Check Your Phone’s Call History
The first thing to try is scrolling through your call history to see if the number still shows up there. Even if you have deleted a contact, your call history may still retain records of that number for a certain period of time. On an iPhone, for example, call history is stored for up to 4 months (source). On Android devices, the call history is usually available for at least a month (source).
To view your call history on an iPhone, open the Phone app and tap Recents. On an Android, open the Phone app and select Call History. Scroll through the list of incoming, outgoing, and missed calls to see if the number you’re looking for is there. Even though the contact may be deleted, the call history may still show the number.
Use Your Phone Carrier
One option for finding a deleted phone number is to contact your phone carrier. Phone carriers often keep records of calls made and texts sent, including the phone numbers, for a certain period of time. According to Quora, carriers generally retain text messages and call records for a few days up to several months.
To recover a deleted number through your carrier, contact their customer support by phone or through your account portal. Ask if they have records of previously dialed phone numbers and incoming/outgoing texts. Specify the date range you need. The carrier may be able to look up the number if it was dialed or texted within the time period they store records.
Keep in mind that carriers have different policies on how long they retain records. Some may only keep them for a short period, while others may hold records for over a year in some cases. The records also may not include actual message content beyond the sender/recipient numbers. But contacting your carrier is worth trying to see if the deleted number can still be recovered from their systems.
Try a Reverse Phone Lookup
One option to try and find a deleted phone number is using a reverse phone lookup service. These services allow you to input a partial phone number and search their databases for possible matches. According to https://backgroundchecks.org/reverse-phone-lookup, reverse phone lookups can successfully identify 60-80% of cell phone numbers.
To use a reverse lookup, go to a site like TruthFinder or Spokeo and enter the phone number digits you remember. Make sure to include the area code if known. The service will search through available databases of public records, phone listings, social profiles, and more to find matches. You can then browse through the results to see if you recognize the name or other details associated with the number.
Reverse phone lookups are best for identifying cell numbers and landlines tied to an individual’s name. Their accuracy is lower for tracing business phone numbers that aren’t tied to a single person. Even with only a partial number, it’s worth trying this method to uncover leads that may help jog your memory or get you closer to the full deleted number.
Check Messaging Apps
One of the easiest places to try finding a deleted contact’s number is in your messaging apps like text messages, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc. Even if you’ve deleted a contact, many messaging apps keep a record of your past conversations and the associated phone numbers.
Open up your text messaging app and see if you still have any old message threads with the missing number. You may be able to recover the phone number from there. The same goes for apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Signal, and others – check your message history for conversations with the deleted contact.
If you routinely delete conversations in messaging apps or have cleared your message history, the number may no longer be available directly within the app. However, some apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger allow you to restore and access deleted messages and conversations for a limited time. Check if your messaging app has this capability. For example, on Facebook Messenger you can tap on your profile picture > Settings & Privacy > Manage Storage to find and restore deleted messages for up to 30 days after deletion (source: https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-recover-deleted-messages-facebook-messenger-4686296).
Check Social Media
One option to try finding a lost phone number is to check your social media contacts and connections. Many people connect their phone numbers to social media profiles on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, and others.
To find a lost number this way, log into each of your social media accounts and browse your contacts list. See if the missing number appears linked to someone’s profile. This can work if you had previously saved them as a contact or they provided the number when signing up for social media.
You can also try searching the social media sites by phone number, if they have that capability. Some sites like Facebook allow searching for users by entering a phone number. This may reveal the profile connected to the lost number.
Additionally, explore any social media syncing apps on your phone that pull in contacts from platforms like Facebook or Twitter. A missing number may show up there if it was synced from a connected social profile.
If you regularly message people on social media, check those message histories as well. The number may be visible in past conversations. Overall, thoroughly scouring social media histories and connections can potentially turn up a lost phone number.
Some tools like Social Catfish also help search for social media profiles using just a phone number.
