Transfer contacts from iPhone to Mac

[iphone529]

I upgraded to leopard last night and had to format my hard drive. I lost all my contacts on my mac, but have them on the iPhone. How can I get the iPhone to transfer them to my mac?

[RosieO]

This is exactly what I need help with also! I hope someone can help us out.

[iphone529]

I figured it out all you need to do is sync your iphones address book and click merge when prompted.

[RosieO]

Yep, I just figured it out a few minutes ago too! Very easy, thank goodness!

[autumn]

Thanks guys! That was just what I needed.:D

[runners]

I figured it out all you need to do is sync your iphones address book and click merge when prompted.

I thought that when you initially sync the iPhone, the address book in the computer will replace the contact list automatically and if the address book was empty the iPhone will also be loaded and empty. That happened to me because the address book (for some unknown reason had been erased) and it erased the contact list. Apple support was contacted and they indicated that may be a problem with the iPhone 3G when syncing. Now back up the address book to the desk top every time a change has been made, ready in case this happens again.

[laz305]

is there any way to export or transfer contacts from iPhone to iPod Nano?

[jmccullough108]

is there any way to export or transfer contacts from iPhone to iPod Nano?

Sync with Address book on your mac, and sync that to the nano..

If you have any categories, they will not sync, the nano doesn't support categories.

[crunchyapple]

When I synced my iPhone with my Address Book (running Mac OS X) it deleted everything in my iPhone, since my address book was empty. I wanted to import the numbers from my phone to my computer as a backup.

It never prompted me to merge or anything.. just wiped my iPhone clean of numbers.

This is the most frustrating thing about cell phones.. I rely on them to hold numbers for me so I never have to remember them.

Any idea why this happened or how I can fix it?

[Mr. Giver '94]

Any idea how to sync/access text messages???

[aphexacid]

When I synced my iPhone with my Address Book (running Mac OS X) it deleted everything in my iPhone, since my address book was empty. I wanted to import the numbers from my phone to my computer as a backup.

It never prompted me to merge or anything.. just wiped my iPhone clean of numbers.

This is the most frustrating thing about cell phones.. I rely on them to hold numbers for me so I never have to remember them.

Any idea why this happened or how I can fix it?


This exact thing just happened to me. Im on snow leopard now, and i keep archives of my address book, and my girlfriends too. I wanted to make a new archive today because i added about 10 new #'s since the last archive i made 2 weeks ago. i emptied the address book archive because my girls address book archive was in address book from when she did hers a few days ago.

I sync in itunes, it asks me NOTHING. deletes all my contacts off the phone.

I have an idea though, i bet if you just have one contact in your address book on your mac when you want to copy from your iphone to mac, it will ask if you want to merge.

Does that sound like it might work? im not at my mac or i would test it.

anyone want to give some insight? its pretty bad!

[wholebodyview]

I am trying to merge iPhone contact list to my MAC. When I sync the iPhone it goes right into sync and ther are no prompts give in order to merge with my MAC address book. Can anyone help me?

[AdamA9]

Any idea how to sync/access text messages???

They're sync'd via iTunes are they not? I remember when I got my new replacement iPhone and restored from backup, all my old text messages appeared :)

[wholebodyview]

I am trying to merge iPhone contact list to my MAC. When I sync the iPhone it goes right into sync and there are no prompts given in order to merge with my MAC address book. Can anyone help me?

I tried having an address in MAC address book. When I sync it still does not prompt a merge option.

[-aggie-]

They're sync'd via iTunes are they not? I remember when I got my new replacement iPhone and restored from backup, all my old text messages appeared :)

No, they are not synced. They're saved in the backup.

I am trying to merge iPhone contact list to my MAC. When I sync the iPhone it goes right into sync and ther are no prompts give in order to merge with my MAC address book. Can anyone help me?

I tried having an address in MAC address book. When I sync it still does not prompt a merge option.

So? You should be able to just connect the iPhone to your Mac, click Address Book on the sync contacts options, and they get transferred when you sync (contacts are a 2-way sync). I would suggest backing up before you do this, since the backup also saves contacts.

[luckyblue]

You have to be careful what options you choose when syncing contacts. With Windows you can sync with Outlook, with the Mac you can sync with Address Book. Always choose merge so it doesn't wipe out your phones contacts.

