Your contacts in iOS4 are lost/not synced? Found workaround!

I'm one of the many who've suffered from having no more contacts in iOS 4 after a few syncs with iTunes - see several other threads here. Although others reported that syncing via Google wouldn't work either, I did get it to work. At least I'm having my contacts back on the iPhone...!
My setup:
MacBook Pro with 10.6.4
iPhone 3G with iOS 4.0
Contacts in OS X Address Book, with several groups
Google Mail account
Here step-by-step how to get your contacts back to the iPhone. Note that it worked for my setup above; obviously, I can't promise it'll work in other combinations. Also, the Address Book groups will not be available on the iPhone - again, it's a workaround until Apple fixes the real issue!
1. In Address Book, open Preferences and go to vCard. Choose vCard Format 3.0 and below the options you want to export. Close Preferences.
2. In Address Book, mark all your contacts, then click File -> Export... -> Export vCard...
3. Choose a location on your HD, and click Save.
4. In Safari, go to Google Mail and click on Contacts. You may already have a set of contacts there - decide if you want to keep them, or delete them before importing your Address Book.
5. In Google Mail, click on Import (upper right corner). Choose the vCard file from your HD and upload it. After a short while your Address Book contacts will show up with all groups. You may close Google Mail now.
6. Now you'll need to set up an MS Exchange account on your iPhone. Yes, it'll have to be a "Microsoft Exchange" account, a regular Google Mail account will not sync your contacts! Follow the instructions here: http://www.iphoneuserguide.com/apple/2010/05/06/iphone3g/how-to-sync-your-iphone -with-google-calendar/
NOTE: It refers to syncing with Google Calendar, but it'll work with Contacts, too! During iPhone setup activate only the Contacts to be synced (as iTunes syncs Calendar and Notes fine).
7. As explained in the on-line guide, tap on Contacts on your iPhone. If your Internet connection is properly working, your contacts will start popping up after a few seconds, 25 at a time until all are there!
I figured that subsequent iTunes syncs will not change anything, your iPhone contacts from Google Mail will stay. Once Apple have fixed the bug I'd expect the contacts to show up double, which will be the time to delete the Exchange account again and to go back to normal...
Admittedly, it's awkward if you had frequent changes or additions to your contacts, as you'd have to do the whole process again and again, but "some" contacts on your iPhone are certainly better than none at all - at least that's the way I see it. OK, Apple screwed, but that's seldom enough, and at least the Google/Exchange sync works...
Good luck!

But if your contacts aren't in google mail, then what?
Most of the contacts on my phone were...well, on my phone and (I thought) in the backups I was doing.

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