ChatGPT's New Skills Resident Evil 4 Remake Galaxy A54 5G Hands-On TikTok CEO Testifies Huawei's New Folding Phone How to Use Google's AI Chatbot Airlines and Family Seating Weigh Yourself Accurately
Want CNET to notify you of price drops and the latest stories?
No, thank you
Accept

Restore contacts on Android after the Facebook e-mail sync

The Facebook app may have overwritten the e-mail addresses of your contacts to @facebook.com, but if you sync those same contacts to Gmail, you can get them back!

Still sorting out the Facebook e-mail sync kerfuffle that happened upon your defenseless contacts list? Luckily, Gmail will allow you to restore your contacts within 30 days of changes made to them. Google is known for having handy tools like this, but sometimes they're not in the most obvious place.

Here's how to get your contact e-mail addresses back from the cyber abyss:


Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET

Step 1: Make sure Facebook contact sync is now off!
In the app, it will be under Menu > Settings > Sync Contacts. If you don't see the option, go back to your Home screen and then press Menu > Settings > Accounts and sync and make sure the sync is disabled next to your Facebook account.

Step 2: Log in to your Gmail account on the Web.

Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET

Step 3: Click the small arrow next to Gmail in the top left-hand corner, and then select Contacts.

Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET

Step 4: Click the More button and select Restore contacts.

Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET

Step 5: The sync happened on approximately June 22, 2012, so adjust the days accordingly.

Step 6: Click Restore and contact e-mail addresses will return to their original form (sans the @facebook.com) in Gmail's contact list.

Of course sync was experiencing problems for this screenshot...but it only affected Google+, not Contacts. Screenshot by Nicole Cozma/CNET

Step 7: Open the Accounts and sync area on your phone again (if needed), choose your Google account and force a sync for Contacts.

Hopefully there won't be another bug like this to send your Contact list into chaos. However, it's a good idea to keep contacts synced with Gmail in the case that you need to do another restore -- especially since Facebook isn't the only app capable of causing this kind of issue.

(Via Lifehacker)