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Help Directory Structure

Huw Grossmith

Huw Grossmith

Lurker
Hi, my touch screen is dying. I followed advice and backed-up everything (direct copy via pc) to the SD card and did a hard boot/factory reset after I took the SD Card out. Screen itself is the problem not software. I put the SD card back in and copied the files back to phone memory but my contacts are gone! They must be in the back-up somewhere but how do I tell the phone how to re-import them? Remember a lot of the screen is dead top half can't even activate SIM Manager coz its in that half of the screen and the apps screen won't auto-rotate....... For the time being I have a cheap phablet and put the SD Card in that now but still do not appear to be able to tell the system to import the contacts from it and am not keen to do an overwrite but if anyone can tell me how to import my contacts or where to copy them from to in the directory structure that would be fantastic.
 
Hi

Where were your phone contacts stored before your backup? SIM or phone or Google? If SIM or phone, what method/app did you use to back them up? If they were phone contacts and you did nothing specific, you may have lost them by doing the factory reset. If google, you just need to add the same google account back to your phone after the data reset (or to your new phone). If SIM, they should still be there and you may just need to tell your contacts app, in its settings, to show contacts from the SIM.

Roger
 
Hi

they were all phone memory. The problem is, stupidly, I did not use an app. I connected the phone to my laptop and copied the entire directory structure of the phone memory to the SD card I put in it, which I took out before factory reset. I assume they have to be there somewhere but where and how I get them back I have no idea.

Thank You

Huw
 
Hi again

Unless your phone was rooted, you would not have had access (to see or copy files) from the systems memory/folders. That is where your phone contacts would have been stored (in a sub folder of /data/data). I'm fairly sure they will have been wiped by the factory reset and won't be on your sd card. As an aside, you will also have lost your SMS's and phone logs for the same reason. Sorry not to have better news..

As I guess you realise, in future its best to save contacts to a google account so they are backed up automatically. (Note that this doesn't apply to SMS's or phone logs where you must use an app to back them up.)
 
I'll check google as I am on that too but doubt it auto backs. I'll see if that directory is there but if its system hidden I don't hold much hope of finding it. Yeah messages are gone but slowly wiping most, call history too but again none to worried about those either. Next time, well already has been one replacement phablet has same issue, will use a back-up app instead of pc copy function.

Thank You
 
Hi again

Google does auto back up contacts if they are saved as "google contacts" rather than "phone contacts" when created. They are then available when you log into that google account on any device (phone, any PC, tablet etc). If you wipe a phone/tablet and then log into the original google account, all the apps (those from playstore) and google contacts will be automagically reinstated.

Roger
 
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