Updated to IPhone 6..Help Please

New question.

I just noticed that during my upgrade from a 4S to the 6+, I must have boo, booed.

In my contacts I now have some names duplicated 3 times.

Must have come from the backups and restores some how and I am just too stupid to know that it will happen.

Ok, past that.

I went to apple iCloud on a base Computer and the file I see is different from the one on my iPhone.

So, where do I do the work to correct or update it??

Phone or Computer????

Then, how do I sync the two so I get what I want and not what some silly programmer gave me?

Da, George

George, I enjoyed our chat, as always, and I'm glad that you worked it out without resorting to cellular signal boosters or femtocell network extenders, which are apparently more hackable than I realized. Your solution is intriguing. Where do you have a VOIP option in your iPhone settings?

BTW, that 6 Plus is the size of a bloody raft. If you put it in a waterproof case, it could serve as a flotation device. You could attach an outboard motor. For landlubbers, it should come with wheels. :-D

As for contact duplicates, I ended up with a passel myself. Some are linked with my iPhone, some with iCloud, and some with CardDav, which apparently means they got sucked in from Gmail. As a businessman, I'm guessing you have a ton more contacts than I do; others will have to offer a workable solution for you. There are any number of apps and software that purport to do the job, but which ones are actually worth their salt?

"Where do you have a VOIP option in your iPhone settings?"

You told me, silly. Settings>Celluar>Enable LTE>Voice & Data

Then I did the Google for iPhone6 voip and got some hits to read about it to be sure.

Now I can get voice access in my Steel cave using (voLTE)

I ran some tests and it clearly is making the difference. If I turn it off, I go back to crap voice signal at me desk.

Later, Da
George

Dups, I will have to sort and delete them by hand. I played with an App when I had the same problem after leaving Blackberry and going to iPhone.

The App could not think and deleted stuff I wanted and kept stuff I did not want as of the 4 entries for a contact, one was a good phone #, another was an old phone # and then eMail address and updates.

I will have to hand groom this.

I wish I knew where the entries all came from.

Currently I am testing. I am making a change on my base Computer logged into iCloud with a full keyboard then watching to see the change move into my phone during a sync or backup.
or
Does the data move from my phone to the iCloud??

Trust but verify.

My test with Contact data on my phone and then in iCloud are a disaster.

I do not seem to be able to cause a change in either one and have that change show up on the other.

This does not make sense.

Now I am looking for a book on the subject. Any hints?

I keep getting multiples of my contacts all over the place also. I guess I've just never really figured out how the synch works and I made the mistake of saying yes at some point recently to iCloud synch and now my Outlook on my computer has contacts there instead (not in addition to) on the PC ... aargh!

There are a number of things that may cause duplicate contacts to show up, but the most common is to have your contacts syncing to different sources. If, for example, you have a contacts list in Gmail and another contacts list in iCloud, and you are syncing your device to both, you're going to have problems. Another common scenario is to have your iPhone contacts syncing to one source (iCloud, for example) and your computer syncing to another (Gmail, for example), while at the same time having your computer and iPhone syncing to each other. That is, each device is syncing to only one source, but then the two devices are syncing to each other. Hilarity ensues.

Having said that, you CAN manage more than one contacts list from more than one source on the same iPhone. It will differentiate between two (or more) sources by keeping them in separate "Groups." But if the same contact is in more than one Group, when you view in "All Contacts" view, you will see the multiple listings for that person.

Brick. You seem to know. In my case.

I do not use Google or Gmail. I have backed up to iCloud and my own base computer. For the conversion I did a backup to Verizon but I do not remember any sync or down load from Verizon.

After the conversion from the 4S to 6+ I have contacts that I deleted 2 or 3 years ago.

Where can they be coming from and when?

George,

I think my issue is a bit different, but maybe similar. I sync my iPhone only to Outlook on my desktop computer. Lately, I have found that I have multiple contacts on my iPhone and sometimes, contacts have disappeared from my Outlook file, so I need to 'Share' that contact from my iPhone via sending an email to Outlook, then saving the contact back in the file. Drives me nuts, but living with it.

jgberkeley said:

"Where do you have a VOIP option in your iPhone settings?"

You told me, silly. Settings>Celluar>Enable LTE>Voice & Data

Then I did the Google for iPhone6 voip and got some hits to read about it to be sure.

Now I can get voice access in my Steel cave using (voLTE)

I ran some tests and it clearly is making the difference. If I turn it off, I go back to crap voice signal at me desk.