If you want to upload for the first time from your computer to your phone, there is an option at the bottom of that page where you can replace what's on your phone with what's on your computer (in Outlook or Address Book). It's a one time option.

I highly recommend exporting your contacts from Address Book and backing it up on another drive, or emailing the file to yourself. I've lost all my contacts before and there are a few of them I have no way of getting a hold of. (Old friends that I have no mutual friends, where I can't just call someone to get their #)

[eyecrispy]

I'm having similar issues. i just got a new macbook pro running 10.6.2. My iPhone syncs calendar, contacts and email with Exchange at work. I can't seem to get those contacts and the calendar down to my macbook.

Can someone help me? If i add something in my iCal, it moves up to my iPhone ok from my macbook, but the Exchange contacts and calendar (which is my master copy) don't come down.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Ovid]

When I was moving state to state, my phone was stolen (as if I needed another problem), and when syncing the new one, I somehow managed to wipe out the address book contents on both my MacBook and my G5; but it did install my latest backup. So I had a full address book on my iPhone but nowhere else.

I did belong to mobileme - and as often as I tried to sync, it wouldn't add to the G5 or MacBook address books.

I finally went into my iPhone settings, chose to push my sync data, and included the 'merge' option for address book.

Went instantly to my .mac account, and I restored my address books by syncing.

BTW, I was able to track my stolen phone and turn it into an iBrick via mobileme, so between these two events, I've decided it's worth what I pay for it.

Hope that helps.

[raidersfan4life]

When I was moving state to state, my phone was stolen (as if I needed another problem), and when syncing the new one, I somehow managed to wipe out the address book contents on both my MacBook and my G5; but it did install my latest backup. So I had a full address book on my iPhone but nowhere else.

I did belong to mobileme - and as often as I tried to sync, it wouldn't add to the G5 or MacBook address books.

I finally went into my iPhone settings, chose to push my sync data, and included the 'merge' option for address book.

Went instantly to my .mac account, and I restored my address books by syncing.

BTW, I was able to track my stolen phone and turn it into an iBrick via mobileme, so between these two events, I've decided it's worth what I pay for it.

Hope that helps.

Can you give more info on how this worked/what you did.

[ressamp]

If you hit the info tab when you sync your iphone, theres the Sync Address Book Contacts. Worked for me

[rogadodga]

Right, So I archived all my contacts on my mac address book and then deleted them.
That in turn deleted all my mobile me contacts. So on my iphone I have no contacts under mobile me group, no contacts under mac group. My contacts are now under All contacts. WHich is the consolidated list from both. no duplicates etc. What I want to do is start fresh, with all my contacts in the same place.
How do I "merge" these address books. Essentially I wanted to Replace all my mac and mobile me contacts with my "all contacts" list from my iphone. I am failing to find a way to put all my iphone contacts back onto my mac from my iphone. It simply syncs from Mac to iphone and not the other way around. I have no "merge" option? Its as if this contact list is not being seen by my mac and simply see's an empty "mac group" list.

Any ideas how I can get all my contacts from my phone back to my mac?

[Keaberts]

i dunno what everyone is talking about this merge option. And syncing is NOT two way. Syncing only syncs your iPhone to your Mac. I'm not understanding how something so simple can be so complicated. All that i need to do is put my Iphone contacts on my Mac... syncing through itunes, i do not get any sort of option to merge, and the option at the very bottom of the info tab to "replace information on this iphone" is obviously not what i want because that will delete all of my contacts. Has anyone found a solution to this?

[aonelas]

Any resolution on this?

[wings65288]

yeah same here.... this is what i doIf you hit the info tab when you sync your iphone, theres the Sync Address Book Contacts. Worked for me

[ecece]

After much turmoil, the answer is so simple.

Go to Settings, Mail, and then scan through all your accounts and make sure that the contacts switch is turned OFF for each mail account.

I believe this setting overrides the address book sync with instructions to sync with mail. So once you switch it off, the address book on your mac should automatically start syncing with your iphone.

hopefully this works for all of you like it just worked for me! :o

[whipporwill]

After much turmoil, the answer is so simple.

Go to Settings, Mail, and then scan through all your accounts and make sure that the contacts switch is turned OFF for each mail account.

I believe this setting overrides the address book sync with instructions to sync with mail. So once you switch it off, the address book on your mac should automatically start syncing with your iphone.

hopefully this works for all of you like it just worked for me! :o

This worked for me!! Thanks, ecece.

