Why cant i get my mac address book to replace contacts on iphone?

When I use the ADVANCED function to sync (and replace) my iphone contacts with my iMac address book it does not work. The function works fine for the calander but not the contacts. Are "contacts" and "address book" the same thing? what am i doing wrong? Help!

There is a work around I've used.
A new feature of IOS is Do Not Disturb. You can use regular group lists to pass calls. I set up a code in the note section of each contact i want to pass, ie "phone*". Then I set up a smart group list to recognize this code. Next set up a regular group with an appropriate name and copy all the contacts in the smart group to it (select all). You have to sync the smart group to the regular group manually from time to time on your computer but you can add the code to a contact on your Iphone. This will sync with your computer smart group so that your manual sync is up to date.
The reason for using a group list to pass calls is so that my Iphone favorites list doesn't get so cluttered up with additional people I want to be able to call me but don't want them on the favorites list.

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

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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.

Mac Address Book Syncing - missing contacts

Hi all my first post here.
I just got my iPhone 3G here in Japan. I synced my contacts from my address book on my mac, but i noticed that a lot of contacts don't show up? is there any reason for this? I'd say %90 of my contacts have been copied correctly, but there are about %10 that are missing.
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Gosh ... I hoped to find the solution for my girlfriends problem here. Exaktly the same:
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Hi there
I've been searching for an answer all over these forums and google, but to no avail.
I'm using a 3GS and I'm on Snow Leopard on the mac.
I have tried resetting the sync utility settings and all other tweaks with the phone and the iTunes panels, but I simply cant add any of the numbers that I have added to my phone on to the mac address book. The contacts are transferred to iCloud though. But there is no way to export the iCloud contacts over to the mac address book either. I have to now manually search for all the new contacts I've added (which is a project in itself) and retype it in the mac address book. Pretty ridiculous!!!!!
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Hi guys
Managed to find the solution
1) On the iPhone go to settings > iCloud > Switch off contacts. (Keep contacts on phone)
2) Then on the mac go to address book and make an archive of your contacts just in case something goes wrong. You can do this by going to File > Export > Create an archive.
3) Then delete all the contacts and groups from your mac address book.
4) Then go to iTunes and backup by right clicking on the iPhone on the sidbar.
5) Sync
Your contacts from the phone should repopluate the mac address book
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After syncing mac address book to ipad contacts, the ipad does not display all the fields that were in Mac address book (in my case all the email addresses). Anyone have a fix?

I have a problem similar to DeeRun's.. I would like the IM fields to be synced.. I use them to send e-mails to when the e-mail field is empty or when i just want to use that specific address.. Very annoying, would take hours if not days to transfer all those IM adresses to e-mail fields in addressbook..
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Message was edited by: 1NStanley

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Hi,
recently I am syncing the Mac Address Book and my iPhone with Google Contacts.
If I add a birthday to one of my contacts on my iPhone, the birthday also will be added on Google Contacts. If I sync my Mac Address Book with Google Contacts now, the birthday doesn't show up on my Mac Address Book.
So my birthday calendar in iCal always is empty...
Any solutions?
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Hi,
Google uses Google Sync to synchronize your contacts with your iOS and OS X. But this, from Jan 30, 2013, is only available to the paid versions of Google Apps (read more on http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2716936).
You can continue to sync on both iOS and OS X using the CardDAV protocol, which, IMHO, is even better.
Follow the instructions in this post: http://support.google.com/mail/answer/2753077?hl=en
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Why wont my Mac Address Book overwrite my Palm Desktop????

I have spent the last few days messy about with this bloody isync and my treo 650 trying to configure the address books in the way i would like.
yesterday i managed to finally back up my palm top (treo 650) and merge it with my mac address book. the only problem with this was that there were a lot of duplicate names, or names from the address book that didnt have numbers etc etc.
Anyway, the good thing was that i now had all of my contacts from my phone into my mac address book.
this morning i spent hours going through my now complete mac address book weeding out and duplicates, and basically making it perfect.
now i cant figure out how to overwrite my treo and my palm desktop on my mac with my mac address book contacts!!!! its driving me crazy!
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G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

not quite sure what has happened now. i backed up the address book and exported the v cards (when you said select all in the left most sidebar did you mean select all of the groups or just the group called 'all'? i selected just the group called all).
i then imported them fine into palm desktop using the methods you said except that in my mac address book i had 586 cards and in palm desktop it only seems to say i have 312.
also when i was copying them it asked it i wanted to keep the new or old version with the only differences i could see between the new and the old cards being that it now said CATEGORIES: Palm in the notes section. i said yes to replacing all of the old ones with these new palm ones.
when i went back to the address book afterwards, it now seems to have taken a lot of various addresses out of the various groups i had them set up in. they are all still there in 'all' though so at least thats something.
i also seem to have some random duplicates in palm desktop.
i have also noticed that if for example in mac address book you dont fill in the first name in the first name box and the surname in the surname box (ie you write the first name and the surname in the first name box) then this can cause problems when you try and display stuff alphabetically in palm desktop.
i have some contacts with just names and emails, and some with numbers, emails etc etc. could this cause problems? i am also wondering if each card isnt set up in exactly the same format, could this cause problems in palm desktop (ie the order you have mobile, home, email etc listed on each card?)
still not sure why i only have almost half of my numbers though!?
can you help?
many thanks

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Okay, I have learned/accepted that iCloud is not the sync'ing deal that MobileMe was (missed that in the fine print as I have been a loyal .mac user from its inception and like the MM syncing). I understand that everything is updated in the cloud and pushed to various devices (for me, iPhone 4S, new iPad and 2009 MBP). So, how is it possible for my iCloud address book to have more contacts than my MBP address book? Wouldn't all of the ones in iCloud be pushed to the MBP? The only thing I can think is that before I understood the concept that there are two address books resident on the MBP, I starting deleting what I thought were duplicates since I wasn't able to merge them due to two different sources. I could not find a way at that time to tell me which line was from what source. Then, once I get the two address books matching - mostly to ensure that I am not missing anything in the iCloud one - what purpose does the Mac based address book serve? I just had a nightmare of dragging various cards from my iCloud address page on the right into the iCloud group on the left and only to realize after doing at least 20 cards that after the first one, the left page registers back up putting the Mac based group across from the iCloud contact list so I dropped many of them into the Mac group instead of the iCloud group. The iCal doesn't maintain a Mac version and an iCloud version, why does the address book? BTW, all software on all devices is up to date as of this posting.

