Never Lose Your Contacts Again: 4 Simple Ways to Backup Your Contacts
It has happened to everyone you know at least once.
Somehow, you or someone you know has lost all their contacts in their phone.
Perhaps you have seen the dreaded message somewhere on social media stating that they lost all their contacts.
I’ve seen it countless times, whether it’s a post on Facebook asking for their friend’s phone numbers, or a response to a text sent out asking, “Who is this?”.
We live in a world where the majority of the population no longer memorizes phone numbers because all of our contacts are safely stored in our phones.
But what happens if our phone is stolen or lost?
Sometimes our smartphones have glitches or even need to be reset, which can erase all the information on your phone.
Maybe it is your first time using a smartphone and you aren’t sure how to transfer your numbers from your old phone to your new one.
My boss once told me how amazed he was when Verizon was able to transfer his contacts from his old iPhone to his new iPhone with a device that every major phone carrier has in their store, which is something that phone companies have been able to do for over a decade.
These simple precautions will help anyone, no matter what brand of phone you own. You will never again have to deal with the hassle of reprogramming your contacts into your new phone.
#1 Use an Old Fashion Online Address Book
Many smartphone owners are unaware of their cell phone carrier’s personal online address book.
Think of it as an address book for those important contacts you never want to lose. Depending on your carrier, some may limit the amount of contacts you can save, while others may provide you unlimited contact storage, but only for compatible devices.
AT&T, for example, only has a limited number of phones that are compatible with their online address book, 170 different phones to be exact. Sadly, iPhones are not compatible with this option.
However, there is no need to fret for iPhone users out there! You’ll just have to scroll down the list to see what works for your phone.
AT&T provides you with a service called AT&T Address Book, which allows you to save and sync your contacts to their server.
Verizon, on the other hand, allows iPhone, Android, and Window users to back up contacts on their Backup Assistant using their cloud service for a fee.
Sprint has also followed suit over the years and created a Mobile Sync personal address book, which you can manage through your ‘My Sprint’ Account.
Although now that Sprint has been bought out by T-Mobile, it may no longer provide this service.
Unfortunately, on July 30th, 2014, T-Mobile discontinued this option from their carrier service, as there had been a significant decrease in usage due to other ways to sync and save contacts.
This is very disappointing as T-Mobile allowed you to save up to 5,000 contacts on their secure T-Mobile server. If you would like to see more, please check out T-Mobile Contacts for more information on this.
Canada also has similar options to save or sync your contacts through their various wireless service carriers.
Rogers One Number is a way to link all your devices to your phone. It’s a service that gives you a variety of services such as the ability to reroute a call to another phone or device if your phone dies, or syncing contacts to multiple devices so you won’t lose them, even when your phone is lost or stolen!
No matter what Cellular Service Provider you have, that particular company probably has its own unique way of saving or backing up your contacts online.
#2 Connecting to Your Email
Maybe you’re switching over from one OS (Operating System) to another simply because you found it easier for you to use.
Switching phones is hard enough, but learning to use new operating systems can be even more difficult.
For example, maybe you’re switching over from a Windows Phone to an iPhone, or maybe you didn’t really like the feel of the iPhone and wanted to express yourself through your phone by switching over to the Android platform.
If you’ve done this, you’ll notice that each Android phone has a unique layout to it.
For example, the Samsung Galaxy flagship series is quite different from your HTC One phone when it comes to pre-installed applications, or even the way the home screen may look.
No matter what type of phone you have, saving your contacts and syncing them directly to your email address will be the best way to never lose your contacts.
It is probably the easiest way to edit and add contacts, just by logging into your email from your tablet or laptop through an application or a web browser.
Google is often the most favored Search Engine that provides email services. Any email provider has a section where you can add, edit, or delete any of your contacts. Gmail is no different.
Let’s start with the Android platform. Because Android phones are Google-based, all of your Contacts will always be synced to your Gmail account.
You’ll notice that when you first set up your Android device, you will be prompted to either create a Gmail account or sign in to an existing Gmail account. For those that have an existing Gmail account, your contacts will instantly be synced to your phone and show up in your Contacts application.
You don’t have to do anything but leave the sync button on for your device. Check out syncing your contacts for Android if you need more information. Gmail also offers a tool to import contacts from other email providers and address books.
If you prefer using another email domain such as Yahoo Mail, or Outlook, you can do the exact same thing you would do with your Gmail account.
Simply add an account under the phone settings, or download the Outlook App or Yahoo Mail App under the Google Play Store. This will automatically sync these contacts into your phone Contacts list.
The only downside to any email provider other than Gmail is that there usually isn’t an option to sync new contacts when adding them into your phone. In other words, your contacts aren’t automatically backed up to that particular email service.
Instead, you will have to manually add or edit contacts by logging into your email service.
Sadly, Yahoo isn’t on this list as it cannot sync newly added contacts from your phone. The good news is the updated Outlook App for Android can!
Once you download it, you will notice an icon that says “People” on the top far right in the menu bar. That’s all your contacts from your phone being synced to your Outlook! Just check out this information for more guidance.
