Sync iPhone contacts to Address Book

Can anyone tell me how to take the contacts from my iPhone and store them in my address book. I never typed my contacts in my address book, and instead of syncing Address Book to iPhone.....I want to do the reverse!
Also, is my contacts already stored on my computer under the backup of my iPhone? If I was to purchase another iPhone, would I just load my contacts that way.....from the backup??
Thanks!

The Revert to Address Book Backup feature opens a backup file created by the Address Book backup feature only.
I'm not sure if any of these files can be used to restore the data but I've got something for you to try.
Why do the the contacts get erased from the iPhone if the computer's address book is empty? Is this a feature or a bug? Seems like a bug.
I don't believe this is a bug - kind of like which was last changed prior to the sync process - in this case if was your Address Book database on your Mac. If there had been at least one contact available on the Address Book on your Mac, I don't believe this would have occurred but since it was empty and the last changed all contacts were lost on the iPhone.
With the Address Book application quit on your Mac, move the recovered AddressBook.data.previous file from the backup drive to the Desktop. Change the name of this file to AddressBook.data or remove .previous from the file name.
Using the Finder, go to Home > Library > Application Support > AddressBook. Move the AddressBook.data file from the Desktop within the AddressBook folder. This will replace the existing AddressBook.data file which is empty.
Cross your finger and then launch the Address Book application to see if most or all of your Address Book contacts were restored.

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Sync iPhone Contacts to Address Book on iMac

Is it possible to sync or to export iPhone (G3) "Contacts" to "Address Book" on an iMac?
...or will the sync process in iTunes move information form the iMac to the iPhone?

Overview of syncing iPhone, iPad or iPod touch with your computer: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1386
Contacts, calendars, notes, and bookmarks are synced from (or to) your computer, so if you add, change, or delete them on the device, they are changed on your computer, and vice versa.
Before you sync, be sure your Mac's Address Book has at least one contact so you will get a merge prompt.

TS1627 Cannot sync iphone contacts to address book.

My iphone 4 contacts are not syncing with my address book. I have followed the instructios about checking the sync box on the info pane. I am not syncing my contacts to icloud. Last time i did that, it wiped out all my contacts. Any suggestions?

Is your Address Book on your Mac empty? Try the following, add a new test contact on your iPhone. Next try to sync again. If nothing happens, make sure you have set up the Default Contact Sync account on your iPhone to point to Address Book.
To do so, go to Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars and under "Contacts" look at what you have set up as "Default"

How do i import and sync my icloud / iphone contacts into address book on my macbook pro, how do i import and sync my icloud / iphone contacts into address book on my macbook pro

HELP
how do i import and sync my icloud / iphone contacts into address book on my macbook pro, how do i import and sync my icloud / iphone contacts into address book on my macbook pro
Runnig 10.6.8 on a MacBook PRO.....

The easiest fix if you're running Snow Leopard is to export all your contacts, then import them into something like google (I already had a gmail account), and then just use google to sync your contacts instead of icloud (via the sync with Google button in the address book settings).
Its a bit sluggish to update, but it works well. You can then point your iphone, and other iOS devices to use google for contacts too.
If Apple don't want to look after their customers, other companies will gladly do so....

I use macbook and lion os. I want to sync gmail contact with address book. For this i goto preference in address book and select "sync with google". I put my gmail details. However, the sync does not happen. Please help.

i use macbook and lion os 10.7.2.
I want to sync gmail contact with address book.
For this i goto preference in address book and select "sync with google".
I put my gmail details.
However, the sync does not happen.
Please help.

You should have signed in with that address in the first place, but there is a workaround: go to System preferences>Mail, Contacts@ Calendars and add your @me.com address as an account there.

Group sync from iphone contacts to Address Book

I have read numerous entries regarding this but I have not been able to solve the problem. My Palm was never this difficult to synch. Has anyone been able to come up with a universal solution for new groups in Address Book not synching with groups in Contacts in the iPhone? After I first synched the phone, the existing groups in Address Book showed up, but all new groups since then do not transfer to the phone. I have reset the synch software, and rebooted the mac to no avail. Many thanks.

tnarg nosegref,
When you say you reset the sync software, did you follow all the steps in article http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1865 ? If not, it's the most thorough method of doing so.
In addition to this, have you tried backing up your Address Book as an archive, and then reimporting it, overwriting the existing contents?
Archiving your address book
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=AddressBook/4.1/en/9158.html
Importing contacts into Address Book
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=AddressBook/4.0/en/ad808.html
Hope this helps,
Raleigh

