Lost contacts, iPhone 4

I too have just had this problem. Very annoying. I too do not store in icloud and am wondering is this is a ruse to get us all to use this storage.

Yeah exact same thing here:

iPhone 4, iOS 5.1.1, mail app suddenly crashing left and right, general misbehaving. I shut down and restart, all contacts are gone - *****.

Is the flash memory on the iPhone designed to fail at exactly a certain time, or is there some signal coming from the internet telling the iphones to die? Seems like a huge number of people are having this happen in a very short period of time - what's going on here?

iPhone number 2 (daughter number 2) crashed yesterday. The first incidence was February 4th (daughter number 1). Same scenario, differnet app: trying to upload to Facebook, the app started failing, she tried to stabilize her phone by turning it off and then back on - contact information was gone - some numbers but no names. She has a 4S iOS 5.1.1 which she refused to update to iOS 6 because her battery already drains very quickly and she made a conscious decision not to update to an OS that is reported to exacerbate that problem.

I've been following this thread since February and had her follow the iCloud solution - successfully. Even though we all share an apple id and cannot use iCloud successfully AND have it disconnected on our phones - her contacts came back by signing in to iCloud and following the prompts to merge contacts.

It's disconcerting that iCloud has obviously continued to store her information even without being signed in and having deleted the account. The power of Apple is overwhelming. (I think I am being sarcastic)

plus 1 for this error...no fix!

Add me to the list of victims!

Yes similar here today. 2nd time all my iPh4 (5.1.1) contacts have disappeared without any iTunes sync involved.

1st time it happened on 2 Mar 13 when I was trying to coordinate Google Calendar to sync with with my mac's iCal (via CalDAV), but it wasn't a standard iPhone/iTunes sync attempt. (Ironically the only reason for trying to switch to Google calendar is because I can't access iCloud on Snow Leopard... so my mac's iCal never syncs with my iPh's calendar, and there's no longer any way to sync the 2 via iTunes since updating to 5.1.1) Todays contacts disappeared shortly after I added a new Google Calendar app to the iPhone. We all know how much Apple & Google hate each other of late ... Had to restore contacts from 2-1/2 month old iTunes backup, outdated but better than nothing. Might be nice to be able to call Apple for help but since my Apple Care expired earlier this year they won't give me the time of day unless I fork over $50 per call.

The Samsung Galaxy s3/s4's big screen is looking better all the time, I'm giving Apple one more chance to see if the next iPhone (6 or whatever they call it, 5s) has a larger WIDER screen before switching.

Add another one, same phone, same ios, all blipped yesterday. The "free" trial by Dr. Fone showed zero restorable contacts. Going to the Verizon store tomorrow see if they can help.

This in unbelievable. Like someone was saying, this is an ongoing issue. The thing is Apple is the most succesfull company out there but that's based on people stupidity and not knowing their rights. Apple is smarter...everywhere you go you have to accept their terms. So earlier today when this happened to me, after a little research on this I decided to call Apple support. Of course they wanted to accept their terms and because my phone was out of waranty I wouldve had to pay a fee. I then called back and gave them my work phone serial number, which is still under waranty, but same thing. The support is available for free for only 90 days. I really got frustrated at that point with their demand of charging fees to support their products and software products which caused a lot of damege to ... see how many people cry about it just here. Honestly I was almost not gonna write this and I think many out there dont do it either.

My frustration was huge because I work in the AV industry and we buy tons of Apple products. For instance today I had 10 brand new Ipads and I told Apple over the phone I can give you the serial number of one of them so you can help me out and stop demanding fees. They said no, and they would help if it only happened on that specific device.

The thing is theyr devices run their software...and as you see it is not only one taking the crush...so basically they should support without asking about fees when people are suffering and their success is based on people credibility.

Last, when I was suposed to get transfer to talk to a supervisor, while waiting they hung up on me.

Ugly.

You're perfectly right...this is unbelievable. Refering to you Snaetch.

Just spent an hour at Verizon, no help, then another hour with a tech savvy friend at Radio Shack. She had me install verizon's backup assistant app, and POOF my contacts are restored! If you are a verizon customer, maybe this will help you. I had not backed up my phone to itunes or icloud, so this saved me!

Add another frustrated customer to the list! I have spent hours scouring the internet for fixes to my vanishing contact list to no avail. Apple? ***?!

Backup on my Mac? Not one contact there either! Luckily I had some old text messages with the contact numbers. I just created new contacts for those but thats only about ten out of a hundred contacts! First problem Ive had with an apple product in 10 years and its extremely frustrating.

C'mon Apple, fix this this wasnt my fault

Another 1 here for my wifes IP4 on 5.1.1.

Did it last week so I did a restore from my laptop (I backup all family ios devices once a month).

Happened again today but I have laptop out of town for 2 weeks so she is screwed until I return.

Surprised at the magnitude of this problem all at once.

Cant help but wonder how many of you are JB.

Add me in for this issue, running iOS version 5.1.1. Lucky me, I formatted my PC yesterday night, so I can forget about restoring anything from my home PC.

Very frustrating!

I4S, iOS5.1.1., Same problem without backup... no comment.

And yet another. 4G IOS 5.1

Nothing changed on phone. Sorry this seems to be happening to too many people to be peoples finger trouble.

And no not everyone backs up on a weekly basis. You do not expect glitches like this on such a large scale.