I'm posting this on behalf of a very non-technical friend. She has an iPhone 4s, and three times now her contacts have entirely disappeared. She goes to her phone and suddenly her address book is completely empty. In her messages section, the phone numbers are there, but they are no longer associated with any names.
She has never synched her phone to a computer. She doesn't believe that she is automatically synching to a cloud-based service, but she can't be certain because she doesn't know how to check to see if this is happening.
She took her phone into an Apple store, and the "genuises" didn't know why her contacts are disappearing. They suggested that she update.... something. She didn't understand what they told her, and felt intimidated asking for clarification, so she left frustrated. (Bad customer service, Apple!)
She has never synched her phone to a computer. She doesn't believe that she is automatically synching to a cloud-based service, but she can't be certain because she doesn't know how to check to see if this is happening.
She took her phone into an Apple store, and the "genuises" didn't know why her contacts are disappearing. They suggested that she update.... something. She didn't understand what they told her, and felt intimidated asking for clarification, so she left frustrated. (Bad customer service, Apple!)