"main" phone in Address Book doesn't sync to iPod

I found that not all phone numbers in Address Book on my iBook were appearing on my iPod contacts after syncing. Apparently, the "main" phone numbers don't sync, while "home" and "work" do...I haven't tried them all. I entered many phone numbers as "main". Do I have to go through all by address cards and change them? Am I missing something?
Thanks.
Monica

I don't really know... iSync on Panther (10.3.9) is really old and it seems much have changed in Tiger... maybe it's a good decision to upgrade

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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.

Address book doesn't sync

For severals days now my address book won't sync to .mac or the iPod. Although my contacts are still there iTunes claims, there are no contacts in the book. It seems, that the sync mechanisms don't recognize the address book. I did a reset to isync as well as to the address book but it had no effect. Is there any setting I could reset to get back to syncing? The calender and bookmark sync just works fine!
PowerBook G4 15" Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Welcome to Apple Discussions.
Actually, none of the components you mention actually interact in the way you imagine. Rather, they—and all applications, devices and services which are a part of the Sync Services framework—communicate with a component you don't see: the truth database, often referred to simply as the truth.
Here is a link to an Apple Developer Note explaining how this process works:
http://developer.apple.com/macosx/syncservices.html
That document helps explain why the instruction offered to you above to Reset Sync History… is so important. That process reinitializes the truth, and should result in trouble-free synchronizations from that point on. If it does not, that indicates that possibly more serious and more difficult to resolve issues are in play.
A large part of troubleshooting and solving problems involving synchronization under Mac OS X 10.4 and later is the process of isolating the components, simplifying the process until you achieve the result you desire, then reintroducing other components one at a time as you again achieve the results you expect with each additional component.

Address book doesn't sync ONE address

I added a new contact and it won't sync to the iPhone. My guess is there are others, but it's not a particular folder. I've copied the name to make a second entry, but it still doesn't show up.

I am having the same issue and I followed your advice and lo and behold, all of my iPhone contacts flowed over into address book in my test account! What didn't happen, however was that my dummy cards I'd set up prior to the sync on the computer didn't flow over to the phone!
Any idea what this might indicate? This is the closest I've gotten to getting address book to work with my iPhone since I've had it. I've been forced to use Yahoo and Gmail address books in it's stead. I've spent over 2 1/2 hours on a Sunday morning phone call with Apple who could not seem to help at all.

.mac address book doesn't sync to mac book address book

just got my macbook and became a .mac member, I set up everything correctly but when I sync from the .mac window in system preferences it doesn't give me the contacts on my address book on the macbook.
For some reason or another it sometimes works comingup with a screen allow or something else but it's not working anymore. Please help I'm getting frustrated because I know it's probably something simple.
thanks in advance.

figured it out myself. All I needed to do was be patient.

Address Book doesn't sync - with nothing!

Hi,
I have a problem with Address Book (4.0.4): It won't sync anymore - with nothing! No iPod (via iTunes), no .Mac, no mobile phone/PDA (via iSync). I can create new contacts or change information in old ones, Address Book will safe them on the computer - but nothing appears on the iPod or .Mac or mobile phone. If I create a new contact on the phone or on the PDA: It won't be added to Address Book on the computer. I tried resetting the .Mac information (via System Preferences-.Mac-Avanced Settings), it pretended to sync, but nothing happened. By the way: iCal syncs perfectly!
Can anybody help? Thanks a lot!
Stefan
MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Do you mean the "Synchronize my contacts WITH OTHER COMPUTERS VIA .MAC"? No, because I don't want to sync it with other computers - only with my iPod etc.
Or do you mean the "Synchronize with Exchange Servers"? No, because I don't want to do this either.
Should I select these fields anyhow?
Thank you!

Isync problems with address book~doesn't sync all info from add book.

