Upgrade disasters and PITA stuff

[jaoneill]

This new 27" iMac was sitting on the floor in the box it came in since it arrived four months ago because, although feeling it was time to upgrade, I dreaded the switchover from my perfectly good mid 2010 model. Migration assistant worked seamlessly but I have been dealing with the usual nonsense with resetting, putting in passwords/codes for all the various apps, on line accounts, etc, etc. just as I had expected. Yesterday, tired of looking at the red slash over the preferences icon in the dock, I entered my apple ID password into iCloud; BIG mistake. This morning when I opened "contacts" I panicked; thousands of entries have disappeared, leaving only a handful contacts. WTH? How do I get my contact data back? Help would be very much appreciated!

 

[MacInWin]

Do you have any backup of the data on the old machine? Lets start there.

As for what happened, contacts are one of the things which can be synced across iCloud to all of the devices logged into iCloud. That way a change made on one device appears on all of them, usually pretty quickly. So, by logging in the new machine (assuming that was the one you logged in on, you didn't actually say which) whatever was set in the System Preferences/iCloud section started syncing. And if you left the boxes ticked to "Optimize Mac Storage" under the window for iCloud options, or left "Desktop & Documents" checked in the Options for iCloud Drive in that same area, you may find that the items on the Desktop and in your own folder "Documents" are no longer on the internal drive, but have been moved to iCloud Drive. If that has happened, you will need to take some steps to download them again to somewhere on your internal drive (Not Documents, but maybe a new folder somewhere) and then uncheck the box to stop the sync and move the recovered documents back to your Documents and Desktop folders under your own account. Maybe you'll get lucky on that one but I would definitely check.

 

[jaoneill]

Do you have any backup of the data on the old machine? Lets start there.

As for what happened, contacts are one of the things which can be synced across iCloud to all of the devices logged into iCloud. That way a change made on one device appears on all of them, usually pretty quickly. So, by logging in the new machine (assuming that was the one you logged in on, you didn't actually say which) whatever was set in the System Preferences/iCloud section started syncing. And if you left the boxes ticked to "Optimize Mac Storage" under the window for iCloud options, or left "Desktop & Documents" checked in the Options for iCloud Drive in that same area, you may find that the items on the Desktop and in your own folder "Documents" are no longer on the internal drive, but have been moved to iCloud Drive. If that has happened, you will need to take some steps to download them again to somewhere on your internal drive (Not Documents, but maybe a new folder somewhere) and then uncheck the box to stop the sync and move the recovered documents back to your Documents and Desktop folders under your own account. Maybe you'll get lucky on that one but I would definitely check.

Thanks for the reply. I intentionally avoided having anything on iCloud but the contact list on my iPhone, which contains only names and phone numbers. I don't trust any of this cloud stuff and turned it all off on the mid 2010 machine early on. I set up this new machine last weekend and finally got tired of looking at the red alert on the preferences icon in the doc yesterday and plugged in the password for my apple ID. It obviously did the iCloud thing by default. Phone rang, out the door to a meeting and by the time I got back to it, the bloody cloud thing had disappeared my contacts. I went in and unchecked all of the options but it was too late. Other than a few entries that I made in the last week it's all on the older machine and easily recoverable except something is kerfluey with the contacts app. Spent an hour on the phone this afternoon with apple support and it looks as though my best avenue (per the apple tech) is to simply try the upgrade to Monterey and hope the contact program gets set back to normal. I thought about a Time Machine recovery back to the day before but I hate to lose two days of data and all of the password nonsense that I have been entering.

 

[Rod]

if you left the boxes ticked to "Optimize Mac Storage" under the window for iCloud options, or left "Desktop & Documents" checked in the Options for iCloud Drive in that same area

Maybe you could just check this first. If you did either or both of the above the solution will be somewhat different.
PS. Updating to Monterey will not fix anything unless it was a "clean" install requiring a full setup. Anyhing else will keep the same settings you currently have.

 

[jaoneill]

Maybe you could just check this first. If you did either or both of the above the solution will be somewhat different.
PS. Updating to Monterey will not fix anything unless it was a "clean" install requiring a full setup. Anyhing else will keep the same settings you currently have.

I rendered iCloud inactive; never again to connect to anything. I am about to update to Monterey regardless. If it doesn't solve the contact app problem I'll just find a different address book app. I am also seriously considering using Time Machine to go back two days because I also lost my calendar entries and the Lord only knows what else.

 

[chscag]

I suspect that what you were told by Jake is probably what occurred. One of the problems with iCloud is that folks who have run into problems with it is because they do not understand how to use it or how it works.

You can give Time Machine restore a try in order to get your contacts back but from past experiences with other members, restoring contacts and calendar events are hit and miss.

Let us know.

 

[Rod]

I do understand that some people simply do not trust "cloud" storage or syncing but Apple products are largely designed around the premise that all devices will share application data such as, Reminders, Calendars, Email, Maps, Find My, Contacts, Notes, iPhone/iPad Backups and iCloud Drive. Change or add to one and they all change. What with 2FA, Trusted Devices and encrypted storage I have never heard of a data breach affecting iCloud.

Having said all that it is still possible to return to the old days when USB cable syncing was the only way. You can still do a one time, "replace everything on this Mac with what's on your iPhone." It does mean keeping one device eg. computer up to date at all times but in my mind you are much more likely to have your privacy threatened via your ISP, email server, mobile card readers, active pixels in emails or malware than by an encrypted cloud based syncing service. People can easily get more information from your garbage can or cloning your phone.

