How to get contacts back after factory reset. How to do a factory reset on Android? Contacts disappeared after factory reset

You can get to this page for two reasons - either you already have a problem indicated in the title of the article, and now you have to frantically look for a solution, or there is a desire to avoid such troubles in the future, and, according to popular wisdom, you want what is called "lay straws" . In any case, you have come to the right place, and we will now cover all the nuances regarding the question of how to restore contacts on Android.

The factors that influenced the disappearance of contacts can be very different, and it is not at all necessary that your careless actions led to such a result (for example, after resetting the settings). The playful hands of your beloved child could still get to your smartphone and knock down the settings, deleting the phone book at the same time, some kind of Trojan wound up, until all hands reached it, unlicensed software, your other half, suspecting something was wrong deliberately deleted (deleted) contacts on Android , but you never know what else! Let's hope that not everything is so critical, and this material will help to avoid such problems, and if it happened, what happened, it will tell you ways to return the lost.

To insure yourself against irretrievable data loss, take care of this in advance by making backup copies of your contacts. After all, if applications, music and other content can be downloaded again even at the cost of considerable effort, then the loss of contacts can not only interrupt communication, but also make adjustments (sometimes with very serious negative consequences) in the business part of life. And in the event of the disappearance of the phone book that occurred as a result of a banal phone glitch or an ill-conceived backup, then the resuscitation of information is still possible, but the loss / theft of the device reduces the chances of recovery to zero.

Backup contacts and then restore

First way– standard synchronization with the Google system:

Register an account on Google.com.
Open the item "Account".
Having opened the "Security" tab, enter your phone number in the specified field.

Now, in the event that the very fluffy animal looms on the horizon, we proceed as follows:

Log in to your Gmail account (by entering your username and password).
Select "Contacts", by pressing the "Menu" button we find the import / export field, put a tick in the "@gmail.com" field, then "next".
We mark the item where to save contacts (better "phone").
Click "Next" (maybe "Save Contacts"):

Second way. Some manufacturers release their own software, which can be found on the official website. For example, Samsung offers an excellent Samsung Kies 2 program for its phones and tablets, which, in addition to creating backups, makes it easy to manage personal data, messages, multimedia files, etc. Among other things, using this software, you can view photos and videos stored on the phone, listen to music, etc.

The program is installed on a computer with subsequent synchronization with the Android device. Detailed description and all the necessary actions are quite accessible written at the office. site. Go to the website of the manufacturer of your device, it is quite possible that you can also find a good offer there.

Third way. It is quite possible that your contacts have not gone anywhere, but for some reason turned out to be hidden. Then you need:

Having opened "Contacts" on your smartphone, press "Menu".
In the list that appears, stop the selection on the "Filter contacts" item.
In the menu that opens, put a tick in front of the "All contacts" item.

We check if this was the reason, then the phone book will again be displayed in full.

The fourth way. Some don't know what to do backup with subsequent recovery, you can use the capabilities of the phone itself. To do this, you need to find the “Security” item in the smartphone settings menu, open it, find the “Restore and Reset” line, click and in the window that opens, select “Copy data” (if necessary, you need to open this item again and activate the saved data).

Important! Do not forget to periodically make a backup using any of the methods described, this will be a reliable guarantee that all numbers will not disappear forever from your phone book, and you can return them to their place in a couple of minutes.

Restoring contacts using a special application

This option is the ability to revive the phone book if backup copies were not created in advance. Typically, to use such applications (Superuser). Because in this case you have to deal with system files, even hidden ones.

So, to use this option you will need:

Personal Computer.
Host or OTG cable (with a USB connector on one end and a micro USB connector on the other) used to connect a smartphone to a PC.
Rooted android device.

Step by step and in detail, we have already described this method in a parallel topic about recovering lost photos. The applications mentioned in it restore not only photo files, but also contacts. Therefore, with a clear conscience (so as not to repeat myself), with best wishes for every success.

If contacts on Android were accidentally deleted during the process of cleaning the phone book or you reset the settings and got a completely clean device, then you will definitely have a question about how to restore phone numbers. There are several methods of recovering lost information that should help you get back the records with the personal data of the right people.

Recover contacts and numbers from Google on Android

If you have enabled synchronization with your Google account on your phone, then you don’t have to worry about your contacts - all deleted numbers can be quickly returned.

Select More Actions.
Click Restore Contacts.

You will only have to indicate the approximate time when the last changes were made to the phone book and a backup copy of the data was created. The same operation can be carried out on a computer using the special contacts.google.com page.

To display the restored numbers in the phone book, select the display mode "All contacts". Instead of restoring contacts from Google, you can use the Super Backup Pro app. Once installed, all data is backed up. If any information is accidentally deleted, you can quickly restore it from a backup.

Using Recovery Programs

If deleted numbers cannot be pulled out of the cloud storage for the reason that synchronization has not been previously configured, then other methods will have to be used.

Important: for the correct operation of all the programs described below, you need to obtain root rights.

You can return lost records using the EaseUS Mobisaver for Android program, which can recover any deleted data.

Enable debugging mode on your phone (Settings - Developer Options - USB Debugging).
Connect your device to your computer and allow access.
Launch EaseUS Mobisaver for Android and click "Start".

After scanning the smartphone's memory, a report will appear with all the data found. Go to the "Contacts" section. Highlight the desired entries and click "Recover".

Android Data Recovery

The functionality for restoring contacts after a reset and simply loss is offered by the Android Data Recovery utility. If you need to restore the Android call log, then you can use this method:

Install the RootExplorer file manager, which opens access to Android system folders.
Go to /data/data/.com.android.providers.contacts/databases/ and find the contacts.db file.
Copy it to a memory card and transfer it to your computer.
Install SQLite Manager (distributed as a standalone program and as an add-on to the Mozilla Firefox browser).
Open the contacts.db file through SQLite Manager.
View the call history in the "Calls" table.

To view the call history or save contacts, you need to right-click on the appropriate section in the manager (calls or phone_lookup) and select the "Export table" item. The resulting *.csv file is opened via Excel or OpenOffice Calc.

Unintentional user actions, system failure, virus attack, and a number of other reasons can lead to the loss of important information stored on the phone. And if music or video can be re-downloaded to the device, then deleted numbers from the phone book cannot be returned in this way. Fortunately, the developers of the Android OS took care of the safety of our data and provided several effective ways to reanimate them. Consider how to restore contacts on Android in case of accidental deletion.

Ways to restore the phone book

To return accidentally erased contacts to Android, you can use one of the following methods:

Google cloud service;
Built-in features of the Android system;
Additional software.

Every Android device can be linked to Google services. It is not necessary to do this, however, without such a link, you will not be able to download applications from the Play Market, store information on cloud storage, work with Google Play and much more.

The Gmail mail service synchronizes with the phone book and copies its contents to cloud storage. And even if you accidentally delete a phone number, you can get it back within 30 days. That's how much information is stored on Google.

To recover deleted contacts on Android using Google, you need to:

After performing these steps and the next synchronization, the deleted numbers should appear on the phone.

If the contacts disappeared later on the gadget and after that it has not yet been synchronized with Google, to reanimate the numbers, you will need to do the following:

Restoring contacts in this way is possible only if synchronization has been activated on the mobile device. It is enabled as follows:

Now, at certain intervals, the phone will synchronize with Google and write the required user information to the virtual storage. If necessary, it can be restored at any time.

Using the built-in Android features to recover lost contacts

If, due to lack of synchronization, you cannot restore the phone book through Google services, try to do this using the standard Import / Export function:

This method allows you to reanimate not the entire list of contacts on Android, but only those that were recorded on the SIM card. To be able to return all numbers, do not be too lazy to periodically save the phone book in a .vcf file. This can be done using the same "Import / Export" function.

Restoring numbers from the phone book using additional software

When considering how to recover deleted contacts, you should not ignore third-party software, designed specifically for reanimating user data. Such applications do not need synchronization with Google and a previously saved copy of the phone book. However, they show high efficiency only in cases where the numbers have disappeared recently, and no new information has been recorded on the phone since the disappearance.

One of the biggest problems with an Android phone is the loss of contacts due to accidental deletion, loss of a device, resetting a smartphone, and in other cases. However, often the restoration of contacts becomes possible (although not in all situations). To know how to restore contacts on android, you need to read the recommendations.

