It’s 2018 and our phones are smart enough to do these small things and not require our attention, but I still hear stories where people say they have lost all the contacts on the Android phone.
Despite Android offering such a seamless way to sync contacts, people lose thousands of their phone contacts either when they format their phone or it is stolen.
So, I, once and for all, thought of writing a detailed guide.
Learn how to backup contacts in Android and never lose them
Add your best Google account to your Android Smartphone
This is the number one mistake people do who complain about losing phone contacts
To enjoy the full features Android smartphone has to offer, you and need to add your Google account to it, it is the first thing that Google asks when you set up your Android smartphone. But a lot are people skip this part and do not add a Google account at all.
When you add your Google account, it keeps all the contacts, app data, browsing data, and probably everything you do in a Google product is synced, so that it is also available on another device when you use your same Google account to login.
Since in this guide we’re talking about contacts, I will talk about just that feature, the ‘sync’ is enabled by default for every Google product, so you don’t need to do anything extra from your side apart from adding the Google account.
If you have done just that, all the contacts in your phonebook will be synced to Google, and the contact you keep adding to your phonebook over the period of time will also be synced so that you can get them back whenever you sign in with your Google account on a new device.
This will also make formatting of your phone easy because you will not lose your contacts.
Take a backup of your contacts and save it to Dropbox or SD Card
Though, 90% of the problems related to losing the contacts, can be solved by just adding the Google account to Android device, there still can be issues where you can lose them, such as, you lose access to your Google account, and in that case you also lose access to your contacts that are synced to the account.
I would advise you to take a backup of your contacts on a monthly or quarterly basis and keep them in Dropbox or your SD card.
There are several Backup and Restore apps available in the Play Store, which can easily get your backup not just contacts but the Calendars logs, Call logs, SMS, and your Apps as well.
But, for this guide, you can use it for backing up contacts and saving them somewhere safe.
The same app can be used for importing back the contact file that was created during the backup.
Install super backup & restore from Play Store
What can you do when you have already lost the Contacts in your Android phone
The above methods would only work when you have got your contacts already in the phonebook, but if you have already lost them, there is nothing much you can do, because we can only Sync it if it is available in the phonebook or take a backup of it when it is there.
So, if you have lost them, there are only a few things you can do which of the following.
Put a status update on your WhatsApp asking everyone to message you so that you can save their number.
This, kind of works, because your number would still be stored in other people’s phones and they can see your contact in their WhatsApp, and if they see your status update, they can message you back and you can add the contacts in your phone book.
This process requires patience and you might be able to get your important contacts with whom you communicate on a daily basis. Because WhatsApp is one of the popular messaging apps worldwide.
Install Truecaller app,
We have written quite a lot of articles about this great app, it is a Universal phone directory, which will show you the name of the person who is calling even if it is not saved in your phonebook.
So, this can save you from some embarrassment, when someone is calling you and you don’t have their contact saved in your phone book. Truecaller will tell you who is calling so that you can save that person’s number in your phone book.
I hope you find this article useful and it will save you from losing your contacts.
Also, you can share this page with anyone who is looking for a way to get the contact back and keep it Synced so they never lose it again.
