Lost contacts, iPhone 4

Add me as well; 4s 5.1.1. i have a rather old version of the Contacts in itunes, but as best i understand it, syncing would clear the phone of anything added since my last sync, which was also some time ago - is this correct, or is there a workaround? any advice greatly appreciated.

ws

Those of us with 4S and 5.1.1 are like small business owners minding our own business. Apple is like the mob.

Apple: You need to start using our iCloud for "protection"...

Us: "Protection" from what? We haven't had any problems here.

Apple: Well, if you don't use iCloud, then maybe you'll find your stuff is gone (wink wink)

Us: Is that a threat?

Apple: It's up to you. But if you don't use iCloud, then it'll be your fault if someone steals your stuff.

I think iCloud is somehow causing the problem, although probably not on purpose. I think there is some kind of bug where those of us who aren't syncing to iCloud lose their contacts (or some file that needed to use them).

That said, I think iCloud also "fixes" the problem it's created. I went ahead and started syncing my contacts to ICloud. Several times, my apps started crashing and I feared my contacts would be gone (like before), but they are still there.

I am still on 5.1.1 because I like the old map. I've tried the Apple map and the new google map app, but I don't like either of them as much as the old one.

This happened to me just now.

iPhone 4s - iOS 5.1.1.

Haven't upgraded to iOS 6, since I need the old maps app, and the Google Maps app isn't available in my country's app store.

Apps kept closing out on me, so did a hard restart, then all contacts just disappeared. Except for the contacts in the 'Favorites' tab - the names got wiped out, but the numbers are still there. But everything in the 'Contacts' tab was wiped out - names and numbers.

Have never used iCloud, in fact I just turned it on just now - the first time I 'Accepted' the terms and conditions was just a few mins ago.

Have never backed up to iTunes either, I deleted it from my desktop immediately after first using it. Or rather, after first trying to use it.

Funny thing is, if I do a search for a contact in the "Search iPhone" page - as long as they still have messages on my phone, then they still show up with their names on search - so they're still in there somewhere.

However, if I open Messages directly, the names don't show up - only in search.

Extremely frustrating. I'd say this is almost as bad as the "sending SMS's to the wrong person" screw-up that happened with Android.

I found an easy solution. The last backup on the iPhone 4S was Feb 8 and the contacts disappeared last week. I didn't want to lose all my texts since then. So I replaced all the contacts on the iPhone with the contacts on my Mac's Address Book by simply selecting the below checkboxes in iTunes' Info tab. (Ignore my selection in the Sync Google Contacts checkbox as I don't think that matters.) Also, I keep Address Book Archives so in case my contacts on my Mac were ever erased then I have a backup; in Address Book see menu File > Export. Using iOS5.1.1, OS10.6.8 and iTunes 10.7. Problem solved 🙂

Hey everyone, this worked for me:

1. Pop out your SIM card. You'll need that little pointed-metal tool that came with your phone or a small pin

2. Inset the tool or pin into the small hole on the right-hand side of the phone. Mine took quite a bit of pressure before releasing the SIM tray

3. Pull out the SIM Tray

4. Give it a minute

5. Put the SIM card back in your phone and check your contacts

Hopefully it works for you as it did for me. 🙂

I had the same problem that everyone has been having: messaging crashes, hard reset, contacts gone, and i resolved it.

It's strange because i feel like i didnt do anything but this is how i got my contacts back:

i opened up icloud under settings and saw that my contacts were set to ON. however, down below under storage & backup it said : icloud backup is off. I thought that was strange but didnt change anything. All i did was switch contacts to OFF. It prompted me with two options, to save the information on my phone OR delete from my phone. I chose keep the information and there we go, all my contacts became visable again.

i dont even know what this means or what i did to make them reappear... apparently i wasnt backing them up to begin with, so unselecting it in the icloud did what exactly? i have no idea. All i know is that i have my contacts back now and i'm happy

I switched icloud contacts off and on again and it worked for me. My other half hadn't verified his iCloud so this wouldn't work, but this did: in settings select mail, contacts, calendar, then scroll down to contacts and select import contacts from sim, and then they all reappeared.

Apple is belly flopping. I have to accept losing hundreds of contacts and resorting to an old outdated backup because Apple wiped them clean. No help from Apple on this. My son upgraded to 6 and lost wifi forever, no recourse, no solution, not even a "sorry". He got a new iphone and crossed his fingers, but the "home" button didn´t work, tried to buy another, and the "wifi" on/off didn´t work (permanently off).Bad luck? No, years of arrogance and negation and lack of quality control are now paying off with old customers migrating to Samsung, and new ones considering other brands first. In Chile the carriers are responsible for iphones, and they say Apple is responsible for the software, nice sandwich to be in.... Unfortunately, our household has 6 "i" devices, but I assure you there will be no more!

Same thing happened to me last night. Text app crashed three times, did a hard shut down, turned phone on, all contacts are gone. Extremely frustrating! Look at all of these posts with the SAME problem. There has to be something Apple can do. I realize it's important to back up your contacts, but I have never had this problem with an iPhone and I've had one since 2007. I'm starting to think my next phone WILL NOT be an iPhone.

Just happened to me again for the second time in the past month! (I have iphone 4 and have not upgraded to ios 6 because of the map feature.) The first time it also happened to my daughter's iphone 4S on the same day so we thought maybe it was a Verizon problem. Facebook app kept crashing so I reset and lost all contacts. Fortunately I was able to restore from the backup on my computer. Today it happened again, but this time I did not shut down the phone! All my apps have been crashing for the past week and now my contacts are gone again. I really wish Apple would fix this! We should not have to be worried about whether or not our contacts are there when we need them!

I had the same thing happen to me. I have an iTunes backup and an external harddrive backup of the iTunes backup. Which is a good thing. Since I travel requently without internet I have my iPhone automatically backup to my computer when plugged in. So when I plugged it in to restore the backup - it backed up the blank contacts before I could tell it not to. (What's the work around to that?)

After two hours on the phone with Apple, we managed to get the backup off my external hard drive (Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup). I moved this file from the external harddrive to the same location on my computer (first turning off all automatic sync/back ups). Well, I still can't get to the contacts because two and a half years ago I opted to encrypt my iPhone backup and I can't remember the password and according to Apple there is absolutely NO way around this.

So as far as I can tell, there has been a hardware problem abruptly deleting contact lists for almost two months. Apple has not addressed a fix. Many of us with various stages of backup responsibility have lost all our contacts.

I'm pretty much finished with Apple and iTunes. I run into a problem like this on my iPad (provided by work) or MacBook Pro (also provided by work) or iPhone every few months. I am reasonably tech savvy (I encrypt part of my computer harddrive backup but it asks me for the password every time, reducing the probability of a forgotten password and has "hints" to give me some clue as to what I was thinking about passwords that day) but because Apple insists you do everything their way, no amount of proactive protections seems Apple-control freak-proof.

Happened to me also. None of this list has helped to this point, but I appreciate all of the replies.

Add me. Same story, iPhone 4s froze, turned it off and on, all contacts lost. Nothing has worked. Sorry not to have some miracle cure.

It just happened to me. E-mail crashed, then I reset and contacts are gone! CDMA phone, running ios 5.1.1.

This just happened to me, too. All my contacts gone from my iPhone 4. Apple, where are you when we need you?