Upgrade from Windows 8.1 to 10: all contacts are gone.

[Yitzhak Khabinsky]

I upgraded my Lumia 640 (AT&T) phone from version 8.1 to 10.
As a reference, the phone also has a microSD card.

The upgrade went smoothly in 2 steps:
1. 10.0.10586.107
2. 10.0.10586.420

To my dismay, after the upgrade I discovered that all contacts are gone. All what I have are just AT&T phone numbers in the People hub. And I had literally hundreds of contacts on the phone when it had Windows 8.1.

By the way, it was one of the bugs mentioned here:
Here is what's fixed in Windows 10 build 10586.338 for Release Preview ring members | Windows Central

??Fixed an issue on Mobile that affected some users to lose their contacts, messages, and appointments after upgrading from Windows Phone 8.1??

I checked my contacts on the outlook.com. I have AT&T few phone numbers there and few more contacts. Those not AT&T contacts are not synchronized back to my phone.

I also have 12 contacts on the yahoo.com. None of them are synchronized back to the phone with the Windows 10 mobile OS.

Obviously, the phone has both outlook.com and yahoo.com accounts added to the Settings - > Your email and accounts under Email, calendar, and contacts section.

So it seems like I bumped into 2 very serious bugs with the Windows 10 Mobile upgrade from the 8.1 version:
1. Windows 10 upgrade from 8.1 wipes out contacts
2. After the upgrade Windows 10 is not synchronizing back contacts from outlook.com, yahoo.com, and who knows what else.

Before the upgrade I made a backup while the phone still had windows 8.1. All 3 options were turned on:
- Apps+settings
- Text messages
- Photos+videos
The backup file was successfully created on the onedrive.com

My questions are:
1. Does that backup contain my contacts?
2. If yes, how to restore contacts from the backup without running a hard reset?
3. If no, what else could be done to restore the contacts?

 

[Yitzhak Khabinsky]

In the meantime, I recovered some 218 contacts from the old phone via Transfer My Data app.

But there is a new problem now.
People hub search is not working anymore.
Any suggestions how to revive search in the People Hub?

 

[Ariel Takom]

I upgraded my Lumia 640 (AT&T) phone from version 8.1 to 10.
As a reference, the phone also has a microSD card.

The upgrade went smoothly in 2 steps:
1. 10.0.10586.107
2. 10.0.10586.420

To my dismay, after the upgrade I discovered that all contacts are gone. All what I have are just AT&T phone numbers in the People hub. And I had literally hundreds of contacts on the phone when it had Windows 8.1.

By the way, it was one of the bugs mentioned here:
Here is what's fixed in Windows 10 build 10586.338 for Release Preview ring members | Windows Central

??Fixed an issue on Mobile that affected some users to lose their contacts, messages, and appointments after upgrading from Windows Phone 8.1??

I checked my contacts on the outlook.com. I have AT&T few phone numbers there and few more contacts. Those not AT&T contacts are not synchronized back to my phone.

I also have 12 contacts on the yahoo.com. None of them are synchronized back to the phone with the Windows 10 mobile OS.

Obviously, the phone has both outlook.com and yahoo.com accounts added to the Settings - > Your email and accounts under Email, calendar, and contacts section.

So it seems like I bumped into 2 very serious bugs with the Windows 10 Mobile upgrade from the 8.1 version:
1. Windows 10 upgrade from 8.1 wipes out contacts
2. After the upgrade Windows 10 is not synchronizing back contacts from outlook.com, yahoo.com, and who knows what else.

Before the upgrade I made a backup while the phone still had windows 8.1. All 3 options were turned on:
- Apps+settings
- Text messages
- Photos+videos
The backup file was successfully created on the onedrive.com

My questions are:
1. Does that backup contain my contacts?
2. If yes, how to restore contacts from the backup without running a hard reset?
3. If no, what else could be done to restore the contacts?

I'm not sure if this would be helpful, but I did face this problem after doing a hard reset without restoring from backup a few weeks ago, but then again this is hard resetting from W10M to W10M, not upgrading from WP8.1 to W10M.

The problem is regarding the outlook account. Something about the account just doesn't work. I've removed and readded my Outlook/Msft account, but no luck. So I did another hard reset again, set up my account, and voila! My contacts are there!

So, yeah. Try hard resetting. Maybe some problem with the install or something.

 

[realwarder]

Are you sure you didn't have another email account on your phone where the contacts were being stored?

I thought contacts were always stored in the cloud against an account. I guess if you turn of Contact sync then perhaps it wouldn't, but that is the norm?

Without trying a restore I'm not sure if you'd know if they were in the backup file - there is no way to open it without restoring.