This is a strange problem but when I sync my Palm E2 using isync the iCal works great but the address book only syncs certain information like the phone numbers and email addresses. It does not sync the regular addresses or AIM screennames/notes or any other information in address book. ONLY phone numbers and email. I've tried starting over and reinstalling the palm 1.2 conduit but nothing has changed. I've also tried exporting vcards straight from address book using bluetooth but the hotsync log states that palm couldn't open the .vcf file. This is a used Palm E2 and it didn't come with the original installation CD so I was thinking that it might be missing some necessary plugins/conduits. I ordered a new install CD from Palm which I haven't received yet but I was wondering if there's anything I could do to fix this problem myself. Any help would be appreciated!
Ahrum

This would have occurred if, after performing the hard reset, you synchronized again. The framework would have interpreted this to mean that you wanted to delete all contact, calendaring and task data.
You may be able to restore the data using several different approaches. If you had already created a backup file for your contacts using the option labeled Back up Address Book… under the File menu in the Address Book, just restore it using the option labeled Revert to Address Book Backup…
You can do the same thing for calendaring and task data using iCal, if you had previously backed up those files using an equivalent option in iCal.
If you had not, for contacts, then you'll need to navigate to this location:
Macintosh HD:Users:<username>:Library:Application Support:AddressBook
Drag the AddressBook.data file to your desktop or to the Trash. Duplicate the AddressBook.data.previous file, rename it AddressBook.data and launch the Address Book. If you're incredibly lucky, you data has been restored.
There is no brain-dead simple way to restore calendaring and task data.
If your not successful with that approach and have reasonably contemporary data in your Palm Desktop file, you can launch that application and export your contacts as a vCard file and your calendars as a vCal file. You cannot export your task or to do data in a format which you can them import into iCal, so you'll lose those records.
To export contacts, select Export… from the File menu, choose a name and location for the exported data file, set Module: to Addresses, Items: to All <xxx> Addresses, and Format: to vCard. Then press the Export button.
To export calendars, select Export… from the File menu, choose a name and location for the exported data file, set Module: to Datebook, Items: to All Datebook Items, and Format: to vCal. Then press the Export button.
Double click on each exported file to import your data into the Address Book and iCal.
Correct of update any information in these records, then back them up as outlined above. Then launch iSync, open the Preferences… dialog, press the Reset Sync History… button, and follow the instructions which appear.
Did I mention backing up your contact, calendaring and task data?

Mac Address Book doesn't sync nor accepts manual edits

My Address Book can't be edited on my Mac anymore: no manual edits are saved on any contact. After changing something, and clicking "save", the card automatically returns to its previous state.
In addition, I found I couldn't edit my contacts on iCloud because of "a server error". After a few tries I could edit a contact. But those changes are not reflected on my Mac aftrwards.
R.

Yes, now I have one. It's an iCloud syncing error, and it wipes your edits on your Mac everytime.
This is what I did to fix it.
1. Make a backup of your Address Book, using the vCard option (or both, it doesn’t hurt). Save it for later.
2. In System Preferences -> iCloud, turn Contacts off. I chose “keep on My Mac” those contacts, but nevertheless I got an empty Address Book after a while. And a few minutes later, iCloud contacts were empty and my iPhone also. It is scary at first! Now, before importing that vCard backup…
3. Turn Wi-Fi off. This is important, since your contact-empty iCloud will attempt to wipe your Address Book from your Mac just seconds after importing.
4. Import your vCard backup to Address Book. Just drag it to your blank Address Book window; it asks if you want to import “x” number of cards. Of course, say yes.
5. Turn Wi-Fi on, and then iCloud contacts on again (System Preferences -> iCloud). It will offer to merge your newly populated Address Book with iCloud (which is empty at this point). It should upload every single contact to iCloud, and then to your iDevices. If not, a fifth step would be to import the vCard file to iCloud, but it shouldn’t be necessary.
Hope it helps.

Address Book doesn't sync new entries with iCloud

New entries in the Address Book on my MacBook Pro do not show up on my iPhone and iPad. Changes to existing contacts do! Who understands what's going on and what to do to remedy this?

