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Restored as new phone -> lost everything?

Bawstun

Bawstun

Suspended
Original poster
Jun 25, 2009
2,374
3,000
I am having issues with my battery so I took the advice of several and decided to set up my phone as 'new'.

I backed up my camera roll and videos before onto folders on my computer, so that's okay, and can be synced...but all of my contacts are gone. The way I keep contacts are just through the contacts app on the phone, not Yahoo, Exchange, Outlook, Gmail or anything like that.

Is there a way to get these contacts back without having to manually enter almost 200 numbers? There's no real way to 'grab' them from a sync because they're all kept in previous iphone backups, which I'm trying to avoid, right?

*confused*
 
How can I do that once I set it up as 'new'?

From what I understood (or thought I did, LOL) it is best if having battery problems to set the phone up as 'new', but I'm losing everything when I do that.

Do I restore, set it up as new, then restore again and then use a backup? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of setting it up as new in the first place?
 
you are supposed to use the info tab in itunes to choose the options you want for syncing contacts, calendars and bookmarks, email account settings....

I can't understand why so many people overlook that crucial step.

You can restore your backup to get your contacts back, but ultimately you'll want to do that, then sync your stuff to your computer so it is truly backed up, restore again, setup as new, and resync your info back to your phone.

If you are on a Mac, the syncing options should be on by default for syncing your contacts to your address book, calendars to iCal, etc... if you turned all that stuff off then you almost deserve to lose your information.

see http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1296 to see what you can sync to what apps on your computer via itunes.
 
I have my contacts synced with Google Contacts. You could restore from your backup, go to the Info tab in iTunes under your iPhone and sync your contacts with Google. Then restore your phone as new and resync your contacts from Google's servers.
 
Just restore again and set it to restore from a backup. It keeps the backup of each phone (even if its the same phone, meaning that you set your phone up as new, but the backup of the phone as it was prior to restoring is still on your computer).

For instance, you plug your phone in with all your apps and contacts, and then sync it. It's all backed up safely to your computer. If you restore your phone and set it up as new, iTunes treats it as a brand new phone and will create another backup. The other backup remains until you manually delete it under iTunes' settings. So just plug your phone in, restore it, and when it asks you to restore from a backup, choose the appropriate backup to sync from.
 
I guess I don't understand how contact syncing works. I no longer have a mac (sad sad sob story, haven't saved up enough for another yet) but my contacts are pretty simple. A name, and a number. Sometimes 2 numbers. I don't have any email contacts that I save, any email account settings or heck, even bookmarks that I want saved. I'm old fashioned contacts...is there a way to back them up to something to get them back when setting up as new? I guess Address Book, I'll try that now. I'm currently in the process of restoring from a backup to get everything back, then I'll change the stuff in info tab, and then sync and restore again. This is so much work, lol.
 
Or you can just sync them over to your address book on your mac, or outlook or windows contacts or windows address book, depending on what you have.

All that is covered in the article I posted above.
 
Bawstun said:
I guess I don't understand how contact syncing works. I no longer have a mac (sad sad sob story, haven't saved up enough for another yet) but my contacts are pretty simple. A name, and a number. Sometimes 2 numbers. I don't have any email contacts that I save, any email account settings or heck, even bookmarks that I want saved. I'm old fashioned contacts...is there a way to back them up to something to get them back when setting up as new? I guess Address Book, I'll try that now. I'm currently in the process of restoring from a backup to get everything back, then I'll change the stuff in info tab, and then sync and restore again. This is so much work, lol.
Click to expand...

Look at the upside, would you rather manually enter 200+ contacts? I know I wouldn't.
 
Yahoo has been really great for me. If you don't mind, you can easily set up a free Yahoo mail account and then you'll have a great push email service and a way to easily sync and restore contacts regardless of what happens with your phone/iTunes.
 
There are a number of things you can do, but the easiest is to restore from a backup (the one before you setup as new), then sync the contacts to Outlook on a PC or Address Book on a Mac, and then restore, setup as new, and sync the contacts back to the iPhone.
 
again...just follow the link I posted. It will explain what you can sync to via the info tab in iTunes, or you can just use your eyes when you're in the info tab.
 
Thanks for the help everyone...I'm good now, I restored from backup, synced contacts to windows contacts, restored as new, and then synced through windows contacts. Also pointed to the folder that held all of my camera roll pics and videos so that's all there. Guess there's no option for text messages but that's understandable.

Sorry to start a new thread about this...I've owned every generation of the iphone except the original and you'd think by now I'd understand how contact syncing works...

Thanks for the help! Now I just hope it helps.
 
As i'm reading thru this old thread, i'm looking to setup my phone as new so I can clear my Jailbreak and take it to apple for a replacement phone. I have sync'd my phone to my pc and sync'd my contacts, calendar, etc. As I understand, when you setup as new, itunes will create a sync'd backup of the "setup as new" device and I also understand itunes only saves the most recent backup, and in the case I just described, that would be the blank, setup as new device backup. Am I understanding this correctly? I would hate to sync my device I have right now with all my stuff, then setup as new and have that backup overwrite all my data and then bring a new phone home and be left with nothing but my contacts and calendar since those were sync'd locally as I mentioned.

I need to have everything that's on my phone now and be able to transfer EVERYTHING to the new phone. Including texts, notes, calendar, contacts, apps, etc.

How do I do this?
 
Futhark said:
just right click on your iPhone listed in iTunes and select Restore from Backup
Click to expand...

As i've read on apples website, the most recent backup would be of the last backup which would be when teh phone was "setup as new" leaving me with none of my information.
 
NWI73 said:
As i've read on apples website, the most recent backup would be of the last backup which would be when teh phone was "setup as new" leaving me with none of my information.
Click to expand...

No if you backup often or have auto backup on connect as is the default you will be given a list of dates and times to back your device to :)
 
Futhark said:
No if you backup often or have auto backup on connect as is the default you will be given a list of dates and times to back your device to :)
Click to expand...

Last time I did a restore from backup, I only had 1 date as my option and I backup probably once every 2-3 weeks or so. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
 
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