Android Contacts Disappeared? 4 Ways to Get Them Back (2023)

"Contacts" on Android phones should be no less critical than photos, videos, and other crucial files, because it is our most important way to get in contact with our relatives, friends or even customers, etc. Now, Assume Android contacts disappeared from your phone for unexpected reasons, it's so distressing, isn't it?

After that, if you have a previous backup, you can try to regain them. But what if there's no copy or there might be some problem with the backup files? Just calm down, please, for this article will explore everything you want to know.

Part 1: Contacts Disappeared from Android, Are They Really Gone?

What happened to all my contacts? Why they suddenly disappeared. Given the situation, you may want to know two questions, as in the following.

1. Why Have My Contacts Disappeared from My Android Phone?

Firstly, there might be some faults with your Android phone, or the contacts are deleted by yourself inadvertently. And there's also possible that the contact disappears due to the intrusion of malicious apps. At this time, you can try to update some apps on your phone to see if this will lead to Android contacts missing. Of course, there are some other reasons as well.

2. Where Did All My Contacts Go?

You can get into your cellphone to see if they are hidden. To do this, just run the Contacts app > hit the three vertical dots from the top right corner > choose Contacts to display > select All contacts.

If these contacts are still not displayed, they are likely to be stored in the storage of your Android phone and be labeled as deleted info.

Read Also:

• How to Restore Missing Files with Dropbox
• 3 Ways to Recover Deleted Contacts from Android (#1 is Awesome)

Part 2: Fix Contacts Disappeared from Android with Android Recovery Tool

"Most or all my contacts disappeared from Android phone"? Well, it is a big trouble for many Android owners without backup. To prevent the lost contacts from being overwritten by new data, it is recommended to choose a professional recovery tool to retrieve them.

MobiKin Doctor for Android (Win and Mac) is able to do the job well. It is a top-notch Android recovery software. It also allows you to browse the contents related to contacts, such as the phone number, data, location, type, duration before restoring. Again, it helps to restore other Android data and gives its users the right to preview more details before recovery.

Key features of MobiKin Doctor for Android:

• Breezily recover all the lost stuff from both Android internal memory and SD card without backup.
• Support retrieving data like contacts, text messages, call logs, photos, videos, music, documents, apps, and more.
• Enable you to preview and select any data before Android data recovery.
• Easy to operate, 100 secure, and a 98% success rate.
• Samsung/HTC/Google Pixel contacts disappeared? Fear not! It can recover data from almost all Android devices, also including Motorola, Sony, LG, Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, Blackberry, Nokia, Lenovo, etc.
• It never tracks any privacy from its users.

To fix all or some contacts disappeared from Android without backup, just recover them with MobiKin Doctor for Android:

Step 1. Primarily, root your Android phone to let the program fully detect all the contacts. Next, install the downloaded program and open it on your computer. Then, link the Android phone to the computer with a USB cord.

Step 2. Have the mobile identified by the software, going with the direction on the screen. After that, you'll get the main interface. Here, tick the Contacts box and tap Next to start scanning the phone.

Step 3. Once completed, you can preview all the lost contacts from the screen. Then just select the items you want and click Recover to put them on your computer.

Part 3: Recover Some Contacts Disappeared from Android Using Gmail

Sometimes, phone contacts disappeared from our Android phones without warning. At this point, it is not difficult to restore them through Gmail, but only if there has been a complete backup before. Plus, the odds of recovering Android losing contacts are certainly considerable.

To restore contacts from Android via Gmail:

• Open any browser from your computer, visit the Gmail website.
• Log in to your Gmail account that you used to restore from where Android contacts disappeared.
• Click the Gmail icon from the top left corner of the page to open a pull-down list.
• You'll now find the Contacts and other options. Just select Contacts > More.
• Choose the Restore contacts button. (see the image below)
• Select a suitable period for restoring any lost contacts.
• Tap "Restore" > "OK" to proceed .

Part 4: Recover Lost Contacts on Android via SD Card

Suppose your Android phone contacts disappeared and you have exported them to your SD card beforehand, then you can try this method.

Most contacts stored in an SD card are in .csv or .vcf format. When you need to recover them from the card, simply run the Contact app, find your desired contacts, and import them into your Android phone.

How to retrieve lost contacts on Android via SD card:

• On your Android device, open the Contacts app.
• Touch the three-dot icon from the upper left of the screen to choose Settings from the pull-down menu.
• You'll find the option of Import/Export from the next screen. Simply touch it.
• Finally, select Import from SD card and choose your wanted contacts from SD card to move them to your Android device.

Further Reading:

• Ultimate Guide on How to Transfer Contacts from Android to Android
• How to Transfer Contacts from Android to Computer? (4 Ways)

Part 5: Restore Contacts from Android with ES File Explorer

Next up is to fix contact names disappeared from Android using ES File Explorer. This tool facilitates to find the database files of your contacts from your Android device directly. Yet its recovery rate varies with the phones' brands.

How to recover lost contacts from Android via ES File Explorer:

• Open ES File Explorer after the download and installation on your Android device. Then, root the phone to let this program get full access to your mobile.
• Tap Search from the bottom of the window and type in the contact path on the blank: "/data/data/android.providers.contacts/databases" or "contacts/databases". Then tap on Magnifier to continue.
• Now, the deep scan should commence. Subsequently, all your contacts will be scanned out. Here, just follow the prompts on the screen to fetch your contacts with ease.

Bonus: How To Prevent Data Loss from Happening Again?

Some Android users said that the system upgrade would lead to contact loss. In fact, "Android update" and "lost contacts" are not necessarily closely related in most cases. But system upgrades do cause contact loss occasionally.

To fix Android lost contacts after an update or the loss of other data for whatever reasons, you'd better make a regular backup of your Android phone on PC/Mac. You can do that as required, such as backing up your Android contacts, vital documents, and other content selectively or in a batch. Moreover, it is better to back up data to your computer than to some cloud space. As the storage of the computer is more extensive and safer.

Ending Words

We have introduced 4 ways to restore lost contacts on Android. Here, it needs to be clear that only ES File Explorer and MobiKin Doctor for Android can help you complete the task without backup.

For the former, it currently only works well on some Android phones, partly because it has been a long time since the last update, and it does not allow you to browse other information about contacts.

While for the latter, it has always been keeping pace with the times and is compatible with almost all types of Android devices. What's more, it is easy to use, helping you recover all your lost contacts and other Android data effortlessly.

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