Lost SIM Contacts - HTC X8 Windows Phone

[lglawson]

Have software issues with HTC X8 windows phone and can't get into the phone at all.  Keeps rebooting.  I've moved my sim card into an old Nokia windows phone, but when I try to import sim contacts, it says that there are none there.  Help !!!  I have lost almost all of my contacts.  I have just upgraded, but won't have the new phone for 1-2 weeks.  Any suggestions.   

I have tried the factory reset on my HTC and it won't work

[BandOfBrothers]

Hi

Are you sure that some of the contacts are on the sim and are not all in the HTC phone ?

You could try a SIM card reader to check. 

Regarding the HTC phone the manufacturer does apply a 24 Months. 

[63johnw]

Hi, hopefully you will have backed up your contacts to your google account for use in your HTC.

If you log into your google/gmail account on a computer you should be able to see if the contacts are there.

Have you tried adding your google/gmail account onto your windows phone and then sync your contacts? That always works for me when switching from android to windows.

[hrym · Accepted solution]

@lglawson At the risk of asking an almost insultingly obvious question, did you get a new SIM with your new phone?  If so, the contacts should still be on the old SIM and should be readable.  If you can't get access in a phone, a Vodafone shop should be able to rescue them via their Red Box service.  Even if you don't have a new SIM, give that a try anyway as it's pretty good.

And, yes, you should always back your contacts up.  SIMs can and do fail and you're up the proverbial gum tree if that happens.  A lot of devices have an Export option which will create a vcard file you can copy somewhere else - cloud storage, an external sd or a pc (I use all three!)

@63johnw Do you use custom fields in Google contacts?   When I tried a Windows device, I found that it ignored all mine, which meant a lot of my contacts were incomplete.   It might be something they've fixed, or there might have been something I wasn't doing.

[63johnw]

@hrym to be honest I have not really looked at it that closely and as long as the name and number were there I was happy ! Just had a look though and everything seems to be there !

[lglawson]

Thank you for all your comments. Its the same sim I had in the old phone. I thought that the contacts were on the sim. I set up OneDrive a while ago and thought that everything was backing up to that, but obviously not. I even set up a Microsoft account on the phone, but can't remember my details as its on the phone I cant get into !!! Goes from bad to worse eh? Might pop into the Vodafone shop tomorrow

[hrym]

Ah, tricky.  Any attempt to recover the information will require account access.  If you know the email address, you should be able to request a password reminder.  Some services will restore access if you can convince them you're the genuine account owner - there may be security questions you can answer.  If the account is online, you can access it from any computer, not just the original phone, of course.   However, there's no substitute for a backup and a note of all your logins.   I have a simple A-Z notebook which I keep at home.  It gets regular use.  There's a security risk if you're burgled, of course but only that, it being offline.

When you say you can't get into the old phone, is this because you don't know the password or because it wants a SIM?   I assume you've thought of that latter and (if appropriate) tried putting yours in temporarily?

Modern smartphones pretty much all default to storing contacts internally (the options on a SIM are very limited) and syncing them online.  Unless you changed that, that's where they'd be.  In the past, I've advocated putting important contacts on the SIM as well, just so that you can get quick access to them if all else fails.  Might do it myself some day. :smileyembarrassed: