iPhone contacts disappear ... after syncing with iCloud Do your iPhone contacts disappear when syncing with iCloud for the first time? In my case: yes! Bottom line – read on to see that there is nothing to worry about and there IS a way to solve the “iPhone contacts gone” problem. This is an issue I went through recently and it has taken a huge headache from worrying that my iPhone contacts are gone forever to thinking that I might end up with duplicates after having to disable and enable iCloud sync according to some instructions. What you need in order to solve the problem Your iPhone A PC computer A small tool to backup iPhone contacts The problem explained Many users with iPhone contacts already loaded on their iDevices, see their iPhone contacts disappear when they first choose to turn on Contact sync via iCloud. This has occurred with first-time users of the iCloud with iCloud account containing no contacts. 1. Let’s say I start with an iPhone full of contacts 2. I decide to start using iCloud so I go to Settings > iCloud and from there, enable Contacts sync by moving the slider for Contacts from OFF to ON. This is the first time I use iCloud, so my iCloud contact list is empty 3. The program will ask me to “Merge” my current iPhone contacts with the iCloud. As there is no other option (unless you want to cancel sync), I go with “Merge” 4. Surprise! iPhone contacts are gone How to bring back your iPhone contacts gone? 1. Go to your iCloud account on your PC by navigating to iCloud. You will see all of your iPhone contacts in one place. Now, click on the cogwheel button after having selected all iPhone contacts in iCloud and choose “Export vCard” 2. Select the destination for the contacts files on your computer. A *.vcf file containing all of your iPhone contacts will now appear in that location 3. Go to your iPhone and make sure to turn off iCloud contact syncing by navigating to Settings > iCloud and moving the slider from ON to OFF 4. On your computer, download and run a small free BETA app called CopyTrans Contacts and then connect your iPhone to your PC. 5. Now, go back to the location where you saved the iCloud *.vcf file and drag the file from there to the CopyTrans Contacts main window Here is a quick YouTube video of how this works: 6. This will move back all of your gone iPhone contacts back to your iPhone where they belong. The program will now display all your iPhone contacts within its main window Your iPhone will also display the contacts previously disappeared. 7. Now, go back to your iPhone, enable iCloud by moving back the slider from OFF to ON. Don’t forget to select “Merge” when prompted 8. Now you will have your original iPhone contacts both on the iPhone and on the iCloud and in addition, you will have saved a backup copy of your contact list to your PC so that if it disappears again, you would know what to do. With the emerge of iCloud, it seems iPhone contacts disappear all the time, or at least, there is a risk for this to occur. Should that happen again, just follow the above instructions. You might also want to keep a safe offline backup iPhone contact copy of your list on your computer. TUE 12 JUN 2012 13 COMMENTS
Posted on: Sat, 06 Jul 2013 08:24:13 +0000
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