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How did my iPhone get all my contacts?

R

rizajj

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 17, 2008
87
0
When I got my iPhone, all my contacts from my old phone magically appeared in my iPhone. How did this happen? Aren't my contacts stored on my SIM and on my old phone's memory?

I was an AT&T customer already; did this have something to do with it? It was great that I didnt' have to import my contacts, but also kind of weird that it happened automatically. Did this happen to anyone else?


I did a quick search on this forum and didnt find anything, so sorry if this has been asked already.
 
The new version comes prebundled with iDentityTheft that automatically stores and steals all of your personal information!
 
none of the above. i have no mobileme. i hadnt yet even set up my email or anything yet. I'm saying it was all in there WHILE I WAS STILL IN THE APPLE STORE!

crazy eh? so far i'm the only one?
 
rizajj said:
none of the above. i have no mobileme. i hadnt yet even set up my email or anything yet. I'm saying it was all in there WHILE I WAS STILL IN THE APPLE STORE!

crazy eh? so far i'm the only one?
Click to expand...

Maybe they transfered them from your old SIM card. And No, your contacts on your iPhone are not stored on your SIM card, they're stored in your phone's flash memory.
 
AT&T can transfer your contacts from your old SIM card to your iPhone for you. I thought you had to ask them to do it but it looks like they do it automatically.
 
tuffluffjimmy said:
Maybe they transfered them from your old SIM card. And No, your contacts on your iPhone are not stored on your SIM card, they're stored in your phone's flash memory.
Click to expand...

They didn't use my old SIM card; they used the new, included SIM card in the new iPhone.

my old phone let me store contacts on the phone memory AND the SIM card, though you had to manually copy from one to the other. I usally backed up to SIM once a month on my old phone.

I guess its an AT&T thing...
 
Stampyhead said:
AT&T can transfer your contacts from your old SIM card to your iPhone for you. I thought you had to ask them to do it but it looks like they do it automatically.
Click to expand...

how did you hear about this?

if its true, then on one hand, that's very cool, but on the other, it's kinda creepy.
 
tuffluffjimmy said:
Not really. Doesn't everyone do this when they buy a new phone? I know I always ask them to transfer my old contacts to my shiny new phone
Click to expand...

yeah but i thought there was some sort of 'physical' process involved. like swapping SIMs or something. or connecting the phones, or dumping to an intermediary device like a computer.

it's just sort of weird that AT&T, in their database somewhere, has all my contacts and phone numbers. i always thought it was entirely local to my phone.
 
No, your old iPhone sim card will not transfer your information to your new phone. Sorry. I didn't know until I got there and they couldn't do it. They also did not push my info from my mobileme account. I had to come home and sync from the backup, so be sure that you are backing up your old phone before you switch.

Maybe it's different if your old phone isn't an iPhone, though.
 
rizajj said:
When I got my iPhone, all my contacts from my old phone magically appeared in my iPhone. How did this happen? Aren't my contacts stored on my SIM and on my old phone's memory?

I was an AT&T customer already; did this have something to do with it? It was great that I didnt' have to import my contacts, but also kind of weird that it happened automatically. Did this happen to anyone else?


I did a quick search on this forum and didnt find anything, so sorry if this has been asked already.
Click to expand...

Hmmmmmmm B.S:eek:
 
iPhone 2.0 software has import SIM contacts function in sys prefs, so maybe when you were buying the rep just pushed that button for you?
 
appledrone said:
Hmmmmmmm B.S:eek:
Click to expand...

i searched "automatically import contacts" and found nothing that seemed to match what i was asking. please point me to what you found, so i may be more adequately prepared for future postings.
 
daneoni said:
iPhone 2.0 software has import SIM contacts function in sys prefs, so maybe when you were buying the rep just pushed that button for you?
Click to expand...

no, the rep did not handle my phone long enough to do that, and, furthermore, I didn't use my 'old' SIM. I used the SIM that came with the iPhone 3G.

I think it must be an AT&T thing.
 
So what is the easiest way to add your contacts if you are new to the iPhone and AT&T?
 
Olleh said:
How do you know it's a load of crap, though?
Click to expand...

well, the op says that att didnt handle his phone enough, it was a new sim, they didnt touch the old one and he hadnt even plugged it into his computer.

How did they get there? Black magic?

'Introducing iphone psycic edition'
 
LOL @ all these posts. I love when someone has some magical thing happen and no one can figure it out, then after 6 pages of armchair CSI, the OP suddenly remembers that his kid/brother/uncle/dog might have played with the phone for a couple of hours, or some other random forgotten tidbit, and declares mystery solved.

Otherwise, the only logical answer is of course, iGhost.
 
look, there ARE systems that exist that do such a thing, though I am not subscribed to them (at least not that I'm aware of).

http://mobilebackup.att.com/index.html

I'll continue to investigate, but I wanted to see if anyone else here has experienced this. Given that apparently NO ONE has, then my only conclusion is that, in fact, it IS something I did but am unaware of. But to accuse me of 'making it up' is downright rude. Troll somewhere else.
 
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