iCloud Contacts Mayhem
I have a client with multiple Apple devices - a Mac Mini, a Laptop, an iPhone, and an iPad. All of these devices are signed into the same iCloud account. All of them have the iCloud account as the single source of contact data. Each of them report a different number of contacts, and display different contact data. The laptop believes there are 12,000 contacts, the phone believes there are 17,000 contacts (with many duplicate entries). If I create a fresh user account on this same Laptop and connect its Contacts App to the iCloud account (for Contacts ONLY, all other items are disabled), then it reports that there are roughly 10,000 contacts. If I go to the iCloud.com page and look at the Contacts App on there, it reports roughly what the iPhone does - around 17,000 contacts.
The iPhone and iPad are up-to-date software wise. The Mac Mini is stuck with an older operating system (Catalina) until the hardware can be replaced. The Laptop is currently running Ventura. But still, they are all connected to the same AppleID and iCloud account - they should be in agreement shouldn't they? If I turn contacts off on each device, verify that the contacts list is now empty, and then re-enable icloud, each device gets back the same erroneous version of the list it originally had, like they are hanging onto a corrupt cache version.
I have been performing extensive clean up on this contact list on the laptop, and it was disheartening to discover that none of my changes are being reflected on any of the other devices, or on the iCloud.com web page.
I have contemplated the following fix: Export the entire database from the "good" list I see on the laptop, and delete all contacts from iCloud.com, and then re-import the list, and pray that iCloud updates, and distributes the full list to the other devices.
Thoughts?
Mac mini, macOS 10.15