Recover Permanently Deleted Photos from iPhone
Missing or accidentally deleting iPhone contact is a scary experience. This article is here to tell how to retrieve contacts from iPhone using iCloud and possible ways.
Your phone numbers and other important information stay quietly within Contacts app which you take for granted until when entire contact list get lost from iPhone someday.
It's not a good feeling when you realize your iPhone contacts missing or deleted, especially you're not able to retrieve the contacts from somewhere like Recently Deleted folder. Fortunately, there are a couple of ways you can try to recover deleted contacts on iPhone.
The recovery solutions could be something as simple as needing to restore contacts to an iPhone from iCloud, iTunes/ Finder backup, or Gmail account you synced your contacts with, or could be something needing a 3rd-party tool like iPhone Data Recovery that promises to recover old deleted contacts from iPhone memory without backup.
Let's dive in each way of how to recover deleted iPhone contacts effectively.
As "iPhone contacts disappeared or deleted" is frequently the case, Apple has introduced a pretty simple route of using iCloud to restore the contacts. This works for when you've set up iCloud Contacts on iPhone, which is most enabled by default in Settings > [your name] > iCloud.
iCloud makes automatic backups for iPhone and enforces contacts to archive in iCloud backup. So there's a good chance that your iCloud contains the deleted contacts you need to recover. Here's how to retrieve deleted contacts from icloud.com to the iPhone.
Wait until iCloud finishes restoring contacts, and your accidentally deleted contacts should get back to iPhone's Contacts app. You will receive an email from iCloud notifying the successful contact recovery.
Note:
iCloud, in addition, offers another feasible method to recover iPhone contacts when accidentally deleted or gone. By turning off Contacts in iCloud and back on for syncing should you restore contact information to iPhone without much effort.
Likewise, for this method to work, contacts should be synced with iCloud prior to deletion. Use these steps to retrieve lost contacts from iCloud, even without a computer.
Step 1. In iPhone's Settings app, tap [your name] > iCloud.
Step 2. Tap Show All in the section of APPS USING ICLOUD.
Step 3. Locate Contacts, and move the slider to OFF.
Step 4. Select Keep on My iPhone when prompted.
Step 5. Turn Contacts back on again.
Step 6. Choose Merge to add the missing contacts to your address book.
Wait for a while to let iCloud sync disappeared contacts to iPhone. After that, you should see the restored contacts display in the normal contact list. The process will not replace contacts currently on your device, so you don't need to worry about losing your new contacts.
Can't restore contacts from iCloud either through icloud.com or on your iPhone? Your iPhone is not syncing to iCloud? Or you don't want your most recent contacts lost while restoring your iPhone from iCloud, right? Try the next solution to retrieve contacts without any backup.
Take it easy, iPhone Data Recovery eliminates your trouble. Even you don't use iCloud to sync and archive your contacts, or don't use your computer to back up your iPhone, you stand a great chance of recovering deleted contacts from iPhone.
The dedicated software helps you find deleted contacts that were still available in the internal storage, and recover them to your iPhone quickly - making them visible in Contacts app. You can recover contacts you need, individually or in batch. Best of all, the process just retrieves the missing contact information you specify, not touching any iPhone data.
Plus, iPhone Data Recovery is comprehensive that you're able to recover photos, messages, notes, call logs, calendar, reminder, bookmarks WhatsApp, documents and more.
Alternatively, you can also hit the Recover button to recover contacts on your computer. The program will start retrieving deleted iPhone contacts from the device memory and save them in a HTML, CSV, or VCF file. When you need to transfer the contacts to your iPhone's address book, you could use Import vCard function in icloud.com., or use Sync Contacts via iTunes.
A video tutorial for recovering deleted contacts on iPhone without a backup:
Bonus- What if your iPhone is locked and how do you get your contacts back?
Chances are the contacts you deleted were saved in Gmail or other account like Yahoo, Exchange or Outlook. For purpose of getting back contacts, all you need is to sync your contacts in Settings app.
Here's how you can retrieve the deleted contacts from Gmail Contacts. This also works if you lost your contacts after deleting email account.
1. On iPhone, tap Settings > Mail > Accounts.
2. Tap on Gmail (or other mail account) you used to sync your contacts with.
3. Switch on the slider next to Contacts to begin syncing Gmail contacts with your iPhone.
Tip- If it's Contacts is already enabled, turn it off and on.
When done, go back to Contacts app and you should see the lost contacts are restored.
If you're used to employ iTunes & Finder to backup iPhone data whenever it's connected to your PC or Mac computer, this method to restore lost iPhone contacts from backup should take no time at all - though you will lose all of data that is recently added to iPhone but is not backed up.
If you're sure to restore iPhone from an iTunes backup or Mac backup to retrieve deleted contacts, and replace all current content with that in the backup, do the following.
1. Open Finder in Mac with macOS Catalina 10.15 or above.
2. Plug your iPhone to the machine with a USB cable.
3. Click [your iPhone] under Locations on the left side bar.
4. Under General tab, choose Restore Backup.
5. Select a backup and click Restore.
Your iPhone will be reverted to the stage when the backup was created, and all backup data including the contacts should be back.
1. Connect the iPhone to your computer and launch iTunes.
2. Click the device icon when it appears at the top left corner.
3. Click Summary.
3. Click Restore Backup.
4. Select the latest backup containing the deleted contacts.
5. Hit Restore to restore the backup to recover contacts to your iPhone.
Related article: Get iPhone Unavailable? Here's how to unlock iPhone
Tip: In case you don't want to restore the whole iTunes backup and lose all data files on iPhone, try using AppGeeker iPhone Data Recovery program. It grants you to access your iTunes backup and view your deleted contacts, and then recover the contact you wish.
The Bottom Line
So hopefully now you have a clue about the issue and finally get your iPhone contacts recovered. The article outlines how to recover deleted iPhone contacts with or without backup. The simplest method is to restore contacts from iCloud to iPhone, so long as you have your iPhone data synced to iCloud server.
For future reference of avoiding losing or permanently deleting contacts on iPhone, I really would suggest syncing your device to iCloud, backing up your important files to a computer for a local copy, or use an email account such as Gmail to sync contacts. You'll be thankful you have it if anything goes wrong.
You can easily find your recently deleted contacts using iCloud on the iPhone, as long as you've set iCloud to sync your contacts.
iCloud should restore your deleted contacts to your iPhone, staying peacefully with the existing contacts in the Contacts app.
You could restore missing contacts from an earlier version using icloud.com. A word of warning: This will replace the new contacts on your iPhone, but you're allowed to undo the recovery at any time if this cannot restore your contact information. To get back contacts from iCloud:
If you do not own iTunes backup or iCloud backup of contacts before deletion, consider trying AppGeeker iPhone Data Recovery software. It finds and recovers the deleted contacts from iPhone's database without using backup. Any iPhone data won't be affected during recovery.
Here's how to get back Contacts when missing from iPhone: