Contacts and Calendars not syncing, missing items or creating numerous duplicates
Contacts and Calendars not syncing, missing items or creating numerous duplicates
- I have created numerous Apple support tickets on iCloud, iTunes, contacts, and calendar issues over the years without any resolution. Even the typical response from Apple’s technical support staff is often of a deer in the headlights, like they have never heard of the issue before. At the same time, I can find hundreds of threads on Apple, Google, and Microsoft forums, all leading down different rabbit holes and offering no solutions. The other standard response from Apple is that they cannot assist with third-party apps like Microsoft Office 365, and Microsoft, in turn, will ask us to contact Apple.
- For folks like me with a laptop with Windows 10, the problems are even worse. You have to deal with the iCloud app for Windows, the iTunes app for Windows, iCloud.com on the browser, and numerous settings in iOS on the iPhone to sync your contacts, calendars, etc. Even after messing with all of them, 90% of the time, they won’t sync. When I log in to iCloud.com on the Chrome browser on my laptop, the gear icon at the bottom left for showing Action items does not open up fully as with Microsoft Edge, so I can only use Edge.
- I have 15,805 contacts in my iPhone 13 Pro, made up of Yahoo 80, Outlook 3,303, iCloud 12,503, Att.net email 35, and Gmail 3,637. 90% of these contacts are duplicates. My notes for some of the contacts show up as new contacts; there are duplicate contacts with no information in any fields, etc. I dread searching for a contact because I have to look through 20 or 30 of them to find the correct phone numbers, emails, addresses, URLs, notes, etc. In other words, the iOS, which Steve Jobs created to simplify people’s lives and make us more productive, is instead sending us down rabbit holes 24/7. iCloud Contacts in Microsoft Outlook 365 is 12,829, which does not match iCloud contacts. I am unsure what the difference of 326 is.
- I noticed I am missing iCloud contacts that I added and saved on my iPhone. For a very important contact I exchanged several emails with over the past several weeks, I saved at least 15 minutes adding all her contact information details and saved it on my iPhone. However, she wasn't there when I tried to find her in my contacts on iCloud, Outlook 365, Yahoo, Gmail, etc.. Also, vice versa, if I add contacts in Outlook 365, they will not be added to my iPhone contacts.
- iCloud calendar issues are as numerous as iCloud contacts. Unlike Contacts, I have several color-coded Calendars in Outlook 365 for Gmail, iCloud, Outlook iCloud, etc. The only calendar that shows appointments is the iCloud one, which doesn’t match all the appointments on my iPhone 13 Pro, so I cannot rely on it to plan my day, for reminders, etc. Also, vice versa, if I add an appointment to the iCloud calendar in Outlook 365, it will not be added to the iCloud calendar on my iPhone or iPad. So, I am forced to add appointments only on my iOS devices.
