If your iCloud Contacts, Calendars or Reminders aren't syncing

Find out what to do if your iCloud Contacts, Calendars or Reminders aren't appearing on all of the devices that you use with iCloud.

Things to check first

  1. Check the system status of iCloud Contacts, Calendars or Reminders for service outages or connection issues.

  2. Make sure your iPhone and iPad have the latest version of iOS or iPadOS, or that your Mac has the latest version of macOS.

  3. Make sure you’ve signed in to iCloud with the same Apple Account on all of your devices. Then check you’ve turned on Contacts, Calendars and Reminders in your iCloud settings.

  4. Check that the date and time settings on your device are correct for your current location.

  5. If you use iCloud for Windows to sync your Contacts and Calendar with Outlook on your PC, make sure you've updated to the latest version of Windows. Then sign out and sign back in again.

Try the steps for your device

If you still need help, try the below steps for your device.

iOS and iPadOS

After each step, check your contacts, calendars or reminders.

Restart the Contacts, Calendar or Reminders app

  1. Close the app.

  2. Return to your Home Screen.

  3. Wait about one minute, then open the app again.

Refresh your contacts

To refresh your contacts, open the Contacts app and swipe down on the list. To refresh your contact groups, tap Lists in the top left-hand corner, then swipe down on the list.

Refresh your calendars

  1. Open the Calendar app.

  2. Tap the Calendars tab.

  3. Swipe down on the list to refresh your events.

    An iPhone screen showing the Calendars tab being refreshed.

Check your app settings

If you use multiple groups or accounts in the Contacts or Calendars app, make sure your iCloud Contacts and Calendars are set to appear:

Change how often your calendars update:

  1. Tap Settings, tap Apps, then tap Calendar. In iOS 17 or earlier, tap Settings, then tap Calendar.

  2. Tap Sync.

  3. If All Events is selected, choose a specific timeframe instead, such as Events 1 Month Back. If a specific timeframe is selected, choose All Events instead.

  4. Return to your Home Screen.

  5. Wait a few minutes, then open the Calendar app. Tap the Calendars tab and swipe down to refresh.

As the iCloud Birthdays calendar is updated daily, changes to birthdays may not appear in the Calendars app until the next day.

Set iCloud Contacts, Calendars or Reminders as your default

If your contacts, calendars and reminders are in iCloud, then iCloud will automatically update your information. If your information is in a third-party account, such as Google or Yahoo, you can change your default account to iCloud. Changing your default account to iCloud won't move your existing information from a third-party service to iCloud.

Contacts

To see which account your contacts are in:

  1. Open the Contacts app and tap Lists in the top left-hand corner.

  2. Select "All iCloud" to see your list of contacts in iCloud. If you can't see the contact you're looking for, it may be stored in a different account.

  3. Tap Lists in the top left-hand corner, then tap "All [account]" to check each individual account that's been set up for Contacts.

  4. If you have a copy of your contacts from a third-party service in vCard format version 3.0 or later, you can import the contacts into iCloud.

Set iCloud as the default account for your contacts:

  1. Tap Settings, tap Apps, then tap Contacts. In iOS 17 or earlier, tap Settings, then Contacts.

  2. Tap Default Account.

  3. Select iCloud.

Calendars and Reminders

To check which account your calendars are in, open the Calendar app, then tap the Calendars tab.

Set an iCloud calendar as the default calendar:

  1. Tap Settings, tap Apps, then tap Calendar. In iOS 17 or earlier, tap Settings, then Calendar.

  2. Tap Default Calendar.

  3. Tap a calendar under iCloud to make it your default calendar.

    An iPhone screen showing Personal selected as the Default Calendar.

Set an iCloud reminders list as the default list:

  1. Tap Settings, tap Apps, then tap Reminders. In iOS 17 or earlier, tap Settings, then Reminders.

  2. Tap Default List.

  3. Tap a list under iCloud to make it your default list.

Delete overdue reminders

  1. Open the Reminders app.

  2. Go to the Today view and check for any overdue reminders.

  3. If you find any, tap the empty circle to complete the reminder, or delete the reminder.

Repeat these steps on each device that's using iCloud Reminders.

