How to save contacts so as not to be afraid of losing them. How not to lose telephone contacts If the contact filter is not installed, then when adding a new contact the system will ask where exactly to store it - here you need, of course, to select

How do you store your contacts?

I bet it's in chaos...

Some are on a smartphone. Some of it is on the old phone that your mom now has. Some are in business cards. And some of it is on some scraps of paper around the house.

Contacts are scattered. Contacts are lost.

This article is about how to conveniently work with a contact database of up to 25,000 people.

What? Don’t want to trust your contacts to the devil? You will only need to trust Google, which already knows everything about you))

I'm talking about Google Contacts.

You will say that every fool already uses this service... Maybe. But are you using it correctly?

First, I will prove to you that Google Contacts is the only solution for your contacts. THERE IS NO ELSE.

Feature #1: 25,000 contacts

Do you have more?

Hell, even if you are a sales agent who professionally works with the database, I will never believe that this number may not be enough.

For example, I have only 90 contacts.

Feature #2: Cloud

I would even say that this is the main meaning of the service.

Your contacts are now available different programs and devices in just a couple of clicks (You can see the list of devices and programs that use your contacts at this link. By the way, Google Contacts works great with iPhone!)

For example, losing a smartphone (sad!) is no longer a tragedy. We buy new smartphone– all contacts are with you again. You can work.

Tip #3: Backup

I backup my contact database once every three weeks.

This is convenient in Google Contacts:

By the way, if you deleted a contact, you have 30 days to restore it painlessly.

Tip #4: Notes

This is what they look like:

My advice: keep not just Vasya Pupkin’s phone number, but also the facts of his biography, his strong skills, the circumstances under which you met...

And then these notes will give us the next powerful feature...

Trick #5: Powerful search

Now finding the right contact is SIMPLE. Even in a huge database.

Just enter "air conditioner":

Enter "repair":

With Google Contacts there is no point in sorting your contacts anymore!

I already wrote on my blog that I keep everything, even the most random contacts... in reserve. In a regular address book this would be inconvenient. Your database would be littered.

This doesn’t happen in Google Contacts because of the following feature...

Tip #6: Groups

Yes, contacts can be divided into groups. Moreover, one contact can be in several groups at once.

See how I organized my groups:

  • OFTEN - these are the contacts that appear on my phone by default
  • RARELY, OCCASIONALLY – contacts with whom I rarely communicate. But I have access to them. Maybe not in 1 click, but in 2-3, but it is there.
  • CHANCE – just those random contacts that sometimes turn out to be most important.

In addition, you can create any groups that are convenient for you.

For example, I have a “football” group where my football friends are gathered. Sometimes I get people together to kick a ball around, and I need people.

Some people will find these groups useful for mass mailings.

To make the address book show contacts in the FREQUENT group by default, I do the following: Address Book > Contacts > Settings > Contacts to display > Google > FREQUENT.

I'm sure you have all this configured in the same way.

Tip #7: Photo

It's not even a matter of "beauty." The point is convenience - contacts with photos can be found faster:

When adding a photo, there is a convenient cropper - this is gud:

Step-by-step instruction

Setting up Google Contacts is easy.

It has 9 steps:

  1. Connect your phone to Google Contacts
  2. Transfer your contacts from your phone and social networks in Google Contacts
  3. Clean the database: kill duplicates, remove unnecessary ones
  4. Organize your contacts into groups
  5. Add a photo to your photos
  6. Add more fields
  7. Add notes
  8. Sync Google Contacts with your iPhone or Android smartphone
  9. Customize the display on your smartphone

There are no hacks, so I didn’t bloat this already big article.

Frequently asked questions and problems

Why is the quality of the photo when calling?

Yes, sometimes the photo is suitable for the address book, but when you make a call, “pixels are visible.”

What to do? Upload a higher resolution picture.

How make friends iPhone/iPad and Google Contacts?

Can I bulk edit contacts? For example, set all contacts to the city of Ufa?

Unfortunately no. Only contact groups can be edited in bulk.

How to sort a group of contacts in the order I need. For example, first “Important”, then “Close”, etc.

Groups in Google Contacts are sorted alphabetically. Therefore, the easiest way to do it like I did:

That is, put a number in front of the name.

What is this “Other Contacts” group? And where are the people from?

Google saves the contacts you've ever messaged. You can transfer such contacts to the desired group or delete.

Total

Chaos in contacts is a thing of the past. Discover Google Contacts!

And forward to a bright future!

