How to sync iPhone 4 contacts to Mac address book

Hello!
I can sync all my contacts from the Mac address book on my MacBook Pro to my iPhone 4. However, why does it not sync the iPhone contacts to the Mac address book? Should it not be like a two way sync? I was looking at the syncing options but it does give that option. I just want to make sure that I have the same contacts on my iPhone and Mac. I do understand that MobileMe does that. But till I can afford to have MobileMe, maybe there is another solution?
Anybody... help!

I had a major drama doing this last night, have managed to restore my Address Book file with a backup after I mistakenly wiped all the contacts I had created on my iPhone. Yikes! I suggest when you sync your iPhone leave it plugged in after the sync until you check that the contacts are all where they should be. That way, the most recent backup that is done automatically when you plug in the iPhone will still have all your iPhone contacts should something go amiss and they can be restored. Also export your computer's Address Book (File>Export in Address Book) which should land in your Documents folder.
To get all my iPhone's contacts back into my Mac's Address Book, I created a group in my Mac Address Book called 'iPhones contacts'. When I synced the iPhone with my Mac, (Info tab>Sync Address Book Contacts in iTunes), I checked the box that says 'Add contacts created outside of groups on this iPhone to...' and checked the new 'iPhone contacts' group and when I synced, all the new contacts on the iPhone landed in my Mac's Address Book. Phew. Heartstopper!

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How to sync iPhone contacts back to Address Book.

I came across this problem and found a work-around on the forums, but some guys there–including myself–felt that iTunes should sync our contacts bi-directionally from iPhone to Address Book on our Macs, and vice versa.
As it turns out, that's really the default behavior in iTunes when syncing between iPhone/Address Book on the Mac. However, if you've been using iCloud to sync everything lateley, this will not be the default behavior, because your iTunes won't sync anything back to your Address Book on the Mac unless you completly disconnect from iCloud services.
So..... if you want to sync your contacts from your iPhone back to your Address Book on your Mac, I'm providing this simple, yet tedious, solution:
Step 1: Open Address Book on your Mac, select all of your contacts, and press delete. You'll be asked if you really want to delete the contacts. Hit ok and continue.
Step 2: Navigate to: Macintosh HD/Users/(YourUserName)/Library/Application Support/Address Book.
Note* On OS X Lion, your Library folder will not be shown. You'll have to navigate there a different way. The way I did it was:
Click the "Go" option up in the Finder menu bar.
Toward the bottom of the pull-down menu, click on the "Go to Folder..." option.
Type "~(YourUserName)/Library/Application Support/Address Book.
Once there, I searched through all the folders included and deleted anything that ended in ".plist" or ".log". This way, Address Book is completely reset when next open it.
Step 3: Open Address Book, add at least one contact if none are automatically created for you, and make sure iCloud is Disabled (if an account is there) in your Address Book Preferences pane, which you find by clicking "Address Book" in the top menu bar. Then, quit Address Book.
Step 4: On your iPhone, open your Settings app, go to the iCloud option, and turn all services off. After turning each one off, it will ask you if you want to keep the data on you phone. Always select "Yes", otherwise you may lose your data.
Step 5: Connect your iPhone to your computer, open iTunes, select your iPhone in the left column, select the "Info" tab, and check the box to "Sync Contacts"–further down on the page, in the Advanced section, make sure the Contacts checkbox is unchecked. If it's checked when you sync, iTunes will overwrite the contacts on your phone with the contacts from Address Book on your Mac.
Step 6: Sync your iPhone–This will sync the contacts from your phone to the Address Book app on your Mac.
Step 7: Open up Address Book, and add an iCloud account, or re-enable the one you disabled in step 3–This will sync all of those contacts to your iCloud account again. Then, you can also go back to the iCloud settings on your phone and turn all the services back on.
After all this, you should have been able to first sync your contacts from you iPhone back to your Address Book app on your Mac, then have them both synced up through iCloud with the same contacts being pushed everywhere.
Hope this helps!

