Contacts lost after upgrade to FP Open 17.06.4

\data\usr\com.android.providers.contacts\databases\contacts2.db\contacts

there is only one contact in the sheet. the one i added today…

thanks for the lineage hint. i just need a stable pocket computer to make calls, short messages, mails, maps, the browser, the camera and files. and i don’t mind when an app crashes. no need for more.

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Thank you for your suggestions, but like @sj2010 I was not able to retrieve my original file (neither on the phone, nor via my pc).

“Luckily”, I found a contacts-backup from last year, which allowed me to restore about 80% of my contacts. Nevertheless, I had to spend two hours trying to restore the remaining contacts by analyzing my call log and text messages. Guess I will back up more regularly from now on.
Apart from this admittedly frustrating experience, I am quite satisfied with the update and the changes it has entailed.

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For the future I recommend to set up a Raspberry Pi or similar with Nextcloud to have contacts, calendars synced with dav. This is also great for filesync. With this you always have the same data on every device. You will never lose your data again.

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So now i’ve updated to 17.06.4 as mentioned above.
The phone now works!
Plus, all my apps are still installed.
But their settings and my contacts are lost.
Is there any way to get my contacts back?
The setting, i guess, are gone forever?
I did backup some folders via USB. Would replacing the respective folders help getting anything back?

Still thanking you!

C.S.

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I don’t think you can get the settings back from restoring a folder, but sure for the contacts that should work.

Err …
Any idea where to find the contacts inside the backup and where to put it in the system?

C.S

Contacts should be stored on the com.android.providers.contacts app (in some Android-specific format inside a SQLite database). I don’t know if copying the /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/ folder could work, but that’s a bit technical work and can be problematic.

(Edit: Oh, anyway, TWRP backups are dumped partitions in “Android sparse image” format… you will need to convert them with simg2img before mounting them to extract any content.)

If doing that, make sure file permissions and owner are correct on the new OS. Owner, to my knowledge, should be the UNIX user of the com.android.providers.contacts app. It is u0_a5 on my system, but that could differ from one phone to another. Seems to coincide with the com.android.contacts's owner.

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Ok folks, my phone is now in quite good shape again.
Android 6 is running, all my apps are back (not their settings …) and i’ve got my contacts and SMS back.

Here’s how i did it:
First, i followed the instructions in the post i’ve mentioned above.
So, i installed Version 17.04.0 (phone still in a boot-cycle) and immideatly after that Version 17.06.4.
After that, Android was running stable.

Then, i restored my contacts, SMS and call-log from the TWRP-Backup (which was creatad after the failed update, so there’s hope if your in this situation)

There’s an incredibly good post here:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/crossdevice-dev/sony/guide-extract-restore-contacts-sms-call-t3259492

Not everything works as explained though, so maybe i’ll give some hints here:

1) In the .tar.gz-file, the contacts2.db is located here:
\data\com.android.providers.contacts\databases\

while the mmssms.db is located here:

\data\com.android.providers.telephony\databases\

Also, you can use the search within winrar (or whatever you’re using).

2) The Call Log Backup & Restore App is unessescary, SMS Backup & Restore will do the trick (furthermore, the call log app isn’t available in all countrys vie the play store …)

3) There’s no need for extra software to convert the .csv (for the contacts). The mentioned Excel-sheet comes with two macros. One to produce a .csv-file and one to convert said file into a .vcf-file

So i hope, this will help you, if your phone doesn’t work after the update.

@Fairphone: If the problem is, that i’ve not installed the “first” version of Android 6 before the newest update, shouldn’t there be a prompt before the update. I’m not a developer, so maybe that’s not the best idea, but maybe …

Thanks again to everyone who helped me.
Best wishes

C.S.

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Hey there,
I’m in Fairphone 2 Open OS on Android 6

I have a big problem today, i boot my phone this morning like every morning and I lost all my contacts

Please help i store all my contacts on the Phone…

Can someone help me ? in French or English

I, too, keep losing my contacts on a daily basis… today even several times…
I can import them from my Sim - well, at least those I stored there - but I don’t understand why this keeps happening…
(I’m using the latest FP Open.)

Last time I managed to import them and merged all duplicates (of which there were tons…) I saved them all as vcf file to make it easier to retrieve them.
Any ideas how to retrieve them permanently would be highly appreciated!

Hello,

I hope my answer will help ! I don’t have this problem, but it seems that post number 15 contains a solution.

Anyway, I suggest you export your contacts to a VCF file (visit card file), preferably on the SD card if you have one, if not, do it on your computer. To do so, open the “Contacts” application. In the options (the 3 vertical points on the right top corner), select “Import/Export”, then “Export to a VCF file”. Save the file on your SD card or on your computer. If you encounter any contact loss, you can still download them from your VCF file, which won’t be deleted after the download.

