Contacts not syncing...

danijoh69 · Nov 29, 2014

How do I get contacts to sync between iPad & iphone 6+? When I enter a contact on iPhone it never shows up on my iPad- and vice versa. How do I get them to sync up?? Running IOS 8.1 on both iPad Air & iPhone 6+. Thanks for any help!

J. A. · Nov 29, 2014

Which account do you use for your contacts? After adding a new contact, do you force the app to sync? Go to Groups and drag it down. Then tap Done.

scifan57 · Nov 29, 2014

danijoh69 said:
How do I get contacts to sync between iPad & iphone 6+? When I enter a contact on iPhone it never shows up on my iPad- and vice versa. How do I get them to sync up?? Running IOS 8.1 on both iPad Air & iPhone 6+. Thanks for any help!

You have to go to Settings>iCloud>Contacts and make sure the switch is turned on for each device in order for contacts to be shared between devices through iCloud.

ripipemender · Nov 29, 2014

I think that they should sync when both powered and on same network

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

J. A. · Nov 29, 2014

ripipemender said:
I think that they should sync when both powered and on same network

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It's not necessary that they are connected to the same network.

danijoh69 · Nov 29, 2014

scifan57 said:
You have to go to Settings>iCloud>Contacts and make sure the switch is turned on for each device in order for contacts to be shared between devices through iCloud.

Switch IS turned on under iCloud on both devices. Still doesn't sync up.

danijoh69 · Nov 29, 2014

J. A. said:
Which account do you use for your contacts? After adding a new contact, do you force the app to sync? Go to Groups and drag it down. Then tap Done.

What do you mean "which account"? Never heard of having to "force" app to sync, but did what you suggested, no help, still doesn't show contact on iPhone that was entered on iPad !

J. A. · Nov 29, 2014

danijoh69 said:
What do you mean "which account"? Never heard of having to "force" app to sync, but did what you suggested, no help, still doesn't show contact on iPhone that was entered on iPad !

You don't have to force the app to sync, this just refreshes the contacts list.

To sync contacts to an iPad or from the iPad to the iPhone, you need an email account. Which ones you use for your contacts, and which one is the default account, can be seen on both devices in Settings - Mails, Contacts, Calendars - Contacts - Default Account.

Look at this on both devices and make sure you use the same account(s) on iPad and iPhone.

danijoh69 · Nov 29, 2014

J. A. said:
You don't have to force the app to sync, this just refreshes the contacts list.

To sync contacts to an iPad or from the iPad to the iPhone, you need an email account. Which ones you use for your contacts, and which one is the default account, can be seen on both devices in Settings - Mails, Contacts, Calendars - Contacts - Default Account.

Look at this on both devices and make sure you use the same account(s) on iPad and iPhone.

They are! :-((

xrayeyes · Nov 29, 2014

are you signed in to iCloud under the same account on both devices? You can enter a contact without an email account and have it sync but you do have to have an ICloud account IF that is the method you are going to use to sync.

You can also use Gmail, yahoo, outlook, etc to sync as well. You don't need iCloud to sync with those accounts, but you do need to make sure the "contacts" tab is enabled under the account you use.

If that doesn't work, try a hard reset of both devices. Hold the power switch and the home button down at the same time until the apple logo appears and then release. Wait for the phone to reboot

iSkipper · Nov 29, 2014

It is my understanding that all of your devices must be using the same Apple ID in order for your contacts and calendar settings to sync across your devices.

What I have found is our iMac, my iPad and my iPhone are utilising the same Apple ID and sync any contacts and calendars info without any trouble, my wife's iPhone and iPad are utilising her own Apple ID so any contacts and calendar info on my devices will not sync to her devices unless I log into her iCloud account and manually enter the info.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

J. A. · Nov 30, 2014

It doesn't depend on the Apple ID, but the accounts used in Settings- Mails, ... These (the email addresses) have to be the same on both devices.

If resetting, as described by xrayeyes, doesn't help, restart your devices. That means turn them off and on again.

Also, try force closing the Contacts app: double tap the Home button to reveal the multitask bar, slide the picture above the app icon towards thentop of the screen.

Another idea: there was an update not long ago. The latest iOS is 8.1.1. Update the software on both devices, maybe that'll help.

And if this won't get it working either, then I'm asking my first question once more: which email accounts do you use for the contacts? iCloud, Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook...?

xrayeyes · Nov 30, 2014

But, JA...you can add contacts and not have an email account at all. I add contacts phone numbers all the time and they sync across devices with my iCloud account. Has nothing to do with my email account.

J. A. · Nov 30, 2014

xrayeyes said:
But, JA...you can add contacts and not have an email account at all. I add contacts phone numbers all the time and they sync across devices with my iCloud account. Has nothing to do with my email account.

I also use iCloud for some of my contacts, but my default account is a different one.
Although it's not necessary to use this: iCloud is also an email account. It's easier refering to it as account when talking about syncing contacts and trying to include several different options.