My point is, if you are online you are visible and there are so many techniques that are deployed by malicious actors today it is impossible to avoid them all. So, why avoid one extremely convenient and beneficial "risk" for the sake of eliminating one outside chance?

There are two major problems in the world of computing today, data loss and data security. Data loss is far more prevalent and significant in it's effects.

 

[IWT]

I am also seriously considering using Time Machine to go back two days

Are you comfortable & confident with the process of recovering data from Time Machine?

If yes; good luck. If No; would you like a step-by-step guide on how to do this?

Ian

 

[jaoneill]

Are you comfortable & confident with the process of recovering data from Time Machine?

If yes; good luck. If No; would you like a step-by-step guide on how to do this?

Ian

I tried the Time Machine route today, it worked for my calendar but not the contacts. The contacts app refuses to accept any data unless it is typed in. That bloody iCloud had to have done something behind the scenes to screw it up. This is precisely the reason I don't want to depend day-to-day on off site anything.Three times in the last few years our internet connection went down for a week or more. If I had had the "Cloud" versions of QuickBooks or MS Office that they had been heavily promoting, I would have had to shut the doors and send eight employees home for the duration. I would agree that iCloud is brilliant in theory and probably in practice if it fits ones needs; to me it's not worth this kind of potential grief. I have already wasted a small fortune on this (in billable hours) and its not over yet. If I had only known that entering that password would connect me to iCloud (with all of the default boxes checked to boot), it never would have happened. My bride has graciously offered to do the manual entry of the contact data, bless her soul, so I can put this crap in the rearview mirror.
End of rant......

Jim

 

[Rod]

So, it was not a privacy or online security concern. I apologise for thinking that you may have been one of the "tinfoil hat" brigade not that they don't have some relevant concerns.
Now I'm a bit confused, I don't think anyone was suggesting that you use online applications. They are a different kettle of fish altogether, for exactly the same reason I do not even use MS Office 365. I want all my apps to be independent of an internet connection and for many years refused to have any of my data anywhere but local, I have never used an online email client either.
Syncing on the other hand is completely different. Syncing just means that your local data is backed up elsewhere for the purposes of sharing (or restoring) to other devices.
When you synced your new computer to iCloud you effectively synced an empty folder/file because your other devices weren't sharing thier data with iCloud so it erased what Migration Assistant had copied.
If you are not concerned about the security angle my suggestion would be that you login to iCloud on all of your devices and set your preferences the same on them all. You don't have to have every one on, I don't use the iCloud photo library but I do use most of the rest. It's really an "all in" or all out decision. But it has nothing to do with "live" apps.

 

[IWT]

Contacts can be hit or miss as Admin chscag said in post #6.

This is what I presume you did:

Open the Contacts app. Now open Time Machine. Scroll back several days till you see all your contacts.

Then, Click on the first one. Hold down the Shift key and keep holding it down as you scroll down right to the very last contact. With the Shift key held down, Click on the last entry.

By doing this, you will have highlighted every single Contact.

Now Click on Restore.

That is the method. Is this what you did?

Ian

 

[jaoneill]

Rod, No offense taken. One does what one can for security purposes, etc to avoid unauthorized access and manipulation of ones data. I see what happened to me here as just such a breach that I foolishly invited. Your explanation of iCloud seems perfectly reasonable BUT; my grandson set up my new iPhone 12 last May and had iCloud turned on. My phone contacts contained many of the same names and phone numbers as the iMac (and many, many more) but had no email or street addresses, only phone numbers. Now, not only did I lose the contacts on the computer, but I just looked at the phone and most names are double entries that i will have to scroll through forever. If, in fact, all that iCloud does is to share the data, why didn't the same entries appear on the computer?
My point is that I use the phone as a phone, the computer as a workstation and while having them synced might occasionally be handy it is by no means something I need. The phone has the numbers to call, the computer has whatever I might need in the office. I was perfectly content with a flip phone and my old "bubble" iMac. I appreciate the speed and the 27" screen of this machine but have never, and likely never will, use 90% of the "built-in" features and software.
Bottom line I guess is that I am a "type A" luddite with no patience for extraneous crap.

 

[jaoneill]

Update: Ok, the mac extortionists apparently were holding my data for ransom to force me into using their technology! Well, they won; it appears that I will live with my contact list synced on iCloud, which is not all bad, but certainly uncalled for.
The Process: I activated iCloud with only the contacts icon checked and my contact list reappeared, sort of; in duplicate. I'm only assuming that the list is complete but, as on my iPhone, every name appears twice, whether or not it originally was on both devices; a major cluster f--k but an elementary exercise to go through them and delete what I don't need. What a PITA!

PS Ian- I had followed the procedure as you had outlined to no avail, but the solution that I found (above) is at this point acceptable.

 

[IWT]

A just if not perfect outcome. Well done. @jaoneill

Ian

 

[Rod]

Yes, well done and, you don't have to get rid of the duplicates in one hit. You can just delete or Merge duplicates. I usually merge them unless I'm absolutely sure that they are identical.

 

[Slydude]

When you start looking at the duplicates, check the settings on your phone. The phone may be showing you both the contacts stored locally on the device and the contacts in iCloud. The same thing can happen with the calendar app.

 

[jaoneill]

Thank you for the heads-up I will merge rather than delete so that if it is a settings issue I won't be purging my list!