How did my phone reset and lose all the data?

[Makeelee]

Galaxy note 4. Took the dogs for a walk. Listened to spotify on the way to the park. Everything normal. Phone was in my pocket. When I took it out to make a call it was step 2 of 4 in "Setup" with no way to back up or get to the home screen. It asked me to set up a Google account, etc., which was NOT what I wanted to do, so I tried restarting it. Well, it's no longer in setup, but there is no data whatsoever. Contacts, pictures, apps, etc., all gone.

I am pretty pissed off to be honest. I've only had the phone for a couple months and its not like any of the data was irreplaceable, but WTF! How is this even remotely possible?

The only thing this piece of crap phone remembers is my phone number. I used Verizon Wireless Software upgrade and repair assistant which managed to restore my contacts but nothing else

Looking at the data on windows every single folder is empty, i.e. DCIM, Photos, etc.

I've pretty much written off data recovery but wanted to vent.

If there is any ideas for how to get my apps back, e-mail settings back, messages back, etc., I would love to hear.

 

[DLK1]

You need to do backup every once in awhile just for cases like this, I know hind site it 20/20. However at the point where it asked you to create the Google account after doing so it would have asked you it you wanted to restore your apps and data. This is of course if you had sync set up with Google. Try setting up your Google account and see if it does not reload your apps.