I see there is another ios update. I have an iPhone 4S. The last time I updated the ios I lost all my contacts, as I had not been using the iCloud as a backup. I am now apprehensive about the latest update. How can I determine if contacts are backed up?

Question

I see there is another ios update. I have an iPhone 4S. The last time I updated the ios I lost all my contacts, as I had not been using the iCloud as a backup. I am now apprehensive about the latest update. How can I determine if contacts are backed up?

Answer 1

You should never lose contacts under any circumstances.
Although contacts are included with the iPhone's backup, contacts are designed to be synced with a supported address book app on your computer where such important data should be available with or without an iPhone or any cell phone. Not a good idea to depend on a cell phone for such important data which can be lost or stolen or damaged beyond repair.
In addition, there are a number of free email accounts that support syncing contacts over the air including an iCloud account, Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail.
If you are not syncing contacts over the air with an iCloud account and not backing up your iPhone wirelessly with your iCloud account, your iPhone's backup is being updated by iTunes on your computer which is updated as the first step during the iTunes sync process.
With Windoze, contacts can be synced with Outlook 2003, 2007, or 2010 along with syncing calendar events, notes, and reminders, or with the address book app used by Outlook Express and by Windows Mail called Windows Contacts for syncing contacts only. With a Mac, contacts can be synced with the Address Book app. This is selected under the Info tab for your iPhone sync preferences with iTunes.
If the supported address book app on your computer is not used and has no contacts available, before the first sync for this data enter one contact in the supported address book app on your computer. This will provide a merge prompt with the first sync for this data, which you want to select.