Hello all,

I do a help desk in the building where we live. A resident had a problem
with her Samsung smartphone. She accidentally deleted her contacts. Is
there any way she can get it back? I'd like to know.

Thanks in advance.

Fokke Nauta

Fokke Nauta wrote:

> She accidentally deleted her contacts. Is there any way she can get it back?

<https://support.google.com/contacts/answer/7199294?hl=en-GB&ref_topic=9160153&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&oco=1>

there may be samsung specific methods?

On 16/11/2022 15:04, Andy Burns wrote:
> Fokke Nauta wrote:
>
>> She accidentally deleted her contacts. Is there any way she can get it
>> back?
>
> <https://support.google.com/contacts/answer/7199294?hl=en-GB&ref_topic=9160153&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&oco=1>
>
> there may be samsung specific methods?

Thanks.

Unfortunately there was no backup.

Fokke

Fokke Nauta <usenet@solfon.nl> wrote:

> I do a help desk in the building where we live. A resident had a
> problem with her Samsung smartphone. She accidentally deleted her
> contacts. Is there any way she can get it back? I'd like to know.

Are these locally stored contacts? Or locally cached contacts that are
synchronized to contacts in an online account?

I use MS Outlook on my phone which syncs contacts to my Hotmail and
Gmail accounts. If I deleted them on my phone and wanted them back, I'd
use a web browser to check those accounts to see if the contacts still
existed online (in which case I could probably get the local contacts
list to sync up again), or in a trash folder to recover. If also not
online, I'd contact tech support to get them to restore my account from
their latest backup before I deleted the contacts.

Andy mentioned recovering from Google Backup, but apparently this user
does not have it enabled. I have it enabled, but it does seem to fail
about 10% of the time, so I'd have to restore from the next prior
successful backup. You might get the user to enable backups, especially
since she just realized why they can be important.

Andy Burns wrote:

> there may be samsung specific methods?

While the OP is a well-known "micky troll" who picks these questions off
the Internet at random, allow me to simply point out that contacts are
(mainly) stored in an sqlite database on Android, which isn't accessible to
the non-rooted user but which is (paradoxically) available to contact apps.

Ignoring contacts stored on the SIM card itself, the fact that apps can
access your contacts while you yourself can't (e.g., via adb) is something
which has me wondering how that happens.

*Why can an app access contacts - but - you can't (without that app)?*

Nonetheless, as others have stated, contacts are one of the most precious
pieces of data most mail user agents, calendar apps, messaging apps, etc.,
are desperate to upload to their servers - so - there "should" be a record
in quite a few archived locations (e.g., the first place I'd look is
GMail).
<https://www.coolmuster.com/android/where-are-contacts-stored-on-android.html>
<https://www.imobie.com/android-manager/where-are-contacts-stored-on-android.htm>
<https://www.faqsclear.com/where-are-contacts-stored-on-android/>
<https://techwiser.com/how-to-check-where-contacts-are-saved-on-android-and-iphone/>
<https://mto.youramys.com/where-contacts-are-stored-in-android>
etc. (It's one of the most common questions asked of Android!)

Moving forward to derive value from this thread...

In the future I suggest people "export" their contacts to a vcard file,
which any decent contact manager app can easily do (where I'd look for an
app that has both an import and export of VCARD & CSV contact files).

