backup vs. syncing contacts

Thanks, I'd read both articles. But they don't answer my questions, specifically:

1. Where is the backup located on the mac, so I can ensure it's there and includes my iPhone contacts?

2. The sync article doesn't address what the iPhone contacts would be synced to. Before I sync contacts and risk losing years worth of collected contacts on either the mac (Outlook contacts) or the iphone, how do I tell iTunes WHERE to sync the contacts to?

That article says:

iTunes places the backup files in the following places:

Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/

However I do not have a "MobileSync" directory under /Library/Application Support/ on my mac, even though iTunes says that there is a backup of the iPhone.

But how do I make that choice of where to sync the contacts to? I'd love to sync them to the Address Book on the mac, but I don't see anywhere that it will let me make that choice. And I want to ensure they don't sync to my Outlook address book.

I've researched other threads on this question, and they always come to this same point. I'm guessing older versions of iTunes might have had a drop down box on the "info" page where you could select which compatible contacts manager to sync the iPhone contacts with. However there is no such box on the iTunes 11 info page.

The referenced Apple support page, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4946, is a bit ambiguous, implying that a backup does include contacts, but then also states, as you mentioned, that "Your contacts are part of the backup to preserve recent calls and favorites lists..." It seems strange that a backup would include the ~30 items listed in the Apple article, but not include the most important, which is your contacts.

I just can't sync the contacts until I know for sure that it won't erase all of my Outlook contacts, or replace my iPhone contacts with the Outlook ones.

As Sk8Dreams noted in the reply directly below yours, that specific Apple article says that it can sync with Outlook. The date on that article is Nov 30, 2012, so it's pretty recent, but might've been just before iTunes 11 came out, so maybe it wasn't updated correctly.

But I'm hoping you're right and it can't sync with Outlook, so I won't risk losing either the Outlook or iPhone contacts. I'm going to respond to the next reply with what I actually see in iTunes for sync options.

Here's what I see on the "info" page in iTunes 11 when I connect the iPhone 4S:

top line: "Sync contacts" box, currently unchecked

below that, a greyed out box, first option is "All contacts", second option is "Selected Groups".

below that, a box of 8 rows, all blank

below that, a check box in front of "Add contacts created outside of groups on this iPhone to:" (followed by a drop down box, which isn't highlighted so I can't see what options it has)

If I select the "synch contacts" box at top, then "All contacts", becomes selectable, but "Selected Groups" is not selectable. Neither is the "Add contacts..." line, so I still can't see what choices that drop down box would give me.

Really not sure what that last line about contacts created outside of groups actually means.