Problems syncing from contacts to address book

I have an iMac which now runs OSX 10.6.8 and an iPhone 3GS that runs the latest iOS 5.
Long story short, I downgraded from OSX Lion back to OSX 10.6.8 a few months ago. Got quite a few problems doing so... ended up creating a brand new user and transferring music, videos and photos manually. Then, the iOS 5 got out and I upgraded my phone right away. I couldn't figure out icloud at first but understood yesterday that it works only with Lion. I thought I'd keep it on my phone if I ever want to install Lion again.
I also realised that I never transfered back in my iMac all my iCal events and Contacts.
So yesterday, I tryied to sync my Contacts, iCal and Notes from my iPhone to my iMac. In the iTune info tab, under each section, there was a message mentioning that since I use iCloud, I don't need to sync my info through iTune and doing so would possibly create duplicates. I try to sync them anyway since I only had to in Address Book. I got the message to merge or replace. I selected merge (yes I had at least one contact in Address Book). Nothing happened... iCal didn't merge anything and neither Address Book. I tried to create new events in my phone and iMac and these were syncing but not the original ones. Also added a contact in Address Book and it got sync with my phone. I didn't try creating one on the phone to sync it through but assumed that it was working.
After going through a few discussion threads, I decided to delete the iCloud account on my phone since I didn't need it and try re-syncing. The iCloud message in the iTune's info tab was gone so I thought everything would be good and I could select merge my contact again without any problem. I was wrong... I lost all my contacts... I freeeeeeeeaked out !! Thank God I didn't unplug the phone and restored it right away to get everything back.
I tried it again this afternoon but only tried to sync iCal. I didn't get to choose between merge and replace and the same thing happened again... lost everything... iCal but also Contacts which I find strange because I didn't check the Contact option in iTune.... I got everything restored back even thought it's always scary to try things like this.... So for now on, I don't delete my iCloud info on my Phone and do not sync any other info. I'm actually scared to plug it in and always double check that my contacts are all there before unplugging.
So here I am... don't really know what to do... I read stuff about removing apple.isync files or something... or other options but they never quite answer my problem...
There is still the option to type all my contacts back in Address Book.. I don't have that many... but it's a pain...
Sorry about the long message here
Thanks for your help and for your time.
Ben

Clearly iSync has got confused about what new data it needs to pull from the phone. Usually resetting the sync history solves this, but as it hasn't for you... try this:
I would suggest sending all the contacts from the phone to the Mac manually via Bluetooth: *Contacts > Options > More > Advanced > Send all Contacts > Via Bluetooth* (or similar, depending on the exact phone model)
This will send vCard(s) which can be imported into the Mac Address Book simply by double-clicking the file that arrives on your Mac.
Merge or remove any duplicates as they are imported. You can also use the *Card > Look for Duplicates* command in Address Book.
Once all your Contacts are exactly as you want them in Address Book do a full backup of them:
*File > Export > Address Book archive...*
Finally, load iSync, click your phones icon and choose *Reset Device...* from the Devices menu.
This will force iSync to remove all the existing contacts from the phone and completely replace them with all the new nicely sorted out ones from the Mac Address Book.
From this point on, iSync should keep track of what needs updating on each subsequent sync.

Fail to synchronized iPhone Contacts to Address Book

First of all sorry for re-emerging a classic question to the discussion, but I have this problem after re-install my Mac OS X. I did checked the "Sync to Address Book" on the Info tab, and I have a contact data on my Address Book. After the sync process, I did get any message whether to merge the info or replace the info. The result was that it did add the contact from my address book to my iPhone but it didn't add the contact from my iPhone to my Address Book. Thus, I tried to sync it again for the second time, and the result was that the contacts on my iPhone were completely erased and replace by the contact from my Address Book.
FYI, I'm using Lion and iOS 4.3.5.
Kindly help me with this problem. Thanks.
~Satrio

In iTunes, when your phone is connected, click on the phone (in the menu on the left) then select the Info tab.
Scroll down to Advanced and there you will find the check box to do as you ask.
Make sure you also cancel your iPhone's sync when you plug it in.

Option to sync yahoo contacts in address books is gone?

I used to have my mac address book sync with my yahoo address book - but it appears the option is now gone. In my address book preferences, when I select "on my mac" the only option is to sync with google. Does anyone know if this feature is now gone - or how to get my yahoo contacts to sync with my address book again?

You're correct, Yahoo sync has been removed.
If Yahoo supports CardDav then you can access the Contacts using that protocol instead, check with Yahoo.

Why can't I sync my contacts from Address Book to iPhone?

I restored my iPhone 4 and now I want to sync all my contacts to my iPhone.
My contacts are in Address Book and iCloud, however i cannot sync my contacts. I ticked Sync Contacts on my iTunes.
Is there any problem?

Syncing contacts in iTunes will not get them to sync with iCloud. To sync with iCloud on a mac you must be running OS X Lion (10.7.2 or later) and then enable iCloud syncing in the iCloud control panel in System Settings (see http://www.apple.com/icloud/setup/pc.html). Also, once you enable iCloud syncing for contacts you should disable iTunes syncing for contacts (by unchecking Sync Contacts on the Info tab of your iTunes sync settings). Trying to sync with both iCloud and iTunes will result in duplicate contacts.

