All phone contacts suddenly disappeared

[gurluver]

Device: Samsung Galaxy S
OS : Android 2.1

Hi,

Basically I don't use google account to sync my contacts because the groups thing doesn't work the way I want it. So instead, I use Kies, which allow you to sync Outlook contact with your phone, which all worked fine.

However, last night before going to bed I sent a few sms message and everything was fine, i.e. all contacts were there. But this morning when I work up because of a text message from a strange number, which was actually from a friend of mine, so I thought he has a new number so I tried to update his contacts but when I click on "Update existing contact" my address book pops up and is ... empty.

After that, I opened my contacts and NOTHING is there.

I turned on displaying google contacts and its all fine, but when I choose phone contact, absolutely nothing is displayed.

I did absolutely nothing last night, and I don't believe I cleared all my contacts while in my sleep (because I don't even know how to do that while im awake).

Anyone has this problem before and/or know how to solve it please help .

Btw, I have been adding quiet a lots of contacts over the last 2 weeks (since last time I sync with kies) so I really need them back.

Thanks.

[extorian]

If the contacts are gone, then they're gone, but there may still be a copy of them on your PC with Kies. I don't use it though so I don't know how to check. One thing you would need to be careful of is making sure you set Kies up to sync TO your phone, not FROM your phone or both ways, because otherwise you may end up with nothing on both.

[Rav1ksingh]

I can't believe this. The same thing happened to me last night. Except I didn't send any text message.

I woke up today, went to check my contacts and they've all disappeared. I've got the samsung galaxy S BTW.

I'm pretty sure that I had a lot of contacts on my sim card and now I'm only seeing 2 contacts from there.

I stored most of my contacts on my memory card and if I try to import contacts from the sd card by going to the options -> import/export -> Import from SD card -> phone

all I get is "scanning sd card failed (Reason: No vCard file found on sd card)".

Does this mean something wiped all the contacts on my phone somehow by it self?

WTF man ! ! !

Seriously feel let down by my phone as this is the first time I've moved off from nokia's to a samsung and this strange stuff happens.

If any one has any good idea's on how to retrieve the contacts, I'd love to hear from them.

Thanks in advance.

[extorian]

Hi Rav1ksingh and welcome to the AC forums.

Saving contacts to the SD card (which is saving a contact as a vCard file onto your SD card) is not the same as saving a contact to internal memory (which is saving the contact into your phone book). It can't find any vCard files on your SD card because there aren't any there, but this is completely normal. vCards are used to exchange contacts between different types of phone or via bluetooth.

If you go into your Contacts app, press menu, and Display Options, is everything turned on in that list?

[DJ Psychic]

Same thing happend to me on my Samsung Galaxy S. Lost all saved shortcuts, folders apps, contacts, email. Lost everything. Had the phone in my pocket all night and when I pulled it I noticed things looked factory. I thought nothing of it just figured a reboot would fix it. I pulled the battery and same thing, everything was wiped.

I don't think this Android experiment will last.

[jeffvb]

Hi Rav1ksingh and welcome to the AC forums.

If you go into your Contacts app, press menu, and Display Options, is everything turned on in that list?

Thank You extorian! You fixed it for me. The same thing happened to my Galaxy 5 and everything was turned off in that list.

Jeff

[extorian]

Good to hear. Thanks for letting us know.

[jeffvb]

For others searching on this problem, I've been trying voip phone apps and I suspect one of them changed the contacts display options.

[elraybone]

I just got the phone & had all my contacts transferred at the sprint store... it all looked great & then today I noticed that there were suddenly only 8 contacts.

I was in the process of adding contacts from my gmail account. First sign of trouble was when those new gmail contacts were not saved anywhere.

So I turned the phone off & on, then the last remaining 8 contacts were gone too. Texts I sent last night to contacts in my phone were still there, but no named contact associated with them... only phone numbers.

I notice on my emails a button in the upper left, beside the sender's name... those I had added as contacts changed to include an "X" inside. Emails from those I made into contacts on my phone still have the "X"... but are not saved to my contacts.

I tried the Display Options, but all looks fine there.

any more ideas? is this just a bug? maybe I just go back to the sprint store & have them re-load my contacts from the old phone.

[dsunku]

I have a galaxy s ..last night after smessaging sm1 ..i slept for thr night.and in the morning i wake u p to see i lost all my phone contacts,..i saw the display options and all options are turned on..only 4 contacts..from my sim remain..all others have just disappeared!!
this is so disgusting...i cannot imagine samsung can do like this!!

Plz help..!!!