Lost contacts after fist synch with used iphone

[spotdogit]

I've searched and searched, but haven't seen a thread that quite gives the answers I need, so here goes:

A friend gave me his old 3gs, so I decided to be a part of the 21st century. : ) I downloaded itunes, synched the phone, and noticed later that all my contacts were gone and some icons had move to different screens. Call me crazy, but that 'dumb phone' I was using managed to keep my contacts for YEARS, yet my lovely 'smart phone' dumped them in less than 2 days. Bad, iphone, bad.

Anyone know how I can retrieve my contacts?

Thanks!

 

[lucasoil4u]

Im sorry to hear that! That sucks. Hope you have the contacts backed up somewhere

 

[spotdogit]

Of COURSE I don't have them backed up anywhere. It was a dumb phone. No way to back it up. Never did get around to making that phone list spreadsheet I was always thinking about. I'm screwed unless there's an iMagician here on the forum that can tell me how to restore.

 

[IOSIphone]

Maybe you have come to the right place.
Here is what to do.

Official Apple confirmed one's
From the apple website

Your device is backed up by iTunes each time you:

• Sync with iTunes (automatically on the first sync, every time you connect it to the computer)
• Update in iTunes (occurs automatically without prompting)
• Restore in iTunes (prompts you to create a backup before the restore process begins)

Although iTunes backs up most of your device's settings, downloaded applications, your audio, video, and photo content are not included in the backup.
If restoring from an iTunes backup, your device settings, downloaded applications, audio, video, and photo contents will re-sync to the device because the "Sync" option under the respective tabs will be checked in iTunes when restoring from a backup. If you choose to restore your device as a new user, downloaded applications, audio, video, and photo content will not be synced until you select the "Sync" option in iTunes under each tab.
You can manually back up or restore your iPhone or iPod touch from a backup. To do so, Control-click or right-click the iPhone or iPod touch icon on the left side of the iTunes window and choose Back Up or Restore from Backup*:

iTunes will not offer the option to restore from backup if no backups have been performed prior to accessing this option. For a list of content that iTunes backs up, as well as more information about backups, see iPhone and iPod touch: About backups and iPad: About backups.
* Restoring from backup is different from performing a full software restore. Restoring from backup restores the settings, application data, and other information saved in a previous backup. Performing a full software restore will delete the contents of your device and restore it to the original factory settings. More information about the "Software Restore" function is below.

 

[spotdogit]

Well, I tried resynching, awaiting the magical return of my contacts. Sorry to report, I'm now worse off than I was before. It dumped all the contacts I created after the first wipe. Man, this is frustrating! Should I just take it to the Apple store? Thanks for trying to help!