Together with 25,000 friends))

Write in the comments!

How do you store your contacts?

Why aren't you still using the power of Google Contacts?

It would be especially interesting to hear from people for whom the contact base (customers) spreads butter on their bread.

By adding contacts to our phone book, we form a connection with our environment, our friends, colleagues and business partners. Phone numbers accumulate for a long time, several years. And the immediate loss of all contacts leads to a feeling of confusion and confusion. How to restore contacts on Android and what is needed for this? Let's talk about this in our review. To restore contacts we can use the following tools:

  • Google account;
  • Third-party data recovery programs;
  • Basic import/export functions;
  • Basic functions of working with contact lists.

Let's look at these tools in more detail.

Smartphones and tablet PCs running on the operating system Android systems, are able to save some data on Google servers - the user just needs to have an account there. And since almost all users have Google accounts, restoring contacts is not difficult. If for some reason they are deleted, turn on synchronization and make sure that you are downloading contacts from Google servers.

If for some reason the contacts do not load, try going to the Gmail service website from your computer and find the “Contacts” section there. All telephone records saved from the smartphone are stored in this section. After making sure that you have contacts, you must do one of the following:

  • Reboot your phone and try to start forced synchronization;
  • Try installing another application for working with contacts;
  • Reset your phone to factory settings, specify your account information and wait for the data to sync to an empty device.

The last method, if there are still contacts on Google servers, helps in 100% of cases.

If you still don’t have a Google account and you store all your contacts on a SIM card or in your phone’s memory, immediately create an account, copy your contacts to it and set up synchronization. All these steps will help you quickly recover contacts from Google on Android if they are lost locally.

Recovery using third-party programs

Contacts disappeared on Android - how to recover them using third party programs? To do this, you need to find suitable software in the Playmarket application catalog. There are a lot of applications here - MobileDev360, Restore Contacts, Deleted Contacts and many others.

note that Some of these applications are focused on searching for deleted and damaged contacts, and the other part performs the function of first saving contacts in a backup copy and then restoring them.

In our case, since the contacts disappeared due to unknown reasons, we need applications to restore deleted contacts, since we do not have any backup copy. By the way, the idea of ​​storing a backup copy is quite good - pay special attention to it.

Restoring contacts by import/export

Please note that almost all applications focused on working with contacts have functions for importing/exporting phone book entries. If you really value your contacts, make periodic copies and save them on a memory card or internal memory. Also, almost all applications implement the function of sending contacts via e-mail.

If you suddenly want to restore contacts on Android if they are damaged or accidentally deleted, all you have to do is import the saved files. By the way, if you saved contacts as a vCard, then you may find applications for bulk importing them useful.

Restoring the correct display of lists

We already know how to recover deleted contacts on Android - using third party applications and backups. But sometimes situations arise when contacts remain on the phone, but we simply cannot see them. This happens when there is a problem with the phone book settings, as a result of which it tries to show us contacts from the SIM card or from the phone’s internal memory. And if the phone memory and SIM card are empty, then we will not see anything.

In order to restore the display of the phone book and regain access to phone records, you need to go to the application settings to work with contacts. Here we need to find the item “Show contacts”, “View”, “Source of contacts”, etc. (the name of the item differs depending on the program used).

After visiting this item, you need to select the storage location for your current phone book - if it is stored in Google account, choose to display contacts from your account. Here you can also choose to display data from the following sources:

  • SIM card (sometimes more than one);
  • Phone memory;
  • Contacts in applications (Skype, Viber, etc.);
  • Contacts via email;
  • Contacts on social networks.

If you select an empty source, the contact list will be empty. Thus, failures in applications often lead to the absence of displayed contacts - you just need to understand their settings.

How not to lose phone contacts

How many times have you heard panicked screams from the series: “My phone was stolen, and all my contacts were there,” “My phone was broken, and all my contacts were there,” “My SIM card was faulty, and all my contacts were there.” contacts"...

When I hear this, I am very surprised. Guys, the 21st century is just around the corner! Internet, cloud technologies! And your contacts disappear when you lose your phone. How can this even be? How can you store contacts only on your phone in the 21st century? Or on a SIM card? This is completely abnormal!

That's why I decided to write this note about how to properly maintain your contact list so that it does not get lost along with phones and SIM cards and so that restoring your contact list, if necessary, takes a few seconds.

You won’t find any revelations here, I will talk about things that are generally known, but practice shows that a large number of people don’t even have the slightest idea about such simple things, which means that I hope this will be useful to someone.

