Filed under: Bad Apple, Apple, MobileMe
MobileMe: the case of the vanishing iPhone contacts (Update)
Another day, another new way for MobileMe to anger folks. Today we are hearing lots of grumbling about people seeing their contacts and calendars disappearing from their iPhones after a sync with MobileMe. Luckily, it looks like it is only the iPhone that is wiped, the contacts/events are still on their Macs.Wyn called Apple support and they suggested disabling automatic syncing and manually syncing to clear up the problem. That gives a new definition to push.
This seems like a good time to remind people to back up your data before you enable any sort of automatic syncing. Read on after the jump to see how to backup your Address Book and iCal events, just in case.
Thanks to everyone who sent this in and thanks to FailMe for the graphic.
Update: It is 8:30pm on the east coast of the US, and Apple has just posted this note on the MobileMe System Status: "Some MobileMe members may be unable to sync new, edited, or deleted contacts, calendars, and bookmarks over the air between computers and mobile devices (iPhone and iPod Touch). Service will be restored ASAP. We apologize for any inconvenience."
Backing up Address Book
Backing up your Address Book contacts is very easy, indeed. Simply launch Address Book and then go to File > Export > Address Book Archive. This will create a file that includes all the information in your Address Book. Should anything happen to that precious info you can simply import your archive (File > Import > Address Book Archive) and you're all set.
Backing up iCal
Backing up your iCal info is even easier than backing up Address Book. Simply launch iCal and go to File > Back up iCal. Save the back up file and you're all set. If you need to recover from a calendar disaster just hit File > Restore iCal and point it to your backup. Your calendar is saved.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Gene Cowan said 8:16PM on 7-28-2008
Kind of old news -- well, at least a week old. I think I may have commented on this happening a while ago.
The solution is to reset your sync data on your Macs (which, admittedly, is completely non-intuitive).
Reset the data using the iSync app on your Mac, then do a sync. Once you do this, all your contacts will reappear on your iPhone for some reason.
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Lon Seidman said 8:30PM on 7-28-2008
This is definitely not old news, it hit me today about 2 p.m. along with many others.
Riversurfer said 3:06AM on 7-29-2008
Agreed, the problem has been there since day 1 of rolling out mobileme service and FW 2.0. As if a problem affecting only a portion of people is not a problem, until it affects nearly everyone. Old unresolved news... Just like the need to reset the Network settings of iPhone to get connected to AT&T (cell and/or edge-3G) again every other day...
Thom said 6:37PM on 10-11-2008
what if my Macbook pro can't find my iPhone when iSync does a search??
Lon Seidman said 8:17PM on 7-28-2008
Well it looks like my "cloud" has evaporated. MobileMe wiped out about 2/3rds of my contacts on my iPhone earlier today, and now I have zero contacts and an empty calendar on the phone. MobileME contacts and calendar on my web account are also MIA. Looks like there's another "1%" that they can add to their trouble list.
Thankfully this has not impacted my Mac's calendar or address book. I backed everything up just in case. I am beginning to regret paying for this service.
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Michael said 8:20PM on 7-28-2008
This happened to me!! Man I was pissed. I went to my phone.app and there was no contacts! Then I looked at my history, favorites, and voicemail and they turned from names to numbers. I checked my desktop and me.com and they were all there. So I just turned off MobileMe syncing on the phone and turned it back on and they came back. Needless to say I was pretty stressed for a while to think I lost 400+ contacts.
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Ian Murray said 8:26PM on 7-28-2008
What a tasty, tasty burn.
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dssstrkl said 8:28PM on 7-28-2008
The trick is to reset your sync history from iSync. You might have to deal with some weirdness, especially if you also sync with google (like I do!), bit I did it earlier today, and was done in >10 minutes. Sync is complicated, people!
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JOnathan Sessions said 8:29PM on 7-28-2008
MobileMe is now reporting iPhone/iPod Touch syncing is down.
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Big John said 8:54PM on 7-28-2008
No problems here, I just added a contact via me.com and it's on my phone.
JOnathan Sessions said 8:58PM on 7-28-2008
It just came back online.
Ryan said 8:41PM on 7-28-2008
I've been a lucky one that hasn't had any issues so far. It hit me today and it was pretty annoying. I added four contacts in a meeting today and when I got back to my computer to send a thank you email, they never hit the "cloud", nor my computer and are now wiped out on my phone. All of my favorites turned to just numbers and have since returned. I'm just glad the contacts I had didn't get messed up.
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Dick Wellington said 8:46PM on 7-28-2008
I keep a copy of my contacts on my.funambol.com. Lucky for me I did. I also downloaded the app from the app store. The app allows for 2 way or 1 way syncing in any direction you choose.
I solved the problem by turning of mobile syncing and then turning it back on later, but it was comforting knowing that I had a last resort with funambol. I have over 400 contacts and I'd be pissed if I lost them because mobileme.
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Brian said 8:45PM on 7-28-2008
I thought it was called mobile fail. not fail me!
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Dan Szczepaniak said 9:05PM on 7-28-2008
This hit me about 3:30pm est today. Thanks Apple!
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fishbert said 8:47PM on 7-28-2008
So, when are they going to be bringing back .mac?
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Big John said 8:52PM on 7-28-2008
Hopefully never, I had nothing but problems with .Mac. MobileMe has been great.
Big John said 8:51PM on 7-28-2008
No issues here.
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Steve Larson said 12:05AM on 7-29-2008
Is it hard for you to type with Jobs' balls on your chin?
Big John said 8:29AM on 7-29-2008
Huh? How is my comment pro-Apple to deserve that? I was simply sharing that I wasn't having any issues. Grow up.