Contacts missing from iCloud - Restore issue. Please HELP!!!

[antman2295]

Hi guys, I have a big issues, well actually my friend does. Her daughter and her share the same apple ID, and there was an issue with her iPod, so she restored it and all of the contacts were transferred to her iPod. So her daughter deleted all the contacts that weren't hers. So now she went to her contacts and all of the contacts are gone.

So now we restored her phone, iCloud from a previous back up that had the contacts, but no more that its there it disappears! The only back up that we can find on her computer is from when she originally synced her phone. So is there a way to make it keep the contacts long enough to copy them, or some way to get them back. Or is she pretty much out of luck? At&t has been useless, and so has apple "there is nothing they can do". So now I'm asking the help of the apple community. Its obviously on the iCloud server somewhere, because it sync's the contacts, but then for some reason it just deletes it. The internet is slow, so it takes nearly 40 minutes to download the iCloud back up.

Thanks a lot for your time! Any comments/suggestions would be great!

Also, I have tried doing the backup from the PC, and it wants to download the update, I would try doing a backup from the PC, but I can find the previous back ups.

 

[antman2295]

Anyone?

 

[davidoloan]

If you have an iTunes sync backup that includes the contacts :

make sure the original iTunes syncing backup is safe.

restore the phone as new.

sign in to icloud.

turn off icloud backup for everything you can see.

restore the phone again, this time from the original itunes backup with the contacts.

i think this will work to keep the contacts on the phone.

then for the tricky part. turn on icloud backup for everything and hope that it starts to backup the new contacts (as it will see them)

keep the original syncing backup safe in case this doesn't work

if you don't have an itunes sync backup then I wouldn't do anything further before contacting Apple as they obviously have the old contacts for the time being. I would also turn off icloud on the other apple device so no further changes can be made. If they were deliberately deleted from the 2nd device they will be deleted permantley at some point and unless you can access older backups they will be lost. So contact Apple urgently. i have never known them to be useless.

 

[davidoloan]

or the second the icloud backup is complete turn your internet connection off at the power.

then turn icloud off.

then make a new itunes backup.

 

[antman2295]

or the second the icloud back is complete turn your internet connection off at the power.

then turn icloud off.

then make a new itunes backup.

Ok, I will try that this evening, Also where can I find old backups to restore from?

Do you think this will work, when I restore from iCloud back up, that has the contacts, before it deletes them put the phone in airplane mode, turn the computers internet off, and then sync it? Then wouldn't there be a back up? Then if I turn the internet back on and it deletes I can resync from the back up?

 

[davidoloan]

Ok, I will try that this evening, Also where can I find old backups to restore from?

to make a backup in itunes right click on the phone name and click backup. Make sure that iTunes is set to backup to computer and not iCloud.

when you click restore in itunes after the software is reinstalled and updated it will ask you if you want restore from a backup and present you with a list of previous backups.

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Do you think this will work, when I restore from iCloud back up, that has the contacts, before it deletes them put the phone in airplane mode, turn the computers internet off, and then sync it? Then wouldn't there be a back up? Then if I turn the internet back on and it deletes I can resync from the back up?

There is a small chance it will work. You might as well try.

I don't know if the phone has already got an instruction to wipe the contacts and just hasn't carried it out yet, and whether it will include the contacts in the new iTunes backup you make.

Airplane mode is a good idea. Is this a phone with a data contract?

Just make sure it has no access to the internet.

Do you have enough time to turn off iCloud backup before it deletes contacts? Maybe that can be done from the iCloud website with the phone physically turned off?

I can't remember if when you set up a new phone on iTunes and then sign in to iCloud whether backup of contacts is automatically on. It probably is, so try to have it set to off if you have enough time before it deletes contacts, before restoring the phone in iTunes so that iCloud then regards the contacts as new additions rather than contacts it should delete.

I would ring Apple again too first.

 

[antman2295]

to make a backup in itunes right click on the phone name and click backup. Make sure that iTunes is set to backup to computer and not iCloud.

when you click restore in itunes after the software is reinstalled and updated it will ask you if you want restore from a backup and present you with a list of previous backups.

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There is a small chance it will work. You might as well try.

I don't know if the phone has already got an instruction to wipe the contacts and just hasn't carried it out yet, and whether it will include the contacts in the new iTunes backup you make.

Airplane mode is a good idea. Is this a phone with a data contract?

Just make sure it has no access to the internet.

Do you have enough time to turn off iCloud backup before it deletes contacts? Maybe that can be done from the iCloud website with the phone physically turned off?

I can't remember if when you set up a new phone on iTunes and then sign in to iCloud whether backup of contacts is automatically on. It probably is, so try to have it set to off if you have enough time before it deletes contacts, before restoring the phone in iTunes so that iCloud then regards the contacts as new additions rather than contacts it should delete.

I would ring Apple again too first.

Ok thanks alot! I'll call apple again, maybe this time they will be more helpful.

 

[mstrike]

If you are having contacts somewhere (icloud.com, mac address, backup) you will be fine!
Restoring them and updating to icloud.com will fix half problem.
Important, login to icloud.com to make sure the contacts are there!

Other half and the main solution is clash between new separate settings in iOS 6 for icloud (above mail, contacts, calendars) and mail settings with icould account. Here are the steps:

1. Delete first icloud account in mail settings (if you have all the contacts in icloud.com erase them from iphone)
2. Delete the separate main icloud account
3. Restart iPhone (just in case, but might not be necessary)
4. Enter the user name and pass in the main icloud account
5. You should have now synced all the contacts from your icloud.com

This worked for me!