iPhone 4 Contacts Disappeared After Receiving Text Message

Happened to me today too.. I am totally infuriated. I have lost all my contacts and I tried searching for them from the "Left Swipe" search and they come up there but just not in my contacts list or my recent etc. I tried entering the contact name and then pressing it but it doesn't restore any contacts.

I don't understand how this can happen. I have not installed anything. But my phone has been crashing frequently lately. I don't know if I should try syncing with my PC or Icloud or not in case it removes them from history as well. I have never even used icloud.

@ APPLE.. You suck. I could write a book about why, but this is the worst reason by far.

Okay so I guess I'm going to add my story...

iPhone 4S

iOS 5.1

Sync frequently with pc running Windows 7

Don't use iCloud

Woke up this morning and none of my texts had names attached to them. All of my contacts were gone but my favorites were still there - just as numbers, no names attached. I do sync with my pc running Windows 7 quite frequently so here's what I've tried:

First, tried a sync - contacts didn't come back. Then restored to a previous backup - contacts didn't come back. Then updated to 6.1.2 - contacts didn't come back. Tried the swipe to the left and search - no contacts listed. Checked to make sure all groups were being shown - no luck. Tried turning iCloud on, merged contacts - no luck. Turned iCloud back off choosing to keep contacts - no luck...

Not sure what else to try :-/ but open to all suggestions...

Same thing has happened to me as with everyone else here.

iPhone 4, iOS 5.1, don't use iCloud. Most recent update was Facebook on either Friday or Saturday. Yesterday evening (saturday) I noticed the phone behaving irregularly - for about 2 or 3 minutes it kept switching into the "updating/powering off" screen for about 2 seconds at a time, then flashing back to the main screen.

Noticed this morning that all contacts were gone. Cannot find them anywhere. Have tried all of the suggestions listed, but nothing has helped. Suspect it's the Facebook update that has done something, (it seems to be the common denominator) but not really sure.

Am quite frustrated that Apple has yet to comment on the issue, and will most likely be switching phones if they don't step up soon.

Same thing happened to me twice in the last couple of weeks. Contacts just suddenly disappeared. So totally understand how frustrating it can be.

I have an iphone5, iOS 6.1, using iCloud. The contacts disappeared from iCloud as well as another iPad linking to the same iCloud account.

I tried many of the suggestions I found on various forums but none helped. I then accidentally stumbled upon this (illogical) method that strangely got my contact list back - both times. Hopefully it works for some of you too:

1) click the phone icon

2) click the Recent icon - you will just get a list of phone numbers without contact names at this stage

3) choose any one number in the list and click on the ">" symbol to get into the detailed info page

4) click "Add to Existing Contact".

Miraculously, the entire contact lis re-appeared!

Just now happened to my wife. Opened the text app, crashed a few times. Rebooted the phone and when it came back up all contacts gone. Running 5.1.1 just like everyone else seems to be. The standard fix doesn't apply as after looking thru her phone there are three accounts listed (iCloud, exchange, and yahoo) and none of them are set to sync contacts, so I don't have one to try turning off and back on again.

Finally just went through all my text messages and re-added one by one, then upgraded to latest iPhone OS. Hopefully it won't happen again. Apple, I am not pleased. There are a bunch of numbers that I dont text, that I will have to get again.

I just got off the phone with tech support about my wife's phone. She had never synced it with a computer and contacts syncing was turned off with iCloud (we share a family account, don't need all her stuff showing up on my iOS devices) and was turned off with her two email accounts. Tech support basically said she was out of luck, which I expected, offering no kind of troubleshooting beyond "restore from a backup.".

I did however bring up this thread and had the support employee pull it up and verify that he was going to pass it along to be reviewed and see if the problem needs to be escalated beyond an emerging issue. Hopefully they can get someone to investigate further.

I'd like to note this didn't work for me, but it seems like more due to a glitch rather than the fact that it doesn't work. It seems logical.

Notes - I am on Windows 7 and did not have iCloud.

Windows actually backs up the contacts from your iphone on the C:. Go to:

C: > Users > YourName > Contacts

If they are not already in vCard format, hit the built in function of export to vCard. Log into iCloud online, click contacts, go to the bottom and import contacts in vCard format. Turn on iCloud from your iphone, and you should be all set.

I have just spent two hours updating iTunes, iOS, and tried all methods (via iCloud, via Gmail, via Microsoft Exchange) to no avail. I decided the two hours troubleshooting was a waste, and might as well just spend the next hour manually adding these contacts.

Good luck to the rest of you. As a long time Apple fan (since i first learned to type in 4th grade 20 yrs ago!), i'm tired of their new found culture of more innovation, less customer service. Hope everyone plan on going Droid after this, just like me.

my contacts disappeared twice. Once yesterday.... Another time today after I restore my back up from the pc

as i needed my contacts. not sure if it's the FB app that is causing the problem. However FB app has been acting weird .... Suddenly closes by itself while scrolling thru my feeds lately. This is quite irritating as my backup was last updated in jan... So all stuff from backup till now are all gone... Including pics n whatsapp messages. :(

YES! Same here. iphone 4S iOS 5.1.1.

Contacts disappeared twice in days.

Same Apps: FaceBook and Whatapps keep closing or crashing when attempting to open.

Reboot the iphone. The next thing, contacts gone for good.

Only be restored thru itunes backup.

None of the above suggestions have helped bring mine back. So i decided to add back the contact numbers i had in my text messages. Now this morning all my apps are crashing again, email, text messages won't open neither will the phone or contacts app. So my phone is pretty much unusubale at the moment.

Ive tried updating for the last few days and the same message comes up "The iPhone software update server could not be contacted. Make sure your network settings are correct and your network connection is active or try again later"

I was also using OS 5.1 when they were lost. I have since updated to the new OS. In the new OS the default settings for Facebook giving it access to both contacts and calendar allowing it to update your contact info with the info on FB it seems. I am wondering if this was the culprit. Either way since updating my OS I haven't lost them again, but it has only been 3 days so we'll see.

Yup I am on os 5.1 as well and my facebook app always crashes. I don't even know whether to try re-entering any contacts or not in case it just happens again. Please Apple tell us there is a simple solution for this..

My wife had the same issue since yesterday. I was able to get most of them back as they were still saved on her SIM card from a previous phone.

Go to settings > mail, contacts, calendar then scroll down to calendar and hit "import sim contacts". Then I turned the contacts under iCloud off, chose to "keep iPhone contacts" and then when I turned it on again I chose "merge".

Maybe it helps some.

Same Issue Iphone 4s model md241c 5.1.1 9b206

I restored from my itunes synch but the contacts did not appear immediately. Only after going into Iphone-> utilities->Contacts did I see all my contacts again. When I went back into Phone->Contacts they were all there.

Back up often folks, with the ease of itunes wifi sync there is little reason not to.

Bern