12/08/2016

WTF!?: Facebook Deletes Personal Contact Entries!

Category Facebook Contacts Address Book WTF

So the other day I decided to uninstall the Facebook App from my iPhone 6. I needed to clear up some space, and I was shocked (SHOCKED! I tell you!) to discover how much space the Facebook App was using. No big deal, I uninstalled the App and everything was fine, or so I thought...

Today I tried to call my Mom, but couldn't find her entry in my Contacts. "How odd", I thought. As I was looking through my contacts I noticed that not only was her entry missing, a LOT of entries were missing. Family, friends, business associates, etc. Lots of entries were gone. There were still many other entries, but most of the ones I really cared about were gone. My wife, son, daughter, etc, all gone.

It took a bit of sleuthing to figure out what had happened, but I finally realized the thing the missing (or more importantly, the remaining) entries had in common. All of my remaining entries were for people / businesses that I did not have as a "Friend" in Facebook. Every contact that I have as a "Friend" in Facebook is gone. I can only assume that when I removed the Facebook App, it tried to "clean up" after itself and removed all of my Facebook contacts. Granted, my evidence is entirely anecdotal, but the outcome is nevertheless true. If you are a Facebook friend of mine, you can assume that I no longer have any of your contact information. No phone, no email, no pic, no home or business address. Nothing.

Does this happen to everybody when you remove the Facebook App? Is it limited only to iPhone users, or does it happen to Android and Windows Mobile Devices? Will similar things happen if I uninstall other "Social" Apps (LinkedIn, Twitter, etc)? Frankly, I don't care, and I'm not willing to invest the time to investigate it. I am frustrated that this happened, but the truth is I should have backed everything up BEFORE removing the Facebook App.

That being said, here is the really important bit: If YOU are (or have ever been) a friend of mine on Facebook, you can assume that I NO LONGER have your contact information. It doesn't matter how close we are, your contact information is GONE (Remember, I lost the information for my MOM, my WIFE, and ,my CHILDREN.) If you want me to have your contact information, PLEASE email it to me. If you don't have my email address, you can easily get it by clicking on the about & contact info link over on the right. Send me whatever contact info you want me to have (email, address, phone, NAME, etc.) I won't share it, I'm not using it for marketing purposes, this is just so I can get in touch with you, call you, send you stuff in the mail, etc.

Thanks,
-Devin

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