Can iPhone 4 contacts overwrite MacBook Address Book contacts?

Can someone please help me, perhaps Allan Sampson? My problem is that I somehow have >2,000 duplicate contacts in my MacBook's Address Book. Though I do backups, I've added dozens of new contacts to my iPhone where, so far, I do not have any duplicates. Basically, I need to somehow, if possible, overwrite all of my desktop contacts with the contacts from my iPhone. I've searched in the Apple Discussions for 2 hours and can't find an answer to this. The closest Google hit I found was http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2111565 but it did not work for me.
Some background:
- OS X 10.6.6
- iTunes ver 10.1.2
- iPhone OS 4.2.1
- I am syncing iPhone with MobileMe account
- iTunes is also syncing contacts with MobileMe
- Under iPhone "Info" tab in iTunes, it is NOT set to Sync Address Book Contacts
- This is not the first time I am syncing.
- I called Apple Support. Zero help.
- I can't use the Address Book "Look for Duplicates..." feature because I have a few dozen contacts that it will combine that I need to keep separate.
Could anyone possibly help me with this? My only other option is to manually delete >2,000 duplicate contacts...that would take me several months.
Thank you!

I tried this http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1472736 , specifically Allan Sampson's suggestion (below), but it did not work either.
"The sync process for contact information, calendar events, and bookmarks with an iPhone is bidirectional with the supported application on your computer.
Enter at least one contact in the Address Book application and one calendar event in iCal on your Mac before syncing. Pay attention to any message provided when syncing such as merging data. If you are unsure about any such message provided, cancel the sync until you are sure."

Similar Messages

Cannot sync iphone 4 contacts to macbook address book

HI,
I'm using iphone 4 and I would like to sync all the contacts in my iphone to my macbook address book. The macbook address book is empty and is running on OS X Lion. iTunes is version 10. I tried syncing once and all my contact in my phone is wiped out as the contacts in the address book is empty. Lucky me there is a backup a few months back. How do i copy my iphone contacts to my macbook?

If you put at least one contact, even a fake one, into your Mac's Address Book first, then when you sync you'll be given the prompt whether or not to merge the contacts.

Help, I can not drag and drop address book contacts into numbers.

i have read the manual. watched videos on youtube, but I can not drag and drop address book contacts into numbers or pages. I upgraded to Numbers 09. set up the fields as stipulated, but when I drag a contact to the numbers canvas it just bounces back to address book. I tried reinstalling 09 thinking it was a faulty install. no luck. Have tried dragging to balnk part of canvas, to the table, and to a table with fields, no luck.
Thank you.

Could be a preferences setting. See Jerry's post in this thread.
Regards,
Barry

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.

How do I make the iPhone use only the Address Book contacts?

I just spent some time cleaning up my Address Book on my Mac. I want to sync it back to the iPhone so that the phone shows the exact same contacts. How do I know what will override which contacts are used? I don't want the iPhone to merge anything, I want a clean start with the Address Book I just cleaned up.
Going forward of course I will want to keep contacts I've added on the phone, but for now the Address Book is most current.

Hey Exit,
Click on the iPhone on the left side of iTunes, under Devices> Click Info above the picture of the iPhone> scroll to the bottom and check Contacts under Advanced Replace Information on this iPhone.
This will erase the contacts on the iPhone and replace them with contacts in Address Book.
Jason

8330 Can you manually edit the Address book contacts on a PC using Desktop Manager?

I am converting from a iDEN phone and have my contact list in .mdb and .xls format. how can I get this contact list into the BlackBerry Address Book? It is about 200 contacts.

Okay! You're halfway home!
This procedure is written for a Palm, but actually it's how to
from .csv - Outlook- Blackberry
http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB03050&sliceId=SAL_Pub...
Please let me know if you need any more help or information
Thanks!
Click Accept as Solution for posts that have solved your issue(s)!
Be sure to click Like! for those who have helped you.
Install BlackBerry Protect it's a free application designed to help find your lost BlackBerry smartphone, and keep the information on it secure.

HT1199 my macbook address book contacts do not appear on my iPhone

I recently purchased a macbook pro. The calendar syncs well on the icloud with my iphone but the contacts do not. Not all the contacts are listed on the iphone and some of the contacts appear to be old--in fact I thought I had deleted them from my Outlook account. How do I get my contacts to update on my iphone?

