Q: iPhone 4: lost contacts!  Restore from Backup only works for 30 seconds after restore job, then contacts disappear!

@KiltedTim,

Thanks for all your help, much appreciated, I will seek appropriate help as to how I should behave on this forum.

Best wishes

Az

iMac24", Macbook Pro 13", iPhone 4, iPad 2.

I just restored my 4S. Lost contacts but that only happened (I think) after I realized all iCloud toggles were turned OFF.

I turned back on "Contacts" and BOOM, my contacts appeared.

I noticed my calendar was empty. Turned on the iCloud "Calendars" setting and BOOM, my calendar filled back up with all events, dates, etc.

So I don't really follow this thread and all the step that outline restoring your contacts.

I agree, APPLE *****. Backups should include EVERYTHING including contacts. I've upgraded phones 3-4 times, restoring from backup at least a half dozen times and this is the FIRST time I've had to screw around with iCoud settings to restore calendar and contacts. Apple obvoiusly changed something. I know what I'm doing but how can we always know what we're doing when Apply pulls the rug from under us? Looking forward to my next NON-APPLE device.

Have you tried this:

http://download.cnet.com/iPhone-Data-Recovery-for-Mac/3000-18551_4-75882825.html

Can't recommend as I haven't tried it myself, but found in a Google search.

Good luck.

No, I hadn't come accross the one you mentioned, but I have got experience with this one on download.CNET and they come in in both: WINDOWS and MAC. I've used it for more than just my lost contacts...., so yeah, I'd recommend it, even though it did not recovery everything I wished it would!

Elisa

I have the iPhone 4 and this worked for me. Thank you!

I just had the same issue take place. Applications were crashing as soon as I opened them. So I restarted my phone, only to find my contacts deleted!

Here's what I did to recover lost contacts from iPhone, maybe you can get some useful ideas here:

On my phone, went into SETTINGS and then iCLOUD. An error message came up and said that my password was incorrect so I tapped the button to correct it. And boom! My contacts were back!

I don't know how this password was incorrect in the first place, but now it's correct!

Hope this helps!

<Link Edited By Host>

WORKED PERFECT!!!!! Thank you!

There's a great possibility that some sync to cloud service is used, and the contacts on the cloud are gone. After the restore, the sync happens, then the contacts on iPhone 4 are also gone.

So, try to disconnect the network, and then disable all the contact sync apps. When the app is found, reconnect the network.

In addition, there are at least 6 ways to recover iPhone contacts:

Using iPhone data recovery software to scan the iPhone or extract contacts from iTunes backup;

Copy from old phone's SIM card;

Restore with iCloud;

Sync with Google contacts...

<Links Edited By Host>

Thanks Reed, I successfully restored my lost contacts.

I appreciate your advice.

Mike

OMG!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU!  THANK YOU! for this post.  I did exactly what you said and "Boom" all my contacts came back.

I just turned on the contact and the iCloud backup and watched my contact list come back to life one by one.

I'm soooo happy!

Kelly

As I know, If the contacts deleted, it still store in iPhone, if it isn't overwritten by other data, you can recover the deleted iPhone contacts, you can search in google to find a tool to help you, I holp you make a backup with iTunes or iCloud, then follow this from Apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1766

The new 7.1 update had turned off my iCloud Contact and find my iPhone... once I turn them on in iCloud. "BOOM" they were restored. Thanks thespaciousmind

on my 4s all my contacts disappeared what i did was check icloud settings and contacts was turned on so i turned contacts off then back on and low and behold all my lost contacts returned

This exact same thing happened to me today.  First I plugged the phone into my laptop and waited for it to recognize it.  I followed your advise and went to Settings/Mail,Contacts,Calendars/my account.  I deleted and re-entered my password.  Verified and all of my contacts were restored.  Took about 5 min to download all of them.  Thanks!

Hi guys ...

I had a similar issue ...

I was developing an iOS app and inside the app I accidentally removed some of my contacts - long story

Anyway - I noticed that a day later ... and in the meantime both my iPhones already made another backup to the iCloud.

So I would 'erase' everything ... hit 'restore from iCloud backup' ... select a backup from 3 days ago.

The phone would restart ... restore ... contacts here ... and then it would automatically re-sync to iCloud (since I had iCloud turned on 3 days ago) ... and I would watch my contacts disappear ... not fun

I slightly modified what getreed did, since my Mac was on the other side of town and it was really late

The difference is you don't need iTunes and a 3rd party app to perform this.

So here's what you can do (read before executing):

• go to 'Settings -> Reset -> Erase All Content and Settings'
• when it restarts ... select 'Restore from iCloud backup'
• choose a backup from a date before everything went wrong
• (now - like getreed said ... get ready ... you have to do this fast)
• when it restarts again skip everything to get as quickly as you can to the home screen (WiFi network - skip, iCloud login skip, Fingerprint thingy skip, Passcode skip)
• swipe up - turn ON 'Airplane mode'
• (your contact should be here if you did it quickly enough)
• back to 'Settings -> iCloud'
• turn OFF 'Contacts' from the sync options
• when the ActionSheet popup appears - select 'Keep'
• turn OFF 'Airplane mode' - your iPhone will continue to restore, but your contacts should still be here (since they're now excluded from the sync)
• wait a minute or two for your iPhone to get back online and resume the restoring process
• back to 'Settings -> iCloud'
• then turn 'Contacts' back ON
• this time select - 'Merge'

What will happen is it will merge what you've kept on your iPhone (full contacts) with what you have on your current iCloud variant (partial contacts).

After the merge it will sync that to iCloud as the latest version ... the restore will complete ... and your Contacts should be safe.

I would recommend you perform a backup to iTunes at that point ... since restoring an iTunes backup doesn't require a black magic ritual to perform

Good luck!

A.

p.s. Semi-offtopic:

For all iOS developers out there (I noticed quite a few posts about this on stackoverflow ... so maybe Google will lead you here )

Btw. when an app (any iOS app) asks to access your contacts and you say 'Yes' - it has the permission to delete everything ...

I learned that the hard way - my phone - my app - my contacts ... and one line of code is enough...

so be careful when using ABAddressBook, becuase:

ABAddressBookCreateWithOptions

Creates a new address book object with data from the Address Book database.

It does NOT create a NEW address book - you're still working with THE address book.

And even though it says...

Changes made to the returned address book are reflected in the Address Book database only after saving the address book with ABAddressBookSave.

That's NOT true - any call to 'ABAddressBookRemoveRecord' will delete the contact from your address book regardless if you made changes with ABAddressBookSave or "discarded" the changes using ABAddressBookRevert. Once removed - it's gone ...

What you want to do is ALWAYS just READ from the AddressBook and build your own array of people to perform filtering, grouping and such operations.

Happy coding!