Re: AT&T Moto X Lollipop update today and now my contacts are gone, please help
Good tip from Javier P. My question had to do with how you entered the contact in the first place. When you enter a contact into the phone, near the top of the screen it should give you the option of which account to enter the account into. The default is often your Google account (which means it automatically syncs to your Google Contacts in the cloud, and is therefore immediately protected from any local loss on your phone), but for some devices, the default is the "Phone Account" or "Device Account." The problem with the latter is that it doesn't sync automatically anywhere, and is only stored locally (unless you manually sync it using a 3rd party app, usually provided by the manufacturer--like HTC Sync or Samsung Kies).
It's pretty easy to figure out if the contacts were associated with your Google Contacts--just go to Google Contacts on your computer browser. If they're there, then at least they're not lost. On the phone go to Settings>Accounts-Google>[your Google account] and make sure Contacts is checked on. And, as Javier P suggested, make sure the Contacts app is set to Display All Contacts.