Contacts: Merging vs. Linking

[desertman]

Yesterday I tried to help someone with a MacBook Pro (macOS 10.14) and an iPhone (iOS 12) cleaning up and synchronizing her contacts. "Cleaning up" mainly means to get rid of many double and triple entries.

On my Mac (macOS 10.12) I can easily "Merge" contacts, on her Mac only "Merge and Link" was a possibility. Apparently Apple - in their inifinite wisdom - has added something new to Contacts since macOS 10.12.

When I on my friends computer "merged and linked" a twice existing contact it still showed up as two contacts on her iPhone.

What are "linked" contacts? What is good about them? Who wants them?

How is it in such a case possible to only merge two or more contacts so that after that only one contact remains on Mac and iPhone?

Thanks.

 

[Honza1]

On my 10.14.4 I can only merge two cards when both are from same source - I tried iCloud Contacts. But if these cards are in different sources - I tried one in Google and one in iCloud - I can only link them. That makes sense - all sources will still have the same information, so if users have Mac and (Android, Windows, Linux,...) and the other system sees only Google (or other source), users will have access to correct info. If the cards are three - and two are in the same source, the two will be merged, and the merged one will be linked with a card from the other source.

You know, not always there is nefarious intend of Apple to annoy its users and make their life difficult. Sometimes it just means we do not understand the intend and programmers options. This seems reasonable.

 

[desertman]

Thanks for the information which helped me to understand this.

I would never say that Apple acts with nefarious intent. Not even when they botched iTunes, or told us that nothing is wrong with the MacBook keyboards, or told us that bent iPhones and iPads are a good thing, or many other things. I know that whatever comes from Apple is the result of wisdom and kindness. It's only some ungrateful brats who cannot see that.

 

[Honza1]

Man,

I would never say that Apple acts with nefarious intent. Not even when they botched iTunes, or told us that nothing is wrong with the MacBook keyboards, or told us that bent iPhones and iPads are a good thing, or many other things. I know that whatever comes from Apple is the result of wisdom and kindness. It's only some ungrateful brats who cannot see that.

Ouch... I said "not always", there is plenty of real reasons to be annoyed and complain. Not sure why OP insists on making up new reasons - especially when those are result of users' limited understanding. Come on, lets get annoyed and complain only when it is deserved. There is enough reasons for that to pick from.