iCloud Contact Sync question

[razzydazzle99]

First facts: Using Iphone 4, 5.0.1, verizon, I don't use icloud for anything right now.


Prior to 5.0, obviously I always used my laptop and cable to backup everything. I sync it with windows contacts also, because I use that once in a while.

I travel a lot, and acquire a lot of new phone numbers, and I want to know if I backed up to icloud while on the road, would it erase all of my numbers? What is considered the master list that gets mirrored?

For example, when I sync with windows contacts, it takes the ones from my phone that aren't on the pc, and puts them on the pc.

If I were to back up to icloud while on the road, and lets say I had new contacts in there, would it always take the new contacts and add them to icloud? If I had deleted contacts from my phone, and synced to icloud, would it remove those from the icloud side? Or would it add the missing ones back into the phone?

 

[Ruby110]

Since no one else has answered let me try based on my limited experience.

iCloud backs up certain data but it syncs contacts, calendars, etc. That is, once you are using iCloud, removing a contact from your iPhone will remove it from iCloud and any other devices synced with iCloud.

In my experience, turning iCloud on for a device that already has contacts causes iCloud to ask if you want to merge or cancel the operation. Those are the only choices I have seen. I made sure I had a backup of my existing contacts before I turned on iCloud. I strongly recommend you do the same.

It sounds like you're using Windows. You need to download an iCloud program for windows but it doesn't work with XP. Sorry, I don't remember the name.

Good luck!

 

[verwon]

Yes, that's correct. A delete would remove from all devices, an add would add to all devices.