Syncing windows contacts with iPhone issue

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Level 1

9 points

Syncing windows contacts with iPhone issue

I am having an issue with syncing my contacts. when i use itunes to snyc my iphone to my windows contacts to create a back up of my contact list, everytime i sync it, the contacts on my phone are replaced by the ones in my windows folder. is there a way to allow the new and changed contacts on my iphone contacts to replace and change those on my windows contacts? I want to be able to sync and have the new and updated contacts on my iphone replace those in my windows contact folder, not replace my contacts on my phone with those of my contact folder. Can anyone help?

iPhone 4, iOS 4

Posted on Jan 16, 2011 9:09 AM

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Answer 1

Jan 16, 2011 10:10 AM in response to Anthony Diaz

Are you saying that there are some contacts in Windows Contacts that you don't want to have on your iPhone but you want all the contacts on your iPhone to add to/amend your Windows Contacts?

If so, this is not quite what syncing is about - as the name suggests it is supposed to make the two contact lists exactly the same.

However, what you could do is to create a sub-folder in your Windows Contacts folder and move your existing Windows Contacts into it. Next create a single unique contact (i.e. one that is not on your iPhone) and save it in the main Windows Contact folder. Then sync your iPhone with Windows Contacts through iTunes, choosing to Merge data if prompted.

This will then put all the Contacts that are in your iPhone in the Windows Contacts folder but will not transfer those in the sub-folder to your iPhone. This will not have updated any contacts that are in both your Windows Contacts and iPhone of course and you will have to delete any duplicated items from the sub-folder.

If you are happy for the contents of both your Windows Contacts and iPhone to be exactly the same then don't bother with creating the sub-folder, just sync and merge and this should update any contacts that were on both before the sync to the latest version.

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Answer 2

Jul 9, 2011 4:04 PM in response to FormerPCer

Hi, am having a problem with with syncing my windows contacts to my iphone4, the file type of the contacts is Vcards and they are opened with Winodws contacts. i\ve chosen the windows contact format to sync contacts on the iphone, and when i press sync the operation is done successsufly, only nothing shows on my phone- however, the new contacts i create directly on my iphone are shown automatically on the windows contacts folder when i sync. can you help pls, as i dont like the idea of setting my mail on the outlook to be able to export the contacts from outlook format. Thanks

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Answer 3

rogerson

Level 1

88 points

Dec 16, 2011 1:50 PM in response to FormerPCer

I am having a similar problem, except that my contacts from my Windows contact list have completely disappeared from my Iphone. I recently upgraded my operating system and computer. The new operating system Windows 7 did not come with Outlook Express which I was using with my old XP computer, but I successfully downloaded the new Windows Live mail system and migrated my old Windows Contact list from Outlook Express to the new Windows Live Email and Contact list, but now when I sync all contacts are lost (yes my contact list is empty). Yikes.... As a matter of fact when I go to Itunes and set up contacts to sync it doesn't show any of the Contact Groups that also exist on my Windows Live contact list.

Any idea how to get the contact list from Windows 7 and Windows Live to be recognized by Itunes and subsequently to sync?

Thanks

Jeff

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