Where are contacts stored on Galaxy S5 phone?

[threadx2003]

Where are my contacts stored on a Galaxy S5 phone that has no memory card?

 

[banjomike]

Two places your sim and also you can save to your Google account hope I helped

 

[AZgl1500]

and usually on your carrier's server.

especially if you are on the Verizon network.

Been with VZW 20+ years, and never, ever, lost the contact list.

Dropped phones in a water puddle 10 years ago, instant death to the phone.

eBay sent me a hand full for the storage shelf a few months back,
so, just grabbed up another phone identical to the one I was using.

Jumped on the webpage and entered the new MEID and wallah!
I was back in business complete with the contact list in the phone again.

 

[threadx2003]

Where at in "device storage" or what file within my S5 are they stored? In case i wanted to manually back them up myself. And, thank you for your replies.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[AZgl1500]

Where at in "device storage" or what file within my S5 are they stored? In case i wanted to manually back them up myself. And, thank you for your replies.

Posted via the Android Central App

Install Super Backup => * Super Backup : SMS & Contacts - Android Apps on Google Play


now you can make backups and store them any place you like.
extSD card, to your email, on Drive, etc...

 

[lbandrew]

This app has gotten a lot of negative reviews.

The question, though, remains unanswered: where are contacts actually stored on the Android? I too would like to know and to back them up manually without another app. (Can't install anyway as it appears my contacts are taking up most of my memory!!!!)

 

[ironass]

This app has gotten a lot of negative reviews.

The question, though, remains unanswered: where are contacts actually stored on the Android? I too would like to know and to back them up manually without another app. (Can't install anyway as it appears my contacts are taking up most of my memory!!!!)

Go to...

Contacts > Menu (3 dots) > Settings > Contacts > Import/export contacts > Export to SD card

This will then send a copy of all your contacts in .vcf file format, to your external storage. The file can then be uploaded to the cloud or copied to your PC for safe keeping.

 

[Crystal Barrick]

My screen is totally smashed and black so I was hoping to be able to move my contacts to my pc and save them that way. Is there a way to do that? THe phone still powers on but I can't save them to my SIM card because I can't see anything its all black.

 

[ironass]

My screen is totally smashed and black so I was hoping to be able to move my contacts to my pc and save them that way. Is there a way to do that? THe phone still powers on but I can't save them to my SIM card because I can't see anything its all black.

Hello and welcome to Android Central Crystal Barrick!

If you have your contacts sync'd automatically with your Google account, they will appear there. You can check on your PC by going to...

https://contacts.google.com/u/0/preview/all

 

[c epee]

it was not a complicated question (was it?)..... simply put, when you plug the samsung galaxy into a pc (because most likely the screen is trashed but it still powers up) where does one go in the phone to locate and retrieve the contacts that WERE in the phone prior to it's demise. so telling them to use this app or that one is not really a decent answer. telling them to open the home screen and tap here and there isn't going to work so well either. basic question : once in the phone...... which folder does the samsung galaxy hold/store the contacts? (please don't say "sim card" or "your google account has them", please..... that wasn't the bloody question so don't be a dolt). if you do not know, please, ...please, refrain from responding.

if you're of actual help, thank you very much on behalf of so many folks.

if you're not of any assistance what so ever,..... ask a friend to explain it to you then.

 

[the tall guy]

Generally speaking, contacts are saved on the SIM card or backed up to Google. Thus it is pretty common not to have the facility to directly transfer contacts from an Android phone to a computer via a USB cable.

 

[ironass]

it was not a complicated question (was it?)..... simply put, when you plug the samsung galaxy into a pc (because most likely the screen is trashed but it still powers up) where does one go in the phone to locate and retrieve the contacts that WERE in the phone prior to it's demise. so telling them to use this app or that one is not really a decent answer. telling them to open the home screen and tap here and there isn't going to work so well either. basic question : once in the phone...... which folder does the samsung galaxy hold/store the contacts? (please don't say "sim card" or "your google account has them", please..... that wasn't the bloody question so don't be a dolt). if you do not know, please, ...please, refrain from responding.

if you're of actual help, thank you very much on behalf of so many folks.

if you're not of any assistance what so ever,..... ask a friend to explain it to you then.