 

[PGrey]

Make SURE to move all of your contacts into one of those Cloud contexts mentioned, such as "Outlook.com". Once you do this, they'll persist from device-to-device, despite being Windows, Android, or whatever.
It's also much easier, IMO, to edit/manage them here, either with an email app, like Outlook desktop, or a web app, it's far handier than on a phone.
Once you set this up, and modify a contact in either context (mobile, PC, tablet, etc), the changes will reflect when they all sync, it's VERY handy.

 

[Yitzhak Khabinsky]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Again, my immediate problem is that the People hub search is not working anymore.
Any suggestions how to revive search in the People Hub?

 

[PGrey]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Again, my immediate problem is that the People hub search is not working anymore.
Any suggestions how to revive search in the People Hub?

Yeah, move them into your Outlook space (really this is Live.com, but same difference), and they'll all be searchable under the normal contacts app on the phone.
I should add, this is HIGHLY portable to most apps on the phone, so having them here is far more valuable, long-term, vs a one-off deal.
Edited: I just realized, I guess the official name for "People" on Win Phone is the "People Hub".
So, if you do the above, they'll just show up there.

 

[PGrey]

If you have the contacts on something on your phone, connect it to your PC, and suck them onto it.
Then, import them into Outlook, Outlook.com, whatever.
After this, do a sync on the phone, in email (make sure you don't have it set to "push", or it'll nuke your battery), and all your contacts will appear in the "people hub".

 

[Yitzhak Khabinsky]

"...move them into your Outlook space..."
The question is how to do it for the entire list of 218 contacts in one shot?

 

[PGrey]

Are they on the phone now, or ?
Either way, if you've got Outlook (desktop Office app), it has an import function that works great for this, it'll suck on 218, or 218,000 contacts, all at once, NP.
I think the web app also has an import function, but I've never used it.
There are probably dozens of free email apps that are outlook/hotmail friendly too, for your PC, that support import. If I were going that route, I'd just read a few reviews. I'd bet there's even an "import app" that's designed solely for that on a PC.
I've just had/used Outlook (desktop) so long, I've gotten a bit spoiled, it tends to "just work" for stuff like this ;-]

 

[PGrey]

Yep, the web version also has an import, from various sources, including a CSV (you can get that from your phone, if you connect it to the PC):
https://people.live.com/import

Here's a handy step-by-step: https://support.office.com/en-us/ar...-account-285a3b55-8d93-4ac8-93df-43fffd13b2f1

 

[JW James]

Hi,
I just upgraded my Lumia 640 from Windows 8.1 to 10 today (June 20, 2016).

I too had the problem of all of my phone contacts disappearing except for some from my e-mail account.

I did a search for the problem using variations in the wording and came across your post on this site.

Because Microsoft thinks everything MUST be connected I found that all of my contacts had been saved to the contacts in my Hotmail account. So, you may want to search thr contacts in whatever Microsoft mail account you have connected to your phone.

What bugs me about this is that I had set my phone to NOT sync with my mail account after all of my mail contacts were added to the phone after I accessed my e-mail one time.

I use a pay as you go phone and do not have a data plan (I have no need for one). I only access the web in places with wi-fi.

I did the upgrade today while on a visit to the emergency room. Free wi-fi at the hospital with several hours of waiting seemed like an ideal time to do the upgrade.

I have to say I have done the upgrade on my desktop and laptop computers with no problem. However, one thing I HATE that the default is to connect all accounts and devices. I can understand that some folks would like having their Facebook calendar automatically synced to their phone or having their mail contacts auto saved to their phone but, I find it more than annoying.

 

[Maurizio Troso]

Hi,
I just upgraded my Lumia 640 from Windows 8.1 to 10 today (June 20, 2016).

I too had the problem of all of my phone contacts disappearing except for some from my e-mail account.

I did a search for the problem using variations in the wording and came across your post on this site.

Because Microsoft thinks everything MUST be connected I found that all of my contacts had been saved to the contacts in my Hotmail account. So, you may want to search thr contacts in whatever Microsoft mail account you have connected to your phone.

What bugs me about this is that I had set my phone to NOT sync with my mail account after all of my mail contacts were added to the phone after I accessed my e-mail one time.

I use a pay as you go phone and do not have a data plan (I have no need for one). I only access the web in places with wi-fi.

I did the upgrade today while on a visit to the emergency room. Free wi-fi at the hospital with several hours of waiting seemed like an ideal time to do the upgrade.

I have to say I have done the upgrade on my desktop and laptop computers with no problem. However, one thing I HATE that the default is to connect all accounts and devices. I can understand that some folks would like having their Facebook calendar automatically synced to their phone or having their mail contacts auto saved to their phone but, I find it more than annoying.

I cannot understand.... If you don't like a connected phone, you don't need a smartphone. Use a simply feature phone with all contacts in your sim card.
All modern phones, droids, istuffs, BBerry, Nexus, need connection to work sometime during a day, it's crucial for good services. And cloud backups help you migrating between phones or in case of crash or damages