HELP! Deleted all my Contacts with Bento

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Level 1

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HELP! Deleted all my Contacts with Bento

I downloaded the trial version of Bento. The first time I opened Bento it imported all of my contacts from iCloud (used with my iMac and iPhone). I did not realize that Bento was mirroring iCloud. I thought it just created a resident file with my contact information. So this morning I was playing around with Bento (going to use for personal business) and I thought I would would just delete all of those personal entries that it had originally imported. Big mistake! My entire iCloud contact list is wiped clean. My question is this. How in the world do I get it back? I show a recent backup to the icoud of my phoen at 11:51am. I don't know if this is before of after I wiped the contacts clean. If I erase my phoen and go to restore it from the cloud will i have the choice of restoring from other backups? I'd like to know that before going into it. I am also an avid backerupper with time machine. Any optiosn there anyone can think of that would be easier than restoring cloud contacts from and iphone reinstall?

Posted on Jun 4, 2013 11:24 AM

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Answer 1

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randers4

Level 9

63,519 points

Jun 4, 2013 12:29 PM in response to crankboy

If you have Time Machine, that would be an easier solution. Do the following:

Go to System Preferences>iCloud, uncheck Contacts, choose Delete from My Mac at the prompt.
Open Contacts on your Mac and enter Time Machine. Go back in the time line until your contacts are visible again.
Select all your contacts by clicking on the top one, then shift-clicking on the last, then tap Restore on the bottom left. Select to add the contacts at the prompt.
Select all your contacts again, then go to File>Export>Export vCard, save this file on your desktop.
Select all your contacts again, then press your Delete key to delete them.
Go to System Preferences>iCloud and check Contacts again.
Go to Settings>iCloud on your phone and verify that Contacts is set to On.
Email the vCard file you made earlier to yourself, open it on your iPhone and tap the attachment to import the contacts to your phone. They will also be added to iCloud and should appear on your Mac after a short delay.

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Answer 2

crankboy Author

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4 points

Jun 4, 2013 12:44 PM in response to randers4

Thanks Randers. That is exactly what I did. I didn't realize that Time Machine was making a local backup of my contacts when I was syncing it all to the iCloud, hence my initial panic.

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Answer 3

randers4

Level 9

63,519 points

Jun 4, 2013 12:45 PM in response to crankboy

You're welcome.

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Answer 4

crankboy Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 6, 2013 7:13 AM in response to randers4

OK, after looking at this for a day it seems the problem is not comletely solved. I can go into to Time Machine and selct all contacts, choose restore, everything looks great. But many of my phone numbers are not being restored. These would be on contacts that have linked cards (facebook and icloud). SO for instance my friend "ann" would have her email and cell phone on a card in icloud. I can see it all in Time Machine but when I restore only teh useless facebook info transfer over. This happens when I do a "mass restore" all 300+ contacts or when I do a restore of a single file. Any suggestions? OR post in a different forum?

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Answer 5

randers4

Level 9

63,519 points

Jun 6, 2013 12:17 PM in response to crankboy

Not sure why it's losing linked contacts, unless one of the linked databases (most likely the FaceBook one) isn't backed up with Time Machine. You might try re-enabling your FB contact syncing before restoring the contacts. Perhaps the FB contacts need to be active on your device in order for the contact link not to be lost when you restore.

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Answer 6

Jan 18, 2014 7:49 PM in response to randers4

I have this same issue, except I don't have Time Machine set up on my computer yet so I have no back up of my contacts. I pulled an old sync that is missing a lot of my new information and am using that for now. The only saving grace I have is my ipad. It is in airplane mode, so the updates haven't hit those contacts. What is the best way to get the contacts from my iPad to restore icloud?

Thanks!

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Answer 7

randers4

Level 9

63,519 points

Jan 18, 2014 8:08 PM in response to johnnyd23

There are apps that would back up the contacts on your iPad, such as My Contacts Backup. To avoid connecing to the internet, put your iPad in Airplane mode. Then purchase the app (it's a free app unless you have over 500 contacts, then you'll need the Pro version) in iTunes on your computer, and sync it to your iPad. Once on your iPad, use the app to back up your contacts as a vCard attachment to an email that you send to yourself. You'll get a warning that the email will go to the outbox because you don't have an internet connection. Then take the iPad out of Airplane mode and the email should send.

After iCloud syncs and deletes the contacts on your iPad, you can open the email and tap the attachment to import the contacts back to your iPad, and to iCloud.

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