But the loss of contacts is very annoying. To avoid this, you can also switch to Lineage OS, which my FP2 runs and I haven’t had any loss of contacts since. There is a full port (but still not official), with updates. You’ll be on Android 7.1.2. If you wish to do so, go there : LineageOS 14.1 with OTA updates for FP2. You can also look here : #dic:flash. But don’t forget to backup your data with TWRP on the SD card :slight_smile:

Thx @anon59030904, exporting to vcf was what I’ve been doing and now I keep importing it again everytime my contacts are gone. Somehow the phone only keeps my contacts from the Telegram app but loses the rest.
I forgot to mention in my previous post that the loss of contacts didn’t occur right after the update… Everything was fine at first, but after a week or so, I forbid WhatsApp to use contacts in the settings and later wiped some duplicate files and temp data off my phone. I think that’s when they got lost for the first time… It’s rather possible that I wiped something crucial by accident along with all the trash - guess that’s what happens if you’re not 100% sure of what you’re doing :roll_eyes:

Similar problem here. Not all contacts lost suddenly, but disappearing one by one over last few days. So far I’ve lost at least 10. And in parallel it messed up my Favorites. new contacts have appeared in the favorites screen, which I have definitely not chosen. And old ones are gone :frowning:

Hi @ThomasAagaard, can you still retrieve all contacts from your SIM card and import them to your contacts app?
This is what worked for me, but then you might find a couple of duplicates which you need to merge… After I was done with that I exported them to the SIM as VCF, so that I can import this file now whenever anything happens… (and unfortunately I still keep losing them at least twice a day, but my VCF backup makes it much easier to retrieve them…)

Hello everyone,

I’m experiencing the same problem here. All my contacts are gone.

-First problem : Lately when i tried to create a new contact, i have been asked if i wanted to sync this new contact with my google or yahoo or another account, no other choices. I didn’t want to sync any contact to any account so i haven’t been able to create new contacts.
-Second and more important : after uprading to Android 6.0.1 or uploading an app from the playstore (i’m not sure exactly when it happened) i lost all my contacts except five recent ones.
I have updated the OS to 17.08.1 but it did nothing for my contacts.
I must say that i always refused to sync my contacts and they are suposedly all on my SIM card (no other backup :frowning:
I have been reading the posts on this thread but i don’t understand most of Catfish and Roboe messages, i am afraid they are too technical for me.
Is there a way i could at least access my contacts on the SIM card ? where should i look ? i haven’t been able to find anything in the settings menus. I keep reading about

how does it work ?

Thanks for your answers

To acces the TWRP-Console, firstly you have to turn off your phone.
Then hold both, the on-Button and the volume-up-button down at once.
The Phone now starts into the TWRP-menu.
It’s quite self-explanatory: Just tap on the “Backup”-Button and safe it to your desired Location.
Then connect your phone to a computer and do what’s mentioned in my posts above.

Hope, that helps.
Best wishes
CS

Edit: changed “volume-down-button” to the correct “volume-up-button”

When I once wasn’t fast enough to disable syncing to Google after a reinstall I noticed that MyPhoneExplorer is able to distinguish between contacts synced with Google and contacts stored locally on the phone.

3 of my contacts didn’t show on the phone anymore, but MyPhoneExplorer listed them separately as Google contacts. With MyPhoneExplorer I could then copy them back to the phone storage from there and could delete them at Google.

Perhaps you could try that.

Here’s an old thread about this, supposedly there are Apps to do it (which the thread doesn’t name) …

https://forum.fairphone.com/t/how-to-access-my-contacts-from-the-sim-card/19039

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Hi Catfish and AnotherElk. Thanks for your answers.

I have tried to do what Catfish told me to access twrp backup but the screen got stuck on the “Fairphone change is in your hands” page and i had to take the battery off to start the phone again.
Then i installed Myphone explorer and was able to create a local account through another app.
Then with Carte sim et le contact copie i was able copy the content of my Sim on my local account. Job done.
Thanks a lot guys

Pour les francophones exclusifs. Mes contacts avaient disparu mais ils étaient sur ma SIM, je ne pouvais y accéder. D’autre part, je ne pouvais créer de nouveaux contacts sans les synchroniser avec mes comptes yahoo ou Google ce que je ne voulais pas faire. J’ai pu créer un compte local grace à MyPhoneExplorer (lien ci-dessus) puis une autre app dont je ne me souviens plus du nom et ensuite transférer de ma SIM vers mon compte local grâce à l’app Carte Sim et le contact copie Le nom est pourri mais ça marche.

My contact data also suddenly disappeared just now (can see it from the empty call log). I had already updated quite a while ago, so I’m surprised to see this happen just out of nowhere :rage:.

I tried to restore the contacts app and contacts storage from TitaniumBackup, but that didn’t bring my contacts or call log back.

I have now imported and oldish .vcf with my contacts, so it’s not a complete loss, but still very annoying, especially since it seems to happen without a specific trigger. Do I now have to make a new backup each time I change something in my contacts!?

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