Contacts added to wrong account

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Level 1

107 points

Contacts added to wrong account

I accidentally added a bunch of contacts to the wrong account when it was set as default. I want to be sure ALL my contacts are on my default account, but do not want all of them shared to the other accounts (e.g., personal contacts and notes should not be synced to my work exchange account).

What's the most straightforward way to isolate those contacts found ONLY on the exchange account so I can copy them to the primary account and delete those that do not belong from my exchange account?

My primary Mac to which I sync everything has limited access to my exchange account but phone has everything.

iPhone 12 mini

Posted on Sep 11, 2021 3:34 PM

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Answer 1

Donot Haveone Author

Level 1

107 points

Sep 16, 2021 9:48 AM in response to Donot Haveone

I was able to get the contacts to show up on the Mac by bringing it to the campus and logging in. But attempting to merge several cards to have a single item to work with didn't work (I add spam numbers together and block the lot, so my blocked numbers migrate through my contacts phone to phone and don't have to be reinvented each time). The individual contacts displayed separately on the phone but as a single item on the Mac; and when I exported them as .vcf files attached to an e-mail, opening and adding back to Contacts on the Mac, they do not include the numbers attached--even though opening the .vcf with text edit shows them there.

Really crappy performance from these apps, should be so much simpler. Another case of too-fancy tech making the simple ridiculously hard.

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Answer 2

karina184

Community Specialist

Sep 12, 2021 11:58 AM in response to Donot Haveone

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities Donot Haveone,

Thank you for contacting us. You have come to the right place and we are happy to assist you. We understand you're having an issue with your exchange account. We can understand why you’d reach out for a solution. To start, make sure you have the most current operating system on your devices. (Settings > General > Software Update) Since the exchange account is connected to external data, you should be able to just re-sync it. We have included some articles to look over as well regarding contacts.

Use other contact accounts on iPhone

Sync contacts and calendars between your Mac and iPhone or iPad

Thank you for contacting Apple Support Communities.

Best regards.

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Answer 3

Donot Haveone Author

Level 1

107 points

Sep 12, 2021 12:07 PM in response to karina184

I do sync between iPhone and Mac, and have it set to "Sync All Contacts". But: they are not syncing properly because items added to the exchange account while I had it set as default do not show up on the Mac. This is exactly my problem.

Could this be a work-related limitation on Exchange? Our work campus accounts are highly regulated due to security concerns.

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Answer 4

celliott147

Level 6

12,254 points

Sep 13, 2021 7:27 AM in response to Donot Haveone

Unfortunately, you can't simply transfer contacts between Exchange and iCloud (or other accounts) on iOS/iPadOS. You will have to recreate each contact, or use a computer to export the contacts from exchange and import them using your service of choice.

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Answer 5

Jeff_W.

Community Specialist

Sep 13, 2021 8:02 AM in response to Donot Haveone

Donot Haveone,

You are very welcome and thank you for your reply back. And you are correct this very well could be an Exchange related security issue. If the security settings are very strict, it may not be possible to sync them. We would recommend contacting the IT department for their suggestions.

Let us know if we can assist after you speak to them.

Cheers.

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Answer 6

Donot Haveone Author

Level 1

107 points

Sep 12, 2021 12:09 PM in response to karina184

And my apologies, I forgot to say thank you!

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Contacts added to wrong account

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