration. Calaboration makes my iCal sync both ways to Google, and works breath-takingly well.

Address Book / iCal / iCloud sync - best way?

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