Hi, thanks for all this, unfortunately it's still not helping me. Last week I turned on iCloud for contacts and not only did the iCloud sync fail, but now with iCloud off I haven't been able to sync iphone-to-mac thru iTunes.
I've checked that iCloud contact sync'ing is off, on both my Mac and iPhone. I've even turned off all other iCloud services on both devices. I followed your instructions precisely and even deleted more than you suggested from the App Support | Address Book folder. Step 6 just doesn't work. iTunes whips thru the Address Book sync progress when it should pause a bit to do the transfer—my Address Book archive is 44 Mb.
I have no desire to waste more time with iCloud, just want it to work the old fashioned way. I'd gladly do a clean system re-install but not sure even that would do it…hard to tell where the problem lies.
Appreciate any light you could shed!

HOW TO: Import iPhone contacts to Mac Address Book

Hi,
Has anyone tried importing or copying his/her iPhone 4 contacts into the Mac's Address Book?
Is there a link that you can share that can refer me an existing topic in this discussions group?
Thank you in advance.

Put one unique contact in Address Book, this entry can be fake, that doesn't matter, the important point is that Address Book not be empty. Do the same with iCal, if you have calendar entries. When you hit the sync button, with contacts selected in iTunes, this should generate a merge or replace prompt. Select merge.

How can I import iPhone contacts into Mac Address book

I recently purchased a MacBook Pro and am in the process of trying to dump my Windows PC.
All of my important contacts are on my iPhone. How can I get those contacts into my Mac Address Book?
The same question goes for the music (ripped from CD) and my video files that are on my iPhone? The media is not that big of a deal because I can easily transfer it from my PC to my Mac but I assume I am not the only one in the world trying to do this and that Apple would make it very easy for MSFT Windows users to easily migrate to Macs.
I must be an idiot but I don't see any option in iTunes to transfer the data from my iPhone into iTunes and/or the Address Book.
Thanks

The iPhone's primary function is NOT a word processor or a spread sheet analyzer.
I didn't say, nor was I trying to imply ANYTHING of the sort. You should read what I provided again a little slower and in it's entirety, not taking this out of context, which you made into Apples and Oranges.
It IS an iPod, a device designed to store and play music (in addition to being a browser and a phone).
It is a phone, an iPod, and an internet device, which supports transferring iTunes content from iTunes on a single computer ONLY.
Making it difficult to transfer my legal music from my iPhone to my Mac does not make me want to go out and buy more Apple products or Apple software.
Good, then don't - no skin off my back. I couldn't care less if you want to remain a Windows sufferer. All this doesn't come from Apple. Much of it comes from those who OWN the distribution rights for content sold thru the iTunes Store.
All of Apple's commercials imply how easy the user experience is over Windows. Well, in this case, they missed the boat BIG TIME!
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but let me get this straight. You will likely need to transfer much more than just music from your Windows PC to your Mac and if so, how do you plan on accomplishing this? If you are transferring Word and Excel files, photos, and any other data, you won't be using an iPhone for this, so I don't see the big deal with transferring your iTunes library along with all other data being transferred.
I understand that the iPhone was not designed to be used as a backup. However, you allow the contacts to be merged in but not the music that I legally installed (but didn't purchase from the iTunes store).
I don't allow anything - this is a user to user help forum only.
As I provided in my first post in this thread - the sync process for contact information, calendar events, and bookmarks with an iPhone is bidirectional with the supported application on your computer. This is a sync process by definition of syncing - which is not the same for other data such as iTunes content and photos transferred from your computer to your iPhone.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1296
Apple wants to make it difficult unless I purchased the music from iTunes.
No, Apple or really those who own the distribution rights or the copyright holders for content sold thru the iTunes Store wants to make this difficult. Content sold thru the iTunes Store is set up by Apple to be a break even - which is included with the Apple stockholder's report. Apple makes their profit via sales of the iPod and iPhone. The bulk of the iTunes Store revenue goes to those who own the distribution rights or the copyright holders for the content.
In addition, if my hard disk suffered a crash and I lost all my music it just seems stupid not to be able to pull it off my iPhone (yes, I know data should be backed up on a different drive, and mine is, but I am sure a lot of people do not back up their data).
Maintaining a backup of your data is important for this very reason, and for other reasons which is not Apple's responsibility. I believe iTunes includes an occasional warning message to backup your iTunes library (which can be turned off), and iTunes includes an option to transfer content purchased from the iTunes Store from an iPod or iPhone - since the overwhelming majority of this content includes DRM protection required by those who own the distribution rights or the copyright holders.
The iPhone was not designed as an external storage device or as a backup device - end of story. If someone chooses not to maintain a backup, they are playing Russian roulette with their data. Maintaining a backup is important regardless the platform, but even more so when running Windows with constant virus, adware, and spyware concerns.

