This is the most frustrating problem I have with any of my Apple products.

I completely "restored" the iPhone, from the button in iTunes and I'm still getting this annoying problem. Every time I synch my iPnone, I'm basically writing a new database of contacts. OK, fine. But I can't figure what "Cannot update contacts. iPhone is not Connected" could possibly mean. It says this while it's synching everything else! The only way I can get an updated iCal on the iPhone is to type in all the entries.

This has become extremely frustrating, especially when I go through the dialog of which entry to keep and which not (iPhone's or computer's) and THEN it tells me the iPhone isn't connected.

"iPhone: the Missing Manual" doesn't address anything like this.