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jaw3net

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 25, 2007
166
35
Los Angeles, CA
My new iMac is arriving tomorrow and I currently sync my iPhone from my Dell PC. I'd like to sync my iPhone from my iMac when it arrives. Will I lose everything since the phone will need to be reformatted? I don't mind losing the music, I can always re-sync that, but I worry most about my contacts. How can I ensure that I don't lose my contacts?
 

greatestash

macrumors member
Oct 26, 2007
95
13
Merge contacts

Contact syncing is a two way process. if you are switching from PC to Mac, when you will plug your iPhone with Mac, it will ask to erase and install as it is synced with PC. dont click erase; just hit cancel and from tabs, select that you want to sync contacts and calender only as these are two way sync processes.
Also make sure you click Merge Info instead of replace info.once you sync your contacts and calender, then you can erase and restore from Mac without losing any contact info.

i did this six months back when i switched from PC to Mac.
 

paulold

macrumors 6502
Mar 3, 2008
401
5
Washington, DC
I have a similar question, so I'll post it here. I have a pc that has all my media (music, vids, etc) and I sync my iPod and iPhone to it. I also have a MacBook Pro, which I use mainly for writing music (home studio). I just got an iPhone and spent some time consolidating all my contact info (from work, home, online, etc) and I'm loving having it all in one place finally. I mainly use my iPhone now to manage those contacts since I love playing with it. The Windows Address Book program is just okay - I'd rather use the Address Book in my mac laptop, but I'm kinda stuck syncing with my pc.

Is there any way to easily keep my mac Address Book in sync with either my iPhone contacts or my Windows Address Book? I do have a wireless network that the two computers can share files over. I'm thinking the only way would be for my to sync my iPhone with my pc so that it has the latest and then export the contacts from my Windows Address Book as vcards which I think my mac Address Book can import. Or is there another way? Use my mac iTunes to sync just the contacts from the iPhone to my mac Address Book? Thanks!
 

paulold

macrumors 6502
Mar 3, 2008
401
5
Washington, DC
Darn - if only someone had responded to my question... My pc died last night and along with it were my contacts. Had I successfully synced them to my MacBookPro, I would have all my contact info intact somewhere I could access it to get it back into my iPhone. (Apple replaced my iPhone last night too, before I knew my pc had crashed.) Oh well. Looks like I am shifting over to using my MacBookPro now, so I guess I don't need the answer anymore.
 
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