IPhone contacts and Mac address book don't sync

If I add an entry on the phone and later sync with the mac the new entry doesn't show up in the Mac address book. If I delete a contact on the Mac address book it doesn't delete on the iPhone.
I have the right choices made (at least I think I do) in itunes under "info".
Rocky63

Not without syncing on connection via USB.
As you have an iPhone 3G you cannot install iOS 5 and make use of iCloud.
iCloud would update entries you make on one device appear on the other.
For iCloud you need a device on iOS 5 and 10.7.2 for your Mac.

ITunes 9.1 no longer synching iPhone Contacts to Mac Address Book

Since installing iTunes 9.1 (79) today. my iPhone will no longer synch to the Mac Address Book. iPhone software 3.1.3, Mac OS 10.6.3 MacBook Pro 3.1. The only thing I can think of is that my iTunes library is on an external drive (not with me). Everything else seems to be working OK. I tried resetting the iPhone (but did not erase content) to no avail.
Any ideas why this is happening and what to do?

Can anyone help with this? This has been an issue for me for weeks. Changes to contacts on my iPhone (the original one) don't show up in Address Book and changes in Address Book on my iMac don't sync with my iPhone contacts. Both seemed to be separate from each other. Prior to this, it has done so flawlessly since I have owed it.
I just tried the following, from this thread (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=476130):
*1. open address book, go to File > Export > Address Book Archive, save to desktop*
*2. delete all contact info (including groups) from address book, quit address book*
*3. select "sync address book contacts" (all contacts) in itunes info tab (highlight your iphone on the left of the window)*
*4. under "advanced" at the bottom, select contacts under "replace information on this iphone / ipod".*
*5. sync.*
*6. uncheck #'s 3 & 4 above*
*7. back in address book, import your address book archive file to restore your address book.*
*that should do it- sorry if this was unclear, need to hit the hay.*
My Address Book imported back in fine. Now my iPhone contacts are empty and won't sync back with what is on the computer. When I click on my iPhone in iTunes and go to Info to click "Sync Address Book Contacts," there is nothing in the box. Prior to attempting the above fix, the iPhone's contacts showed up in that box, but not the most recent version of Address Book on my computer.
I have not lost my Address Book contacts, they are backed up, but I just want to be able to sync it all with my iPhone again. My iPhone contacts are currently empty and I could use them for work today.
Any ideas would be much appreciated -- thanks!

How to Sync iPhone Contacts to Mac running Mavericks?

I stuck woth 10.6.8 for as long as I coudl but eventually uplgraded to Mavericks..
Now it seems contacts do not sync between the iphone and the Mac any more...I can't even find the options for that in iTunes or iPhone prefs.
I have gone through all the Menu and so far have failed to spot any item that is related.
I have seen other threads about contacts not syncing and mention was that I shoudl turn off iCloud Sync...well iCloud was not even on..I have not used iCloud for contact sync since it screwed all my contacts, deleted laods and duplicated the rest. so there is no way I will touch that again.
Any tips apprectiated.

OH bloody brilliant! First I see iSync has gone so I cna't sync my other phone now this!!
Wha the ***FHFY are Apple trying to do ....grrr. Make monye no doubt by forcing evey one to use the iCloud, then once we are all on it.start charging for data.
What next I wonder for OS 11, no ability to install apps at all ...forcing you to use and pay for apps on a per use basis ...rather like Adobe Createive Cloud products...
Lost ofr words.....uurrr..the most useful part of having a Mac and iPhone for me wa the ability to keep contacts syn'd...
It's ok for them no doubt with good and cheap internet access so they can use iCould every where..but not all the world is like that. Annoyed, angry fumin g....

Can't sync iPhone contact with iMac address book since Lion upgrade

iCal sync is fine. All the proper boxes in iTunes are checked. The iPhone is reconized in iTunes. Any suggestions?

Sorry I don't have an answer for you. I kind of doubt Apple has added a solution for that yet, since your Facebook account is not yet synced through iCloud; it is set up independantly on each device.
However I hope you can help me, I cannot figure out how to manually link contacts on my Mac; there is no Add Link button like there is on the phone...

