If you have come across this article, we can guess that you are especially careful with your phone. You keep it by your side and make sure it does not get lost. You also take the necessary precautions so it does not fall into the hands of thieves!

But as we know, things happen, and it is absolutely possible that you may lose or misplace your phone.

This is a great inconvenience and you will have to replace your lost phone. But there is an even greater issue: you want to know how to recover contacts from a lost phone.

This may seem stressful, but don’t worry, we have got you covered. This detailed guide will show you how to recover your contacts from your lost phone.

Android Phones

As Android is a phone operated by Google’s ecosystem, you can use Google’s services to backup your contacts.

All you have to do is to save your contacts to your Google account. Once that’s done, you can always sync them to your new Android phone. It’s also possible to turn off auto-sync, but we recommend that you keep this setting on.

iPhone – Using iCloud

With your iPhone, make sure you backup all your contacts to your iCloud account. This is a very simple process.

Simply access your iPhone’s settings. At the top of the screen, you will see Your Name.

Tap on your name and then select the iCloud icon. You will see a list of your phone’s features, with contacts being among them. All you have to do is switch the slider to ‘ON’ and you are all set!

When you purchase a new iPhone, it will automatically sync with your iCloud and your contacts will already be there waiting for you.

iPhone – Using iTunes

Many iPhone users may not be regular users of the iCloud service and may prefer to have contacts (and other data) saved directly to their Mac as opposed to a cloud storage system.

Luckily, there is a method for this.

Firstly, you need to know how to sync contacts from your iPhone to your Mac computer, which you can learn here: https://setapp.com/how-to/sync-contacts-from-iphone-to-mac. This guide also has further details on backing up via iCloud.

Once you have done this, you can now retrieve your contacts if you happen to lose your iPhone in the future.

Whenever you connect your iPhone to your Mac, you are given the choice to sync your iPhone’s data with iTunes. This is one of the best methods to have a backup of your data, including your contacts.

Then, whenever you connect a new iPhone, you can restore a backup and sync it with your new iPhone. The new iPhone will have the contacts (and other data) from the last time you backed up your previous iPhone. So we highly recommend you back up your iPhone just before going on holiday so that your contacts are up to date.

iPhone – Using Google Accounts

Google Accounts is not just for Android phones. If you do not have a backup through iTunes, you can use Google Accounts to sync your accounts.

Here is what you have to do:

On your iPhone, go to your Settings

Go to Account Settings, and select ‘Add Account’

Choose ‘Google Account’

Enter the login credentials of your Google Account

Once you are logged in, make sure ‘Contacts’ is toggled on and then save your settings

Once this is done, you will be able to sync your Google Account with your new iPhone. Your contacts will automatically be added.

Jihosoft

Jihosoft is a third-party tool for recovering your phone data. While there are many similar apps, this is easily one of the best.

If, on your new iPhone, you have added any new data and you want to merge your backup instead of having the backup completely replace the new data, you should use Jihosoft.

Once the software is installed on your computer, all you have to do is connect your iPhone to the computer. Jihosoft will recognize your iPhone and you will be given the option to save your contacts to Jihosoft.

Then, in the future, when connecting a new iPhone to your computer, you can open Jihosoft and recover your contacts and have them sync to your new iPhone without deleting any new data you have created or added.

Protecting Your Phone

There are also precautions to take before your phone is possibly lost or stolen.

First, you should have a way of finding your phone. Being able to recover your phone is the best option than having to purchase a new phone.

Apple has a Find My iPhone option that can track where your phone is located. Google also has a Find My Phone feature that can track your phone’s location.

Other more sophisticated programs such as Prey help you track your phone as well as retrieve and delete any data. This is especially useful if you know your phone has been stolen. It can ensure that you get to retrieve your data and the thief does not get to access your data after you immediately wipe it externally.

Backups

Following on with the previous information, this is why we always recommend backing up your phone’s data. Whether on your computer, Google Account, or iCloud or any combination of the three, having a backup of your data means that you can always retrieve your contacts and other data and then delete them from your lost or stolen phone.

You may even want to save data on additional backup storage such as external hard drives, USB flash drives, or other cloud storage services such as Google Drive or Dropbox.

You’re Now Ready to Recover Contacts From a Lost Phone

Now that you know how to recover contacts from a lost phone, you can now travel with peace of mind. Make sure to always have a backup of your data before traveling so that if you do lose or have your phone stolen, your contacts can always be retrieved.

Be sure to read more content on protecting and retrieving your data.