Later, Da
George

Sorry for skipping back to this when the conversation has moved on to Contacts, but it was a dohhhhh moment on my part. I still think of VOIP (Voice over IP) as the kind of telephony one might have at home, like Tom Reingold has championed in past threads. Until the latest iteration, Verizon couldn't provide simultaneous voice and data. That is the point of voLTE. So-- my bad.

Meanwhile, after some awkward interactions with Tech Support, Verizon admits that I live on the fringe of an LTE cell, and that they may possibly do something about it in 6-12 months. Maybe. Or not. They have Network Extenders only for the 3G band, so that wouldn't help; my 3G reception is acceptable. My last possible return date for my iPhone 6 is in a few days and I've decided to keep it. I use mostly Wifi anyway, and if I feel the need to get all 21st century, I'll go hang out at the UPS and annoy Da George's employees. :-D

Last night I converted my spouse 4S to 6+.

Oh, my gosh! I started out at 9 PM, I was up most the night and did not finish until 5 AM. Even at that, not all things are restored or working.

Several lessons.
1. Keep phone synced to base computer
2. Keep phone version of iTunes current
3. Keep Computer iTunes current
4. Keep Computer OS current.
5. Keep iTunes and Apps purchased synced to iTunes

jgberkeley said:

Brick. You seem to know.

I've had my share of troubles with contacts, yes.

jgberkeley said:

I do not use Google or Gmail. I have backed up to iCloud and my own base computer. For the conversion I did a backup to Verizon but I do not remember any sync or down load from Verizon.

After the conversion from the 4S to 6+ I have contacts that I deleted 2 or 3 years ago.

Where can they be coming from and when?

I'm not sure what you mean when you say you backed up to Verizon. (Not doubting your word; just don't know anything about doing that.) It sounds to me like what has happened, somewhere along your way, is that you somehow got your current contacts mixed up with an old backup or something. That's just a guess.

I think probably your best bet is to go into your iCloud settings on each of your devices and turn off contacts syncing. Then go to iCloud.com, sign in, and check the contacts list there. Clean them up, merge or delete any dupes, and get that contacts list exactly like you want it to be (this will be excruciatingly slow and mind-numbingly boring), and then export the entire list to your desktop as a backup. Then delete all the contacts on all your devices and on your computer, and then finally, turn the contacts sync back on for each device. This should result in the same, clean contacts list on all your machines. (Assuming this is true, you can go ahead and trash that backup list you exported to your desktop.)

This is basically what I did to fix my problems a couple years ago. Since then everything has stayed in sync for me, knock on wood....

Good luck.

The Verizon App is a Backup Assist App.

I used it when I moved from the Blackberry to iPhone as the best path for selected data.

This time I just backed my 4S up to it, Just In case apple failed me. I did not use it to restore anything.

Out of curiosity, if you open your Contacts app and press "Groups" up in the left corner, do you see more than one group in the list? One Group should be "All Contacts," and there may be others. If so, does turning any one of them off make the dupes disappear?

If, as you say, you are only syncing to one source for Contacts, then theoretically, each Group should be a subset of "All Contacts." But if turning one of the Groups off makes the dupes go away, then that Group is likely the problem. There may be some way to delete that Group, if that's the case. (I don't know for sure, since all my Groups are a subset of "All Contacts." I'm just spitballin'.)

I did not know about that.

I have two groups that are subsets of All Contacts. All iCloud and All on My iPhone.

If I turn off All on my iPhone the dups go away. like 100% of them.

That leaves only All iCloud. Some contacts are missing here and are missing when I go the Chrome and login to the iCloud. Hummmmm

If I turn that off iCloud as well I have no contacts.

If I turn on only All on my iPhone I get some contacts with 2 listings, but not 3.

So this tells me stuff, and I am head scratching. I'm thinking I want to clean up on my phone and somehow push that up the iCloud. Then do an edit in iCloud and pull that back to the phone, right?

Any change you make on your phone should be reflected in iCloud IF you work in the "All iCloud" list. You cannot count on changes you make in the "All On My iPhone" list to sync to iCloud.

If I were in your shoes, I would sign in to iCloud.com in Chrome and make all additions, corrections, and/or deletions necessary, making this your final, finished, master contact list. (If there are any contacts in your phone's "All On My iPhone" list that aren't in your iCloud list, be sure to add them to your iCloud list while you're at it.) Once that list is correct and complete, I would export it to my desktop (again, just as a backup). Then, I would go to the phone, turn OFF "All iCloud," turn ON All On My iPhone, and delete everything there. Finally, turn All On My iPhone back off, and leave it off for the rest of recorded time. Turn on All iCloud, and your new master list should show up.

