Losing your phone or having it stolen can be a frustrating experience, especially when you've accumulated several years' worth of contacts.

However, you don't need to post a message to all of your Facebook friends, as there are many ways to get your contacts back again.

iOS

Apple's iCloud storage solution lets you back up your emails, calendar, music, photos and of course, your contacts, making for a great all-in-one solution.

Another first-party solution is to just back your device up using iTunes instead, a boon for those without fast internet connections or uncapped internet.

Then there's iDrive Lite, a free cross-platform contact backup application for iOS, Android and BlackBerry handsets. All you'll need to do is download the app, register for the service and back up your contacts.

Android

On Google's smartphones, backing up your contacts is pretty seamless, being saved to your Google Account. However, if you want to save your data elsewhere, choose contacts, hit the "more" button and select "back up contacts" to proceed.

Once you've done that, you can choose to back up your contacts to the SIM or memory card. It works on many Android devices, but not all of them feature this.

But that might not be enough insurance in the case of a stolen phone, where both the memory card and SIM are included.

One other solution is to use BackUp Contacts, a free contact backup utility we found on the Google Play store. This app lets you upload a CSV file, containing your contacts, to your Dropbox folder, giving you extra peace of mind.

Windows Phone 7

Much like Android, Microsoft also makes use of a Windows Live ID to save your contacts, so you can move from one Windows Phone to the next.

However, if you'd like to move to another platform, you can visit windowsphone.com to access your contacts. From there, click "manage" and "export" to save your contacts as a CSV file.

The phone also gives you the option of storing your contacts on your Google Account, if a Windows Live ID isn't enough.

BlackBerry

Research In Motion's BlackBerry Desktop Software does a great job of backing up your phone, contacts included.

To back up your device, download and install the software first, then connect your phone to the computer. You can then simply hit "Back Up and Restore" and then "Options" to choose what gets backed up.