Restart your iPhone or iPad

Force sync Calendar data on Apple Watch

  1. Open the Watch app on your iPhone and tap the My Watch tab.

  2. Tap General, then tap Reset.

  3. Tap Reset Sync Data.

If a family member set up your Apple Watch for you, you can’t force sync Calendar data.

macOS

After each step, check your contacts, calendars or reminders.

Refresh your calendars

You can refresh your calendars from the Calendars app:

  1. Open the Calendar app.

  2. From the View menu, choose Refresh Calendars.

Since the iCloud Birthdays calendar is updated hourly, you may not see changes to birthdays in the Contacts or Calendars app for an hour.

Check your default Calendar, Reminders and Contacts account

If you store and edit your events in iCloud instead of another place, such as On My Mac, Exchange or Google, then iCloud will automatically update your calendars. If you use multiple accounts on your Mac, such as iCloud, Gmail and Yahoo, make sure iCloud is your default Calendar account:

  1. Open the Calendar app.

  2. Choose Calendar > Settings.

  3. In the General tab, make sure one of your iCloud calendars is the default.

If you store and edit your contacts in iCloud instead of another place, such as On My Mac, Exchange or Google, then iCloud will automatically update your contacts. If you use multiple accounts on your Mac, such as iCloud, Gmail and Yahoo, make sure iCloud is your default Contacts account:

  1. Open the Contacts app.

  2. Choose Contacts > Accounts.

  3. Click the iCloud tab. Make sure you’ve signed in to your Apple Account and that Contacts is enabled.

As long as you've turned on Reminders in iCloud Settings, your iCloud reminders will appear on your Mac.

Delete completed or overdue reminders

  1. Open the Reminders app.

  2. Go to the Today view and check for any overdue reminders.

  3. If you find any, tick the empty circle to complete the reminder, or delete the reminder.

Repeat these steps on each device that's using iCloud Reminders.

Restart your computer

After you've restarted your computer, check whether you have fixed the issue.

iCloud.com

If all of your updates don't appear or you have another issue, try these steps on iCloud.com:

  1. Update your browser and clear the cache on iPhone or iPad, or clear the cache on Mac.

  2. If updates from other devices don't appear, open another app on iCloud.com, like Mail. Then go back to the Contacts, Calendar or Reminders app.

  3. Sign out of iCloud.com, then sign back in.

As the iCloud Birthdays calendar is updated daily, changes to birthdays may not appear in the Calendars app until the next day.

Microsoft Windows

After each step, check your contacts, calendars or reminders.

Refresh Outlook

Click RefreshClick Refresh in Outlook.

Turn off iCloud Contacts and Calendar, then turn it back on

  1. Open iCloud for Windows.

  2. Deselect Mail, Contacts and Calendars, then click Apply.

  3. Wait a few seconds, select Mail, Contacts and Calendars, then click Apply.

  4. Open Outlook.

Make sure the iCloud Outlook Add-in is active

In Outlook 2010 and later:

  1. Click the File menu.

  2. Click Options in the left-hand panel.

  3. Click Add-Ins in the left-hand panel of the Outlook Options window.

  4. Look at the list of add-ins in the Active Application Add-Ins section.

  5. Select the iCloud Outlook Add-in.

Find out how to manage add-ins in Outlook

Check your default account in Outlook

In Outlook 2010 and later:

  1. Click the File menu.

  2. Select Info > Account Settings > Data Files.

  3. If iCloud is the default account in the Comments column, select a different account and click Set as Default.

If Outlook isn’t syncing

  1. Close Outlook.

  2. Open iCloud for Windows, then click Sign out.

  3. Enter your Apple Account email address or phone number and password, then click Sign In.

  4. Click Contacts and Calendars and click Apply.

Restart your computer

After you've restarted your computer, check whether you have fixed the issue.