Assuming all this goes as planned, and assuming you always keep All iCloud turned on and All On My iPhone turned off, your list should stay in sync from now on.

Oh, and if you have an iPad, you will need to delete everything in "All On My iPad," and then turn that off, too. Same for your computer. The point being, obviously, that you want all your contacts to be in the cloud, not saved locally on any of your devices.

Brick. You are making a lot of sense out of this. Thanx for taking the time.

I Googled and printed the Apple sheet on Sync iPhone using USB and noted that Contacts are not Synced thru the computer to iCloud.

I'm going to follow your path. I have more than a lot of stuff on my iPhone that I want to keep. How can I push it all up to the iCloud??? then I will do the hack and edit job. At that point I will go all iCloud.

What do you think?

jgberkeley said:

Brick. You are making a lot of sense out of this.

Cool. I don't hear that often enough.

jgberkeley said:

I have more than a lot of stuff on my iPhone that I want to keep. How can I push it all up to the iCloud???

That's a tough question to answer in general terms. It depends on the data you want (and don't want) to back up, which apps you're using, how much iCloud space you have, whether you're using the new iCloud Drive or just the regular iCloud backup, etc.

I don't personally keep much of anything stored locally on my phone, but I also only use iCloud for a few things. This may change as more app developers begin to make use of iCloud Drive, but for now my iCloud backup is relatively sparse. I'll tell you my setup, and you can take or leave what you like:

I use iCloud for my iPhone backups. It's automated, it works, and I never have to think about it. I almost never sync my phone to the computer. Occasionally when there is an OS update, my phone doesn't have enough space on it to do the update wirelessly. When that happens, I'll plug in to do the update. Also, I always do an encrypted backup when I'm getting a new phone. The iCloud backups are not encrypted, and therefore they do not include any passwords you may have saved on your phone. Using an encrypted backup on your computer will save you having to re-enter all your username and password combinations when you set up the new phone. These are the only times I ever sync to the computer.

In my iCloud settings, I have "Documents & Data" turned on for Pages and Numbers, and the scanning app I use, Scanner Pro. For everything else, I just have it backing up the app settings, not the data. This might be where you and I differ, depending on what you need/want to save. For example, lots of (most?) people have iCloud backing up their photos, but I don't. I have Photo Stream set to back up to iPhoto on my laptop, so I don't keep an additional iCloud backup of them.

Pretty much everything else on my phone is housed in some sort of cloud service, too. Just not iCloud. I use Dropbox and Evernote for any files or information I intend to keep. They are both free, they both offer apps for the phone and for the computer, and they are both accessible via any web browser. They are both available for Mac and Windows. (Tip: You can configure Dropbox to do automatic backups of your photos.)

My iTunes music library is uploaded to Google Music, which is also free and cross-platform. I can access my via the iPhone app, or from any computer connected to the internet.

So that's pretty much it. I don't know if that's helpful or if it's just me rambling on about a bunch of irrelevant stuff that you don't care about....

For now, I am very focused and specific.

I want to move what I have on my phone for Contacts, up into the iCloud; and have it append and sync so both are the same.

Short of that just move what I have on my iPhone up to the iCloud and add to that file.

Then I will edit the file on iCloud with a full keyboard, even larger screen and fewer steps based on tests.

Then when I am done, I want to move or sync the i Cloud Contacts list into the iPhone.

You have provided great hints, I just need to get there.

And, part of the problem is that per the Apple documents, sync using a base PC and iTunes, thru a USB does not say you can do that.

Oh Lord, please grant me the vision so that I can go forth.

Da, George

Was just reading Google searches on the problem in General. Hit a lot of data.

The big one is that if you back up using iTunes and also use iCloud, you can get duplicate contacts.

Well, that is a clue.

Now I have 20 some pages of things to do to fix it. Lots to digest, hoping someone has already.

jgberkeley said:

The big one is that if you back up using iTunes and also use iCloud, you can get duplicate contacts.

Yeah, the main thing is you want to pick one sync method and stick with it. You'll get there. I promise, it works pretty much flawlessly once you get it going. It's just that now that you've got this problem, there are a lot of steps needed to fix it.