How to recover a contact you deleted

Google

Table of Contents Show

How to restore contacts on Android
Export contacts
Turn automatic backup off or on
Restore contacts from backups
More ways to back up & restore

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

save contacts

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

Complimentary Tech Event

The 6-part video series will capture the vision of Indian SaaS leaders and highlight the potential for the sector in the decades to come.10th Nov, 2022 Starts at 04:00 PM (30 mins)Register Now

Our Speakers

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

How to add a device to Find My iPhone to track the location of your iPhone, iPad, or Mac computer

You can use your computer to transfer contacts to another email account.

You can back up the contacts stored on your phone or SIM card. If you lose or need to replace your phone, you can restore these contacts on the new phone.

Restoring data varies by phone and Android version. You can't restore a backup from a higher Android version onto a phone running a lower Android version.

If you save your contacts to your Google Account, they automatically show on your phone after you sign in. You won’t need to restore contacts this way. Learn about syncing.

Export contacts

Turn automatic backup off or on

When you first set up your Google Account on your phone, you’ll be asked if you want to back up your data. To change this setting:

Open your phone’s Settings app.
Tap System
Backup.
Turn Back up to Google Drive on or off.

Restore contacts from backups

Important: You can't restore a backup from a higher Android version onto a phone running a lower Android version. Learn how to check and update your Android version.

Open your phone's Settings app.
Tap Google.
Tap Set up & restore.
Tap Restore contacts.
If you have multiple Google Accounts, to choose which account's contacts to restore, tap From account.
Tap the phone with the contacts to copy.
If you don’t want to copy contacts from your SIM card or phone storage, turn off SIM card or Device storage.
Tap Restore, then wait until you see "Contacts restored."
To avoid duplicates, your phone restores only contacts that it doesn't already have. Your restored contacts also sync to your current Google Account and other devices.