How to back up contacts to Mac address book?

Hi, am trying to back up contacts from my 8900 to my Mac- would like them to go into the address book, but the desktop software doesn't give m that option- instead, they are going into a folder which I then cannot open as it says it contains corrupt info? Would appreciate any help!

Ensuring your contacts are backed up is very important RGreenstreet. I would be happy to provide options to ensure your contacts are saved. With an LG ENV3 we do offer an application called Backup Assistant. This an be downloaded from the Media Center or Media Store on the device. For additional information regarding our Backup Assistant app and how to download click, http://vz.to/1vmljYw
Thank You,
MichelleL_VZW
VZW Support
Follow us on Twitter @VZWSUPPORT

Lost all my contacts in Mac address book. Tried syncing my iPhone/iPad contacts to Mac is not working. Please help

Lost all my contacts in Mac address book. Tried syncing my iPhone/iPad contacts to Mac via iTunes and is not working. Please help

Welcome to the Apple Community.
Unless you have the contacts backed up somewhere, you won't be able to restore them.
You and your son should have your own iCloud accounts then you can keep your own contacts and calendars etc and avoid deleting each others.

I want iPhone Contacts to override Address Book on Mac #2

I have updated my Address Book in my MacBook Pro and have synced it with my iPhone - so I'm finally good there.
However, I am trying to update my iMac and need to update the Address Book there. I don't want to sync it at this point - I want to wipe the iMac Address Book clean and start anew with the iPhone.
Any tips on how to do this?

Hi Im running on Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4 with the updated version of iTunes.
I just recently changed from using Outlook for Mac to using iCal and Mail. Outlook for mac was my main platform for contacts and calanders. When switching over, i managed to sort out my calanders into iCal, but my contacts do not seem to copy into my address book. All my updated contact are in my iPhone. iTunes still shows options to sync to groups i created in outlook even though i have totally deleted outlook.
I basically want to syc all my iPhone contact to my Address book and override the contacts I have in there already, and use address book as my contacts platform.
Help!

Sync Treo 755p with Mac address book and ical

I just bought a Treo 755p Verizon. I loaded in the Palm software, but it does not sync with the mac address book. I don't want to have to re-enter 600 contacts. How can I get Palm and Mac address book to talk to each other?
Post relates to: Treo 755p (Verizon)

Well, I got some good news for you. I just synced my Treo 755p with my Macbook Pro using both the palm sync and isync. It synced both my iCal & Address book. It has to do with the conduit setting in the palm sync manager. Here's what I did...try it and let me know.
I downloaded the latest version of the Palm Desktop (although I do not use it)
Then, at the top of the page of the Palm Desktop go to "HotSync" then to "Conduit Settings"
Then highlight "iSync Conduit" by clicking on it and press the big square button at the top called "Conduit Settings"
Then check the box :enable isync for this device" Then click OK.
This did it for me....It's syncing with my ical, addressbook, etc.
Let me know if this helps!!!
Thanks for yours!!
Billy Bob
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TS4003 How do you transfer contacts from apple address book to iPad?

How do you transfer contacts from apple address book ot I-Pad?

Welcome to the Apple community.
I assume you are trying to syjnc via IiCloud. Do you have contact syncing enabled in the settings on both devices.
You might also take a look at this User Tip, to ensure you understand the differences between the different accounts in Address Book.

Currently using OSX Mountain Lion 10.7.5 want to synch facebook contacts to mac address book. Is there some way to achieve this? If software upgrade is required please advise what software to use

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Question: about to purchase ipad air - how do I migrate contacts,bookmarks,and address books from either an iMac or old macbook?

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Set up iCloud on both devices
How to set up iCloud on all your devices
http://www.apple.com/icloud/setup/

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How do I get contacts from my address book in entourage to upload to icloud and so onto my ipad?? can they get to the ipad some other way??

Thanks for the reply Julian, but I tried that and the only cards that show up in that "contacts" folder are the ones that come with the iPod: ipodcreatedsample.vcf and 2 others.
I brought this to the genius bar at my local Apple store, and they couldn't figure out how to do it, so this one is definitely a challenge. The genius bar advice was: "try to find a solution online." Aaack.

How to sync iPhone 4 contacts to Mac address book

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