Cleaning up and sharing iCloud Contacts

Question

Level 2

220 points

Cleaning up and sharing iCloud Contacts

We are two users in the same house, each with our own separate iCloud account. Through Family Sharing, we share Contacts and they are a mess. We have duplicate Contacts (which I keep merging) showing up in Contacts and Calendar birthdays on the desktop iMac, both iPhones, and both iPads.

I have begun to clean up Contacts in the main iCloud owner account. We should both be viewing the same changes on all devices but we aren't. Different devices have different versions of Contacts and the changes I've made in the owner's iCloud Contacts account on the website are not showing up on any devices, including the desktop iMac that is logged into that same iCloud owner account.

What is it I should be doing to create one iCloud Contact list that is then shared by two people across all devices? Why are the edited changes I've made so far not reflected anywhere? Help would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Posted on Aug 21, 2024 3:16 PM

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Answer 1

sberman

Level 10

268,269 points

Aug 21, 2024 3:27 PM in response to Dedo

Sharing an account’s contacts with another person (such that changes or additions one person makes are transmitted to another person) requires a third party app.

One contact at a time can be statically shared (a snapshot, not to receive updates) using “Share Contact”.

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Answer 2

sberman

Level 10

268,269 points

Aug 21, 2024 3:52 PM in response to Dedo

An Apple ID should never be shared. Exactly one person logs into each account.

Make sure that each family member has a unique Apple ID - Apple Support

Choose a different approach to sharing contacts. I share contacts with my spouse statically, one at a time. Further, we each have our own, unique contacts that are not shared.

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Answer 3

sberman

Level 10

268,269 points

Aug 21, 2024 5:30 PM in response to Dedo

Dedo wrote:

Does apple suggest any particular third party app?

No.

Can I import the existing Contact list into my Apple ID …

No. Contacts are exported by the sender. When those exported contacts are incorporated into a recipient’s account, any change the recipient makes is not seen by the sender.

Export contacts on iPhone - Apple Support

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Answer 4

Dedo Author

Level 2

220 points

Aug 21, 2024 3:44 PM in response to sberman

What do I gain or lose, if I log into the other person's iCloud account? Will that allow sharing one Contacts? We've did that for a long time but seemed to have issues with messages, FT, my watch ringing for their phone calls.

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