Vaporized phone numbers

[Amcjay]

I'm having issues syncing my iPad; and those issues are draining the joy from owning the device. With the first sync I was attempting to do the following: 1) Use my laptop as the computer for syncing instead of my desktop 2) Sync contacts, photos and music from laptop to iPad 3 )Sync iPhone to laptop. I did the sync between the iPad and the laptop, checked that the contacts had entered and proceeded to sync the iPhone. Later that day I discovered that SOME of the phone numbers had not crossed over. The names are there but the content is missing. Since I didn't realize that until later all my devices had equally damaged data. For the last three months I have diligently rebuilt my contacts and last night I cautiously and with great trepidation I attempted to sync again, first time since the catastrophe. And again, some of the numbers were vaporized.

I may never sync again! What risk is there in not having my apps synced? The only thing I really care about are my contacts and they are getting pulverized! Any suggestions? Apple support suggested that I cease using Outlook and use Gmail contacts instead, but that didn't work since most of my Gmail contacts were only email and they duplicated when I tried it. Now I have to go and eliminate multiple entries of the same data.

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

I've moved your post to the Help section, where I think it might receive better attention.

Tim

 

[DefBref]

Don't use iTunes for syncing your contacts, use gmail and set up as exchange account on your devices, then everything is synced over the air. Change or add a contact on your iPad and it will almost instantly update on your phone no syncing to iTunes required.

 

[Amcjay]

I've moved your post to the Help section, where I think it might receive better attention.

Tim

How do I find it?

 

[Nancybout]

I'm having issues syncing my iPad; and those issues are draining the joy from owning the device. With the first sync I was attempting to do the following: 1) Use my laptop as the computer for syncing instead of my desktop 2) Sync contacts, photos and music from laptop to iPad 3 )Sync iPhone to laptop. I did the sync between the iPad and the laptop, checked that the contacts had entered and proceeded to sync the iPhone. Later that day I discovered that SOME of the phone numbers had not crossed over. The names are there but the content is missing. Since I didn't realize that until later all my devices had equally damaged data. For the last three months I have diligently rebuilt my contacts and last night I cautiously and with great trepidation I attempted to sync again, first time since the catastrophe. And again, some of the numbers were vaporized.

I may never sync again! What risk is there in not having my apps synced? The only thing I really care about are my contacts and they are getting pulverized! Any suggestions? Apple support suggested that I cease using Outlook and use Gmail contacts instead, but that didn't work since most of my Gmail contacts were only email and they duplicated when I tried it. Now I have to go and eliminate multiple entries of the same data.

I am so sorry wow!!!I havent had a chance to sync het,I just put VIP ppl so ar manually,however the rest....



I am worried now!

Sent from my iPad using iPF

 

[twerppoet]

Ok, number one problem. Don't sync with two different computers. The iPad doesn't work well this way. Pick one computer and sync with it. Actually, this is a good practice no matter what kind of syncing you are doing with any kind of device. It is always to have one central sync source that everything else makes and takes it's changes from.

Photos change because iTunes is not simply copying the photos to the iPad. It is syncing them with specific folders on the computer. Moreover it is a one way sync, from folders to iPad. That means if you go to another computer, it's going to sync with those photos (removing the old ones).

Contact syncing through iTunes is a poor solutions, even when you are doing it properly and only using one computer. Address fields do not always translate correctly from one database to another, especially if you are using older software on the computer. You are more likely to get conflicts when editing from both devices, and you have to wait until a physical sync to have the most up-to-date info on all devices.

The better, more resilient, solution it to sync both the computer and iPad back to GMail. Yes, if you accidentally choose the wrong merge settings you can end up with duplicates, but this is far better than seeing things get deleted. Make all your corrections directly in GMail (there is even a Find and Merge duplicates action available).

Once this is don things should work smoothly.

I don't have Outlook, so I can't tell you how to set it up to sync with GMail, but here is the method for setting it up on the iPad.

Setting up Google Sync with your iOS device : Mail, Calendar, & Contacts - Google Mobile Help