First check that all your settings are correct, that contact syncing is checked on all devices (system preferences > iCloud on a mac and settings > iCloud on a iPhone, iPad or iPod).
Make sure the contacts you are adding are added to your 'iCloud' group and not an 'On My Mac', 'On My Phone' or other non iCloud group (you can do this by checking in groups), non iCloud contacts will not sync.
If you are sure that everything is set up correctly and your contacts are in the iCloud group, you might try unchecking contact syncing in the iCloud settings, restarting your device and then re-enabling contact syncing.
This user tip might help you understand how accounts work with Address Book.

Email syncs, calendar syncs, address book doesn't sync!

I have the BES service installed and it was working fine until a couple of weeks ago.
I don't exactly when, but somehow, now I have the wireless sync "ON", with emails syncing ok, calendar ok, but not the address book... (not even the notes and the tasks, but I don't know if these two were synching from the beginning...)
I DO NOT USE desktop manager since it's not necessary at all when you have wireless sync with your company corp email and services working... ok?
any help will be appreciated
thanks
pete
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Do this for me:
Go to options > advanced options > service books > highlight the desktop SYNC service book > hit your menu key and select delete > once deleted, hit your menu key and select undelete.
Get out of service books and under the advanced options menu select enterprise activation. You may have to wait a few minutes but ultimately your enterprise activation will start over again. You will see it go from 0-100%. Check your address book again after that to see if your contacts came over.
~Tami~
Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them.
-- Albert Einstein

Secondary e-mail in address book doesn't sync in mail?

Hey,
If a contact in address book has two e-mail addresses - for example:
[email protected]
[email protected]
only the first one will be linked in Mail to the contacts address book card (i.e. that when I receive an e-mail from [email protected] it will be linked to his address book card, but if he sends me an e-mail from [email protected], it won't show up!). Is this the way it is, and if so is there a way to solve it?
Also - in the "from" column in Mail, it shows the senders prefered name and not the name I have in address book. For example it says "jeff" instead of "Jeff Robinson". When viewing the mail itself though, it says "Jeff Robinson" as sender in the header. Why not sync it like that in both email header AND column viewer of all e-mails??
Thanks for help

I don't really know... iSync on Panther (10.3.9) is really old and it seems much have changed in Tiger... maybe it's a good decision to upgrade

Mobileme Address Book doesn't sync on iPhone

When I revise Address Book contacts on my desktop, they sync almost immediately to MobileMe, which I can see at my MobileMe account online. None of those revisions, though, show up on my iPhone under MobileMe.
However, if I ADD new contacts on my computer, they will show up both in my MobileMe account and on my iPhone. And, I have no problems at all with iCal.
Any suggestions to correct this? It's been going on since November.
Message was edited by: Michael Stickle

It's very basic and I know it has to be asked, so yes, I've tried all of this.
The only thing I've found that might work is turning the sync off for Contacts on my iPhone in Settings, and then turning it back on. Whether this will fix the revision aspect, I have no idea. But, I'm hoping.
Message was edited by: Michael Stickle

Address Book no longer syncs to iPod nano

I don't know whether this is an iTunes 10.5.2 problem or a Lion problem, but I recently found that iTunes is no longer syncing my address book to my 5G iPod nano. All I get is a zero-byte file with the current file creation time in the nano's Contacts folder. (I AM able to manually export a vcard file from my Address Book.app to the nano, and that is my current workaround.)

iPod: Frequently Asked Questions
iTunes 10 for Mac: Sync contacts, calendars, and other info with iPod, iPhone, or iPad
iPod Nano 5th Gen. User Manual

Why won't address book close (or sync with ipod)