[md1979]

After much turmoil, the answer is so simple.

Go to Settings, Mail, and then scan through all your accounts and make sure that the contacts switch is turned OFF for each mail account.

I believe this setting overrides the address book sync with instructions to sync with mail. So once you switch it off, the address book on your mac should automatically start syncing with your iphone.

hopefully this works for all of you like it just worked for me! :o

After a lot of messing around and reading about how to do this online, this worked a charm for me too! :)

[corey1251]

Okay I have done a lot of searching and I am looking for some help. I have an iPhone 4 and a macbook pro running snow leopard. I want to back up my contacts on my computer so that if I ever lose my phone or it breaks or whatever, I will not be screwed and not have any numbers. How can I do this? I had the first iPhone back in 08 and I clicked the sync contacts in iTunes and I lost everything and I was so pissed. I am just trying to have my contacts stored somewhere in the event that I ever lose or break my iPhone. Thanks for your help.

[sinasan]

Make sure you select the Merge Info option. If you choose Replace, it will "replace" the info on your iPhone with the info from you Mac, which, in this case, is nothing. If you choose merge, it will take the data from your iPhone and "merge" it with the data on your Mac.
Besides what said above, a same article about how to transfer or copy contacts from iPhone to Mac (http://www.softwarebbs.com/wiki/How_to_transfer_contacts_from_iPhone_to_Mac,_copy_iPhone_contacts_on_Mac), which can help you transfer contacts from iPhone to Mac for backup.
Hopefully this works for all of you like it just worked for me!
Good luck.

[souperjen24]

After much turmoil, the answer is so simple.

Go to Settings, Mail, and then scan through all your accounts and make sure that the contacts switch is turned OFF for each mail account.

I believe this setting overrides the address book sync with instructions to sync with mail. So once you switch it off, the address book on your mac should automatically start syncing with your iphone.

hopefully this works for all of you like it just worked for me! :o

When I go to Settings > Mail > scan through my accounts, the only three options I have are: Mail, Calendars, and Notes. I can switch these on or off. I don't have any option of a contact switch.

Am I missing something?

[alo4q]

A quick solution is install idrive lite from app store is free and back ur contact there if u ever lose your phone or get droid or black berry u could restor from that backup cause the app work on those plaform

When I go to Settings > Mail > scan through my accounts, the only three options I have are: Mail, Calendars, and Notes. I can switch these on or off. I don't have any option of a contact switch.

Am I missing something?

[BrianBaughn]

It might be a good idea to sync your contacts with a Gmail account, even if you don't use it for email. That way, you've got a free backup in the cloud.

[vmbuxton]

I am trying to merge iPhone contact list to my MAC. When I sync the iPhone it goes right into sync and ther are no prompts give in order to merge with my MAC address book. Can anyone help me?

This works if you have Mobile Me. Here is what the nice people at Apple had me do and it worked. Go to the Apple menu, pull down System Preferences and click on Mobile Me under Internet and Wireless. Click on Sync, check Calendars and Contacts and click Advanced. HIghlight the computer you are syncing to and click "Reset Sync Data". When prompted, click Replace, and the data from Mobile Me will replace the data on your computer, for those two things (calendar and contacts). Hope this helps.
If you don't have Mobile Me, you should be prompted to "Merge" and that's what you click.

[Juggertha]

After much turmoil, the answer is so simple.

Go to Settings, Mail, and then scan through all your accounts and make sure that the contacts switch is turned OFF for each mail account.

I believe this setting overrides the address book sync with instructions to sync with mail. So once you switch it off, the address book on your mac should automatically start syncing with your iphone.

hopefully this works for all of you like it just worked for me! :o

Tried this and... no luck.

Anyone have any other suggestions?

[Erwin-Br]

I'm having the same problem. I installed Lion on a new hard disk. My contact list on Lion is of course empty. When I sync my iPhone contacts, I choose "merge". The result is that the contacts on my phone are wiped. :mad:

Fortunately I could restore a backup from my Phone, but I still have no idea how the heck I'm supposed to get my contacts from the phone to Lion.

[Jay2007]

“...am I missing something”?

Here is what you do.

