Help Backed up contacts to SD card but the .vcf file isn't there?

[thegreywizard]

I have an Asus Padfone X that just completely died on me, but about a week ago I did a contact file export to SD card and it seemed to have completed successfully.

But now since my phone has died I've removed the SD card, plugged it into a Samsung Blaze and it says the card is completely blank - which I know isn't true as I had other pics & videos loaded onto it.

So I plugged the SD card into my computer via an adapter & it does in fact show my photos & videos that I loaded on to it, as well as the pictures the phone took.

But when checking on the computer using Windows 7, I see no .vcf file of any kind showing up on the SD card!

Is there a special program I need to download for my computer to see/recognize the .vcf file so I can hopefully save all of my contacts that I supposedly backed up on the SD card?

I had ATT, is it normally for them to perhaps back up my contacts on their sim card? Perhaps my contacts are saved that way? I do still have the sim card.

I could try and buy a battery for the Asus Padfone X, but seems like a proprietary battery and if I can get my contacts without having to dump more money into this phone, I will just trash it then hopefully.

 

[mikedt]

By default phones save exported contacts to internal storage, which might be seen as "SD0", unless a particular device has an option otherwise. So unless you copied the .VCF yourself to the removable micro-SD, it won't be there.

This is my Oppo, and "Export to SD card" by default means internal storage, not the removable micro-SD. Export to UNICOM1 means the China Unicom SIM.

 

[thegreywizard]

But I specifically picked the option to "back up to SD card" during export, why would it back it up to the phone & not the SD card?

I guess my only option is to buy a proprietary battery for my Asus Padfone X and hope that it turns back on for me to hopefully save them?

Any chance they backed up to the ATT sim card?

 

[mikedt]

But I specifically picked the option to "back up to SD card" during export, why would it back it up to the phone & not the SD card?

My phones state that as well, but it's definitely internal storage, which does appear as an SD to the contacts app, it's called "Emulated SD".

I guess my only option is to buy a proprietary battery for my Asus Padfone X and hope that it turns back on for me to hopefully save them?

Any chance they backed up to the ATT sim card?

Not saved to the SIM, unless you specifically done that. One thing SIMs don't usually have enough capacity, especially if you have contact photos and multiple database fields. Are your contacts synced to Google by any chance?

 

[thegreywizard]

Well that's kind of stupid the whole SD card/internal storage is the same. Great!

They backed up to google at some point, so I have most of them, but not all and not the most recent ones.

I guess I will just have to buy a replacement battery so I can do a full & most recent export so they are completely saved.

I always thought I did backups right, well now I'll be using the cloud a lot more (which I hated for privacy) but I suppose it's the only/best/safest option these days.

 

[mikedt]

Well that's kind of stupid the whole SD card/internal storage is the same. Great!

They backed up to google at some point, so I have most of them, but not all and not the most recent ones.

I guess I will just have to buy a replacement battery so I can do a full & most recent export so they are completely saved.

I always thought I did backups right, well now I'll be using the cloud a lot more (which I hated for privacy) but I suppose it's the only/best/safest option these days.

Indeed..I think it all depends on how a particular manufacturer has implemented their contacts app and management. Asus Padfone X I don't know, if that's doing it's own thing or follows what Google does.

This is my Oppo, after selecting "Export to SD card", and this does state "Phone storage".

...and if I select that...this appears...phone storage or SD card. And "SD card" here does actually mean the removable SD card. But this is Oppo's own contacts app.

 

[AZgl1500]

Well that's kind of stupid the whole SD card/internal storage is the same. Great!

No, it is NOT the same thing. If you use a File Manager, you can readily see that there is an InternalStorage\Emulated SD card....

and for the other one, the Real SDcard, it says \External Storage\extSDcard

not the same at all, and unless the app specifically allows you to choose the ....\extSDcard\......
then it will always be on the phone's Internal Memory.

This is something you just have to come to grips with, and no amount of name calling on the developers is going to change it.... I make it a point for ALL apps to default to the External\extSDcard for all of my data files... be they pictures, audio, whatever....

a few apps, just simply have Short Sighted Developers and make no effort what-so-ever to allow you to choose. One of those is the native Voice Recorder on Samsung phones.... it saves all recorded files to the Internal\Sounds folder.... utterly stupid, as some of the files can get to be extremely huge.

 

[chanchan05]

a few apps, just simply have Short Sighted Developers and make no effort what-so-ever to allow you to choose. One of those is the native Voice Recorder on Samsung phones.... it saves all recorded files to the Internal\Sounds folder.... utterly stupid, as some of the files can get to be extremely huge.

The one on the Note 2 allows me to choose between memory card and device memory. Just tested now and it saved to memory card.


As for the OP's question, I'd advise next time to just sync the contacts to cloud or PC.