Contacts are usually stored in your account, not only on the phone, so they can often be brought back. The sooner you act, the better.

On Android with Google Contacts

1. Open the Contacts app (the Google one) and look for Fix & manage or the menu with Bin (or Trash).
2. Open the Bin, select the contact and choose Restore. Deleted contacts are kept there for a limited time.
3. If the contact is not in the bin, look for Undo changes. It rolls your contacts back to an earlier time, such as ten minutes or a day ago. Pick a time before the mistake.

You can do the same on a computer: sign in to your Google account on the Contacts website and open the Bin or Undo changes from the menu.

On a Samsung phone

Samsung’s Contacts app may keep its own recycle bin. Open Contacts, look for Recycle bin or Trash in the menu and restore from there. If your contacts are synced with a Google or Samsung account, the account’s online copy can also help.

On an iPhone

1. If you use iCloud for contacts, sign in on the iCloud website with your Apple account.
2. Open Account Settings and look for Data Recovery, then Restore Contacts.
3. Choose a version from before the deletion. Your current contacts are archived first, so you can go back.

If you do not use iCloud, you can restore the whole phone from a backup, but that replaces recent data. Only do this if you know what the backup holds.

If the contact was on the SIM or on the phone only

Contacts saved only on the SIM or phone storage and not synced cannot be recovered from an account. Check any older backup you have made, and see below.

Prevent it next time

1. Turn on contact sync for your Google or Apple account.
2. Back up regularly: see how to back up an Android phone.
3. Export a copy from the Contacts app menu (look for Export or Back up) and keep the file safe.
4. Moving to a new phone? Read how to switch phones without losing anything and how to transfer data between Android phones.

Lost photos too?

See how to recover deleted photos on Android.