Lost contacts, iPhone 4

Most here will tell you, me and others that they should have backed up the contacts. While that is a valid statement, it still doesn't change the fact that this phone ate all the contacts. Amusingly enough, while I do backup my Android contacts, I've never just had them vanish, like a flatus-in-the-wind.

Apple continues to ignore problems that don't generate them income. You know.. like the antenna fiasco of the iJunk 5. For weeks people griped, then Mr. Jobs decided to be gracious and offer everyone a .20 cent rubber bumper to resolve a problem that never should have been. Even then, his offer was begrudging at best.

Just know that you pay a premium for treatment like that/this.

I don't use iCloud (well, not that I know of) but, after losing all my contacts the other month, they did eventually reappear, which I only noticed when I received calls.

I then changed the 'Groups' setting in my Contacts to view 'All Contacts' and then I was able to see all of them, including the duplicate ones I had re-entered.

Awesome!! It worked. Thanks for posting

If you back up to iCloud or iTunes, and have not backed up since you deleted the messages, you can restore the backup and they will come back.

Follow these steps to recover contacts from iPhone 4 directly:

•Step 1: Select the device to scan

•Step 2: Enter the DFU mode and then scan your iPhone 4

Before you perform recovery, you ought to enter the DFU mode of your iPhone. Follow the steps here:

1) Hold your iPhone and click "Start".

2) Press "Home" and "Power" button at the same time when you click "Start",and hold for 10 seconds. The program will count it for you.

3) After 10 seconds passing, release "Power" and keep pressing "Home" for another 10 seconds.

When you're told that you've successfully entered the DFU mode, the program will automatically scan your iPhone for data as follow.

•Step 3: Preview and recover deleted iPhone 4 contacts

Read more: http://www.video-converter-mac.org/recover-iphone-contacts/

Hi Kenshinison, may I know what is DFU mode for? Why do u need to scan the phone? When you say "Start" where can I find it? Do you mean in iTunes? Thank you

Same thing happened to me 4 times since early 2013, including just now.

All contacts lost after the phone crash/hang and after I perform soft reset (home+power buttons).

- iPhone 4, iOS 5.0.1

- Probably updated Facebook App only, no other App updates done.

- All other Apps contents still intact, such as WhatsApp, Viber, Messages.

I never use Facebook Sync contact function.

It is ridiculous if Facebook App is able to delete all contacts in the phone though if that's the cause.

Please fix this.

Guys

This is getting chronic, untill now now no one can tell what is happening all my contacts are gone. and after seeing this all posts I don't think there is a way to fix this issue.

Its not a matter of getting the contacts back, what matters is why this happened.

Anyone can help i this or not !!!!!!

Apple start going down anyway after steve.

Hi

I tried wonder share but it only found my three contacts deleted which I already added manually what about all my other files.

Please help if you have any idea.

Regards

Omer

I've had my contacts completely erased 3 times in the past 3 months. *sigh*

Yes, I restore, but inevitably lose a few days of data depending on when I synced the previous time. On one occassion I was about to get on a flight for some travels and contacts dissapeard. Perfect timing much!? Symptoms before everything gets deleted is some apps start crashing and I can't get into them (e.g. messages, phone etc, but surprisingly some work) e.g. camera). Seems like no one can pin point why this happens. I can't imagine the apple store being that helpful, apart from their usual lines of synching with itunes/icloud bla bla. But lets see, I think i'll take it in.

The same thing happened to me now.i lost all my contacts after restarting my iphone because i couldnt get to my mail just like the same thing happened to u.i didnt backup and i hate using itunes i do t know how to use it.now that i added some of my contacts again,every contact has the image of another contact.its so weird !! Ita not only that i have lost all my contacts but now that i have created some again they have the picture of other contacts.

I updated facebook app today too

POSSIBLE SOLUTION BELOW

so.... a note to all... if you're having the same issue, no need to say it over and over. it just makes sifting through for actual solutions all that much tougher, b/c there ARE solutions here.

kojokylea..... you're my new hero. i did what you said. went into settings > icloud > account and reentered the password. i came out and noticed that the contacts slider was set to off, so i switched it to on. all my contacts came back.

not sure which was the one step that worked, or if both were needed, but either way, i'm back up and running. it took all of 30 seconds after reading through post after post for the last 30 minutes.

thanks!

So it seems my problem I wrote earlier about was related to glitch with Facebook. Ever since I updated my facebook app, I haven't lost my contacts list. Even after a crash and reboot, my contacts list is still there. Knocking on wood.

I am so, so fed up with Apple. This was my first time in 20 years using one of their products - my iPhone. Same as everybody else here, my phone went weird on me and then deleted all my contacts. I have been syncing regularly with iTunes. So I plug my phone into iTunes to see if I can restore from back up. But it starts a sync straight away. Which becomes my last backup. Which means I can't restore any previous backup. Which means I lose all my contacts. And this is the really sore bit - I had over 300 contacts. THREE HUNDRED. I am so sick of Apple I know I will never go this way again. I am fed up of all their restrictions and their arrogance. What's cool about wiping my data? I never had any such issues with Windows smart phones - they crashed but I could always choose from a selection of backups. Apple try and control my whole experience. What irks me as well is that I have seen no responses from Apple to everyone's messages in this section. What can I do? Suck it up? Does any one know any magic way to get at a previous backup? In iTunes it is only displaying one backup as an option - the one that occured a few minutes ago when I had already lost my contacts. Never, never, never again - it is criminal. Please answer me Apple or I am going to become a one man mission to persuade one and all to support ANdroid and Windows.

Same thing with me. Identical to all others. That's not why I'm writing.

If your 'solution' or 'suggestion' involves writing that should've been done, its not a solution. We all know we should have backed up.