Reasons for missing contacts

The main factors due to which such information disappears:

the owner himself accidentally deleted contacts;
reset to factory settings;
a Trojan virus has penetrated the smartphone, deleting all contact information;
due to obtaining administrator rights or when the operating system was updated.

Recovery

Often there is a situation when a user deleted contacts on android, how to restore. To avoid the hassle of losing contacts, you need to back up the information that is saved to the cloud. When there is no such copy, methods such as recovering deleted contacts on android will come to the aid of the user.

Recover Android Contacts from Google Account

The most reliable method on how to restore contacts on your phone after deletion is a Google account in order to access data. There are 2 main requirements for this method to be used: data synchronization with Google on the device enabled before deletion (or loss of the phone) (mostly started by default) and the login and password that are needed to enter the account.

When such conditions are met (if the user does not know if synchronization is enabled, the method must be tried), then the recovery algorithm will be as follows:

You need to go to //contacts.google.com/ (more comfortable from a PC, but at the user's choice), use the data to log in to the account used on the smartphone.
When the information has not been deleted (for example, the user has lost or broken the smartphone), he will immediately detect them and it is possible to proceed to step 5.
When the information is deleted and synchronized, then in the menu Google user won't find them either. But, when at least 30 days have passed since the deletion, there is a possibility of restoring contacts: you need to click on the “More” item in the menu and select the “Revert changes” item.
It is necessary to indicate the state for which time it is required to restore the information and confirm the procedure.
At the end, it is possible to either turn on the account on the Android phone and synchronize the information again, or save the data to your PC.
When the information is stored on a PC, for the purpose of importing to a smartphone, it is possible to simply copy the contacts file to the user's device and open it ("Import" in the "Contacts" application).

When synchronization is not enabled by default or the user does not have access to a Google account, this method, alas, is not suitable and you will need to try others, mostly less effective ones.

Using Android Data Recovery Software

In a large number of programs, in order to save information on Android, there is a contact recovery function. Since all Android devices are connected via the MTP protocol, and the storage is often encrypted, contact recovery software has become less effective and will not be able to recover data in all situations.

However, you need to try: with a positive combination of factors (a supported smartphone that has not been hard reset before), success is likely.

Contacts in messengers

When a user uses instant messengers, for example, Viber, Telegram or WhatsApp, then they will also save data with numbers. That is, by going to the list with numbers in the messenger, the user will find contacts of people who were previously in the Android phone directory (a person will be able to enter the messenger on a PC when the smartphone is suddenly lost or broken).

Alas, effective methods there is no quick data export (in addition to saving and further entering manually) from the messenger: there are 2 programs in the Play Market "Export contacts for Viber" and "Export contacts for Whatsapp", but there are various characteristics regarding performance.

In addition, when the user installed the Viber client on a Windows PC, in the C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\ViberPC\PhoneNumber directory, you can find the viber.db file, which is a database with numbers. This file can be opened in an ordinary editor like Word, where, although inconvenient, you can see contacts with the copy option. When the user has the skills to write SQL queries, he will be able to open viber.db in SQL Lite and export contacts from there in a comfortable way.

Additional contact recovery options

When none of the methods gives results, then you can use other possible options that, in theory, will help:

You should look into the internal memory (in the root directory) and on the SD card (when available) through file managers or by connecting the smartphone to a PC. In accordance with the characteristics of the users, it can be noted that it is often possible to see the contacts.vcf file there - directly the numbers that can be imported into the data list. Perhaps the owners, while exploring the Contacts application, export, then forget to delete the file.
When a lost contact is of extreme importance and it cannot be returned by any means, simply by seeing a person and finding out the phone number, it is permissible to try to look at the statement by the user's phone number from the mobile operator (in your personal account on the network or office). It is necessary to try to match the numbers (names are not indicated), the date and time of the calls with the time, if there was communication with this important number.

The above methods should help the user return a list of numbers. When this becomes impossible, you should seek help from specialized service centres they will probably help solve the problem.

Active and not so active users eventually notice that their Android starts to slow down and applications or web pages open reluctantly. All this is rather unpleasant, and many decide to reset all the settings to the original ones, those that were installed when the device was purchased. This action helps to get rid of many problems, some viruses and brakes, but absolutely all data is lost, including contacts from the phone book.

