Lost iPhone contacts, gone forever?

[Adele123]

Okay...basically, I have an iPhone 3. It is new to me and I had entered all my contacts manually from my old sim card (which i no longer have). I've never backed it up before (stupid I know!) but today I did an upgrade of the operating system and i've lost all my contacts.
What I need to know is if there is any way of getting these contacts back? If anyone has a magic answer I will be over the moon

 

[Kadelic]

I can't remember if an auto-backup is performed when you update the firmware. I think your only shot is to right click on your device in iTunes and select Restore from Backup. Cross your fingers

 

[Europa]

As Kadelic said, it should have created a backup when you updated. Right click on your phone name and select a backup. This will not restore the firmware. It will just apply your settings, contacts, etc.

 

[Adele123]

Thank you for your quick responses, unfortunately when I try this the only options are 'Eject', 'Sync', 'Transfer Purchases', 'Back Up' and 'Reset Warnings'. I always thought that whenever you synced with your computer it would automatically do a back-up and this is why I was so surprised this option wasn't avaliable.
Sadly I think I'm going to have to admit defeat. Thank you for your help though!

 

[Europa]

Backing up in iTunes is automatic. It does it every time you open iTunes when your phone is connected to the computer. I wonder if you disabled backups or manually cancelled it when it started. Anyway, if you don't have a backup and you didn't sync them to an email account, there's no way to get them back, unfortunately.

This is the best way to protect them after you're done adding them back in (5.0 will eliminate the need for this):

 

[rom x]

it's been awhile since i got rid of my iPhone but don't they auto sync to cloud? if so the info should be in cloud i.e. google email or some orther free service

 

[Europa]

That's a 5.0 feature.

 

[rom x]

ah i wasn't sure thank's

 

[Locutus]

Try using iDrive Lite as an additional option for backing up your contacts.
I use it quite frequently for keeping an extra back up of my contacts which I can easily retrieve at any time.


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