So how can you make sure your phone contacts don't get lost?

Modern smartphones allow you to store contacts in three different ways:

  • on the SIM card;

  • in the phone memory;

  • in your cloud service account (iCloud, GMail).

The first two methods should be categorically excluded. A SIM card can only store a minimum set of subscriber data, and if the SIM card is lost or damaged, you lose all the information.

The phone can store a complete set of data, but if the phone is lost or damaged, you also lose all the information. (Yes, there are ways to save contacts from your phone to your computer, but it’s still better not to use this method of recording contacts - for many reasons.)

Therefore, the most correct way to store your contacts is in a cloud service, namely in the form of contacts from a GMail account (or in the iCloud service for an iPhone, although I personally recommend storing contacts in GMail even for iPhones, which is easily connected there)!

If you are using GMail mail, then for security you can create different accounts for mail and for contacts. Although it’s more convenient, of course, to keep everything in one account, you should take care to set a long, strong password there and enable all possible types protection, including two-factor authentication (with verification via sending a code via SMS).

Well, okay, we chose the account in which we will keep our contacts, and connected the account to the smartphone. But the contacts won’t appear there on their own due to dampness, right? How can I get them there, for example, from a phone or a SIM card?

In Android, this is usually done simply using the Contacts system application. Go there, open the menu, there is the line “Import/export”. Click on it, select the source (SIM card, phone), specify copy to Google account - copy.

Next, especially if the contacts were copied from the SIM card, they need to be processed. The most convenient way to do this is on a PC in the Google account itself - at www.gmail.com, there in the drop-down menu select the "Contacts" item.

Well, there you can edit your contacts accordingly if necessary: ​​add telephone numbers, addresses, put photographs, enter companies and positions - in general, the field for activity is almost limitless.

If your contacts were stored, for example, in MS Outlook, then from there you can import them into Google Contacts - it can do this. Google can also import contacts from a couple of hundred different services, as well as through the universal CSV format: a text file with data separated by commas.

Well, if you kept your phones in a regular analog notebook, work hard and enter them into your Google account manually.

Now there are two important points with the phone.

First. In the "Contacts" application, select "Contact filter" in the menu and mark your Google account there so that old contacts from your SIM card and phone do not bother you if you suddenly left them there.


In this case, only contacts from your Google account will be shown to you, and when you add a new contact, it will automatically go to this account.

If the contact filter is not installed, then when adding a new contact the system will ask where exactly to store it - here you need, of course, to select a Google account.

Google stores edited or deleted contacts for up to 30 days, and they can be restored at any time by logging into GMail on your PC.


Well, to really protect yourself from everything, it makes sense to export your contacts from Google and save them in some other cloud - for example, Dropbox.

This is done very simply. In GMail, click on the "More" button, there "Export", select "All contacts" and Google CSV.

The output will be a file with a CSV extension. IN open form It is, of course, better not to store it, and the easiest way to protect it is by archiving it with a password. In the case of WinRar (and many other archivers), you need to click on the file right click mouse, select “Add to archive”, there on the “General” tab select “Set password”, after which the resulting protected archive is merged with “Dropbox” so that the contacts for insurance are stored in another place.

This method of storing contacts - in a cloud service account - is convenient from all sides.

Firstly, if, God forbid, you lose your phone, you simply take (buy) a new phone, enter your account information in your accounts, and if you have an Internet connection, your contacts will be restored within a couple of minutes.

Secondly, you will always have access to these contacts from anywhere in the world where there is Internet.

Thirdly, these contacts can be used simultaneously on a variety of devices (smartphones, tablets) and they will be synchronized.

The easiest way to backup Android smartphone contacts is to use account Google to sync your contacts. All data will be stored online and emergency they can be quickly transferred to required device. Synchronization may have already been enabled on your smartphone when you first set it up. If not, it's easy to connect. Depending on the Android versions The process may be slightly different:

  • Open settings.
  • Go to Accounts. In older versions, this item may be called "Accounts and Sync."
  • Open your Google account and make sure the Contacts option is activated. Your data will then be automatically synced and can be restored to any device you set up your account on.
  • If you don't have a Google account, you can create one using the Add Account feature.
  • You can now sync your contacts online from the Google.Contacts page.
  • Please note that the contacts that are stored in your Google account will be synced. This does not include phone numbers that you only have stored on your SIM card.

