Lost all Contacts on Nexus 4

[omarion2322]

I turned on my "Phone" app, and to my dismay, all of my Contacts have disappeared. The weird thing is that most of my contacts are displayed on the "People" app. Now I just see my call history with only numbers and no caller ID.

The even weirder part is when I began to add all of my phone numbers back to my Contacts, through WhatsApp, and everything seemed alright, my contacts were erased a few hours later.

I tried restoring a backup of my contacts and toggled the Show/Hide Contacts feature without any success. Anyone have an answer to my problem?

Thanks for the help

 

[N4Newbie]

In the People app, tap menu -> Contacts to display -> All contacts.

Does that do anything?

 

[omarion2322]

Tried, but they show on the People app, just not on the Phone app, so all I see are numbers on my call history.

 

[tjw1231]

This happened to both my mom and I today... We both have the nexus 4. I got a text from my husband and it was showing his phone number... When I went back and looked, all of my texts were showing phone numbers rather than names and when I went into my phone, my contact list was empty. I went through my texts and started to add them back when I noticed a few reappear... But there are still at least half of my contacts that I lost... If anyone else knows about this, I would be grateful for the help too.

 

[N4Newbie]

Did either of you recently disable any facet of your GMail account? By default, the contacts displayed in the People app are tied to your GMail and I'm not sure what might happen if you disable the account but it seems possible that they would be removed from your phone.

Go to Settings -> Accounts -> Google and tap on your GMail address which should be at the top of the list. Is "Contacts" checked? Is "People details" checked?

 

[malcolmd83]

I am experiencing the same issue this morning. First thing today all looked normal, but mid-morning when I looked at my phone the names were gone (actually disappeared as I was looking at my Messaging app). Now it only shows the phone #s in text messages and recent calls (no names). Under People, I am the only one listed. In my case, I'm syncing my contacts with Outlook.com (using the default system app). My contacts are all still in my account on the web. Have tried the following:
1) Rebooting the phone (completely off/on)
2) Choosing "Accounts to display" -> "All contacts"
3) Unchecking/rechecking "Sync" for my Outlook account
4) Manually syncing the account

None of this has solved the problem. The only thing that has changed, that I can remember, is the following apps performed an automatic update: a) Facebook, b) Chrome. I do not sync contacts with Facebook.

 

[miknxn]

Have you tried clearing the Phones app data and cache?

v?a ACapp njo?!

 

[omarion2322]

Clearing the app data and cache didn't do anything. Although it displays all of my contacts, I only see the skype contacts.

 

[tjw1231]

I've tried it all and nothing has worked... my phone says sync is currently experiencing problems and is unavailable, check back shortly. No idea what the story is... At this point, I'm assuming I'm never getting my contacts back

 

[zkSharks]

First off, I would absolutely recommend that anyone who doesn't have their contacts set to sync to Google Contacts do so. Now, all the advice I can offer right now is to go to the Google Contacts site and see what's listed. If your contacts are there, the first step is to export a backup file to your computer, just so you have it. Now, assuming your contacts were listed there, do this:

1. Put your device(s) in Airplane Mode.
2. Delete all contacts on the device(s).
3. Delete all contacts on the Google Contacts site.
4. Now that there are no contacts anywhere, re-import the file you downloaded previously.
5. On each device, check the Account settings for your Google account. Disable, and then re-enable, contact syncing.
6. Wait a few minutes, then bring your devices out of Airplane Mode with a few minutes' additional delay for each. Prompt a manual sync in Settings > Accounts for your Google account.
7. Assuming the 'cleaning' process happened correctly, you should now see proper syncing behavior from Google Contacts down to each device.

This is more or less just a way of 'resetting' your Google Contacts. It's also a good time to look through the downloaded backup file with Microsoft Excel (or similar spreadsheet management application) and unify formatting, columns, etc. if you so desire. I've done this process once or twice after screwing up my Google Contacts while building Android apps, and it's worked. However I can't guarantee it will solve your issue if the problem stems directly from WhatsApp or another third-party app in some way.

Good luck.

 

[malcolmd83]

Have you tried clearing the Phones app data and cache?

v?a ACapp njo?!

In my case, this resolved the issue! My phone's contacts then immediately started repopulating (syncing) from my Outlook.com contact list. Thank you!

 

[Elma Walnut]

I too lost all my contacts on 5th Sept and have tried all suggestions without getting them back. Was there an update on that date that would have wiped them all? Is it possible to uninstall that update?

 

[tjw1231]

I think it is so strange that it seemed to have happened to so many people within the same day or two... It just doesn't make sense... I've also tried everyone's suggestions and nothing has worked... I've looked all over the internet and there is no explanation...

 

[Kat555]

I am having this same issue. My contacts are populated from my Outlook not gmail. I cleared the cache and data, restarted my phone still nothing. I can get my contacts into my gmail. but won't it just happen again. Has anyone found a solution to this?

 

[bruceleer0y]

Having the same issue, even when I add the contacts back it doesn't work. Got a call from my mother and replied who is this when she said hi honey

Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[fernandezhjr]

Wow. Now the government is stealing contacts info. They are gonna love getting all those fingerprints from iPhone users.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

 

[mr_nobody]

Does everyone in this thread use outlook.com for their contacts? Think the problem might be on their end?

 

[bruceleer0y]

No I don't use Outlook

Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[bruceleer0y]

Actually I do use Outlook for syncing contacts and noticed that sync was turned off for the account, turned it back on and everything is good to go

Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[zuben el genubi]

Never lost mine. I don't sync with Google. I back up the VCF files.