Issue synching iCloud Contacts across devices

[james55]

Synching Contacts with iCloud has been inconsistent across multiple devices, and I have unsuccessfully tried the usual solutions (i.e., logging out of iCloud and logging back in, turning Contacts synching off and on). So, I thought I would download a clean vCard (with about 2,000 addresses) from iCloud, erase Contacts on all devices and then upload the downloaded vCard and see what happens.

Before doing so, I took the added step of copying the downloaded vCard to another user account on my laptop (one with iCloud NOT set up) and then imported it to make sure all looked OK. Everything looked fine until I quit Contacts or logged out. When I opened Contacts again, all the contacts were GONE. This has happened on two different devices, one running Monterey on Intel and another running Sonoma on an M3 chip. Any idea what might be going on? I'm reluctant to remove the contacts from iCloud until this is resolved.

 

[Brian33]

Good idea to try to back up the contacts before fiddling.

Before doing so, I took the added step of copying the downloaded vCard to another user account on my laptop (one with iCloud NOT set up) and then imported it to make sure all looked OK. Everything looked fine until I quit Contacts or logged out. When I opened Contacts again, all the contacts were GONE.

Just to clarify, they were gone from Contacts on the "other user account" (with iCloud NOT set up)?

That does seem odd. Speculating here... could it be that Contacts must have write permissions to the vCard (and maybe you didn't change the permissions/ownership when you "copied the downloaded vCard to another user account)? I admit, this doesn't seem likely, but I can't think of how else a non-iCloud user account would suddenly lose contacts like that.

 

[james55]

Brian, hi. Yes, They disappeared from the other user account without iCloud. I considered that it might be a permissions issue, but I subsequently tested this out in the exact same way by downloading from another iCloud account and had no issues. FYI, I moved the master vCard in both cases by first copying TO the Shared folder, logging into the other user account, and then moving the vCard FROM the Shared folder. That usually addresses any permissions issues.

 

[Brian33]

Brian, hi. Yes, They disappeared from the other user account without iCloud. I considered that it might be a permissions issue...

That is so odd. Yes, I agree that your procedure for copying the master vCard should have removed any POSIX permission issues.
I honestly can't think of why those contacts would have disappeared.

I considered that it might be a permissions issue, but I subsequently tested this out in the exact same way by downloading from another iCloud account and had no issues.

Does this mean you tried the process again and the contacts didn't disappear from the "backup" user account? Or did they still disappear?

 

[james55]

Hi. That is correct. The address book did not disappear. But this was an address book downloaded from another iCloud account. I wonder if there is some corruption in the original iCloud address book, but it works fine on the iPhone and through direct iCloud login through my web browser. Just not consistently on the Macs.

 

[NoBoMac]

another user account on my laptop (one with iCloud NOT set up)

Guest account? If so, yes, will be gone as everything under a guest login gets wiped at logout. Would need to test with a semi-real account.

 

[james55]

Not a Guest account. It's a second user account that I set up.

 

[Brian33]

Hi. That is correct. The address book did not disappear. But this was an address book downloaded from another iCloud account. I wonder if there is some corruption in the original iCloud address book, but it works fine on the iPhone and through direct iCloud login through my web browser. Just not consistently on the Macs.

Maybe the problem involves having so many (you said about 2,000) contacts, or maybe it has something to do with the vcard format. Have you tried exporting all the contacts to a "Contacts Archive" (a file with extension .abbu), and then importing that to test that format?

Don't forget you can export all to a .pdf, also, as a desperation backup of sorts.

 

[NoBoMac]

Have you tried exporting all the contacts to a "Contacts Archive" (a file with extension .abbu), and then importing that to test that format?

Good idea, but not sure OP can test that non-destructively. Seem to recall participating in thread(s) where this did not work. Seemed to be issue was that the archive has references to the iCloud account: need to be signed into that Apple ID to get it to import correctly.

Another thing to try: sign into iCloud, iCloud Settings > Data Recovery > Restore Contacts. Restore one of the backups and see if things get unstuck.

 

[Weldor7]

I just had this problem. I had all my contacts on my Mac, but a bunch were missing from my iOS devices. I contacted support, and after a bunch of tries, he had me sync all devices to iCloud, erase everything, sign out and sign back in. At first everything was gone, and I was pissed! After 5-6 minutes my old lists with iCloud and Outlook were on everything. I had to move all the outlook contacts to the iCloud and redelete on my phone, something I did last month. Then resync with iCloud to get them back on all devices. It took forever, and even longer was my 700 something apple notes.

My wife and I have been having So many issues with iCloud lately. Family sharing and screen time, contacts, iMessages, not to mention I can't get focus to work. I'm sure they are getting ready for the new AI features in the next update, but there is no reason for all these problems.

 

[james55]

Thank you to everyone for your suggestions. This is still in progress, but I did make significant progress on the backup front at least. I've solved the issue of the address book disappearing on the non-iCloud side of the computer after quitting and relaunching Contacts. After a lengthy process of elimination, it turns out that a single file among the 2,000 had somehow gotten corrupted and was causing the problem. One this file was deleted, the address book no longer disappeared after quitting. Strangely, it looks like the problem can be tracked to adding an emoji to this specific record a few months ago. Now that I have a solid backup stored locally, the next step is trying to sync again.