Export contacts to an SD card or smartphone memory

Export Android contacts

You can save contacts in vCard format on an SD card or in the internal memory of your smartphone. The functionality needed for this is already built into the Android Contacts app. Depending on the OS version, the copying procedure may differ slightly:

  • Open the Contacts app.
  • Open the menu (the horizontal stripes icon in the top left corner) and select Settings.
  • Under Manage Contacts, click Export, select the account you want, and then click Export to VCF File.
  • Determine the storage location for the memory card (if available) or internal memory devices.
  • Enter a file name and it will be saved.
  • To restore contacts, select "Import" instead of "Export" in the settings, and then specify the VCF file and the destination folder.

Programs for backing up contacts

In addition to those described above, there are other ways to store contacts on an Android smartphone. Some manufacturers offer special services for data backup. Check if such a program is available for your smartphone model.

There are also suitable programs from third-party developers, such as the Titanium Backup application. You can also use AirDroid to back up your contacts via a connected Windows computer. Some older devices have the ability to copy or save contacts to the SIM card. However, you risk losing associated data, such as your profile picture.

The phone book is an integral part of any phone., be it a push-button device or touchscreen phone. Modern devices can store an unlimited number of numbers, but no one guarantees their complete safety. Quite often it happens that you lose contact with the necessary subscribers, and then an important question arises: how to restore deleted contacts on Android quickly and efficiently.

Is it possible to recover deleted contacts?

The answer is definitely yes. There are a huge number of methods that help to return not only lost contacts, but also lost ones, for example, or videos.

Below we will discuss the most common and convenient methods.

But please note in advance: successful recovery is only possible if the numbers disappeared no later than a few weeks ago.

But you can only restore a long-deleted contact using paid and hard-to-find programs.

How to restore contacts after a full factory reset on Android 7, 8, 9

Have you updated or moved to a later version of the software? Or carried out wipes because incorrect operation apparatus? In any of these situations, most often all information is erased, including a phone book. What to do then? Don't despair, there is a way out.

Via Google account

This is the most common and effective option. When synchronization is enabled data is automatically saved in email, and if you use the application Google Contact, then there won't be any problems at all.

Let's launch this program on the phone, we go through authorization if the system requires it. Further by moving to the right we call sidebar , where we click "Settings".

Main screen applications Go to “Settings”

We go down to the point "Contact Management" and press "Restore".

“Manage contacts” item Selecting a recovery function

If you have several accounts, then select one specific one and you will be taken to a new window. Pay attention to the column called "Device backup." And if backups of contacts were created, then they will be presented below.

Account selection Recovery partition

Click on a specific backup, after which a new page appears. It shows the details of the backup, including the creation date. Below there is a large gray button "Restore". Click. Recovery takes place in background , after which the numbers can already be used. Ready.

Selecting a backup Recovery process

Via Viber

This messenger can easily create backups, so it would seem that the recovery process should go without problems. But pay attention to an important detail: backup is made only from text messages, but does not affect the phone book in any way.

Contacts have completely disappeared on your Android device? In this case, Viber will not help. You can only restore correspondence, and there the subscriber numbers are indicated. This is the only way out. For this:

  1. Open the messenger, call up the side panel, in which we click "Settings". In the item that appears, select "Account".

    Go to the “Settings” section Go to the “Account” item

  2. We get to new page where such sub-items are located “Backup”, “Computers and tablets”, “Change phone number”, “Deactivate account”. The first option suits us. Next, select "Restore"– "Restore Now".

    Opening the “Backup” sub-item Start of recovery Consent with restoration

By default, copies will be saved to Google Drive, from where you can download them without any problems.

Using EaseUS MobiSaver

There are a huge number of paid utilities that offer to recover lost information in a matter of minutes. Of course, they do their job perfectly well, but if you don't want to spend money– take a closer look at the Chinese application called EaseUS MobiSaver.

This software recovers not only telephone contacts, but also videos, photos, text messages and even a call log. After installing the application, you can specify the specific type of information you want to find, and then use either a quick scan or an in-depth scan.

Quick recognizes materials that were deleted mostly about a week ago, and does not always accurately find the required file. Expanded search succeeds many times over, but requires availability . Anyway, this is a great free solution.

Restoring contacts without a backup

Agree, almost every user has had such an unpleasant situation, when on time backup was not fulfilled, but important information erased from the device. The most relevant option then – using utilities that can penetrate archived files and restore them. But are there other methods? Let's find out below.

Via Google Contact (for 30 days only)

This option will only help if if you synced your contacts anyway. More often synchronization with servicesGoogle passes automatically, and you may not even know about it.

