Accidentally deleted all my phone contacts using iSync

[augu2000]

Hi,

I am a bit desperate because I accidentally deleted all my phone contacts using iSync.
Previous to the sync I had my contacts in my mac address book, but I deleted them to make a fresh list from my phone. Therefore my address book was empty when I did the sync. I thought that the contacts from the phone would be copied to the computer. But instead, when I did the sync all the contacts from the phone were deleted!!!
I did a search in google and found that the version of Address Book under Tiger kept a file called AddressBook.data.previous that contained your contacts before the last change. But I cannot find that file in Leopard. Does anyone have an idea of where that file is? Or does anyone have a suggestion about how to recover my phone numbers? Thanks!!!

 

[swiftaw]

~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/

 

[augu2000]

Hi. Thanks for the reply. I looked in that location (~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook) but there is not such file. Apparently things changed from Tiger to Leopard, and the format of the files are not the same. Any help?

Also, there may be some kind of file made by iSync with the contents of the last sync. Any ideas? I am kind of desperate...

 

[swiftaw]

Hi. Thanks for the reply. I looked in that location (~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook) but there is not such file. Apparently things changed from Tiger to Leopard, and the format of the files are not the same. Any help?

Well, I have Leopard, and I have that file.

Just to check, that's the Library folder inside your User folder, not the Library folder that is directly off the root of your Hard Drive.

 

[augu2000]

Hi swiftaw,

I think you may have that file because you imported your address book from Tiger or something like that. I checked in that location and there is no such file. I think that file was an "automatic backup" done by address book in Tiger. But I don't know if it is also done in Leopard and where the files are.

Also, there may be a way of recovering the contacts from iSync. If anybody knows about this I would be very grateful. Thanks!!!

 

[swiftaw]

Doesn't iTunes do a backup of your iPhone every time you connect it? Perhaps you can restore from that.

 

[augu2000]

Hi,

I connected with Bluetooth, and iTunes did not do any backups. So I guess that is not an option. Thanks for the ideas, tough.

 

[Tomlija]

Hi swiftaw,

I think you may have that file because you imported your address book from Tiger or something like that. I checked in that location and there is no such file. I think that file was an "automatic backup" done by address book in Tiger. But I don't know if it is also done in Leopard and where the files are.

Also, there may be a way of recovering the contacts from iSync. If anybody knows about this I would be very grateful. Thanks!!!

Dear augu2000, I had exactly the SAME PROBLEM! I am still desperate and I was wondering if you could help me with your experience!
Here is my thread and the description of my problem!

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=9047596&posted=1#post9047596

 

[MobiusStrip]

This is an Apple problem. Report it.

Because after four years, iTunes lacks an essential, basic syncing option to let you overwrite the computer data with the phone data:

Are you tired of this disregard for your data? TELL APPLE. 800-MY-IPHONE (800-694-7466)

 

[r0k]

Because after four years, iTunes lacks an essential, basic syncing option to let you overwrite the computer data with the phone data:

Are you tired of this disregard for your data? TELL APPLE. 800-MY-IPHONE (800-694-7466)

I agree. Sort of. Mark/Space Missing Sync has this option. But I'd never want to go back to that mess. I had a blackberry and I had duplicate contacts and phone number emails and email phone numbers like crazy. So the presence of that option doesn't mean things will work out. But I do agree Apple should offer it.

I subscribe to MobileMe and I find that when I enter something on my iPhone, iPad, Macbook or on the MoMe web site, it shows up on all the other places within minutes. I don't know what would happen if I ever managed to wipe the data on my Mac. I suppose the wipe would propogate across all my devices. This is a good reason to do the following. In Contacts, make a backup. In iCal, make a backup. Do this about once a month or whenever you think of it. Once you make those backups, copy the files up to mobile me or dropbox or gmail or whatever cloud backup solution you are using. You should never be faced with losing all your stuff. Ever.