Some people above may have posted answers to this thread way too long ago, when there was no iTunes 10, nor iPhone 4, so their solutions may differ to how backing up an iPhone presently goes. Also, “sync" used to mean replacing all the stuff in your iPhone for what you had in your mac, thus your iPhone could be completely erased, depending on your options. Not anymore.
It is always good though, just as a precaution (since you may still be running an older version of iTunes/iPhone) to follow these steps below in order to get your contacts from your iPhone nicely copied into your Mac -- if that is what you want to do:

(these are directions for iTunes 10.4 on a Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Lion. and iPhone 4.3.5 (or iPod Touch 4), but it may be very similar to other previous device versions; or while running iTunes under Windows OS)

BEFORE hooking up your iPhone to your Mac:
1 Launch iTunes ;
2. GO to iTunes menu and choose PREFERENCES;
3. Under PREFERENCES, check mark the box which says:
“Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically.”;
4. Now you can hook your iPhone up to your Mac;
5. On the left side panel, under Devices, highlight “YourName’s iphone” (where “YourName" is your name);
6. Click on the Info menu (on iTunes’ right panel);
7. Unmark all boxes (ie. Sync address book Contacts; Sync iCal Calendars; Sync Mail Accounts; Other; Advanced; making sure nothing is marked);

NOW, while “YourName’s iPhone” is still highlighted:
8. Press and hold the CONTROL key on your keyboard and click over “YourName’s iPhone,” then choose Back Up from the drop down menu that appears (this will back up your iPhone's most recent Data into your Mac);

Now you are safe -- if anything goes wrong from now on, you can still retrieve all your info by doing a restore, later on.

9. Once your back up is all done, and with “YourName’s iPhone” highlighted still, choose INFO from iTunes' application right panel, again;
10. Now, mark the box which says ”Sync Address Book Contacts” and also the box right below which reads, “All Contacts”;
11. Now, go to the bottom of the Info window and click on Sync.

It will then give you an information screen with the changes that will be made to your computers' Address book with as much detail as you like.

Let me know how this works for you!

In the future, if you are running the latest version of iTunes and iPhone iOS, you can sync as often as you wish when connecting your iPhone up to your Mac’s iTunes without having to back up your iPhone first, because iTunes will always back up your iPhone apps and other Data first anyway and then iTunes will sync.

[rebelfan]

I am often out and run into people and get new address information from them. These are people who are already in my contacts on my iphone and on my mac since i regularly sync them. However, it seems that the updated contact information i put into my phone is not syncing correctly with my mac address book. Is this normal? should contacts updated on my iphone 3GS update the information in my MacBook's address book or is there something special i need to do. All i can figure out is a way to update my phone's contacts with the one's from my computer. Anyone have any ideas what's going on? thanks for the help y'all. I appreciate any and all suggestions..

[dimitrisgf]

I am often out and run into people and get new address information from them. These are people who are already in my contacts on my iphone and on my mac since i regularly sync them. However, it seems that the updated contact information i put into my phone is not syncing correctly with my mac address book. Is this normal? should contacts updated on my iphone 3GS update the information in my MacBook's address book or is there something special i need to do. All i can figure out is a way to update my phone's contacts with the one's from my computer. Anyone have any ideas what's going on? thanks for the help y'all. I appreciate any and all suggestions..

well I have tha same problem! I imported new contact on address book on my mac and they won't sync with my iphone 4... any help?

[Mr. Luigi]

Jay 2007's instructions below worked for me. Please notice Jay's initial comment that this thread goes back so far that some answers no longer are accurate. For ex., I am running iTunes 10.5 and iOS 5.0.1 on a iPhone 4S and many of the suggestions quote functionalities that no longer exist. Just to be clear what my situation exactly was so you know what Jay 2007's protocol WILL work on...

1. I wanted one and only one thing to happen with regard to my contacts. I wanted a complete list of contacts on my iPhone 4S and the exact same list in my MBP's Address Book. I wanted these two things to be duplicates of each other so my address book would be a backup of my contact list on my iPhone. I wanted no other contacts from ANY other sources populating my iPhone or Mac's Address Book.

2. I have a Verizon iPhone 4S and transferred my Backup Assistant contact list (generated from my former LG Envy Touch cell phone) to my iPhone via Verizon's App that recently came out that let's you do this without going to the Verizon store (Backup Assistant does not work on the iPhone). Sorry, I forgot the name of the Verizon App that does this. It is NOT the generic Verizon App. Something like Verizon Contact Transfer.

