# Argh - where'd my cell phone contacts go?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argh-whered-my-cell-phone-contacts-go/337721
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 30, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argh-whered-my-cell-phone-contacts-go/337721 "2005-12-30T14:41:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2005, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argh-whered-my-cell-phone-contacts-go/337721/1 "2005-12-30T14:41:39Z")
Well, my phone finally died.
When it was time to fly to see mom for Christmas I had to turn the thing off - but the on/off button didn’t work. So I went ahead and popped the battery out…
Which meant that I couldn’t turn it on, of course. Doh!
So I buy a new phone and the nice lady moves the SIM card to the new phone. I tell the phone to import the old numbers to the new phone and get…about four of them. “Well, that’s annoying”, I think, “the damned things must still be on the MMC card. It’ll take some doing, but I’m sure I can get them off and work something out eventually. I have to remember not to store numbers on anything other than the SIM in the future.”
I pop the MMC card into my laptop’s reader (I thought I’d never use the thing and I use it a bunch, who would have thought?) and I’ve got some pics from the camera, a video or two, and a couple MP3s that I’d sent over for ring tones. And a hidden .dat file that couldn’t possibly hold all the phone numbers I had stored in the thing.
If they weren’t on the SIM and they weren’t on the MMC…where did they go?
-Joe
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### Author:  [@MannyL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MannyL)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argh-whered-my-cell-phone-contacts-go/337721/2 "2005-12-30T18:25:39Z")
> [@Merijeek](#):
>
> Well, my phone finally died.
>
> When it was time to fly to see mom for Christmas I had to turn the thing off - but the on/off button didn’t work. So I went ahead and popped the battery out…
>
> Which meant that I couldn’t turn it on, of course. Doh!
>
> So I buy a new phone and the nice lady moves the SIM card to the new phone. I tell the phone to import the old numbers to the new phone and get…about four of them. “Well, that’s annoying”, I think, “the damned things must still be on the MMC card. It’ll take some doing, but I’m sure I can get them off and work something out eventually. I have to remember not to store numbers on anything other than the SIM in the future.”
>
> I pop the MMC card into my laptop’s reader (I thought I’d never use the thing and I use it a bunch, who would have thought?) and I’ve got some pics from the camera, a video or two, and a couple MP3s that I’d sent over for ring tones. And a hidden .dat file that couldn’t possibly hold all the phone numbers I had stored in the thing.
>
> If they weren’t on the SIM and they weren’t on the MMC…where did they go?
>
> -Joe
I know with my phone on T-Mobile I can choose between saving the numbers to the SIM or the Phone. I bet yours are on the phone itself
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### Author:  [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)
#### Post date: [December 31, 2005, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/argh-whered-my-cell-phone-contacts-go/337721/3 "2005-12-31T15:00:09Z")
> [@MannyL](#):
>
> I know with my phone on T-Mobile I can choose between saving the numbers to the SIM or the Phone. I bet yours are on the phone itself
I always thought that if you were saving it “to your cell phone” that meant you were saving it to your SIM card.
Damnation.
I wonder what I’m saving them to on my current phone? Grr…
-Joe