When I open address book to edit or add contacts, it will not close. The spinning wheel appears and then I have to force quit. I have also found that my ipod video will no longer sync with address book. It asks me to open the contact list whenever I try.
I tried deleting all my cards and reentering the information, but that has not helped. There is something wrong with the address app itself.
I used to have a palm device set up, but I have removed it and all palm files.
This is the info provided by console:
2007-09-07 08:58:36.995 Address Book[344] * -[NSCFString objectForKey:]: selector not recognized [self = 0x37b5b0]
2007-09-07 08:58:36.995 Address Book[344] ABMetaData workloop caught: * -[NSCFString objectForKey:]: selector not recognized [self = 0x37b5b0]
2007-09-07 09:00:36.862 Address Book[358] * -[NSCFString objectForKey:]: selector not recognized [self = 0x3f4420]
2007-09-07 09:00:36.862 Address Book[358] ABMetaData workloop caught: * -[NSCFString objectForKey:]: selector not recognized [self = 0x3f4420]
2007-09-07 09:00:47.145 AddressBookSync[363] AddressBookSync (client id: com.apple.AddressBook) error: Exception running AddressBookSync: * -[NSKeyedUnarchiver initForReadingWithData:]: incomprehensible archive (0x61, 0x3e, 0xa, 0x9, 0x59, 0x6e, 0x42, 0x73)
2007-09-07 09:02:36.654 Address Book[364] * -[NSCFString objectForKey:]: selector not recognized [self = 0x15e3d990]
2007-09-07 09:02:36.655 Address Book[364] ABMetaData workloop caught: * -[NSCFString objectForKey:]: selector not recognized [self = 0x15e3d990]
2007-09-07 09:02:59.929 AddressBookSync[367] AddressBookSync (client id: com.apple.AddressBook) error: Exception running AddressBookSync: * -[NSKeyedUnarchiver initForReadingWithData:]: incomprehensible archive (0x61, 0x3e, 0xa, 0x9, 0x59, 0x6e, 0x42, 0x73)

You are right theldje
BUT...This is no the way that is supposed to work.
I have to modify 300+ years! and it took me 5 min to convince AddressBook that I write fast enough to change the year
Besides, this is Apple. It's supposed to be user friendly.
I hope this people comes with an answer soon!
At any rate thank you for sharing your findings!
Cheers!

Address Book won't sync with iPod

When I try to sync my Address Book to my iPod I get an error message something like "Your Address Book is empty. Would you like to open Address Book and start entering some contacts?" If I click "Yes" Address Book opens and all 600+ of my contacts are there in living color.
My iCal calendars all sync to my iPod just fine.
Now here's the interesting part. If I back-up my Address Book and import my contacts into another Mac (I used a MacBook Pro for this experiment) and then connect my iPod to the other Mac, then sync my Address Book, all 600+ contacts sync to the iPod perfectly.
What is going on with my Mac that is NOT allowing the AB sync? Are there some preferences I need to trash or something?

I have had same problem since I got my nano 2 months ago. At least with latest firmware update, when you DO see Contacts they contain their complete Notes! I have tried using iTunes sync to sync my full AddressBook with 900 entries, but this routinely failed to load any more than 600 entries with message saying so. Calendar has been even more problematic until I created a sub-view of my full calendar with just the prior 1 month and future 2 months event entries; then at least I could see the Calendar - but NEVER after immediately a sync, only after i reset the Nano. And finally I have used iPDA (ZappTek) to transfer News, RSS feeds, Weather updates for cities, & selected Documents and these too transfer completely (as inspection of the iPod as Disk shows), but needs a full reset to get them to show. Even then when you first highlight the "Notes" menu option you see it display "No Notes" but then when you click/select it, it starts "Loading them with a counter: sometimes the count is complete, sometimes it "aborts" and then you can only see some of the notes you loaded. I view this as a bug. I believe that the Nano is indexing these entries and either completes it or aborts, for an unknown "bug" reason. The ZappTek developer suggested there is a definite RAM (not storage) limitation in the Nano which prevents the Nano from handling very large sets of entries, but I should think a software update might be able to fix this by not trying to load everything at once.
Hope this helps.

"main" phone in Address Book doesn't sync to iPod

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