Help with syncing 2 iPhones!

Question

I've had my iPhone for 4 months and have had no problems syncing it with my computer. The problem started when I purchased an iPhone for my husband. Somehow I got his contacts, he got mine, and we both had some deleted. In addition, I lost ALL my bookmarks on Safari, although they still appear on my phone. I'm not sure how to keep our data separate! I went through the tabs and selected all of the appropriate options in iTunes (or so I thought), but am now afraid to sync either of our phones for fear of losing more data. How should I proceed? Should I do a backup from each phone? The phones start syncing as soon as iTunes is open, so what should I do before plugging the phones into my computer? I am especially concerned about losing my address book on my computer (if this is even possible), because I use these addresses for work purposes. Any information would be greatly appreciated!!

Answer 1

First off, you can backup your contacts from Address Book with File menu > Export > Address Book Archive. If anything happens, Import that file to restore your contacts.
iTunes should be able to keep then straight if set up properly - I sync mine and my wife's iPhones (and my iPod Touch) to the same computer/user account with no problems, choosing different Address Book Groups and different iCal calendars (but you can't choose different groups of bookmarks, so turn those off for one of you unless you both want the same bookmarks).
First, in iTunes select File menu > Preferences > Devices tab and check the box to 'Prevent iPods and iPhones from syncing automatically'. Then, connect your phone, and check the boxes on the info tab for groups to sync to that phone, and scroll down to the advanced section and check the box to replace contacts and calendars for that sync. Don't check the box for bookmarks. Then sync. Then connect his phone, select different contacts groups/calendars, check the box to replace contacts and calendars for that sync, and sync.