On 16/11/2022 22:40, Andy Burnelli wrote:
> Andy Burns wrote:
>
>> there may be samsung specific methods?
>
> While the OP is a well-known "micky troll" who picks these questions off
> the Internet at random, allow me to simply point out that contacts are
> (mainly) stored in an sqlite database on Android, which isn't accessible to
> the non-rooted user but which is (paradoxically) available to contact apps.
>
> Ignoring contacts stored on the SIM card itself, the fact that apps can
> access your contacts while you yourself can't (e.g., via adb) is something
> which has me wondering how that happens.
>
>  *Why can an app access contacts - but - you can't (without that app)?*
>
> Nonetheless, as others have stated, contacts are one of the most precious
> pieces of data most mail user agents, calendar apps, messaging apps, etc.,
> are desperate to upload to their servers - so - there "should" be a record
> in quite a few archived locations (e.g., the first place I'd look is
> GMail).
> <https://www.coolmuster.com/android/where-are-contacts-stored-on-android.html>
> <https://www.imobie.com/android-manager/where-are-contacts-stored-on-android.htm>
> <https://www.faqsclear.com/where-are-contacts-stored-on-android/>
> <https://techwiser.com/how-to-check-where-contacts-are-saved-on-android-and-iphone/>
> <https://mto.youramys.com/where-contacts-are-stored-in-android>
>  etc.  (It's one of the most common questions asked of Android!)
>
> Moving forward to derive value from this thread...
> In the future I suggest people "export" their contacts to a vcard file,
> which any decent contact manager app can easily do (where I'd look for an
> app that has both an import and export of VCARD & CSV contact files).

Thanks! I'll check the links and see what I can do.
And thanks for the information.

Fokke

On 16/11/2022 18:08, VanguardLH wrote:
> Fokke Nauta <usenet@solfon.nl> wrote:
>
>> I do a help desk in the building where we live. A resident had a
>> problem with her Samsung smartphone. She accidentally deleted her
>> contacts. Is there any way she can get it back? I'd like to know.
>
> Are these locally stored contacts? Or locally cached contacts that are
> synchronized to contacts in an online account?

I assume theye were locally stored.

> I use MS Outlook on my phone which syncs contacts to my Hotmail and
> Gmail accounts. If I deleted them on my phone and wanted them back, I'd
> use a web browser to check those accounts to see if the contacts still
> existed online (in which case I could probably get the local contacts
> list to sync up again), or in a trash folder to recover. If also not
> online, I'd contact tech support to get them to restore my account from
> their latest backup before I deleted the contacts.
>
> Andy mentioned recovering from Google Backup, but apparently this user
> does not have it enabled.

Indeed.

> I have it enabled, but it does seem to fail
> about 10% of the time, so I'd have to restore from the next prior
> successful backup. You might get the user to enable backups, especially
> since she just realized why they can be important.

I will suggest that.

Fokke

Fokke Nauta <usenet@solfon.nl> wrote:

> VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> Fokke Nauta <usenet@solfon.nl> wrote:
>>
>>> I do a help desk in the building where we live. A resident had a
>>> problem with her Samsung smartphone. She accidentally deleted her
>>> contacts. Is there any way she can get it back? I'd like to know.
>>
>> Are these locally stored contacts? Or locally cached contacts that are
>> synchronized to contacts in an online account?
>
> I assume theye were locally stored.

If they were only locally stored, does she also have online accounts
(Hotmail/Outlook.com, Gmail, Yahoo, etc) where she stores contacts? If
so, she could use those duplicate contacts to repopulate whatever local
app she is using for contacts. Would be a lot of manual editing, but
she'd have info to start with.

On 17/11/2022 21:29, VanguardLH wrote:
> Fokke Nauta <usenet@solfon.nl> wrote:
>
>> VanguardLH wrote:
>>
>>> Fokke Nauta <usenet@solfon.nl> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I do a help desk in the building where we live. A resident had a
>>>> problem with her Samsung smartphone. She accidentally deleted her
>>>> contacts. Is there any way she can get it back? I'd like to know.
>>>
>>> Are these locally stored contacts? Or locally cached contacts that are
>>> synchronized to contacts in an online account?
>>
>> I assume theye were locally stored.
>
> If they were only locally stored, does she also have online accounts
> (Hotmail/Outlook.com, Gmail, Yahoo, etc) where she stores contacts? If
> so, she could use those duplicate contacts to repopulate whatever local
> app she is using for contacts. Would be a lot of manual editing, but
> she'd have info to start with.

Thanks.
I will ask her. I will have a look.

Fokke