Cannot sync address book on Mac with iPhone 4S

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How can I sync my Address book on my Mac with the address book on iCloud and on my iPhone 4S? My OS is Lion and my Mac is a Mac Book Pro.

I notice that any changes I make in my address book on my Mac are never sync'd to iCloud or my iPhone 4S.

It is sometimes easier updating a contact file on my Mac rather than on my iPhone. Now I'd like all the changes in my Mac Address Book to be merged with the Address Book on iCloud.

I've tried so many ways to do this that it now appears I have duplicated every contact. Yet the changes in my Mac Address Book are only on the Mac and nowhere else. Any suggestions how to fix this mess? Thanks!
 
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Mac Mini i5 (2014 High Sierra), iPhone X, Apple Watch, iPad Pro 12.9, AppleTV (4)
Apple - iCloud - Learn how to set up iCloud on all your devices.

There are setup instructions for each device at the link above.

I'd suggest turning iCloud off on all devices. Back up your contacts on your Mac first so that if something goes wrong you have all the info. Then remove all contacts from your Mac address books.
Then use the instructions to turn on iCloud (making sure you use the same AppleID on all devices.
This will sync from your phone to your Macs and from now on changes made anywhere will be reflected on all devices.
 
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Thank you for your response. I'm a little confused about how the contacts on my Mac will ever get into iCloud or my phone. I have backed up all my contacts on my Mac. But if I remove them from my Mac then the new contacts I've added via my Mac (I realized after this post there are quite a few) and any I've changed will be deleted and only exist on the backup. They don't exist anywhere else, not even my phone. So I really need a solution that takes the contacts on my Mac as a baseline. What you've suggested doesn't seem to pull the contacts on the Mac into the scheme of things. Or am I missing something?
 
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The principal is the same. Keep the one lot of contacts on your mac to use that as the 'master' and delete them from Everywhere else before turning iCloud on correctly
 
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It Worked!

Thank you so much! It worked.

In the future, how do I ensure that any changes made in my Address Book on my Mac will also sync, or is that out of the question as long as iCloud is active? I like using iCloud but the reality is that if someone sends me new contact info via email on my Mac I'm going to add that info on the Mac, like directions to their location. Or, does this require that all changes to contacts be done on my phone or go through this same process as you described?

Thanks so much for your help!
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Mac Mini i5 (2014 High Sierra), iPhone X, Apple Watch, iPad Pro 12.9, AppleTV (4)
Now that iCloud is setup correctly changes made on any of your devices will be automatically passed to the others. Doesn't matter which one you use they will all be kept in sync
 

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