Contacts Crisis

If they were Account contacts (not Phone contacts), they're still at Google Contacts (on the web).

Otherwise, they're probably gone for good. In the future, enter all contacts as Account contacts and make sure the account sync is set sync contacts.

 

The contacts app is a stock system app that cannot be removed unless you're rooted. It you're using the stock launcher and aren't rooted, it was appear that the contacts app has been disabled. How it would have gotten this way on its own, I have no idea. To see if this is the case, go to Settings > Apps, swipe over to the Disabled tab and see if the Contacts app appears there. If it does, select it and tap Enable.

 

The Android default contacts app is called "People", not Contacts. Is that in your App drawer?

 

If you're looking to backup, something like Helium or MyBackUp Pro should do the job no problem.

 

Hey Nate, glad I found this thread.

The Nexus 7 is a tablet, so by default any contacts you inserted into the tablet should be synchronized to the Google account that you registered the device to UNLESS you downloaded and used a secondary contact app.

Your Google account is simply your Gmail account.

When you first turned on your N7 it should have asked you to sign into an existing Google account (Gmail) or create a new one.

As you cannot access the Google Play Store without being logged into a Google account to install another contact management app then your contacts may be saved to your Google account.

Google Contacts...

Try going there, log in with the same google account your tablet used, and hopefully your contacts are there.

If not... well it gets complicated.

 

There's an app you install on your tablet and some small software for your PC too. It's pretty easy and the instructions are pretty clear.

Not sure it is malware tbh. You can restore apps one at a time so if there is a rogue app causing problems, it should be relatively easy to track.