why are all of my contacts gone?
sharpeian
Newbie

i had a huge list of contacts, some of which were just phone numbers, and about half of which were facebook friends. I went into my contact list one day to discover the only contacts that would show up, were the standard #bal, #data, #min, and #pmt. I was fortunate that i had not erased all my text messages that held two of the contacts from facebook; however when i tried to create a contact listing for it, i found a list of all the facebook contacts that i had, and it tells me that i am unable to edit SNS contacts on phone. My phone is set to auto sync early in the morning while i am sleeping...what happened to my contacts? and how can i get them back?

<Moved from the "My Device" space to the "DROID Charge by Samsung" space for more exposure.>

Message was edited by: Verizon Moderator

0 Likes
Re: why are all of my contacts gone?
Ann154
Community Leader
Community Leader

What phone model do you have?

I'm most definitely NOT a VZW employee. If a post answered your question, please mark it as the answer.

0 Likes
Re: why are all of my contacts gone?
sharpeian
Newbie

droid charge by samsung

0 Likes
Re: why are all of my contacts gone?
jco23
Contributor - Level 3

were your contacts on your SIM card or Google contacts?  if google, then there's probably a sync issue (new password, etc.)  have you tried pulling your sim card out or do a battery pull for 10 minutes?

otherwise, you should be able to go into your "accounts & sync" under "settings" and tell it to re-download.

if you don't use google to back up your contacts, I strongly suggest it.  once you make a change online, it immediately shows up on your phone - so they'll always be in sync and you'll never lose them.

furthermore, if you have a backup list of your contacts (e.g. from MS outlook), you can export that list to a csv file and import it to your google contacts online.

hope this helps.

0 Likes
Re: why are all of my contacts gone?
rizaroo23
Newbie

Mine are all gone as well on the droid charge and I tried the accounts & sync and it did nothing.  I also too my battery out.  Help I need my numbers too.

0 Likes
Re: why are all of my contacts gone?
jco23
Contributor - Level 3

you could also install the backup assistant app provided by VZW.  it's free and really helpful.  although I use google now - much easier

0 Likes
Re: why are all of my contacts gone?
JerryF
Specialist - Level 1

In answer to your original question, your contacts are gone because you were using AUTO SYNC.  I have seen several folks on this and other forums say that they went to bed and when they woke up in the morning all their contacts were gone.  Never trust auto sync you may be sorry!

May I suggest to you folks and anyone else, DO NOT ACTIVATE AUTO SYNC.

I spent so much time building my contact list that I back it up in three places.  First I use Google, than a $20 program that copies it to my laptop PC, and finally to the CD Card in my Charge phone.  BTW, my auto sync is OFF because of a disaster I experienced caused by Verizon's BU-Assistant APP and it was my Google backup that saved the day for me.

JerryF

PS,  This probably will not work but try it anyhow.  Touch Contacts and then press the MENU button.  Then touch  Import/Export.  Then choose Export to SD Card and it will copy any contacts found to your SD card.  Then go to the APP My Files and look for the folder external_sd.  If it found any contacts they should be in the file called 00001.vcf.  If you touch 00001.vcf it will let you return the contacts to your phone and/or your Google account.  Good luck but don't hold your breath!

Re: why are all of my contacts gone?
sharpeian
Newbie

Thanks Jerry F, so far your advice has been the most helpful. At this point i agree in not trusting backup assistant. I went into it to check for my contacts and they were there...sort of...as many times as i have synced (both manually and with auto) to the back up assistant, according to that database the last time it synced was July 8 2011. Some of the contacts were outdated, but i still tried to get them, the funny thing is i tried to regain them through a sync...although both my phone and the site said it was successful, i couldn't find any of those contacts on my phone. For some reason i still can't quite get my facebook contacts back on my phone, but those are at least safe on facebook. At this point i am just going to manually write down the contacts on the database, and manually re-input them onto my phone. I will give Google a shot as far as keeping my contacts safe, but i hope verizon fixes whatever glitch is in their backup assistant...eventually. Thanks for trying!

0 Likes
Re: why are all of my contacts gone?
h1tman_77
Newbie

I had this similar issue recently.

I called Tech Support and the told me that my contacts list ended up in the "trash" bin on the Back up Assistant server. I have no clue how that happened since VZW only has access to all of that stuff. Must be a glitch. Either way, they restored those files and they were back on my phone after doing a backup although my backup assistant still isn't working correctly anyhow. Just a thought for you to try.

0 Likes
Re: why are all of my contacts gone?
YO4974
Enthusiast - Level 1

THAT HAPPEN TO ME ALSO

     Try this it worked for me. go to the internet site:  www.verizonwireless.com/backupassistant register and create a login. then you'll find under your contacts that your contacts that are lost in the trash. then undelete. I had to do it by the colums. click colum A select all then undelete, then colum B thourght Z.