HELP, I lost all my contacts !!!

[whatcanthisbe]

Here is what happened, This Saturday I was to sell my iPhone and upgrade the HDD on my PC. The iPhone is synced with outlook express. In order to avoid any inconveniences I synced my ipod to outlook express contacts as well, checked my iPod and all contacts were there went ahead deleted every thing off the iPhone and reformatted the hdd and upgraded, reinstalled all the sw, installed iTunes and got a new phoen, voila now i can sync my contacts from the iPod to iTunes / outlook express and then sync back to the windows mobile via active sync. Connect my ipod to the pc hit sync 2 mins later connect the phone hit sync, check the phone no contacts have been copied, check out look express no contacts, check MS outlook , no contacts, now I have that sinking feeling in my heart that I have lost all contacts, I check my iPod and no contacts there either, I have tried searching all *. WAB & *.wa~ files nothing, all I find is blank, tried using some utilities from the web and nothing at all, all i get is some names but no numbers. Can ANY ONE HELP, PLEASE !!!!!!!.

[whatcanthisbe]

41 views, not a single reply, some one help

[tsk1979]

Ok, let me get this straight.
1. You moved all your contacts to your ipod
2. Then you checked contacts on your ipod and they were there
3. Then when you tried to sync to computer, somehow there are no contacts in your ipod.
I suspect, second time when you tried to sync your ipod to the computer, due to software version issues or something(keeps on happening), the PC corrupted your ipod.

Also the sync's default state may be to write data from PC to ipod. This means your ipod data got overwritten.
There is nothing much I can advice here on, but when I do data syncing, I also try wherever possible to have a text/xls/ etc., file which can be opened by multiple softwares.
Right now, all I can tell you is that you should try an older version of itunes, or try some third party software(which you already have I guess, from your post).

[amitoj]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Also the sync's default state may be to write data from PC to ipod. This means your ipod data got overwritten.

That is correct. Its not "may be" but "definitely". Nearly lost all my data (read songs) from my ipod when i got a new laptop. Reading the finer print saved me.

I agree with Tsk. I dont think there is much that can be done here, unless you backed up the data on your HDD somewhere before reformatting.

[hmishra83]

There are Recovery mgmt softwares that I have used on my externatl HDD - when I formatted it accidentally. However, I think its the SYNC issue that resulted in you losing all of your data off ur APPLE devices.

Not really sure...how to help!!! It would be worht posting this on some APPLE dedicate tech forums, coz I am sure you aren't the first one who must be cursing apple for this feature. Try!

[ramie2400]

The best thing I do i use the old way write down all the contacts on a diary and save it,i do not depend upon my PC and my cell phone as they can ditch you anytime in middle of nowhere

[bblost]

I have a Kyocera 7135 that runs on Palm.
When I connect it to my Laptop for Sych after a hard reset its asks me to identify the user. If I hit the sych to early in the laptop startup, i.e. before everything has loaded then it does not show any users for me to synch it with.

Also sometimes the user names may not match.

I suggest you to to C:\program files\ <installed directory>.
For palm I get the user name as one of the directories.
In that try to open the directory and see what they contain.
If there is any file that looks like address or the like try to open in notepad.
It may contain your contacts info but will also show a lot of ascii chars in it.
You may be able to pick up data from there and play around with a good txt editor(I use editplus) to format it.

[whatcanthisbe]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Ok, let me get this straight.
1. You moved all your contacts to your ipod

Yup

2. Then you checked contacts on your ipod and they were there

Yuo
3. Then when you tried to sync to computer, somehow there are no contacts in your ipod.

Yup

I suspect, second time when you tried to sync your ipod to the computer, due to software version issues or something(keeps on happening), the PC corrupted your ipod.

Also the sync's default state may be to write data from PC to ipod. This means your ipod data got overwritten.

How do you change that in itunes???
There is nothing much I can advice here on, but when I do data syncing, I also try wherever possible to have a text/xls/ etc., file which can be opened by multiple softwares.

Nope
Right now, all I can tell you is that you should try an older version of itunes, or try some third party software(which you already have I guess, from your post).

Tried a couple of 3rd party s/w from Data doctor.in but all it is recovering is folders and no files :( how would older version of itunes help ?

[whatcanthisbe]

Originally Posted by hmishra83

There are Recovery mgmt softwares that I have used on my externatl HDD - when I formatted it accidentally. However, I think its the SYNC issue that resulted in you losing all of your data off ur APPLE devices.

Not really sure...how to help!!! It would be worht posting this on some APPLE dedicate tech forums, coz I am sure you aren't the first one who must be cursing apple for this feature. Try!

done sir, what are you doing on your PC, it;s your last day go out and have fun, say your bye bye's

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by whatcanthisbe

check out look express no contacts, check MS outlook , no contacts, now I have that sinking feeling in my heart that I have lost all contacts,

Check deleted items on Outlook / Outlook Express - the contacts that were deleted while syncing will be there.

Has happened to me many a time - am no longer scared as I go into deleted items, copy all the contacts in it and drag it back to my contacts folder.

[tsk1979]

Steer's suggestion seems to be the only thing you can do.
And as amitoj said, change the default behavior of overwriting for future safety

[whatcanthisbe]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Steer's suggestion seems to be the only thing you can do.
And as amitoj said, change the default behavior of overwriting for future safety

Steer, Thanks, I'll try your suggestion,
How do I change this behavior in iTunes ?
Is there any way to retrieve the contacts from the iPod

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by whatcanthisbe

Is there any way to retrieve the contacts from the iPod

Get the contacts back on Outlook/Express. You can worry about the iPod later.

HOPEFULLY, you havent set up your mail client to clear deleted items on logout.

[vivekiny2k]

Originally Posted by whatcanthisbe

Here is what happened, This Saturday I was to sell my iPhone and upgrade the HDD on my PC.

and try to avoid doing two things at the same time. Can't offer you any other advice for your problem though.

[whatcanthisbe]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Get the contacts back on Outlook/Express. You can worry about the iPod later.

HOPEFULLY, you havent set up your mail client to clear deleted items on logout.

Didnt find the contacts in the deleted items folder in outlook express :(