I'm an idiot, can you help? Or am I beyond that?

[Martin29]

I've just been setting up my new IPhone4.

So.. I decided to Sync my calendar and contacts info with my IMac. Now have a synchronised calendar, and a list of contacts which contains just those two or three which were on my Mac. Everything which was on the IPhone has gone, disappeared, I don't have any names, addresses or phone numbers left!

All this because I was toying with the idea of a Mobileme account, and thought if I synched everything each week, then I wouldn't need to spend the money on Mobileme!

Is there any way I can recover the lost contacts? Or am I in the deep stuff?

Any help gratefully received.

 

[Nico-rhns]

I don't know how to fix your problem, but you can use Google Sync to automatically sync your contacts with the cloud (computer/iPhone's/...).
Just saying you don't have to spend the $99 for MobileMe, while Google's service is free!

 

[torbjoern]

Let me take a wild guess here... You don't have any backup, right?

 

[Martin29]

Thanks Nico,

When and if I find all my contact details I'll look into that one.

Right now I'm beginning to realise that I've no longer any means of contacting anyone!

 

[Martin29]

Let me take a wild guess here... You don't have any backup, right?

That's why I was synching! I wanted to synch from the IPhone to the Mac so that I had a backup on my desktop. Trouble is it went from desktop to IPhone and now I don't have anything!

 

[reggaez]

u can try to look into your itunes iphone backup for any traces of your contacts

pls google HT1766

 

[kevintech]

I don't know how to fix your problem, but you can use Google Sync to automatically sync your contacts with the cloud (computer/iPhone's/...).
Just saying you don't have to spend the $99 for MobileMe, while Google's service is free!

This is exactly what I told the Apple employee trying to sell me MobileMe. Google does almost everything MobileMe does, but for free. Just another way for Apple to take your money.

 

[torbjoern]

That's why I was synching! I wanted to synch from the IPhone to the Mac so that I had a backup on my desktop. Trouble is it went from desktop to IPhone and now I don't have anything!

What do you think would have happened then if a worm or a trojan had wiped out the contacts on one of your devices? I'll tell you - the wipeout would automatically have been synched to the other as well. This is the reason why I asked if you have a backup (i.e. a non-synched one).

 

[Martin29]

u can try to look into your itunes iphone backup for any traces of your contacts

Where do I find the ITunes backup? I'm in my account now and can find nothing marked IPhone backup.

 

[Martin29]

What do you think would have happened then if a worm or a trojan had wiped out the contacts on one of your devices? I'll tell you - the wipeout would automatically have been synched to the other as well. This is the reason why I asked if you have a backup (i.e. a non-synched one).

I guess I learned the hard way eh? Just that it is going to be impossible to recover everything, and that means I'm unable to contact some of my important family, friends or colleagues!

 

[LapsangSouchong]

When you do fix things, make a back up of your address books so this does not happen again.

 

[Krevnik]

Every time you sync, it makes a backup (unless you turned that off, which it doesn't sound like you did).

So here's what you do:
1) Restore the iPhone from that backup. See http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414. You will want to make a second backup here as well, just in case.

2) Once it is restored and you confirm that you have restored your contacts, make sure that you don't have a setting like "Overwrite data on the device" set in the Info tab of your sync settings. That being checked is what nuked your data on the phone.