Synching iphone/contacts & macbook/address book no longer works

I've had an iphone 3G and macbook pro for about 2 years and until now they've synched just fine. Today I cleaned up my address book on the mac (eliminated some duplicates, added, renamed, and deleted groups, updated individuals' information) and then synched my iphone with my mac using itunes. (I don't have a mobileme account.)
A few of the changes I made to address book (e.g., new contacts) were updated in contacts on the iphone, but most were not. It didn't update changes to existing contacts and the groups were not changed. Updates to ical and safari bookmarks were synched just fine.
Here are the things I've tried without success:
1. In itunes info tab, under address book I selected "all contacts," deselected all other updates (ical, etc.) except address book, and then synched.
2. Same as above, PLUS in the advanced section, under "replace information on this phone" I selected contacts. then I synched.
3. Same as #1 above, except instead of "all contacts" I selected "selected groups" and checked all the groups listed, and then synched.
4. I rebooted the macbook and repeated the steps above.
5. I opened isync and selected "reset sync history." then I repeated steps 1 and 2 above.
I also tested making a change to a contact on the iphone to see if the change was made on the mac. It was not.
About 2 months ago I upgraded to snow leopard. It's possible this problem has been going on since then, and I just didn't notice until today when I made all the changes to address book.
I don't know what to try next. Please help.

status update -- I tried a lot of other things but finally solved the problem after I removed all the groups from mac address book. (thank-you to my son Ben)
FYI -- along the way I tried doing the reset sync history, which deleted all contacts from the iphone. I initially thought that was a good thing, until I discovered that nothing I tried after that would put the contacts back on the iphone. Next I restored factory settings on the iphone and set up as a new user, but that didn't work either. Or maybe it did; maybe deleting the groups wouldn't have solved the problem if I hadn't deleted all contacts and reset the iphone first.

Iphone contacts - macbook address book

Let's assume I know nothing about groups in either contacts on the iphone or groups in address book. All I know is none of my contacts for either place are backing up to the cloud. What do I need to do to get everything entered in both places to back up so everything is in both locations. Again, I know nothing so play like you are talking to a kindergartner in your detail. Wait, my granddaughter could probably do it so just speak to an old person who is trying to learn.

status update -- I tried a lot of other things but finally solved the problem after I removed all the groups from mac address book. (thank-you to my son Ben)
FYI -- along the way I tried doing the reset sync history, which deleted all contacts from the iphone. I initially thought that was a good thing, until I discovered that nothing I tried after that would put the contacts back on the iphone. Next I restored factory settings on the iphone and set up as a new user, but that didn't work either. Or maybe it did; maybe deleting the groups wouldn't have solved the problem if I hadn't deleted all contacts and reset the iphone first.

Bug in iTunes sync for contacts in address book

iTunes does not sync the address book contacts to the iPhone. It uses a copy that's been stored and saved at another time, but it does not use the current contents of the address book to sync. I am on the latest release of iTunes and the latest software version of OS Lion on a brand new iMac. In the "Info" section of iTunes, when selecting "Sync Address Book Contacts", and "All Contacts" is selected, iTunes should obtain the current copy of the contacts in the address book and dump it onto the iPhone, merging it with the contacts on the iPhone. If there is only 1 contact on the iPhone and 100 contacts in the address book, after the sync procedure, there should be 101 contacts on the iPhone. This should happen regardless of back up copies of the iPhone address book on the Mac. This process is simple and straight forward but broken and Apple should fix it.

I have the same issue! Latest MacBook, lastest updated Lion OS and iTunes, latest iPhone 4S with updated IOS but old contact list on my iPhone!
I found out even the book, movies are also affected. I have deleted the books and movies and it still shows in the iTunes!
I tried all the steps above and still the same issue re-appear.
****, I even tried to reinstall (factory default) everything but still the same problem!
How the ****, can I get rid of these old files!!!
I feel like smashing the **** macbook, iphone.
Just can't get the contacts right! How are we going to make phone calls without the contacts? Manual key-in! So Stupid!!!!
Any guru out there can advice????
Thanks

Sync iPhone 4s with Address Book in 10.6.8?

Help!
I bought a new iPhone 4S and I can't get contacts to sync between it and my MBPro 10.6.8 Address Book!
I bought the phone after enjoying an iPod Touch, and migrated it to the phone by restoring the iTouch backup to the phone.
Just recently I changed the name of the device by clicking on the name in the device list on the left 'frame' of iTunes.
I've tried restoring the iPhone, checking and unchecking syncing of the
Any thoughts? Actually it's one of the main reasons I bought the phone, but I just read that I need 10.7.2 to sync (which has to be total BS!)
Do I need to seek a refund?
Wow, now I'm also getting a "could not sync because the session failed to finish" message.
Any thoughts?

Having the same problem ; did you ever get this sorted out?

Syncing Iphone 4 with address book on my MAC

I am trying to sync my iPHONE 4 with the address book on my mac but it is not doing so? can anyone help me with this?

Welcome to Apple Communities
If you use iCloud, maybe it isn't syncing with your Mac, so go to Settings > iCloud and deactivate Contacts. Then, connect your device to the computer, open iTunes, select it in the sidebar, go to Info tab and activate Contacts

Sync iPhone contacts to Address Book

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