How to avoid the iOS 6 update wiping all your contacts

I'm back again with another helpful hint for updating to iOS 6. In some cases, the iOS 6 update is erasing all the contacts off the iCloud account, and that is never a good thing to have happen, so I have a nice and simple solution for this just as a precaution.

The only thing you will need for this solution is a Gmail account. Once you have that set up, we will need to get out your iOS device and go to Settings>Mail, Contacts & Calendars> and Add New. Set it up as an Exchange account, and use m.google.com as the server. Make sure you also use your full gmail address as the login/account too. When it confirms connectivity, just select Contacts, and whatever else you dont have syncing already.

Next we want to give it time to sync all your contacts to Google's servers, after that, you will want to go to Settings>iCloud> and make sure it is turned on, everything is selected, and you have a recent backup. If you dont, do it now, and walk away for an hour.

Once done, you are all safe to Restore and Update your iOS Device. If something goes wrong with the update, and all your iCloud contacts are wiped, you have Google's exchange set up already syncing them anyway. (Personally, I turn off iCloud Contact Sync because it has a tendency to double my contacts randomly) Just make sure once the update is done, you select Restore from iCloud and you will be all set ;)