Cannot Sync Contacts

[mkchill]

I have had my iPad for 13 months and have now lost the ability to sync contacts. I purchased the iPad with MobileMe, but never really used it. Also never had a problem with syncing.
Now when I sync, I get no contacts. I have spent hours trying to figure it out, including reading instructions. Can anyone give me an idea to try?

 

[wytey]

I have had my iPad for 13 months and have now lost the ability to sync contacts. I purchased the iPad with MobileMe, but never really used it. Also never had a problem with syncing.
Now when I sync, I get no contacts. I have spent hours trying to figure it out, including reading instructions. Can anyone give me an idea to try?

Mobileme is a dual service, the free service gives you find my ipad, the paid for service gives you mail, etc.

It sounds like the subscription has ended and you have not renewed?

http://www.apple.com/mobileme/setup/ipad.html

I bleed in 6 colours

 

[mkchill]

Correct. Not renewed. I really have no need for mobileme. All I am trying to do now is sync through usb with my pc to have my contacts with LiveMail move between my pc and iPad. I have the mail set up properly on "mail, contacts, calenders", but when I sync, the contacts do not transfer to the iPad.

 

[wytey]

Correct. Not renewed. I really have no need for mobileme. All I am trying to do now is sync through usb with my pc to have my contacts with LiveMail move between my pc and iPad. I have the mail set up properly on "mail, contacts, calenders", but when I sync, the contacts do not transfer to the iPad.

Did the problem only start since using livemail? As it seems to be an issue between ipad/iphone and livemail, is the calendar syncing fine?

I bleed in 6 colours

 

[mkchill]

It runs fine through syncing steps 1-5, 2-5 etc goes fine through contacts, calender, book marks, and runs through to step 4-5 in syncing then a message pops up "iPad cannot be synced. An error occured while writing to device". Calendar info transfers perfectly. I have Itunes 10.3.1 loaded and my iPad is up to date. At the end, the thing not loaded are the contacts.

 

[wytey]

It runs fine through steps 1-5, 2-5 etc goes fine through calender, book marks, and runs through to step 4-5 in syncing then a message pops up "iPad cannot be synced. An error occured while writing to device". Calendar info transfers perfectly. I have Itunes 10.3.1 loaded and my iPad is up to date. Just problem with contacts.

Did the problem by any chance start after updating itunes to 10.3.1?

I bleed in 6 colours

 

[mkchill]

Not 100% sure. I would guess that the problem preceeds the updating. I've been messing with it since last night and I just installed 10.3.1 this morning. The mail is working fine and when I look at Contacts under Settings, the only thing you can change is Sort order or Display order. My initial year of mobileme ended last week and that is the only change that I can think of. Contacts worked fine when mobileme was loaded. It is supposed to sync without that.

 

[wytey]

Not 100% sure. I would guess that the problem preceeds the updating. I've been messing with it since last night and I just installed 10.3.1 this morning. The mail is working fine and when I look at Contacts under Settings, the only thing you can change is Sort order or Display order. My initial year of mobileme ended last week and that is the only change that I can think of. Contacts worked fine when mobileme was loaded. It is supposed to sync without that.

Only thing i can think of is that it is an issue between livemail and ipad, a work around would be to just sync contacts to say outlook and then just sync contact from outlook to ipad until livemail sort it out

I bleed in 6 colours

 

[mkchill]

Finally got it to sync with gmail contacts that I sometimes use. Better than "no contacts". Thanks for the help. I am still getting a lot of "iPad cannot be synced. An error occured while writing to device". Is there any way to find out what this is in reference to?
Last question!

 

[wytey]

Finally got it to sync with gmail contacts that I sometimes use. Better than "no contacts". Thanks for the help. I am still getting a lot of "iPad cannot be synced. An error occured while writing to device". Is there any way to find out what this is in reference to?
Last question!

A few different solutions on the apple forums

Different usb cable and usb port... Not too sure about that one myself but worth a try
Rebooting...
Firewall/antivirus...
Checking authorisation in itunes after updating itunes...

I suspect the authorisation could be the best bet, as apparently when updating itunes, the authorisation sometimes gets messed up

I bleed in 6 colours

 

[twerppoet]

Finally got it to sync with gmail contacts that I sometimes use. Better than "no contacts". Thanks for the help. I am still getting a lot of "iPad cannot be synced. An error occured while writing to device". Is there any way to find out what this is in reference to?
Last question!

GMail is a good solution. If you can now get your computer's program to also sync with GMail you'll have a near perfect solution, and probably not have to re-add all those contacts to GMail by hand.

Be careful when choosing ovewrite, keep, and merge options. When in doubt, merge. GMail has tools to help get rid of duplicates.