How to Recover Contacts from a SIM Card: Top Methods for 2024

Quite often, among the questions about recovering contacts on Android, I receive emails asking how to recover contacts from a SIM card, how to get an old phone number back, and similar inquiries. Some questions include what to do if the SIM card is lost, blocked, or damaged.

I’d like to pose this question: Can we restore the content on a SIM card at all? I am not going to share all those pseudo-guides advertising useless contact recovery software (there are a few exceptions, though). Instead, I will share some practical tips that should help you retrieve contacts from a SIM card.

Will a New SIM Card Have Your Old Contacts on It?

Getting a new SIM card if you've lost your old one is not a problem. Replacing your SIM card should be a free service provided at your mobile operator's office; you may be asked to file a report using their template for the lost SIM card. Since your old phone number is assigned to your contract, you might need to visit their office anyway.

However, you won’t find your lost contacts on the new SIM card because a SIM card is a physical device, and if it’s lost, all the data on it is lost, just like with an SD card, for example.

Advice: Do Not Be Swayed by Unreliable Offers

On the Internet, you can find “specialists” in SIM card recovery who claim to recover any data on your SIM card or who are willing to share how to retrieve contacts from a SIM card for a fee. Be wary; it’s a scam!

Old Phone Number Recovery via Google Contacts

Contacts from the Address Book are stored only on the SIM card. However, data from the Address Book can be transferred to a VCF file, so try looking for it either on your SD card or in your phone's memory.

If your phone was synchronized with your Google Account, this service should have your contacts. To check for them, go to Contacts in your Google Account.

Even if you accidentally deleted the information from Google Contacts, there is still a chance to find your old phone numbers, as long as it hasn’t been over a month since you deleted them.

Here’s the revised text with grammar and clarity improvements:

Request Call Log from Your Mobile Operator

If you need a particular contact number that isn’t in your Address Book or Call Log, don’t waste your time on SIM contacts recovery. Instead, request your itemized outgoing and incoming call details for a specific time period.

Call log details are usually available from the last billing cycle up to the date of your request to the mobile operator. In addition to the dates and other information about your calls, you’ll be able to retrieve your call log, including the numbers you called.

However, this method has its inconveniences: you won’t receive the names of the owners of those numbers and will need to call them to find out who they are. If you remember part of their names or numbers and are good at memorizing figures, this shouldn’t be too much of a problem for you.

Lost Your SIM Card? Find It!

The most optimistic solution for recovering deleted contacts from a SIM card is to find the lost card! Try to recall where you might have placed or dropped it, such as when you removed your phone's rear case.

Consider what is easier and quicker: recovering lost contacts by contacting your mobile operator or searching for a needle in a haystack.