Please pardon what may be a silly question. This is my first ever post...
I was thinking about deleting "On My Mac" address book per your above instructions, and sticking with the one iCloud contacts. The problem I am afraid of running into is this: In iTunes, when I sync contacts, the groups that show available for syncing all come from "On My Mac". If I delete from the Mac, will that make my "Contacts" icon on my iPad 'dead'? Thereby, forcing me to log onto iCloud to view my Contacts, instead of a handy shortcut???
Or will I simply get to forgo the iTunes syncing... and the "contacts" icon on my iPad will reflect what was synced thru iCloud?
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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?
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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.
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Synchronising Entourage to Mac Address Book and iCal

I've done my initial sync between Entourage 2008 (Version 12.3.5), iCal and Mac Address Books but now if I update anything in the Entourage Calendar or Address Book, it fails to then send the info to iCal and Mac Address Book. Therefore, the info isn't making it to my iPhone which is updated to the Phone iOS 6.0.1.
Has anyone had the same problems and if so how did you fix it?
I've done a lot of reading to try and find out what is wrong but I'm just getting more and more frustrated. I did read something about having the Daylight Saving Modes switched on or off but can't remember if it was on or off.
I don't see why I should have to export/import ALL the info every single time. It used to work quite ok but just ins't anymore?? I think it somehow worked through iSync?
Oh, and on top of that, if I put anything on my iPhone Address Book or Calendar, it's not synchronising to my Mac! Actually, I've just checked and addresses are synchronising to my Address Book but not then Synchronising to the Entourage Address Book.
And I seem to be getting double ups of entries on my iPhone from my Calendar if I make a change, instead of updating the info in the actual event already created AND I get balnk "new events"! Rather annoying!!
I don't use iCloud either. Apparently that would just make things even worse.
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The isync database, as I called it, is really just the master database from which ical, address book, bookmarks, etc., are stored, and it's used for syncing with the .mac service. Entourage can sync with it too, just go to the Entourage menu, choose Preferences, and look under General Preferences for Sync Services. Then check the boxes you want -- I just wanted the contacts to be the same in Entourage and Address Book so I only checked that one. The calendar is kind of funky because iCal uses separate calendars to group events, and I think if you check that box, iCal will then get a new calendar called Entourage, or something like that, in which all the Entourage events will go to and from. That is, I think Entourage will sync only with that iCal calendar, but I could be wrong about that since I don't use it.
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Is there a way to add an e-mail address to the .Mac mail address book without adding my entire address book as it would if I did a sync?

When I go to .Mac>address book> I get a page with a the address book icon & the double round arrow that reads ".Mac Address Book Synchronize Contacts". Below that is an OK button.
I don't even get the Preferences for the Address Book that you're speaking of. Might be that this is a new .Mac account and the addresss has never been used?
Are you talking about adding a contact button that might pop up when you receive and e-mail? As does Gmail & Yahoo when you're opening mail? There is a button that allows you to add that contact to your address book.
Why I asked was that it appears I'm not getting messages from friends or family to the new .Mac account that I did in the old account. In Gmail & Yahoo mail you can add a contact one by one without importing your entire address book. I wanted their addresses there so that the new .Mac mail account wouldn't mistake their addresses as Spam.
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Is there a way to transfer contacts from Mac Address Book to an iPhone?

I tried posting this before but no one answered. I dont currently have an iphone (or any smartphone). I do have a Mac and I have my contacts in the Mac Address Book (not in an email client like Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail)
I want to know if I get an iphone is there an easy way to transfer contacts (names, addresses, emails etc) and especially HOME/WORK/CELL Phone numbers from the Address Book on the Macbook Pro to the iphone....
I would think there's a way to do that since both the Mac and the iphone are Apple products....but no one has been able to give me a straight answer on this...except to transfer contacts from Gmail but my contacts are not in Gmail
So if I get an iphone (or probably any phone) do I have to manually enter all my contacts each time? I thought that it would be easier with an iphone than an Android or other smartphone.

I appreciate the link but wasnt really looking to go through a 100+ page iphone guide. From what I saw, it said what other people have told me - which is it will sync contacts from Google (Gmail) or Yahoo...so that doesnt mean it will sync contacts directly from an Android phone's contact list. All the manual said was you sync thru itunes.
It looks like what I should do at some point is manually input all my contacts into a new "clean and unused" Gmail account...Unless there was an easy way to transfer my Mac Address Book to a Gmail Account.
It seems like if you have contacts in a Gmail account, it will be easy to transfer anywhere.
Im starting to wonder if an Android would be bette than an iphone anyway. Considering the nightmare time Ive had with a Mac in just a few months, Im surprised Im even still considering another Apple product.
Thanks

ITunes 9.1 no longer synching iPhone Contacts to Mac Address Book

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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)*
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*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!

Why cant i get my mac address book to replace contacts on iphone?

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