iPhone importing contacts from email account & I don't want it to!

[auntyj]

Hi there,

I got my first smartphone a couple of days ago, an iPhone 4. When I first connected it to my MacBook by USB to set it up, it imported all the contacts from my contacts list in Hotmail. This wasn't much of a hassle - couldn't transfer all my contacts from my old SIM, so had to put all of them in manually anyway, I just altered & deleted as necessary.

I haven't connected the iPhone to my MacBook since, nor have I instructed it to sync, but last night I discovered my contacts list in Hotmail is now the same as on the iPhone.

This is disastrous, as I deleted a lot of the contacts when I was setting up contacts in the iPhone, those that were solely email contacts & I wouldn't be phoning. I had no idea the changes would transfer across to hotmail. (I don't plan to use the iPhone as my primary means of emailing). Now those contacts are gone from my hotmail account! I've tried to restore them, but so far haven't been successful.

I guess the topic header should read importing AND EXPORTING to & from Hotmail!

Hotmail is set up as my email account on the iPhone and iPad.

I assume the phone synced wirelessly with either the MacBook or my iPad (which isn't 3G, so is always connected to my Wi-Fi).

I've since gotten Internet everywhere enabled on the phone, and turned off Wi-Fi in the settings - is this likely to prevent the same thing from happening again? And if so, what happens on the occasions when I do have the Wi-Fi on - I plan to occasionally tether the iPhone to the iPad, and use the phone as a mobile hotspot if I have to take the iPad away from home, on holiday etc.

Any help would be much appreciated. My technical knowledge and skills are fairly basic - I can figure out things like tethering when I know they're possible, and have explicit instructions. I'm in Australia, if that has any meaning for settings etc.

Nobody else has access to or use of my email account or devices.

The iPhone isn't jail broken, nor do I plan to do so.

Sorry this has been longer than planned, I wanted to be as precise as possible about my problem.

Many thanks.

 

[hookbill]

I don't see why it's disastrous. I have gmail and it imported my contacts from gmail. All of them, ones with just email too.

You have a smart phone so even though you don't call them maybe you might want to send them an email? I've done that on occasion. Does hot mail have a chat like Gtalk? I think I heard they did but they were getting rid of it but that would be another reason to have those contacts on the phone.

Funny, on the first Android phone I had they had a feature to have contacts with phone numbers only and later they took that feature away.

Some of the chats out there like IMO or IM+ use those contacts as well for you to chat on a variety of services.

Congratulations on getting your first smart phone. Now you have to figure out the smart things to do with it.

I'm not saying there is no way you can do it, I just never thought twice about it. I'm sure if there is a way a person more familiar with hotmail can tell you how to do it. I'm new to iPhone myself.

 

[xrayeyes]

It's disastrous to her because she deleted the accounts off her phone and apparently it deleted them totally from her hotmail account, which she did not want.

Auntyj, are you using iTunes? If so, the first thing you need to do is change a default setting that will not allow this or any other sync issue to happen again, until you tell it to! Open iTunes. Go to Edit>preferences>general>Devices>prevent ipods, iphones, and ipads from syncing automatically (it can sync wirelessly or by usb).

Then when you connect your phone, whether by usb or wireless, it will not sync unless you tell it to. Make sure you have the contacts unchecked if you don't want them to sync when you connect.

I don't use hotmail and I'm not sure how you set it up. If iTunes wasn't the culprit, hopefully someone else can help you with settings so that it won't happen again.

 

[dbplumb]

Very good advice, but to be precise it is in Edit >Preferences >Devices > prevent ipods ..etc

 

[xrayeyes]

Very good advice, but to be precise it is in Edit >Preferences >Devices > prevent ipods ..etc

Ooops! Tnx for the correction. Was going by memory, which is in a sad state anymore! LOL!

 

[dbplumb]

Know the feeling
I am a bit ocd when it comes to pc's LOL

 

[auntyj]

Thank you all for your help, I will try these things & hopefully stop it happening again. I am using iTunes.