Help with Contacts, please!

[Eldiablojoe]

I restored my phone twice recently. Once per the Genius Bar to fix a firmware glitch that prevented MoblieMe from finding my iPhone on the network, thus preventing "Find My Phone" from working.

Second time in error, I was trying to do a follow up restore by back up to try to get all my old info back on my new firmware phone. Ended up doing a full restore again. Arrgh.

My iPhone should have 213 contacts, but it has 355 now. The other 142 are duplicates or bastardizations. Fortunately, though, my Address Book on my MacBook still has the 213 contacts, but I'm afraid to re-sync and exacerbate the problem.

Digressing.. Anyhow, I thought I had all my settings back in place the way I like them, and I even flipped a few new ones such as syncing contacts, etc., with MobileMe. I also was syncing my iPhone app for 1Password Pro with a new install of the same program on my MacBook.

I noticed this morning that my contacts are all scrambled. I have two and three of most of them, and only one version is correct - the other one or two of the are full of cross data.

i.e. - There will be two or three separate contacts for a John Smith. One is correct. One might be correct, but only have partial data. Another one will have his name, but another contacts nickname, yet another contacts email or phone number, and yet a third or fourth persons address. WTF?

Anyone have any suggestions on how to fix this via some settings or syncing that doesn't require yet another full restore?

Thank you!!!

 

[Eldiablojoe]

Due to the aforementioned recent iPhone restores I performed, I had to reset ALL my settings. I doing so, I enabled my me.com mail account settings for mail, contacts, calendars, and bookmarks. This was a mistake and cast my contacts list into the scrambled hell I described above.

If this occurs to you, here is the way I solved it:

I turned the settings to Off under the iPhone's Settings -> Mail -> Accounts -> me.com.

I had to confirm at each setting (calendar, contacts, etc.) whether or not to delete the info from my Mobile Me Phone. I did.

I went back into contacts, and it was completely empty. I re-sync'ed via USB and iTunes. After syncing, my contacts were still empty. I fearfully checked the MacBook's Address Book, and all 213 contacts were still there. Whew.

I re-sync'ed, but this time, I clicked on my iPhone's Info tab, scrolled down to Advanced, and read that it this option would, when synced this time only, transfer data from my MacBook to the iPhone.

This subsequent resync was successful, all 213 contacts are back properly on my iPhone.

 

[Matthew Yohe]

Yeah, I guess I would've just recommended killing your phone's mobile me, and hopping on your Mac, looking on me.com to see what contacts were out there. If they are duplicated then just sync you Mac to it, open Address Book click Card > Look for Duplicates.

Sort those out and you're done. Re connect you iPhone and it will download from me.com