Resolved: [iOS 5] Contacts gone after syncing with iCloud.

[Nikos]

I just enabled iCloud and turned contacts on, so that they sync. All of my contacts were deleted from my phone. I'm pretty sure it asked if I wanted to merge them, and I said yes, as I didn't want any deleted or overwritten.

Has this happened to anyone else? Am I doing something wrong? Trying to avoid restoring again.

[shandyman]

Originally Posted by Nikos

I just enabled iCloud and turned contacts on, so that they sync. All of my contacts were deleted from my phone. I'm pretty sure it asked if I wanted to merge them, and I said yes, as I didn't want any deleted or overwritten.

Has this happened to anyone else? Am I doing something wrong? Trying to avoid restoring again.

this happened to me, if you go into messages and make a new one and start typing a contacts name do they appear?

basically flick the contacts toggle to off again, wait til its done turning it off, then flick it back on and you should have them back. it's a little glitch where they don't appear in contacts, but have not actually gone. think it just takes a few mins for contacts to appear on the cloud

[Nikos]

Originally Posted by andythursby

this happened to me, if you go into messages and make a new one and start typing a contacts name do they appear?

basically flick the contacts toggle to off again, wait til its done turning it off, then flick it back on and you should have them back. it's a little glitch where they don't appear in contacts, but have not actually gone. think it just takes a few mins for contacts to appear on the cloud

They don't appear when I start typing them. I've tried flicking it on and off but to no avail.

Maybe a restore is in order.

[Nikos]

Ended up restoring from a backup. Seems to be working this time. Must have been a weird glitch.

[shandyman]

Originally Posted by Nikos

Ended up restoring from a backup. Seems to be working this time. Must have been a weird glitch.

did you give it time inbetween flicking on and off? like 10 mins? and restarting the device?

[capsones]

Same happened to me. When i woke up this morning, i saw all my contacts are gone. I switched off contacts in icloud and it asked me if i wanted to keep or delete the previously synced contacts on the phone. I said keep. Bam! They all came back.

[ann713]

Experienced the same thing after syncing, my entire phone book was cleared out with names remaining in Messages. I went into the 'Contacts' app and refreshed, it crashed out but all my contracts came back.

[capsones]

So, what will happen now?

If we turn on syncing contacts with iCloud, the contacts are going off the phone. So, it's useless.

If we don't sync contacts, then we won't have the backup of the contacts. So iCloud is useless for contacts.

So now?
What should we do to both keep contacts on the phone and on the cloud, updated? Any ideas?

[pepitko]

Same thing happened to me, after a rather troublesome install of iOS 5. I had to install it three times, before it finally worked and then the sync looked to be a success but iTunes said it failed.

Anyway, everything in the phone worked besides the contacts. I couldn't see them in phone app or contacts app, but names remained in messages. So I flicked contacts in iCloud off and on, went to the phone app, which crashed, but upon its return the contacts reappeared.

[Moxie2]

Anyway, everything in the phone worked besides the contacts. I couldn't see them in phone app or contacts app, but names remained in messages. So I flicked contacts in iCloud off and on, went to the phone app, which crashed, but upon its return the contacts reappeared.

Same with my wife's phone on entering the iCloud, but curiously not mine. Toggled contacts on and off in the iCloud settings on the phone, no return of the contacts. Turned phone off, after killing the contacts app along with the phone and messaging apps. No contacts back.

Would love some ideas - not sure if a restore from iTunes will do the job either...

[srs123]

If you go to settings, then to mail, contacts and calendars, scroll down and press the button that says Import SIM Contacts. worked for me!

[theocanada]

I have this same issue. In the contacts app i see them under "iphone contacts" but not all contacts. Odd...

Nothing has worked so far


EDIT - nevermind. closing out contacts app, turning off icloud contact syncing (keeping contacts), turning off phone, turn back on, icloud back on (merge all) and they were there. problem solved.

Thanks!!!

[AlaModeGrl]

Originally Posted by capsones

Same happened to me. When i woke up this morning, i saw all my contacts are gone. I switched off contacts in icloud and it asked me if i wanted to keep or delete the previously synced contacts on the phone. I said keep. Bam! They all came back.

Was in a panic this morning after an OS5 update yesterday when no contacts were appearing on the phone. Followed your steps above and got them all back. Thank you!

[fionag]

Just found this thread because I had the same problem. Fixed it with Alexander's 5-step plan. Thanks for that.

[itaka14]

Originally Posted by Alexander897

1.Tap Setting on the home screen and Tap iCloud option in it.

2.Now, toggle the Contacts switch to Off.

3.Now, Sync your Contacts with your Mac or a PC. Just connect your iDevice to your computer, fire-up iTunes, and enable Contacts Sync. (Hope you know this already!)

4.Now, your contacts will be synced to your computer’s AddressBook. You are half way through the process now. On your phone, go to Settings > iCloud and toggle the Contacts switch to On! This will enable Contact sync on your device.

5.Now, the phone will ask you if it can Merge the contacts that are already on the phone. Just click Merge. And you are done. Youe contacts are on the Cloud now.

Hi, this was very helpful many thanks. But question: do we need to do it again and again every time we want to sync iphone contacts with the computer's address book?

[Hvyn]

My Grand daughter managed to delete all my contacts from her Ipod,she was not even at my house she was with her father in the truck, she had synced her ipod with my phone and when she told me had all my contacts I got annoyed and told her to delete them out now....she did so when my husband rang it was an unknown number. Took awhile but worked it out ...my icloud is shut down and will never be used again.

[Apple-001]

I tried everything listed above and the Contacts will "reappear" after turn iPhone off and back on (with or without iCloud Contacts turned OFF) ... but whenever I select "Groups" it list NO Groups other than ALL CONTACTS ... when that is select ALL CONTACTs are missing except for only 1 Contact (my own phone number). I've restored phone back to default and recreated as essentially a Brand New iPhone. Then refreshed phone from several different backups. All have same behavior. CONTACT "disappear" when Group is selected. ARRRRG!!

Anyone else with any solutions. this seems like a HUGE bug to me.

doug in Texas

[RST1123]

THIS HAPPENED TO ME TODAY!!!
I did not even plug my iphone into the computer, it sat on a counter all day. Now, all of the sudden, it replaced all my contacts with contacts from my Hotmail account, but I never told it to anything of the sort.

Now when I try to restore from a backup, it syncs only the apps and not the contacts?? WTF??
Text me at 305-898-4565 if you have any ideas what the problem could be.

[scorwitz]

I'm a PC-Mac switcher. I've had an iphone for over 2 years and when iOS5 came out I decided to "just say NO" to the cloud. Just bought a new Macbook pro 5 days ago and was on the phone with Applecare for a while making sure I had all music files on the new Mac with playlists. Good there and synced with phone no problems. (Had to do with NTFS formatted HD from Windows)

Today, I decide I better jump on the iCloud bandwagon and turned it on for Contacts on the phone. An hour later I go to send a text and about half my contacts are gone!!! I have tried all of the above that doesn't require the actual laptop cause I'm at work. I KNOW that they were there after the iTunes Sync and before I turned on iCloud, so it had to be iCloud that did it. When I get home I'm going to root around and see if I can locate the contacts that had been syncing with Outlook on my dead PC.

So much for "Everything is just EASIER on a mac!"

[Loveappledubai]

I never activated the cloud. Had Aton of contacts but the very few I added manually disappeared after I synced with the cable. They are not on the iPhone and not on the mac. Tried the steps but it didnot work for me. Any ideas?

[osmanouzun]

According to this iPhone contacts disappear on rare occasions when one syncs their iPhone contacts to the iCloud for the first time.