You can use the app (link above) for the procedure, but we recommend the web version as it is easier to use. Begin:

  1. Follow the link https://contacts.google.com. On home page We see a list of our numbers. If there was no synchronization - You will see just a white screen;

home Google page Contact

  1. If synchronization occurred, but you deleted subscribers manually - you can fix everything. To do this, call up the left side menu and click "More";

Opening the item for expanded settings “More”

  1. Now we press "Cancel changes";

Cancel changes

  1. Next, a small menu appears, in which the system asks you to indicate the period of time during which you want to cancel the changes that are taking place, that is, return the information back. Choose from: “10 minutes ago”, “1 hour ago”, “Yesterday”, “1 week ago” or “Custom option”.

Select and confirm. After some time, the contacts will be restored, of which you will be notified.

Via Tenorshare Data Recovery (paid version only)

A very popular program which easily restores most types of information regardless of the elapsed time. Unfortunately, it is not free, but it will be at your disposal very helpful and effective tool . Let's see what he can do:

  • Recovering deleted contacts on your phone through the address book;
  • Recovering erased SMS, images, videos, archives and documents;
  • Deep search for materials that 99% of the time it ends successfully.

Among the advantages:

  • Relatively low price compared to competing programs that have poorer functionality;
  • Support almost all phones, including Samsung, Xiaomi, Lenovo, Sony, Huawei, etc.;
  • Intuitive and easy interface, lack of unnecessary options. Also Superuser mode is not required.

The recovery procedure is as simple as possible:

  1. Turn on on mobile device USB debugging(this is possible with active);
  2. Install the program itself on the computer, launch it;
  3. Connecting the phone to PC, select or fast or deep mode scanning;
  4. The search begins, followed by can be observed in real time. Thumbnails of the found materials are then displayed. All you have to do is restore what you need. Contacts can be easily returned back to the phone book located on the smartphone.

Despite the wide range of Samsung smartphones, they have no special functions and, moreover, others software. Therefore, restoring contacts on these devices occurs according to the standard scheme. You can use the options above, or explore the ones below.

Via Samsung Cloud

If you are synchronizing with such cloud storage and make regular backups - It won't be difficult to get your lost numbers back. Samsung provides “cloud” to its owners 15 GB free space. You can upload there in one click videos, photos, important notes, archives, documents, music and many more different files.

Moreover, you get access to your data at any time and from any gadget. Therefore, we recommend never neglecting the use cloud services and always synchronize information.

Via computer

And now let's consider The standard option is to use a personal computer. To do this, you can use a very popular application called Dr Fone.

Yes, the program is not cheap, considering that full version you will have to pay approx. 50 dollars. But you will have at your disposal reliable and very effective tool, has already become " best friend» for many users who do not want to lose valuable information forever.

Next, the procedure is as simple as possible: turn on debugging, connect the smartphone to the computer, give the utility root rights (yes, this is a required step), select the type of information and restores necessary contacts after searching.

Unfortunately, there are few options here. If you have lost your phone or simply do not have access to it at the moment - go to your computer and view your synchronized contacts in the web version of the storage.

To do this, initially the phone book should be saved not in the phone memory or on the SIM card, but in Google services.

Restoration is also possible , if you create backups daily and transfer them to your computer. In this case, you will find contacts in vCard format. But it is impossible to recover information from a lost device through a computer.

Video instruction

Answers to popular questions

Is it possible to restore contacts on a broken phone?

If there is no way to restore your device, but there are important contacts on it, don’t despair. There are several ways to solve this problem. First situation: numbers are stored on the SIM card. Just take it out and insert the SIM card into any other smartphone. Second situation: the phone book is located on external media. This is a fairly rare case, but possible. Then we also take out the flash drive or memory card and put it in a working device. Third situation: contacts are entered inGoogle account. Everything here is as simple as possible, you just need to open the storage either on another smartphone or on a computer, thereby gaining access to your contacts.

How to restore contacts after Android update?

If you made a backup before reinstalling, then new version all data will be returned automatically. You only need to indicate this the first time you start the device after the update.

How to restore contacts from a sql database?

This is not an easy procedure and we only recommend it to experienced users. You will definitely need root rights, access to a computer and file manager(a good option would be ES Explorer, in which we wrote in the article). More detailed information may be presented in a separate article.

As we see, Recovering accidentally deleted contacts on Android devices is quite possible, a huge number of various methods, and we described in the article the most convenient and effective ones. Any questions? Be sure to write to us and always have the necessary information at hand! Good luck!