If you are reading this then I’m going to assume you are using a computer, most likely your own, and that you even have a cell phone. If your like most of the population, you probably love your computer and your cell phone and all that it allows you to do. I am one of those people as well, but I’ve learned a very valuable lesson this past week. Make sure to BACK UP ALL YOUR CONTACTS! I would even print out a hard copy of all your people that you would love to keep in contact with and even those that you don’t think you are going to ever need or speak with again.
Why you ask? Well, last week I got to experience first hand loosing all my contacts. My handy cell phone malfunctioned and when I reset it, all of my contacts were gone. No problem I thought, I’ll just sync the phone up to my contacts on my computer and all will be back to normal. When I connected the phone to the computer it synced to an old contacts list I had with only 40 names in it. Then I tried to re-sync it to the right list with my over 700 contacts in it and the phone synced to the computer rather than the computer syncing to the phone. So all of my 700+ contacts were erased. The phone is a google android phone and the google server had several numbers stored that would sync to my phone, but no names with the numbers. Needless to say, I have been playing guess that number when ever someone calls or sends a text.
Of course I pray this does not happen to you and that you are much more tech savvy than I am and keep multiple records in multiple places of all your contacts. If your not, then take a moment today or this weekend and back up your contacts somewhere and print out a copy. Your cell phone carrier might even be able to do it for you if you bring your phone into them.
It is a royal pain to not have access to the numbers and emails you regularly use, and I do not want you to have to go through this headache. Consider this your warning and if this has happened to you I will commiserate with you and your loss:(
Also, if your a long lost friend or want to be added to my new list of friends, please email me your info to paige@sincerelypaige.com
Have a great weekend.
Sincerely,
Paige
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Using ActiveSync and Windows 7, I have experienced this same trouble before. Some things I have learned from it are:
1. Before you do any syncing, check Outlook to make sure it has all the contacts you need, then export the contact list as a CSV file that is stored on your hard-drive. Then if the contacts in outlook are wiped out, you can reimport the CSV file. And like Paige says it doesn’t hurt to print them either.
2. If you are needing to load everything back onto your phone that has been erased, make sure that you change a setting in the ActiveSync that says which direction you are syncing and which one you want it to erase (phone to computer vs. computer to phone). You’ll want to set it so that it goes from the computer to the phone.
Unfortunately the syncing in Windows isn’t so great, I’m not sure if iTunes is any better or not.
-Jason