Is there a fix for so the I phone shows the dates I make on the I phone?
The iphone should show dates when I make them, on the iphone, but it is not showing any appointments made with the iphone on the iphone.
The gmail has the dates, but the I phone does not have it.
I used to be able to see them both, it has been just a week or two. Do I need to relink the calenders?
It is the iphone that does not show the dates, gmail shows them.
How

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

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.

How to copy address book contacts to Numbers 3

I updated to OSX 10.9 and Numbers 3. I can't drag or copy address book contacts to spreadsheets anymore. Apparently this feature has been removed. Any work arounds out there? Any ideas how to do this? I am utterly dependant on adding Address book contacts to Numbers spreadsheets.

Pete,
We feel your pain. Nothing keeps you from continuing to use version 2.3. Just carry on as though nothing ever happened. It's not as though you'll be missing much by not running the latest version.
Jerry

How can I sync my contacts from my macbook address book to my iphone

i have my contacts in my macbook (address book) and now i need that on my IPhone. can any one help

on your Mac, go to System Preferences > iCloud
Check you have the "contacts" box activated
on your iPhone, go to Settings > iCloud
Check if you have the same Apple ID you use on Mac (if not, please enter the same ID)
After that, activate the "contacts" on your iPhone too.
it is supposed to work

How can i transfer the contacts on my macbook address book to my iphone?

Hi, i have all my contacts on the address book of my macbook. I just bought an iphone and i would like to know if there is a way to sync the macbook address book with the iphone address book. If not, do i have to manually input my contacts one by one into the iphone?
thanks
Lara

Overview of syncing iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with your computer: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386

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.

HT4489 How can I synchronize contacts between Apple Address Book/iPhone address book and Outlook (I'm on Mac OX10.7.4 and using Office 2011)?

I appear to have done what I should to move to iCloud on my Mac, MacbookAir, iPhone and iPad. Using Outlook 2011 on the iMac and unable to sync contacts between Outlook and my Apple Address Book and iPhone over the cloud. I gather lots of people have the same problem but some appear to have solved it... any ideas?
Also, in some sync, I managed to duplicate the entries on the Address Book on my Mac, whereas the iCloud Address Book is ok. How can I replace the Address Book on my computer with the one on iCloud?
Thank You for any help!

Hi Lucy, I had the same problem with Outlook data sync. Once you've enabled iCloud all your contacts are moved to iCloud and are no longer stored on Mac, that's why Outlook cannot reach them - there is simply nothing to reach as data physically stored in cloud.
I use SyncMate to solve this problem. This app allows connecting and syncing numerous devices and accounts with your Mac and they have recently added iCloud into this list (here the page where they describe sync with iCloud http://www.sync-mac.com/cloud-sync.html ).
This is how I established sync of my Outlook data with iCloud via this app.
1. SyncMate syncs only that data which is located on your Mac so you will need to move your contacts back to Address Book on mac from iCloud and disable iCloud for contacts (in order they were stored on Mac, not in iCloud).
2. You install SyncMate and add iCloud as a new connection (depending on data you want to sync you need to choose "Cloud contacts" or "Cloud calendars" connection in SyncMate wizard and log into your iCloud via SyncMate). Once you've done this, you can sync data on Mac with iCloud via SyncMate.
3. I may assume that automatic sync option is enabled in Outlook preferences (as previously your contacts on Mac were synced with Outlook). If no - please, enable it (got to Outlook preferences).
4. Once all this done, data will be automatically synced betwen Outlook and iCloud (latter via SyncMate). The trick of SyncMate is that data is physically located on your Mac (thus ensuring it will be synced with other devices and accounts SyncMate supports, as I said before, SyncMate works with data which is located on Mac), but you still can have it in iCloud (sync will be performed via SyncMate, no need to enable iCloud itself).
5. And of course, you will be able to sync your iPhone contacts with your Mac (SyncMate supports sync with iPhones also). These contacts will be also synced to Outlook.

How to import contacts from iPhone to Macbook Address Book...?

Whenever I go under
iTunes > Info > Sync Contacts
It tries to import my empty contact list ON my mac to my iPhone, rather than import my iPhone contacts onto my Mac. How do I import my contacts into my address book?
Please be specific, because from my previous research on how to do it.... it was a very vague explanation.
Thank you!

Without a unique contact in the macbook address book, it will delete all the contacts from the phone. You must have a unique contact in the macbook to trigger the merge response from iTunes when you go to sync. Also, make sure you take the time in iTunes preferences to put the checkmark where it says Prevent iPods, iPhones and iPads from syncing automatically. That way you have complete control over the sync process.

Can iPhone 4 contacts overwrite MacBook Address Book contacts?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for