texasvet54

Q: I backed up my wife's iPhone 5s for the first time to her laptop, using iTunes.  When I resotred it, all of her contacts are gone.  Where does iTunes store Contacts?

My wife's iPhone 5s was having trouble making and receiving calls.  A local cellular phone repair shop told me to try backing up her iPhone and then erase all of it's data and then restore her iPhone.  I updated both iTunes and her iPhone to the latest operating system and then backed up her phone up using iTunes to her laptop, not to iCloud.  I then erased the phone as it had been suggested to me.

 

I then restored her iPhone and now all of her contacts are gone.  She had never backed up her phone before, so there is no prior backup to restore. 

 

How can I get her contacts back and where on her laptop were they stored when I backed up her phone to her laptop?

 

Thanks,

iPhone 5s, iOS 9.1

Posted on Nov 5, 2015 8:33 PM

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Q: I backed up my wife's iPhone 5s for the first time to her laptop, using iTunes.  When I resotred it, all of her contacts are ... more

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  • by ssschmidt,

    ssschmidt ssschmidt Nov 5, 2015 8:39 PM in response to texasvet54
    Level 5 (4,815 points)
    Nov 5, 2015 8:39 PM in response to texasvet54

    iTunes does not deal with contacts directly.  It provides a path to sync contacts to another Personal information manager (Apple Contacts / Outlook, etc).

     

    Hopefully she was using either iCloud, or another online service (Yahoo, Hotmail, Google), and you just need to set that back up.

  • by texasvet54,

    texasvet54 texasvet54 Nov 5, 2015 8:58 PM in response to ssschmidt
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 5, 2015 8:58 PM in response to ssschmidt

    My wife uses gmail.  I added her gmail account and selected "allow access" and I still don't see her contacts.

     

    Did I do that correctly?

     

    Thanks,

  • by rockmyplimsoul,

    rockmyplimsoul rockmyplimsoul Nov 5, 2015 9:00 PM in response to texasvet54
    Level 5 (7,219 points)
    iTunes
    Nov 5, 2015 9:00 PM in response to texasvet54

    {deleted}

  • by Seanachai,

    Seanachai Seanachai Nov 5, 2015 10:55 PM in response to texasvet54
    Level 1 (129 points)
    Nov 5, 2015 10:55 PM in response to texasvet54

    I suspect that when you updated your wife's iPhone to the latest iOS and performed the back-up, that her contacts may have been lost during that process. If the contacts were backed-up to her computer, you'll find them in Address Book.

     

    Open 'Finder'.  In the 'Title Bar' go to 'View' and then 'View Options'.  Select 'Show Library Folder'.  Then go to 'User '> 'Library' > 'Application Support' > 'Address Book' > 'Metadata'.  If there are any files in the folder, highlight one and hit the space bar.  That will show what data is stored on that particular file, such as name, phone number email address etc.

     

    If the folder is empty, then sadly her contacts are gone.

  • by texasvet54,

    texasvet54 texasvet54 Nov 6, 2015 8:23 AM in response to Seanachai
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 6, 2015 8:23 AM in response to Seanachai

    I hope that I don't sound too dumb on this, but I don't see "finder."

     

    I'm running Windows.  Does that change anything?

     

    Thanks,

  • by KiltedTim,

    KiltedTim KiltedTim Nov 6, 2015 8:38 AM in response to texasvet54
    Level 9 (56,413 points)
    Mac OS X
    Nov 6, 2015 8:38 AM in response to texasvet54

    Yes. That means there is no place that you would find any of the contact information on her machine unless she had explicitly set that up herself before hand. If the contacts were not synced to her gmail account or iCloud account, they're undoubtedly gone.

  • by texasvet54,

    texasvet54 texasvet54 Nov 6, 2015 9:04 AM in response to KiltedTim
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 6, 2015 9:04 AM in response to KiltedTim

    Thanks all!!!!

     

    I guess this falls into the category of "every lesson I've ever learned in life has cost me money."  Now my wife wants a new iPhone 6s since her 5s is missing some calls and her contacts are gone.  She knows that a new iPhone won't bring back her contacts, but I think that she wants to harass me since I should have taken better care of her contacts.  Oh well!!!!

  • by rockmyplimsoul,

    rockmyplimsoul rockmyplimsoul Nov 6, 2015 10:37 AM in response to texasvet54
    Level 5 (7,219 points)
    iTunes
    Nov 6, 2015 10:37 AM in response to texasvet54

    Ha, a new iPhone would take the sting out of losing one's contacts!

     

    If she is/was using Gmail, first check her Google contacts to see if her contacts actually are there (use a computer to check, not the iPhone).

    • If you don't see them in her default contacts group within her Gmail account, check the "Other Contacts" group since Google will keep a record of who you've been sending email to and will put the contact in Other if they're not in the main group.
    • From the list of Other contacts, you can select the ones you want to keep and then click "Add to My Contacts" and that will migrate them from Other to the main contacts group.
    • Then it would be just a matter of enabling Contacts in her iPhone's Gmail account setting, but give it time to sync from Google (up to an hour).
    • If you're still not seeing her Google contacts show up on her iPhone, go into Mail settings on the iPhone and change the Fetch schedule to "Every 15 Minutes" to kick-start the sync process, it should then sync up within 15 minutes.  Once the contacts sync, you may want to change this to every 30 minutes, or manual, since Fetching more frequently consumes a bit more battery (I keep mine on 15 though with no troubles, but I'm on a 6s Plus so battery is less of an issue).

     

    Good luck! (this may delay her 6s acquisition if successful, so she'll probably hate me ;-)

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Nov 6, 2015 10:42 AM in response to texasvet54
    Level 9 (51,306 points)
    Desktops
    Nov 6, 2015 10:42 AM in response to texasvet54

    texasvet54 wrote:

     

    Thanks all!!!!

     

    I guess this falls into the category of "every lesson I've ever learned in life has cost me money."  Now my wife wants a new iPhone 6s since her 5s is missing some calls and her contacts are gone.  She knows that a new iPhone won't bring back her contacts, but I think that she wants to harass me since I should have taken better care of her contacts.  Oh well!!!!

    So learn the lesson, download 'My Contacts Backup' (from the app store) install it and use it, then she won't lose them again and you'll be the hero again

     

    It's free, so it won't cost you money.

     

    It also useful to remember where they were stored and then look in that place (did you actually look in Google Contacts on the web to see if they are there?)

  • by texasvet54,

    texasvet54 texasvet54 Nov 6, 2015 7:50 PM in response to Csound1
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Nov 6, 2015 7:50 PM in response to Csound1

    From reading a kinda similar thread on this site, I found that if I try to compose a text message, that many of the contacts phone numbers that are missing from my wife's contacts list, show up.  What does this mean?

     

    I'm leery to try anything until I go through each letter of the alphabet and manually add each contact that shows up.

     

    thanks,

  • by Csound1,

    Csound1 Csound1 Nov 6, 2015 7:59 PM in response to texasvet54
    Level 9 (51,306 points)
    Desktops
    Nov 6, 2015 7:59 PM in response to texasvet54

    They are coming from the Previous Recipients list, they can be restored to the Address Book (this is on a Mac), they only include email addresses though, on an iPhone (in Messages) there is no simple way other than what you are doing now.

     

    You really should use iCloud (or Gmail) for storing contacts, and you really should backup. Download My Contacts Backup from the App Store and use it from now on.