Getting phone numbers from itunes?

finbarrk

My iphone was stolen last Saturday. I'm getting a replacement Samsung from the phone company three. How can I get my phone numbers transferred from itunes to the Samsung? The lady from India on threes helpline told me it was possible but I cant seem to get the numbers up on itunes.

grizzly

If you're on a Mac, try opening your Address book application. Should be all in there. If not you could use a friends phone to restore from backup in iTunes then export the list.

finbarrk

Not a Mac Grizzly. But if I connect someone elses iphone to my itunes wont that upset all of their details?

grizzly

Just make sure they have a recent backup done, so they can wipe your details and restore their own.

finbarrk

Looks a bit tricky. Might be better for me to try and get another iphone instead of the Samsung.

guil

You can get the contacts from a backup and then export them as a single .vcf

What windows is on the pc with the backup

finbarrk

It's windows xp. I don't really understand about exporting tham as a single .vcf.

ScouseMouse

This could be wrong in your situation, but if you have a gmail account, it may be saved in contacts. I know mine are. My phone book backs up to gmail every night.

finbarrk

No, don't have gmail. My email account is eircom.net.

guil

superscouse wrote: »

This could be wrong in your situation, but if you have a gmail account, it may be saved in contacts. I know mine are. My phone book backs up to gmail every night.

That only works if you set the email up as an exchange account and set the numbers to sync

guil

i've got contacts from a backup before but cant remember exactly how i did it and i'm sure it was easier to do than this

the backup is stored in C:\Documents and Settings\user\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

go to the most recent one and open it, look for a file beginning with 31bb, copy it and paste it to the desktop

you need a sql viewer to read it and i tried the one below, it works well with firefox so just install it and then you can access it if you click the firefox button and its under web developer
http://code.google.com/p/sqlite-manager/


click the open button and select the 31bb file from the desktop
edit: when you try to open the database make sure you change the search options from sqlite db files to all files or you wont be able to select the 31bb file
here it gets a bit tedious, click on ABMultiValue and then the browse and search tab on top of the second pane, open notepad and make a note of the record_id and value for each contact

when you have all them click on ABPerson and make a note of each ROWID and any fields with names

then you have to join the name to the numbers or email addresses using the ROWID and record_id number to link them

it will take a while but you will have all your contacts back, there is programs to do this for you but they are all paid for

finbarrk

Thanks Guil, but a change of plan now. I bought a 2nd hand iphone today so I won't be using the Samsung. It's from the three network which suits me. Only problem is they are having some technical problems activating the sim card and my contacts won't transfer to the iphone when I synch. The apps have transferred all right. Is this because the card isn't activated or should they transfer anyway? It's also impossible to see the list of my contacts on itunes or am I missing something?

guil

you need to restore from a backup to get the contacts back, right click the iphone in itunes and click restore from backup and pick the most recent one
as far as i know you can't view your contacts in itunes, also you have to set contacts to sync, i think its on the info tab when you click on the iphone

finbarrk

Thanks Guil, that sorted it.