contacts sync

On your iPhone, are you signed into iCloud and have the Contacts sync enabled (both in the Settings area)?

 

Do you have some other Contact sync enabled on your phone? Like Google, Exchange, etc?

 

This needs to be known. Look through your accounts.

 

When making the transition to Cloud computing for the first time, things can get jumbled up quickly by making some incorrect choices when you first turn on iCloud. If you made the wrong selection, you can actually end up creating 2 Groups of contacts on your iPhone. 1 group call "Cloud" and the other "iPhone.'

I'm gonna provide some steps to take to get your issue resolved, but know once we are done, the Cloud is the "truth data." What ever is in the Cloud will be on ALL your devices. However, because you know your iPhone has the best version of your contacts, we will consider it the master for now. When we are done, the Cloud will be the master.

Solving your issue is pretty straight forward, but will require a bit of work.

1. Make sure you have a backup of your iPhone on iTunes (backup should include all your contacts). We are using your iPhone as the master for now.
2. Ensure you have a valid iCloud account. Make sure this account is good for both the iPhone and MBP (and any other Apple devices you associate with it).
3. On your MBP, go to System Preferences > iCloud and sign out. Make sure nothing is selected. You are doing this step to disconnect the MBP from the Cloud. We do not want the 2 communicating right now.
4. Using Safari, go to www.iCloud.com and log into your account. Click on contacts.
5. Using your iPhone as a reference, update all your contacts using the web based iCloud.com contacts. In other words, you'll need to check each contact in iCloud.com against your iPhone. If corrections, additions, deletions are needed...use icloud.com
6. Once all your contacts are good (you've updated all of them) according to iCloud.com's contacts, do the following:
7. On your iPhone go to Settings > iCloud and deselect "contacts" (This prevents your iPhone from communicating with iCloud.com). If prompted to delete the contacts from your phone...say YES! I know this is scary, but trust me. Now, your iCloud.com contacts should not be communicating with your MBP or iPhone. If you have other Apple devices associated with the same iCloud Apple ID, turn iCloud off on them as well.
8. Log back into icloud.com and ensure your contacts are still there.
9. Delete all contacts stored on your iPhone and MBP (and any other Apple devices you have). **WARNING** Before doing this step, ensure you've turned iCloud off of any Apple devices you have associated with your Apple ID per steps #3 and #7 above.
10. On the iPhone, make sure there are no contact groups remaining. If so, delete them. Delete everything...do not leave a single contact on your iPhone.
11. On the MBP, do the exact same thing. Make sure there are absolutely no groups and/or contacts on it. (If you have other Apple devices associated with this Apple ID, do the same thing as well).
12. Once satisfied you've deleted all your contacts from all your Apple devices, turn iCloud back on for the MBP (System Preferences > iCloud). You'll now notice, your contacts on the MBP match exactly with what you have stored in the Cloud.
13. Turn iCloud back on your iPhone (Settings > iCloud). All the Cloud contacts download onto your phone.
14. Any other devices you have, turn iCloud back on for them as well.

From now on, the cloud is the master keeper of your contacts. When you update a contact on your iPhone, it will upload to iCloud and then download to all your Apple devices associated with the iCloud Apple ID.

Hope this helps!