We often have to have customers wipe and restore their phones, iPads and iPods due to some software issue that is causing problems. Often the first phrase out of their mouths is, “will I lose all my contacts?” You’d be surprised at how many people neither sync their devices, nor make use of iCloud for backups.
The easiest way to back up is to use iTunes. When your device is connected to your computer and you are running iTunes, just select the device on the lefthand side of your window. Now click on the Info tab on the righthand side of the window. Make sure that the check box next to Sync Contacts has a check mark in it. The next step is to force a manual backup through iTunes. Just right-click on the phone’s entry in the device list and choose “back up.” iTunes will then back up the phone and store the backup on your computer.
Another way is to use iCloud; you’ll need to be running the most current version of iOS in order to have access to iCloud. If your Mac isn’t running 10.7 (Lion), your computer won’t have access to this backup option. If you go into the settings app on your device and tap on iCloud you’ll either be presented with a list of the things that are backing up (or not backing up), or you’ll be asked to set up iCloud. So set it up if you need to and then verify that Contacts backup is on. If it’s on, scroll down to the bottom of the list and tap on “Back Up Now.” As with the iTunes method, this forces a manual backup of your contacts.
The final way to back up your contacts assumes you have all of your contacts on your iDevice synced with the Address Book on your Mac. Launch Address Book, go to the File menu and choose the line called “Address Book Archive.” Store the file that it will create in a safe place (i.e. burn it to a disc or store it on an external hard drive).
I periodically do all three methods just to be safe, but I’ve borne witness to many drive failures where customers have lost all their data. It’s given me a healthy sense of paranoia when it comes to my data.