Check Email
One place you may find the deleted phone number is in your email history. Search your inbox for any emails, contacts, or signatures that contain phone numbers. You can search for keywords like “phone” or “cell” along with the person’s name if you have it. Some email services like Gmail allow you to easily search across all emails. Be sure to check your sent folder too, as you may have emailed the number to yourself or someone else previously. Also look for any contacts or address book exports you may have emailed yourself. With some digging through your email history, you may uncover that accidentally deleted phone number.
As suggested in this article on Android Police, your Gmail account can also help restore recently deleted contacts and numbers if you had been syncing your contacts with your Google account.
Use Contact Backup Services
If you used any backup services like Google Contacts, it may have a record of your deleted contacts that you can restore. Google Contacts automatically backs up your contacts online, so you can restore your contacts list from your Google account. To do this on an Android phone:
- Open your phone’s Settings app.
- Tap Google.
- Tap Set up & restore.
- Tap Restore contacts.
- Select the Google account with the contacts you want to restore.
On an iPhone, you can restore contacts by:
- Going to Settings > [your name] > iCloud.
- Tap Contacts then tap Delete from My [device] to remove the current contacts.
- Tap Delete from My [device] again to confirm.
- Go back and turn Contacts back on to restore your contacts from iCloud.
So if you backed up your contacts online, check your Google, iCloud, or other syncing service account to see if you can restore the missing contacts from there.
Check Your Phone Bill
One way to potentially find deleted phone numbers is by checking your detailed phone bill. Phone carriers keep records of all calls made and received, including the phone numbers, dates, times and duration. Depending on your carrier and bill settings, you may be able to access a detailed call log through your online account or paper bill.
To view your call history on your bill, first log into your account on your carrier’s website. On most carrier sites, you can find your call logs under the billing section. There should be an option to view detailed records for the current billing cycle. Scroll through to see if any of the dialed numbers match the missing contact. You can also change the date range to expand your search.
If you have a paper bill, look for a section listing outgoing and incoming calls. It may be listed by date and time rather than contact name. Compare the numbers to find any matches. Keep in mind that only calls made during the current billing cycle will show up, so the deleted number may not appear if it was dialed outside of those dates.
Checking your phone bill offers the advantage of accessing a record kept by your carrier rather than relying solely on your device. As long as the number was dialed during the covered period, it has a chance of showing up on your bill details. So carefully comb through your call logs from the past billing cycle or two to see if you can spot that missing number.
(Source: AT&T Forums)
Contact Whoever Gave You The Number
One of the easiest ways to try to retrieve a deleted phone number is to contact whoever originally gave you the number. If it was a friend, family member, coworker, or other personal contact, there’s a good chance they still have the number saved in their own phone or written down somewhere.
Simply reach out to anyone you think may have that contact’s number. Explain that you accidentally deleted the number from your phone and ask if they can please send it to you again. Most people will be happy to share it with you a second time.
Just ask them to double check that the number is still the same before passing it along. It’s possible that person may have changed their number since originally giving it to you. As long as your contact still has the current number, this can be one of the quickest and easiest ways to retrieve an accidentally deleted phone number.
According to a Quora post, deleting a number only prevents you from contacting them – it doesn’t impact their ability to contact you. So if all else fails, you can wait and see if they happen to call or text you again.
10. Accept It May Be Lost
Unfortunately, some deleted phone numbers may be lost forever if no record of them exists anywhere. According to research, the chances of recovering a deleted file depend on various factors like the file system, time since deletion, and whether the storage space has been overwritten [1]. If a phone number was not backed up anywhere before being deleted, and enough time has passed for the phone system to overwrite the storage space, then that number is likely unrecoverable.
Before giving up completely, it doesn’t hurt to try every option like advanced data recovery software. But ultimately, if no trace of the number can be found after extensive searching, you may need to accept that it is permanently deleted. Going forward, be sure to regularly back up your contacts and important data to minimize future losses.