Lost contacts, iPhone 4

I had opened a similar discussion. Engineermusic referred me to this one. I had the same issue (messaging apps crashing, so I turned off and on the phone, and then all the contacts were gone). This happened to me twice. I believe the contacts are actually gone before you turn it off. The second time it happened, I tried to see if the contacts were gone, but the Contacts app wouldn't open either. I also do no synch to ICloud. I restored to my last backup, which worked, but then they disappeared again a few hours later.

I tried to chat with apple online, but my phone is out of warranty, so they wanted $20. I made an appt with the apple store genius bar instead. They didn't charge for this. The guy was very nice and tried to help, but he hadn't heard of this (yet) and didn't know why it was happening.

I have iphone 4S with iOS 5.1.1.

I make periodic backups, but I don't synch to iCloud.

The first time was 2/24/2013 around 11pm (pacific time).

The second time was 2/25/2013 around 11am (pacific time).

Both times I was using iphone messaging and the wechat messaging app.

I think the perspective roaminggnome suggests is good. (i.e. consider the phone as portable storage, but make sure everything is saved somewhere else). Until now, I've thought it the other way around (i.e. the data is on the phone and I back it up somewhere else). But I think roaminggnome is correct. Once I get everything back up, I will try synching to their iCloud.

The scenario sullimom24 describes is the reason I don't synch. I'd heard of people that lost data and then automatically lost the same data on their backup as soon as they connect to itunes and it synchs. This basically rendered the backup useless. The Apple genius told me if I synch to iCloud, then I can log into iCloud and view, print, or save the contacts elsewhere. This could be a backup that the synch doesn't touch...

Also, I am going to try the "My Contacts Backup" app that Zoomer271 mentioned. Thanks for also describing how to use this to restore from the phone itself. Seems like less hassle than the other options.

So I looked at my phone about 7 hours all this happened and magically most (not all) of my contacts had returned and decided to reappear...I'm still not sure how to get back the ones lost but I would rather have only a few lost than all. I don't think I did anything to restore them, I was looking around on the settings and they appeared. hopefully everyone's phones will do this too!

I also just had this happen to me. Kept getting kicked out of my apps, so I turned my phone off and back on and realized I have lost all of my contacts. Not good!!! I have some that I only contact once in awhile during ball season, so I have no idea how to get those back.

Same thing happened to me, messages kept quitting last night, turned off and turned on phone, now this morning all my contacts are gone. Weird how this is happening to a lot of people in the last 48 hours or so.

It would be nice if Apple would recognize that this is happening and fix the problem. I am sure that we are a very small percentage of people that it has happened to.

Well, I was thinking it was time to upgrade to the Iphone 5 but with this just happening, I have now decided to get away from Apple altogether.

Same thing happened with my wife's iphone 4 running 5.1.1, message app would close upon opening. powered off then back up and contacts were gone. Weird thing is that when you search the iPhone you can search names of people in the contacts list but when you click on an entry such as a message from them it opens the message app and the title at the top of the screen is the persons phone number and not their name. It seems that they are in the phone somewhere they just lost their affiliation to the number info. I will also consider a different phone when it's time to renew, not thrilled at all...

I have the exact same problem. Showed up around 12:30 pm, Feb. 27. iPhone 4S, iOS 5.1.1, sync to windows pc - not iCloud. Opened up text messaging, it immediately closed. Repeated this three times and then turned the phone off and on. Opened up the messaging app (Apple) and noticed that contact names were gone and text threads were identified by phone numbers. Opened up contacts, all contacts are missing.

My phone did the same thing this afternoon. I had backed mine up in December, but lost all text messages, photos, and voicemail messages when restored to that point. So frustrating!

hi guy same silimar **** happened to me ...i was very stress 😠 , now i discovered all my contact ....by checking icloud via my iphone4 .. and log back in ...i figured out icloud must be off the air for some time ....hence i cant see all my contact on icloud . relogged back in ...it all there ...except one entry is bit old ???? i cant figured it out ..but i dont care now ...i have all my contact back ..even the new contact entry that i put in 6 hours ago are back now .....i didnt even know i been saving my contact direct to icloud all this time that i dont even know ..lucky same family have two iphone and discoved the issue for last hours and figured this out ...please correct me if i am wrong am still dont know too much about iphone except using it ....l were almost blaming my facebook app update killed my iphone ...stupid me ...LOL

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My contacts are gone this morning. Last night the phone was alone and charging and then started acting strangely - it kept playing the plug-in sound repeatedly. The screen was flashing between the lock screen and a black one. I unplugged it, but it remained in the loop until I forced a shut down, then rebooted the phone.

All seemed fine until I checked messages this morning and my contacts were gone. Everything else seems to be there.

Same has happened to me at 0930 (GMT). Tried to open a post I was tagged in on Facebook. The app kept throwing me out. After 2 or 3 times of trying to open facebook and being kicked back out I done a restart (lock button and home screen).

A text came through within 1 minuet of the phone powering back on and it was just a number (no name). Checked my contacts - all gone.

If I search the iPhone, it finds some contacts, but they dont appear in the Contcats.

Don't use iCloud and have not done a back-up in a while. Hope they "appear" again. Use an iPhone 4 (16GB) on iOs 5. Cant download iOs6 as its too big and not enough storeage space left.

I hope there is a fix for this. I know its down to the user to back up important data. I've had an iPhone for years and had ZERO hasle un till now....... :-(

THis happened today feb28th on my wife's iPhone 4. All contacts lost. Looks as though a number with the same issue. C'mon apple sort it please, obvious problem here

The same thing just happened to me. I got a text, unlocked my phone to look at it and I could not get into my messages, it just kept restarting. I restarted my phone and went into my messages and realized there are no contacts. I tried restarting it again and then tried restoring to the backup I did in August in my iTunes and they still will not reappear! I am now on the phone with the local Apple store, hopefully they will give me a solution. I'll repost when I get off the phone....

Snap... My contacts wiped after the phone froze !! No cloud back up etc etc so if anyone is aware of a fix I would be very grateful as don't fancy having to keep re-entering them.