NA Contacts backup for iphone4

Let'sgoflying!

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Feb 23, 2005
Messages
20,261
Location
west Texas
Display Name

Display name:
Dave Taylor
It just occurred to me that I am not sure I have a backup for a huge number of what I would call vital contacts in my iphone.
How would I make a backup that is independent of the phone other than having staff transcribe them onto paper/computer?
Maybe iTunes can do...or is doing?
I have an ipad2, too - not sure what is there.
(All because a staff member with a blackberry lost all their contacts yesterday.)
 
I'm still looking for a good solution since migrating from a Windows based phone and syncing with Outlook. I've lost data on either end but was always able to reconstitute it with the other.

You can always sync your contacts in the iCloud.
 
Just a point of clarification to what I'm looking for and how it differs from what you expressed needing:

When I used Outlook/ Windows Mobile, I created a sub-folder under my contacts and could freely drag-drop contact there and they were not synced to my WinMo device. That way, I could keep the list smaller as needed, reduce the autosuggestions and key errors due to autosuggest. It also prevented me from needing to delete a contact just because I hadn't talked with them in awhile. Later, as the relationship resumed I could move them back to the main folder and it would sync to my WinMo. I'm not aware of an ability to do with Apple contacts.
 
I used an app called "My Contacts Backup" (clever, eh?).

Allows you to make a backup which it sends to you as an excel file (I think that's how). Worked great.
 
My primary email is on an Exchange server, so I just keep all my contacts on that account, and it's automatically backed up, and accessible from both my Ipad and Iphone.

I don't know, I don't use cloud, can you keep that stuff in the cloud for backup and shared access?
 
I just checked the ipad and there are differences from the iphone. Not good.
I only have one email acct, one persona out there.

Sync with iTunes (shiver) then Spike's contacts backup?
or will I lose something.
Maybe backup FIRST then mess with LoonyTunes.
 
You can also sync then to your gmail account.
 
Where I fly, losing your medical has several benefits. Don't have to take any more medicals, don't worry about insurance, no more flight reviews and no more annuals. Flying continues as before at considerable less expense.:hairraise:
 
Your contacts should be backing up to iCloud? That's what it's for :)
 
Your contacts should be backing up to iCloud? That's what it's for :)

Does iCloud store a history of backups? What if someone accidentally deletes all their contacts. Will the deletions automatically sync to iCloud, hence no backup?
 
Thanks John.

Once iclouding, is the contacts backup passive or does it require an action on my part?

Then, if I lose the phone or it crashes, which options do I have to retrieve the contacts which are in icloud?
 
Thanks John.



Once iclouding, is the contacts backup passive or does it require an action on my part?



Then, if I lose the phone or it crashes, which options do I have to retrieve the contacts which are in icloud?


ICloud backups will automatically happen nightly, once you opt in. If your phone is lost or crashes, you will be able to recover from it. It backs up other stuff too, like my logbook pro data. I have quite a few photos, so I purchased some extra storage.
 
Only thing is, a iCloud backup is for restoring to Apple devices. Best part about it is, it does it automagically.
 
Icloud backup is the way to go if you are on an Iphone. If you set up auto backups and loose your phone or it crashes all you need to do is buy a new phone, log on and it will fully restore your whole phone like nothing ever happened.

Icloud will also seamlessly sync all the data between your phone and ipad.
 
I haven't seen anyone answer my question about iCloud backup. If you accidentally delete your contacts, does iCloud backup have a snapshot of a previous backup or does it sync immediately? If it syncs immediately the backup would not contain the deleted contacts.
 
I haven't seen anyone answer my question about iCloud backup. If you accidentally delete your contacts, does iCloud backup have a snapshot of a previous backup or does it sync immediately? If it syncs immediately the backup would not contain the deleted contacts.


Yes, you can restore phone to a date and time.
 
Yes, you can restore phone to a date and time.


You sure about that in iCloud backup mode?

I do know multiple backups are kept in local iTunes encrypted backup mode.

I've personally recovered a phone from "one back from the last one" once, for the reason you're asking about Mari.

I really don't get the reason to back up to iCloud. Syncing with iTunes over wifi on the Mac works great and happens every time I plug the phone in to charge it and go to bed at night. It makes me a nice encrypted backup that includes keychain and other stuff the cloud backup doesn't.

Haven't figured out the appeal of the wimpish backup that is going to take a fat pipe to restore from and oodles of time compared to just restoring over a USB cable.
 
You sure about that in iCloud backup mode?

I do know multiple backups are kept in local iTunes encrypted backup mode.

I've personally recovered a phone from "one back from the last one" once, for the reason you're asking about Mari.

I really don't get the reason to back up to iCloud. Syncing with iTunes over wifi on the Mac works great and happens every time I plug the phone in to charge it and go to bed at night. It makes me a nice encrypted backup that includes keychain and other stuff the cloud backup doesn't.

Haven't figured out the appeal of the wimpish backup that is going to take a fat pipe to restore from and oodles of time compared to just restoring over a USB cable.
OK thanks. The only time I have "recovered" an iPhone is to get the information from an old one onto a new one so I used the latest backup. I don't remember it giving me a choice of using an older one but I wasn't looking to do that anyway.
 
Hmm, I just did some research trying to remember how I did that long ago and realized iTunes is NOT keeping more than one backup per device.

Then I remembered what I did...

- Forced Time Machine backup NOW on Mac.
- Rolled my iTunes backup files back in TimeMachine to a date I knew my stuff would be there.
- Restored phone to older date.
- Rolled Mac forward again.

At least I think that's how I did it.

As far as iCloud goes, the docs seem to indicate that you get to choose from a list of backup dates/times for the restore, but I can't check since I don't have it turned on and don't use it.

And I swear an older version of iTunes DID keep multiples. Weird. Maybe Apple crippling iTunes a bit more to push folks toward iCloud backup, which I really don't feel like using. Especially with my crappy bandwidth at home.
 
Pretty sure if you log into icloud.com you can restore deleted contacts from the web gui. I don't think there's a "good" way to do it on the phone itself.
 
All I use is a PC with Outlook and iTunes.
If you want to be safe, go to settings on the iPhone, iCloud and turn on contacts.
That will send a backup to the cloud. I am not sure how soon they get backed up. Someone in this thread mentioned overnight.
The benefit of ICloud is you can do the same thing with an iPad and share the contacts if you use the same iTunes account.

To back them up to a pc, You have to temporarily turn off the iCloud sync. Say "no" when asked if you want to delete the contacts from the phone. Then
plug in the iPhone and start iTunes. Highlight the iPhone, then click on info. There should be an option to sync all kinds of things - calendars, contacts.
If you get a message about replacing the contacts on the phone, click no.


Once they are in outlook, you can export them to a CSV file if you want.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top