From the article you will learn

Ways to restore contacts

There are very simple methods that are available even to a novice user, but there are also serious ones that require superuser rights on an Android phone.

It is interesting! The developers of the Avast antivirus program conducted a study: they bought several pieces of used smartphones on the Android OS, and all users performed a factory reset before selling. But! They managed to recover personal data - photos, contacts, travel directions. Therefore, we can definitely say that the complete recovery of lost data is a reality!

Let's start an overview of ways to restore contacts after a factory reset. First of all, let's look at the easiest of them, when there is a backup copy of the data or data synchronization was previously enabled.

Using a Google Account

This method is suitable for those who, when setting up their smartphone, tied their account Google and made data synchronization. In this case, the smartphone is constantly synchronized with Google's servers and personal data is saved.

To restore contacts, you need to go to the site, where you will see a list of all your contacts, if they were previously successfully synchronized.
Then look at the left block, there are export/import options. It is only necessary to select the desired position and indicate the place where everything will be saved, that is, our Android phone. Don't forget to check your internet connection! Homemade will be more economical wifi network. In a few minutes, the entire list of contacts will appear on the smartphone screen.

Restoring from a previous backup

Usually, before resetting the settings, the device asks the user to make a backup copy of the data (“backup”). A special recovery file is created on the memory card. And in case of loss of contact data, all information can be restored from this file.

To make a backup, follow the instructions:

Open the "Settings" menu and find the item related to device security in it. For example, on some Android devices it might be "Security" or "Storage and backups" or something similar.
Here you need to open the position "Copy and restore".

Having selected this position, click on the "Backup" button.

To recover a lost contact list:

Note! If you back up your personal data from time to time, then the threat of loss is not terrible for you even if a reset operation was performed.

Using third party software

Again, this method is only suitable if a backup has been made in advance. Root rights are also needed, since the entire operation will take place with system files.

What should be done:

Download the installation file to your computer (the first 30 days are free).
Activate the option and connect your smartphone to the PC.
Launch Dr.Fone. She will search for the device, and then download the desired driver - agree to the terms.
After that, the scanning process will start, and as a result you can see the message: recovery is not supported, this requires root rights, and there is a complete instruction on how to do this.
After that, you need to run a full scan, and it is likely that contacts will be found. If this is the case, then you should click on the "Restore" button, and the phone book will appear on the device.

Note! The best results can be obtained only for supported gadgets, the software immediately warns about this during installation.

We go to the official page and. If you believe the reviews, then this program is capable of much - it helps to recover almost any lost information.

So:

Turn on USB debugging on your smartphone.
We connect it to the computer.
Open the EaseUS Mobisaver program and start scanning by pressing the "Start" button.
After that, you will be able to see a report that can be restored.
Then open the “Contacts” item and mark all or selective entries.
Activate the "Recovery" functionality.
The contacts will appear on your phone.

To restore data, you need superuser rights, only in this case you can run a scan.
At the end of the scan, a list of files that can be recovered will appear. Select a contact group and click the "Recovery" button.

If you want to restore the system log of all calls made from the phone, then in addition to the program you need to install a file manager, for example, .

Then:

Open the file manager on your smartphone and find the /data/data/.com.android.providers.contacts/databases/ folder and the contacts.db file in it.
Now you need to copy it and save it on your computer, for example, on your desktop in a new folder.
Next, you need the SQLite Manager software - it can be installed for free as an add-on in the Mozilla Firefox browser.
Run the utility and calmly open the saved contacts file.
All call records can be found in the “Calls” item, from the context menu (right mouse button) call the “Save as” option, and select the “Export to table” item.
As a result, a file with *.csv extension will be created. You can open it either Excel program, or .

Help from a mobile operator

If our advice did not help to restore contact information, then you can ask your mobile operator for details of calls, for the last 30 days it is provided free of charge. The table will list all the numbers you called. Although this is not a complete list, you can still use it.

Non-standard way

If you use the Viber free calling program, then you can extract information about phone numbers with whom you have ever contacted. Of course, this is inferior software, but it can help in some cases.

Do not turn off synchronization from Google contacts services, and then at any most critical moment, even after resetting the Android system, you can always fully restore the lost contact list.