Help, lost all contacts!

[tbm248]

One of the main things I was worried about wrt to jailbreaking was losing my contacts. My entire phone was essentially wiped clean after I jailbroke on 2.x. That sucked.

Well, I was now thinking of trying to jailbreak 3.0.1. First though, I wanted to make sure I had everything backed up and would be able to get my stuff back after jailbreak. Sure enough, even before the jailbreak, I lost all my contacts.

I went through and checked the "sync" box for everything (apps, photos, contacts). For contacts, I said sync with google contacts. I entered an email address and password (different than the one I had synced with a couple months ago). I went back to the summary screen and clicked apply. After the syncing was finished, I checked the contacts on my iphone...nothing. I went to my gmail contacts, nothing.

Ok, please tell me there is a way to get my contacts back and reverse this process? I think I had pressed the "sync" button in itunes yesterday, though I do not believe I had the contacts box checked off when I did it the other day. But isn't there a way I can get my phone/contacts back to how it was right before I did the sync today which effectively wiped out all my contacts?

Ugh, I can't believe I lost those contacts. If you guys can help me out and walk me through this step by step, I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT.

Thanks.

 

[-aggie-]

What computer, PC or Mac?

PC: Outlook or Windows Address Book

Mac: Address Book

If you look in those programs and they are not there, then you're SOL.

 

[tbm248]

PC.

I checked both programs, they aren't there.



So there is no way to go back?

 

[-aggie-]

PC.

I checked both programs, they aren't there.



So there is no way to go back?

what does this mean:

I went through and checked the "sync" box for everything (apps, photos, contacts). For contacts, I said sync with google contacts. I entered an email address and password (different than the one I had synced with a couple months ago). I went back to the summary screen and clicked apply. After the syncing was finished, I checked the contacts on my iphone...nothing. I went to my gmail contacts, nothing

Why not use the previous email address?

In the future though, if you've lost the contacts, here's what you should do:

Sync to Outlook (Outlook can also be used to sync Notes and Calendar...it also has the contacts pictures saved).

Copy the Outlook files to a safe place.

Also, I suggest you use Funambol. It's like Google, and they don't use your contacts in any way to spam.

You can also use Google, as you say you did.

With all that, the chance of losing your contacts is almost nil.

 

[tbm248]

what does this mean:



Why not use the previous email address?

Here's the story.

A few months ago (actually, more like a year) I tried jailbreaking, and I lost all my contacts. But to get at least SOME of my contacts back, I got my cell phone that I used before the iphone, took out the sim card, put it in the iphone, and imported those contacts. I think I later "synced' with my primary gmail address, and so those contacts were somehow stored on my gmail account.

I don't really remember specifically what I did, since I obviously ended up losing everything this time around. This time, when I clicked the box for syncing contacts with google, I changed the configuration to a different email. Not sure what my reasoning was, but I think I just wanted to put all my iphone contacts on a different gmail address. Unfortunately, I ended up with no contacts at all.

So yes, if I go to my primary gmail account, I still have the contacts that I exported/synced from like a year ago. However, that doesn't do me much good since I have added many important new contacts since then.

In the future though, if you've lost the contacts, here's what you should do:

Sync to Outlook (Outlook can also be used to sync Notes and Calendar...it also has the contacts pictures saved).

Copy the Outlook files to a safe place.

Also, I suggest you use Funambol. It's like Google, and they don't use your contacts in any way to spam.

You can also use Google, as you say you did.

With all that, the chance of losing your contacts is almost nil.

Thanks for the advice. I'll make sure to do that next time.

For now, I'm thinking I may have to go through my phone records or something to at least get back some of of my important contacts lol.

 

[-aggie-]

Here's the story.

A few months ago (actually, more like a year) I tried jailbreaking, and I lost all my contacts. But to get at least SOME of my contacts back, I got my cell phone that I used before the iphone, took out the sim card, put it in the iphone, and imported those contacts. I think I later "synced' with my primary gmail address, and so those contacts were somehow stored on my gmail account.

I don't really remember specifically what I did, since I obviously ended up losing everything this time around. This time, when I clicked the box for syncing contacts with google, I changed the configuration to a different email. Not sure what my reasoning was, but I think I just wanted to put all my iphone contacts on a different gmail address. Unfortunately, I ended up with no contacts at all.

So yes, if I go to my primary gmail account, I still have the contacts that I exported/synced from like a year ago. However, that doesn't do me much good since I have added many important new contacts since then.

Thanks for the advice. I'll make sure to do that next time.

For now, I'm thinking I may have to go through my phone records or something to at least get back some of of my important contacts lol.

IDK what MR will do with it, but I plan on writing a guide for restoring/backing up the iPhone. We have some guide already, but I think there more the step-by-step variety, and stuff like I wrote above is what needs to be in them. Disasters happen all the time, and you can never be too backed up. Anyway, sorry you lost the stuff.