2. My Contacts on my iPhone 4S were all F$#@ed Up (forgive my language). I went to my iPhone 4S and "repaired" its contact list. It was filled with duplicate contacts, duplicate information within contacts-some of it right, some of it wrong (dated)...etc.

3. Before following Jay's directions I deleted all my Address Book Contacts on my Mac so it was a blank slate. It was contaminated with similar duplicates, etc.

4. I followed Jay's directions.

5. BTW...he's got some cool tricks in there that I didn't know. Thanks Jay 2007.

6. After completing the process my Address Book was populated by what appears to be an exact duplicat of my iPhone 4S's Contacts. I even opened a couple of the contacts in the Address Book. All looks good.

7. I have no idea have long this pristine situation will last. Will my contacts again become contaminated? Will my address book and iPhone continue to sync together so that updating one with additional new content will cause the other to update too? Who knows.

8. What I do know is this...Steve Jobs (Bless his Heart) said his paradigm for Apple products is "They Just Work." I think he would be disappointed with the state of affairs regarding contacts and his iPhone. It does Not Just Work. We can all help Apple know this by submitting feedback to their feedback site. The more comments they get, the more they'll realize this is a situation that deserves more attention.

Most importantly...Thanks so much Jay 2007. :)

Sincerely, Mr. Luigi

“...am I missing something”?

Here is what you do.

Some people above may have posted answers to this thread way too long ago, when there was no iTunes 10, nor iPhone 4, so their solutions may differ to how backing up an iPhone presently goes. Also, “sync" used to mean replacing all the stuff in your iPhone for what you had in your mac, thus your iPhone could be completely erased, depending on your options. Not anymore.
It is always good though, just as a precaution (since you may still be running an older version of iTunes/iPhone) to follow these steps below in order to get your contacts from your iPhone nicely copied into your Mac -- if that is what you want to do:

(these are directions for iTunes 10.4 on a Mac OS X Snow Leopard or Lion. and iPhone 4.3.5 (or iPod Touch 4), but it may be very similar to other previous device versions; or while running iTunes under Windows OS)

BEFORE hooking up your iPhone to your Mac:
1 Launch iTunes ;
2. GO to iTunes menu and choose PREFERENCES;
3. Under PREFERENCES, check mark the box which says:
“Prevent iPods, iPhones, and iPads from syncing automatically.”;
4. Now you can hook your iPhone up to your Mac;
5. On the left side panel, under Devices, highlight “YourName’s iphone” (where “YourName" is your name);
6. Click on the Info menu (on iTunes’ right panel);
7. Unmark all boxes (ie. Sync address book Contacts; Sync iCal Calendars; Sync Mail Accounts; Other; Advanced; making sure nothing is marked);

NOW, while “YourName’s iPhone” is still highlighted:
8. Press and hold the CONTROL key on your keyboard and click over “YourName’s iPhone,” then choose Back Up from the drop down menu that appears (this will back up your iPhone's most recent Data into your Mac);

Now you are safe -- if anything goes wrong from now on, you can still retrieve all your info by doing a restore, later on.

9. Once your back up is all done, and with “YourName’s iPhone” highlighted still, choose INFO from iTunes' application right panel, again;
10. Now, mark the box which says ”Sync Address Book Contacts” and also the box right below which reads, “All Contacts”;
11. Now, go to the bottom of the Info window and click on Sync.

It will then give you an information screen with the changes that will be made to your computers' Address book with as much detail as you like.

Let me know how this works for you!

In the future, if you are running the latest version of iTunes and iPhone iOS, you can sync as often as you wish when connecting your iPhone up to your Mac’s iTunes without having to back up your iPhone first, because iTunes will always back up your iPhone apps and other Data first anyway and then iTunes will sync.

[franklin48]

1.Did you jailbreake your iphone before? You can google search transfer iphone contacts to computer,and there are quantities of results and ways to guide iphone sms backup...
2.In iTunes, with the iPhone selected on the left, click the Info tab and make sure contacts syncing is enabled.
3.Besides what said above, there is a iPhone Transfer software which includes a same article about how to transfer contacts from iPhone to mac computer (http://software.bigbigsoft.com/iphone-to-mac-transfer), which can help you transfer contacts from iPhone to PC for backup.
hopefully this works for all of you like it just worked for me!