How to recover contacts from old phone

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There was a time when we used to write down all our contacts in a book or a diary and maintained little black books. Smartphones have made diaries obsolete and has them anymore.

While it has become easier to

now, there is also a chance that you might accidentally delete an important contact. In this post, we will show how you can easily restore contacts on your Android device.

How to restore contacts on Android

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Solution 1 – Using Google Contacts

• On your phone, open the Google Contacts app. You can install the app from here.
• Click on the three lines menu at the top left corner.
• Now, click on ‘Settings’ and then click on ‘Undo Changes’.
• Now, you can select from ’10 minutes’, ‘1 hour’, ‘Yesterday’, ‘1 week ago’ and ‘Custom’.
• Once you have selected the restoration period, click on ‘Confirm’.

It must be noted that while this step will help you restore contacts from the time selected, any additions made to contacts after that period will also be removed.

Solution 2 – Using Google Contacts website

• On your computer, open the Google Contacts website and login using your Google account.
• Now, click on the ‘Settings’ icon at the top right corner.
• Click on ‘Undo Changes’ and select the restoration period.
• You can select from ’10 minutes’, ‘1 hour’, ‘Yesterday’, ‘1 week ago’ and ‘Custom’.
• Click on ‘Confirm’ to proceed.

See also:

How to recover deleted messages on WhatsApp
How to track and recover a lost smartphone

Messaging your contacts consistently is important, but you can’t do that if they’ve been deleted. If you accidentally deleted some (or all) of your contacts, don’t worry — there’s hope.

Needing to restore deleted contacts is a common issue, but it’s not one that everyone knows how to resolve, especially if they haven’t had to do it before. Fortunately, whether you’re using an iPhone, an Android, Gmail, or Contacts+, you have options when it comes to recovering your deleted contacts and restoring them to your device.

Scroll down for quick step-by-step tutorials on recovering deleted contacts on four of the most commonly used platforms.

Recovering Deleted Contacts on an iPhone

How you restore contacts on an iPhone depends on how you back up your phone to begin with, with both iTunes and iCloud holding onto your contact data in the event you need to restore it later on.

To Restore Contacts from iTunes:

• Step 1: Connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable.
• Step 2: Open iTunes and select “Restore From Backup.”
• Step 3: Select the backup that took place prior to the deletion of your contacts.
• Step 4: Press “Restore.”
• Step 5: Wait for the process to finish and then reboot your phone. Check to make sure that your contacts are in place.

To Restore Contacts from iCloud:

• Step 1: Sign in to iCloud.com.
• Step 2: Go to your Account Settings.
• Step 3: Scroll down to “Advanced” and click “Restore Contacts.”
• Step 4: Find the date of the backup you want and click “Restore” next to it.
• Step 5: Click “Restore” again to confirm and then wait for it to complete.

There are also a number of third-party iPhone recovery software tools that you can use when trying to retrieve deleted phone numbers, including PhoneRescue for iOS, ApowerRescue, and TenorShare.

Recovering Deleted Contacts on an Android

If you need to restore deleted contacts on an Android, you should be able to do so through Google Contacts. Here’s how.

To Restore Contacts with Google Contacts:

• Step 1: Open the Google Contacts app on your Android phone, or go to the Google Contacts website and log in with your Google Account.
• Step 2: Go to your Settings and click “Undo Changes.”
• Step 3: Click how far back you’d like to undo changes from, either 10 minutes, one hour, one day, one week, or a custom time.
• Step 4: Confirm your selection, then check to make sure your deleted contacts are restored.

Google Contacts not working, or prefer a third-party app? Check out Dr.Fone, Undeleter, GT Recovery, or Wondershare Data Recovery.

Recovering Deleted Contacts on Gmail

It’s easy to rewind the clock if you accidentally deleted contacts in your Gmail account and need to restore them later on, though you’ll be limited to backups of information within the past 30 days. Once again, the solution is Google Contacts, and it’s basically the same process as you’d use to restore contacts on an Android device.

To Restore Contacts on Gmail:

• Step 1: Go to the Google Contacts website and log in with your Google Account.
• Step 2: Go to your Settings and click “Undo Changes.”
• Step 3: Choose the timeframe you’d like to undo changes from, with options up to 30 days prior.
• Step 4: Confirm your selection.

Note that it may take some time for you to see your contacts restored. If you don’t notice any updates right away, give it a minute for your data to come back.

Recovering Deleted Contacts on Contacts+

As your go-to contact management solution, we’ve made it as simple as possible for you to restore deleted contacts after the fact. And since we automatically back up your contacts on a daily basis, there’s no need to worry if you have the most recent information available.

To get your contacts back, head here and log in to your Contacts+ account. Click “Download” next to the backup that you’re interested in, or scroll down to “Restore” and choose a date up to 60 days prior from which to pull contacts.

All Hope Isn’t Lost

How easy it will be for you to recover deleted contacts depends on your device, your backup status, and how long ago you got rid of the contacts in question.

Some instances that would complicate your recovery abilities are if you haven’t been performing backups (and they aren’t done automatically) or if you deleted the contact(s) more than a few months ago. That being said, it’s still worth a try — especially with third-party apps, assuming you’re not able to restore contacts through your device itself.

To help minimize your chances of facing this problem, we offer automatic daily backups of your contacts to ensure you can quickly and easily restore data when needed. Your contacts will be safe from permanent deletion for 60 days when you use Contacts+, so act fast and get your data back where you need it. 

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