Simply put. Contacts are stored in the following location on the phone's memory in...

/data/data/com.android.providers.contacts

 

[earnest37]

Tried that but no such file exists on my Samsung S5 using Android 5.0.

 

[ironass]

Tried that but no such file exists on my Samsung S5 using Android 5.0.

Hello and welcome to Android Central earnest37!

It is a system file and you need to be rooted to access it.

 

[Feldon]

Short of a rooted phone, the best way to export all contacts is as a VCF file which can then be imported into any Android phone.

 

[KeepItReal]

Here's my doltish response to your rude chastising of people trying to help you.

When you enter a contact into your phone, when it prompted you to save them, so you remember saving them to the Phone, or to your Gmail account?

So, What carrier are you on? That would be helpful to know, as someone on the same carrier may be more specific. A nice person responding to you above tried to give a example: I am on Verizon. If my contacts were saved to the Phone, then Verizon's Cloud backs these up. Verizon Cloud can be accessed from a computer after logging into your account, view the Cloud contact data, export this file to be saved elsewhere. Other carriers may have a similar setup.

If your contacts have been entered into your Gmail account, you simply have to log into Gmail from your computer and look at your contacts. Google 'how to export Gmail contacts' to a file (for safe keeping), as I don't have this process memorized.

Contacts on the phone are not stored in a normal file structure like vCard, VCF ( common file format for contacts that are exported). They are instead in a file format akin to an SQL database, not readable just by connecting your phone to the PC. And by the way, there are system settings you must have already enabled on the phone in order for your phone and files to be seen from your phone connected to your computer, such as USB debugging on, and USB mode already set to File Transfer. If not set already, with your dead screen, it could not be done easily. There are some work arounds you can Google, but they are tedious; if you are desparate.

 

[jjmc 40]

it was not a complicated question (was it?)..... simply put, when you plug the samsung galaxy into a pc (because most likely the screen is trashed but it still powers up) where does one go in the phone to locate and retrieve the contacts that WERE in the phone prior to it's demise. so telling them to use this app or that one is not really a decent answer. telling them to open the home screen and tap here and there isn't going to work so well either. basic question : once in the phone...... which folder does the samsung galaxy hold/store the contacts? (please don't say "sim card" or "your google account has them", please..... that wasn't the bloody question so don't be a dolt). if you do not know, please, ...please, refrain from responding.

if you're of actual help, thank you very much on behalf of so many folks.

if you're not of any assistance what so ever,..... ask a friend to explain it to you then.

THANK-YOU! I loved your comment so much that I decided to not be a leech and actually signup to respond with a thank-you! I'm looking at the moment, let you know if I find it! My screen is busted:/ So far can shell my unrooted phone via adb! Let me know if you figure it out!

 

[Rukbat]

This is why all contacts should be saved to your Google account. Lost, stolen, destroyed, water-damaged phones - numbers stored on them can't be retrieved. Numbers that are entered as Google numbers are synced (if you don't turn off Contacts syncing) on Goggle's servers, so putting any Android phone on your Google account (for which you need your password, of course) will sync those numbers - no work needed.

(And if you're worried about a Google employee "getting your data", don't be. That's the fastest way to be working for another company. (Certain people do have access to everything, but by the time they've done what they need to do that allows them to see a phone number you have stored, it's forgotten - when you're repairing thousands of database entries, you don't have the time to pay attention to the data.)

 

[daleamon]

I've been following the threads and I think the answer most of us really want is almost there. We have to 1) Root the phone and 2) copy the mysql database to the storage that shows when the phone is mounted and finally 3) copy it to our linux file systems. Getting the mysql files is actually rather good as we can drop those into our Linux laptop mysql tables and have everything we'd ever wish for. So... where do we get instructions to do those first two things? Those are the real answer the original questioner (and others) and myself really want. GUI's? Google Acnts? We don need no stinkin' GUI's. That's why the Unix Gods gave us the command line!