iOS 7 shares everyone's contacts?
November 3, 2013 7:31 AM Subscribe
An office full of iPhones. As each person updates to iOS7, their Contacts show up on the other updated phones. Why?
This is the issue plaguing my wife's office. They are a small office of about eight people. They all carry company-provided iPhones, most of the 4s variety. They all share their iCal calendars via a single iCloud account, so that they all know each other's schedules. Up until now, that has worked perfectly.
However, as individuals update their phones to iOS 7, they are discovering that they now see the personal contacts from other iOS 7 phones, all mixed into their own Contacts. They don't see Contacts from the remaining iOS 6 phones, and the iOS 6 phones don't see the iOS 7 Contacts. This has led to a bunch of mistaken (and embarrassing) messages intended for family members, but sent to people on someone else's Contact list.
As far as anyone can tell, no settings have been changed. Calendars are still the only things set to share. They've spoken with the Genius at the local Apple Store, but they were stumped, too.
If anyone has any suggestions as to why this is happening, and how can it be corrected, they would be very appreciative.
This is the issue plaguing my wife's office. They are a small office of about eight people. They all carry company-provided iPhones, most of the 4s variety. They all share their iCal calendars via a single iCloud account, so that they all know each other's schedules. Up until now, that has worked perfectly.
However, as individuals update their phones to iOS 7, they are discovering that they now see the personal contacts from other iOS 7 phones, all mixed into their own Contacts. They don't see Contacts from the remaining iOS 6 phones, and the iOS 6 phones don't see the iOS 7 Contacts. This has led to a bunch of mistaken (and embarrassing) messages intended for family members, but sent to people on someone else's Contact list.
As far as anyone can tell, no settings have been changed. Calendars are still the only things set to share. They've spoken with the Genius at the local Apple Store, but they were stumped, too.
If anyone has any suggestions as to why this is happening, and how can it be corrected, they would be very appreciative.
Response by poster: Yes, it's a single company iCloud account which everyone points their calendars to. I, too, suspect, that iCloud sharing in iOS 7 is somehow grabbing contacts along with calendars.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:49 AM on November 3, 2013
posted by Thorzdad at 10:49 AM on November 3, 2013
Yes, iCloud sharing in iOS 7 includes contacts. You can turn off the contact sharing feature on each phone from the iCloud menu under Settings. I think you'll have to do this for each phone using iOS 7 (and any other phones that are later upgraded to iOS 7).
posted by jdgreen at 2:19 PM on November 3, 2013
posted by jdgreen at 2:19 PM on November 3, 2013
iCloud also shared contacts in iOS 6 (I know because my wife and I used that feature). It may be that the default changed in iOS 7.
In any case as jdgreen says, you can control what gets synced via the Settings app.
You're probably better off sharing a google calendar or something than having all of you share one iCloud account though. iCloud wasn't really made for groupware.
posted by alms at 5:43 PM on November 3, 2013
In any case as jdgreen says, you can control what gets synced via the Settings app.
You're probably better off sharing a google calendar or something than having all of you share one iCloud account though. iCloud wasn't really made for groupware.
posted by alms at 5:43 PM on November 3, 2013
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If it's the latter, then my first suspicion is that for some reason (an iOS bug, perhaps), the contacts are getting shared anyway, regardless of the fact that the phones are set not to sync contacts.
My suggestion would be to remove the central account from the phones and then share that account's calendars with everyone's individual accounts. That's less perfect, in terms of IT admin overhead, but it makes more sense from an organisation point of view.
posted by gmb at 8:21 AM on November 3, 2013