Exactly. The arrogance of some folks on this site amazes me. Of course it's not just me and to imply otherwise is just ignorant. Look at this link:
http://erictric.com/2010/06/21/ios-4-doing-more-harm-than-good-for-some-users/
There's no question I lost all text message history, all contacts, all photos. Photos and contacts I had backed up on my own but the rest is gone. I've got half a mind to stop at Verizon on the way into work and sign up for an HTC Incredible. I just don't get this. I wish I had not upgraded. I had not lost data on any of the prior upgrades and I don't understand how Apple can let this crap happen. This was supposedly an issue in Snow Leopard too, in its early days, where your data could be deleted. I have duct tape holding together my power cable together because it separated again. I wont' rant on that again, but losing data today might make me a Verizon customer within the next 24 hours. Grrrrrrr.
I feel your pain. I am going to try to help you as best as I can from what I have done so far and hopefully others can provide other helpful input. This comment on the link you provided best explains my problem:
arthur s says:
June 21, 2010 at 11:21 pm
All my contacts were deleted. When I go to favorites, all of the numbers are still there but I don’t see any of the names. Same with text; all of my texts are there but no names associated with them. This is very frustrating
In fact, after restoring, when I slide to unlock, I see the names in my favorites list for 1 second and then they disappear! This is VERY frustrating because it feels like the names are there and that iOS4 just doesn't want to let me see them.
I have tried restoring numerous times with different backups and the results are the same, no contacts, all texts there with numbers and all favorites there with numbers BUT no names. It may help you to know (if you have windows 7, unsure of other operating systems) that my backup was deleted and after clicking on properties by accident, windows 7 has a list of previous versions. So after you find the backup folder, I would copy all of those previous backups to be on the safe side.
I went to the genius bar (yes, even after I had been advised that they probably wouldn't be able to help) and they were of NO help. I explained the situation and he just did the same exact thing I did at home, attempted to restore. I asked if this was due to the new OS but he seemed to believe that the OS has nothing to do with it and that the contacts were not there in the first place. Here's what I thought: Are you serious? One of the most important backups before upgrading to a new OS and you're going to tell me it didn't save something as trivial in size as the contacts list. Very hard to believe.
There is a program called iPhone Backup Extractor and this may help you if your backups were not encrypted like mine. So I'm in quite a dilemma here and my next attempt is going to be to use my sister's iPhone which is still running 3.1.3 and attempt to restore the old backup there. For some odd reason, I feel that the iOS4 is limiting the ability to read backups even though it worked perfectly fine on my iPhone.
So what didn't work: restoring a backup onto iOS4, backup extractor (due to encryption), going to the genius bar, importing from sim card
What I'm going to try: restoring backup onto 3.1.3, calling applecare?
You can try any of the options mentioned if you choose to. Let me know how it works out for you.
If those options fail for me, I may have to quit trying and accept that I have lost them. If you took the time to read my situation, please provide any helpful advice if you can. And yes, I know I should have synced them somewhere else prior to updating but I can't change the past.