Keep losing contacts

I am having the same exact problem. It just started this week. It's very frustrating because I don't sync my phone to anything!! My contacts email address will still be in my list, but not the phone number. What the heck is going on. Some of these contacts that are gone are important people that I can't get back unless they call me. This really *****.

I am facing this issue too on my iPhone 4S, but I think it started after upgrading to iOS7.

Typically the phone starts loosing the contact names of the favourites stored in the iPhone. This happens one by one, right in front of your eyes. Soon I have lost all the names from the favourites. The numbers however remain.

First time it happened, I restored the backup from my Time Machine, and it worked. Now I am trying to do the same. Frustratingly, it restores all names that were in favourites, and then within seconds names start disappearing, only showing numbers.

I think Apple is fast going the Microsoft way. With every new update, something gets sc****d up.

I read all suggestions, but I have sync options on iCloud and gmail as it is turned off, and have only my Exchange Sync turned on.

Apparently this problem is more than a year old, as found on other forums on this subject, so nothing to do with iOS7 apparently.

And worse to know that there is no solution from Apple yet.

Hi Again,

It seems that the problem is due to multiple accounts sync on the iPhone.

I had 4 diff accounts - Exchange, iCloud, gmail and Yahoo. Only Exchange was enabled for Contacts. After facing this issue, I checked up on my Mini and Air, and on iCloud web login, to find different sets of contacts.

So I enabled Contacts for all accounts on the iPhone, and Lo.. all data restored, including favourites.

Only problem is, earlier this was not the way it worked. It didnt remove contacts while syncing, if they were from a different account.

So check it out if it works for you..

I am having exactly the same problem. After updating to ios7, my iphone 5 seems to be losing all contacts after a few days that I have added them in. I do not have a gmail or yahoo account conneted to my iphone and in addition I have not backed up my ipnoe with icloud nor my computer. The problem is that it loses the contact after a few days anyway so what is the point of backing up as it continiously looses the data?! Does anyone know what the problem is?if so please let me have some clue inorder to fix this problem

I'm having the same issue. This MUST be worked out if Apple wants to (continue) to be a viable option for business. This is absolutely unacceptable and I will not be buying another Apple product until this huge bug is worked out. I didn't notice the issue until iOS7, but now I can enter a contact and minutes later it is gone. I have lost too many valuable contacts to trust Apple with this data going forward. This seems like a very simple issue. I have seen no statements from Apple acknowledging this bug. Sticking your head in the sand will not make the problem go away guys; get it worked out!!!

-former Apple customer

My husband is having this issue over and over with his Iphone 4. No we don't back up to cloud because we have three phones on this account and I don't want all his contacts and he certainly doesn't want mine.

I tried to import from sim card, nothing. This is pure BS. Everytime we reload the contacts i backup to itunes, and then when it happens I go to restore and nothing restores.

Tell me how can I make sure his contacts save to the sim card.

Backing up to iCloud, nor using iCloud to manage your contacts, does not mean you two have to share contacts. You can each have your own separate iCloud accounts, and if you want to share iTunes purchases you can still share the Apple ID used for that. Note that "backing up" is different that "managing" contacts, and that your backup does not completely save your contacts, which is why you need to manage them externally.

You cannot save contacts to the sim, and you really ought to manage your contacts with a web-based service like iCloud, Google, etc. or use a computer-based contact management software.

I am starting to recognize a pattern here. The most common answer from Silicon Valley is to back up your contacts so that you may retrieve them when the problem arises. I have seen nothing telling me how to keep the problem from happening in the first place.

Just had the same thing happen to me, i went to Messages, saved around five names of the people i know (edited via messages), then went back to contacts, found the five names saved for some reason i scrolled down then up on my contact lists and voila! all of them showed up! Got this trick from one of the discussions on here.........hope it works for y'all as well

My wife (iphone 5) and myself (iphone 5S) are having the same issue. we both back up to icloud, but when a contact comes up missing we don't know when it happened so restoring a back up may not bring back the contact if it went missing before the back up. about a month ago i had issues with duplicate contacts and learned to turn off synced contacts with my email accounts and facebook, did this on my wifes iphone as well. I was told on the phone by apple support that not icloud contacts will slowly disappear. That would be ok. the problem is that my wife will readd the contact that comes up as a number instead of a name, and then after a short time the contact disappears again.

On the phone i was directed to go to settings>icloud and "Delete Account", then go to settings>Safari and "Clear cookies and Data" then hard reset the iphone (hold lock/power button and home button until device shuts off). then to power back on, go to settings>icloud and sign back into my itunes account. I was also advised to go to icloud on my computer and back up all of my contacts now. go to https://www.icloud.com/#contacts select first contact and then scroll to bottom, while holding the "Shift" key, click on the last contact. then click on the gear in the bottom left corner of the screen and select "Export Vcard..." and save the file to my computer. (this is on PC, i think he said it was different on an apple computer). He said to keep track of how many contacts there presently were (under the last contact on the contacts app or on icloud.com) and to see if any disappear.

I do not know if this resolved anything, just wanted to post my progress with the issue thus far, hope this fixes it, if not, i will return...

Turn off the contact in Icloud, and keep it in your phone,

oh, and before hard reset, also double press home button and close all open apps by swiping them up off the screen...

What a bug,I keep losing my contacts temporarily almost everyday, It has been more than 1 year.

Still no solution ????

Hopefully they make it fix in IOS8.

This solution worked for me today. This problem has happened to me once before. My 3,000 contacts were suddenly reduced to 45! I went to Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and tapped iCloud and toggled off the Contacts. I returned to the previous screen and checked to see if any other accounts were set to sync contacts (they weren't). I then tapped again on iCloud and toggled on the Contacts. I got a message that the phone was going to merge my contacts with the iCloud. I agreed and the contacts app began downloading the missing contacts! -- Oh, and my missing calendar events were restored also!

(I don't know if it made a difference, but I turned my phone completely off prior to trying this, and I turned on my wifi also.)

Thanks for posting the solution from the Apple Store techs!