iCloud confusion with family

[Howard Brazee]

This is an old problem that occasionally appears to be fixed.

My wife has an iMac, an iPhone, an Apple Watch, and extra iCloud storage space.

I have an iMac, an iPhone, and an iPad.


I want us to share contacts, but sometimes I find that only one of us can have our Contacts have "Make This My Card". That's silly. I'm trying to figure out settings for having the same set of contacts shared without this happening.

Right now my wife’s name and photo is defined as “My card” on all of our mac’s iPhones, Apple Watch, and iPad. I’ve changed this periodically, but in a few days one or the other of us takes that role. (Changes propagate slowly, making debugging difficult)


Another thing that takes some time is the iCloud web site. At the moment,

https://www.icloud.com/#settings is correct has My wife as organizer, and two of my IDs as Parents - different photo of my wife than what is in contacts.


When I go on my Mac to System Preferences/Icloud - I see a picture of my wife with my ID under it. This is a different picture of my wife than I have seen in Contacts or iCloud.

On this screen on my Mac, I currently have Contacts not checked.

On this screen on my wife’s Mac, she currently has Contacts checked.

When I clicked on “Manage Family” I see my wife as organizer, and both Parent/Guardian photos and names are my two IDs.



In my iPad, settings/Apple ID, next to my name, is a photo of my wife.

In iCloud, I currently have contacts turned on


In my iPhone, settings/Apple ID, next to my name, is a photo of me.

In iCloud, I currently have contacts turned off.





What combination of settings do I need to have?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

I would deal directly with Apple on this one, as the Family Sharing in iCloud can be a bit tricky. I would hate for you to lose data and/or mess up your accounts from my suggestions, as I have not used Family Sharing.

Sorry,

C

 

[Howard Brazee]

I finally am sharing contacts between my wife with her iMac, iPhone, & Apple Watch - and me with my iMac, iPad, & iPhone. Here's how:

1. I need a third Apple ID (System Preferences/Internet Accounts). The only thing checked off in this account is “Contacts”. This is set up in both of our Macs, along with each other’s iCloud accounts. In my wife’s iCloud account here, I do *not* have contacts checked (I do have calendar checked).

1. In System Preferences/iCloud/iCloud Drive my wife was the owner of “Family”, and I was a parent (this was the way it has been for some time).
2. In Contacts on our Macs, I added the third iCloud account - which only had contacts turned on.
3. I dragged all of my contacts *except* my contact and my wife’s contact to this third iCloud account, and then deleted them from our default iCloud accounts.
4. So now each of our iMacs can see our own iCloud accounts with just our two contacts - and the third iCloud account with all of the other contacts.
5. Somehow I made the third account as the default and contacts only see two accounts.
6. On our iPhones and iPad, I made sure Settings/Passwords & Accounts had iCloud and this third account enabled for Contacts. (I also have my wife’s account because I have it enabled for calendars - but not contacts now)
7. Then on our Settings/Contacts, set the Default Account to the third account.
8. At first I didn’t have these all set, and my iCloud contacts got populated with all of the contacts again, but that’s fixed now.
9. I also have renamed my various iCloud accounts (if they’re all named iCloud, it’s confusing) - where I can. Some places I don’t seem to be able to do this.

 

[Howard Brazee]

Besides not figuring out how to set the default account on my Mac's contact, I discovered another issue - which the Apple Phone support person saw existed on her Mac too.

I went to System Preferences/iCloud and try to replace my photo. I clicked on it, and "edit" came up. I selected "photos" and there were no photos found. There are lots of photos in my Photos library.