The Windows Phone has a very similar set up method using Outlook. This can be an email account set up through Hotmail or MSN.
Apple has their own unique way of setting up their iPhones. Syncing your Gmail account contacts to your new iPhone is just as easy. Simply go to Settings and select Mail, Contacts, and Calendars.
From there, all you need to do is select “Add Account”, and select Google. Go through the sign-in procedure, and be sure that your “Contacts” Option is turned on.
Syncing will automatically begin, and your Google Contacts will be loaded to your new iPhone!
Make sure you set Google Contacts as your default account on your iOS device and it will automatically add any new Contact you put in your iPhone to your Gmail! It doesn’t really matter if you use Gmail, Yahoo, or any other email provider.
Follow the same steps to save the Contacts you add on your iPhone directly to your email provider. You can also use your computer to plug in your iOS device and sync Contacts from your email provider using iTunes. An example of how this can be done with Outlook can be seen here
#3 Leave it in the Cloud
With Android, under your Contacts application, you can choose whether you save your Contacts directly to your device, on a SIM card (if applicable), on your Google account which is the same as your Gmail, or an account related to that particular brand of phone (i.e., Samsung Account or HTC Account).
Depending on your brand of phone, you can set up an account which syncs all your phone’s info, individual calendar events, and contacts.
When setting up your phone for the first time, there is a prompt to set up an account. Simply follow the instructions on your phone and sign in. From there, this account will sync and save your contacts directly onto their personal server (i.e., the cloud).
Apple has their own account which you need to create to use your iPhone. Your Apple ID account also backs up your contacts through the iCloud services.
For a Windows Phone, you would need to set up a Microsoft Account. You can check out the Windows Setup information here if you like.
No matter what brand of phone you have, Windows will almost always have you create a unique account to work with that phone. This syncs your contacts to that specific account so you will never lose them, even when transferring information to another similar phone brand.
Each phone brand has their own unique cloud base system to backup your information for you.
#4 Plugging Your Phone into the Computer
Every phone has some form of application you can download to your computer and link to your phone to manage and backup information from your phones.
Samsung has a program called Kies, HTC has HTC Sync Manager, Blackberry has Blackberry Desktop Software, and Apple has iTunes.
These programs make it easier for you to backup your information directly onto your computer, in case you ever need to reload it on your phone.
You can also save your contact list directly on your computer as a file, the same way you do a photo. This step is slightly more complicated. You can create a master list of all your contacts in a single file.
There are two common file types you can save your contacts as a .VCF (Value Card File) or a .CSV (Comma Separated Values) file. These will allow you to export your contacts from a variety of websites as one giant list.
All you need is to import this file onto your device. Depending on which device you have, there are several ways to do this. For Android devices, go into your Contacts and click on more in the upper right corner for your settings, then click on the “Import/Export Contacts” section.
From there, just click on Export and choose where you want to save the file to. I suggest saving it onto a Micro SD card if your phone has one, or on your phone itself until you can transfer the file onto your computer or other storage device.
To load the contacts back onto your Android device, simply go back into Contact Settings, and click on import and choose the VCF file you have just created under the “Import/Export Contacts” section. Google explains how this process works.
It’s a little tricky with a Windows phone. If you go under the People section of the phone, then click Manage, there is an option to Export your Contacts, immediately taking you through the steps to create either a CSV or VCF.
Follow the steps, and you’ll have either file directly on your Windows Phone. Loading a CSV or VCF file to your Windows Phone can be difficult because Windows 8 Phones cannot support VCF files through Outlook. However, you can import your Contacts with a VCF file using Windows Live Mail.
If you need help with this, please see the very last answer on this page. Windows explains all these steps for either importing or exporting contacts in this manner fairly simply.
If you want to get your contacts into your Apple computer address book, you need to save the file as a .VCF file instead of a .CSV. In the App Store on your iPhone, install an app that allows you to save your Contacts as an Excel spreadsheet.
Export Address Book is a good app for this. Follow the app’s instructions to save your Contacts, then save it to your computer or email to yourself. On your computer, open the file in Excel and save it as a CSV file.
That’s it! If you want to import this file to a Windows Phone, merely go to your Contacts List on either Outlook or Windows Live Mail, depending on the compatibility of your phone, and choose “Import File”.
You can even save your Contacts on your Social Network Site such as Facebook or LinkedIn as a CSV or VCF.
Here’s a quick way to do it on LinkedIn: once signed in, click the Contacts tab under Network on the main page. Click the Gear icon on the right hand top side of the page and choose Export LinkedIn connections. From there, save your contacts as a .CSV file, then import into Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook or any email provider.
I easily exported my LinkedIn network of about 200 contacts into a .CSV file and transferred them all to Gmail within 60 seconds.
There are also apps that instantly save call logs or texts if you forget to save a contact in your phone!
Overall, you have plenty of ways to always back up your contacts, even if your phone is stolen or lost. So make sure that’s one of the first things you do when you get your new phone!
