Losing contacts when adding new

[markdayton]

Is anyone else experiencing problems with the built in Contacts app? For the second time I searched for a contact, found that I didn't have one for that person, added a new contact, hit save, then all of the contacts I had were gone.

 

[twerppoet]

Try rebooting. That tends to fix a lot of weird little problems.

iPad: Turning on/off and resetting

If that doesn't work, come back for round two and we'll try and figure out what's up. To save time let us know what service you sync with, if any, and whether you can see your contacts there.

 

[markdayton]

Thank you for your help. Rebooting doesn't help, and I thought that was something you only had to do on a PC. The problem is repeatable, and it doesn't matter whether the contacts are local or synced to a server. To replicate:

1. Search for a contact that is not in your list of contacts.
2. When the search doesn't find the contact you searched for hit the Add button.
3. Add the new contact.
4. Hit done, and the contacts are gone.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Wow - that is seriously bizarre! Does this also happen if you 'automatically' add a contact when you're in the iPad's native 'Mail' app - i.e. when you receive an email from someone you don't have in your contacts list - you touch the name of the person from whom you've received the email and you get the two options 'New Contact' or 'Edit Existing'. What happens if you select 'New Contact' - do you get the same behaviour?

Tim
Scotland

 

[markdayton]

No, adding the contact from Mail works fine.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

The mystery deepens! I will go and try a few things on my iPad. I don’t normally add contacts ‘manually’.

Tim
Scotland

 

[twerppoet]

Thank you for your help. Rebooting doesn't help, and I thought that was something you only had to do on a PC. The problem is repeatable, and it doesn't matter whether the contacts are local or synced to a server. To replicate:

1. Search for a contact that is not in your list of contacts.
2. When the search doesn't find the contact you searched for hit the Add button.
3. Add the new contact.
4. Hit done, and the contacts are gone.

Did you clear the contents of the search field? As long as there is text in there it will limit the displayed adresses to what matches.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

Ah - yes - twerppoet strikes again - now *I* can get all my contacts to 'disappear' too!!

Tim
Scotland

 

[markdayton]

But clearing the search field, after adding the new contact and the contacts 'disappear', does not bring them back, or am I missing something?

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

OK - I'm definitely stumped on this one; I certainly can't reproduce that behaviour.

So can I try to summarise - let's say in your 'Contacts' app you had 100 contacts. You search for, say, 'Tim' and find he doesn't exist in your list of contacts. You add a new contact for 'Tim', fill in all his details - email, address, phone etc - hit 'Done' and then all the 100 previous contacts that you had there have gone?

By the way, do you have MobileMe?.... just a thought....is your MobileMe Contacts list empty?

Tim
Scotland

 

[markdayton]

That is correct, and no I do not have MobileMe. I have been able to work around the problem by moving all my contacts to Gmail. If I lose my contacts I can go into settings for the Gmail account, turn off sync contacts, then turn it back on to force reloading of the contacts. The other alternative is to wait until I have access to my home PC that has the backup through iTunes.

 

[twerppoet]

That is correct, and no I do not have MobileMe. I have been able to work around the problem by moving all my contacts to Gmail. If I lose my contacts I can go into settings for the Gmail account, turn off sync contacts, then turn it back on to force reloading of the contacts. The other alternative is to wait until I have access to my home PC that has the backup through iTunes.

At this point I'm going to say it sounds like the Contacts app itself is bad. Unfortunately the only way I know to fix this is to restore the iPad. You might want to give Apple a call first to see what they say.

 

[Mcgowansphotography]

Ahhhh! My contacts are gone!

I just got my iPad 2 and was manually adding all of my contacts from my paper address book. All of a sudden, I added an address in and instead of it loading and showing all of my contacts, it was empty. I made sure nothing was in the search field, I rebooted, still nothing. Since they were just now being added, I didn't get a chance to have them backed up. Any idea on how to get them back? Or shall I start typing again? Thanks for your help!

 

[twerppoet]

Sounds like they are gone. I have no idea why that would have happened.

 

[Kjweede]

Lost all contacts

While entering several new contacts on a trip last week, ALL CONTACTS disappeared. I tried restarting the iPad and holding Home and on/off until apple icon appeared but those contacts have not reappeared. The IT adm. in our tour group thinks there is a software glitch.

If I sync with iTunes, my original contacts will reappear (I hope) but I will have to enter all of the new contacts on my PC and sync to get them back into my iPad and have them saved on iTunes. Is that correct?

KatieBeck