How to restore contacts on iPhone from iCloud backup

I lost some of my important contacts and not anything else overnight. I didn't remember doing anything that might lead to this. I have rebooted my iPhone, but it didn't work. I am sure I make an iCloud backup before the contacts disappeared. How can I restore this contact list? Any info would be greatly appreciated guys!

It is very common for us to include contact numbers on our iPhone's address book to keep in touch with our family and friends. However, those contacts are not always secured in the iPhone and they will get lost sometimes. iOS upgrade makes it possible to lose all contacts. A failed sync can also result in some data loss, including contacts, notes, messages and so on. Once your contacts are lost, it is not awful as long as you do a complete backup of iPhone over to iCloud server.

There is no doubt that you can restore iPhone contacts from iCloud, walking through with Apple's way — if you do determine the backup archived within iCloud has included the contacts you accidentally deleted or lost on the iPhone. However, after the restoration process, all contacts that you've added to device after the date of that backup might be naturally wiped out. This is an all-or-nothing batch operation, so you cannot recover just a few contacts you want.

Thanks to iOS Data Recovery, recovering lost contacts on iPhone from iCloud backup has become easier than ever before. It's a cross-platform data recovery tool specifically designed for finding the lost contacts as well as other data files on the iCloud backup files and then restoring the items safely, whether it be personal information such as contacts, messages, call logs, notes, reminders, or media files like app videos, audios, voice memos, or even attachments.

A feature unique to other utilities is its built-in scanning engine, which is both fast and effective, making the entire recovery process quickly and efficiently.

Restoring Deleted Contacts on iPhone from iCloud Backup

Note: This software offers three most common ways to get iPhone contacts files back: from iCloud backup, from device storage and from iTunes backup. The guide demonstrated below applies only to situation when you have already backed up your iPhone with iCloud. If you have contacts that are only saved on the iPhone before disappearing, you should resort to the tutorial on recovering contacts on iPhone without backup with this utility.

Step 1: Sign up to iCloud

When this app opens, you'll get a plain interface which should get you started without any trouble.

From the left side of the window, click on "Recover from iCloud Backup" mode, you will then be prompted to sign in with Apple ID and password associated with your iCloud account. Simply enter in login credentials.

Step 2: Download contacts from an iCloud backup

After logged in, all iCloud backup archives will be automatically loaded and displayed on the right pane of the program's window.

Tip: As you can see in the screenshot below, we have two backup files available in the list, meaning we can choose either of both to get our contacts back.

Select the archive containing the contacts you want to restore, followed by Download button.

At this moment, you will see a dialog box indicating to choose what kind of data files you want to download and recover from.

To get iPhone contacts restored from iCloud, simply tick "Contacts" option and click the Next button, which downloads the contacts information and then presents on the window.

Step 3: Select iCloud contacts to be restored

You should see the categorization of scanned results on the left pane of the interface, like the screenshot below.

Here, click on "Contacts" from the left list, then select all contacts or only the ones you specify by checking the box next to the each contact you need recovered on the middle pane.

[Further Reading: How to Transfer Contacts from Android to iPhone]

Step 4: Initialize the contacts restoration process

Once you've selected the contacts, click the Recover button at the bottom-right corner, then pick a location you use the most on your computer as the destination for storing the retrieved iPhone contacts when the dialog window appears.

Finally, hit the Recover button again to begin recovering contacts from an iPhone backup in iCloud export as a CSV file, HTML file or VCF file.

Tip: There are occasions that you want to transfer files to and from iPhone. A fairly painless way to do it is through the use of a third-party application - iTransfer, which is a comprehensive data management and transfer tool that keeps the data migration a simple task. songs, playlists, videos, TV shows, photos are all supported.

As described earlier in this article, you will hopefully be able to restore contacts on iPhone from iCloud backup using the Apple methods — provided that you have iCloud backup as well as contacts syncing enabled on iPhone, the contacts may have been automatically archived before gone for good. Here're three ways you could achieve this.

Apple Way (Overwrite Current Data)

Way 1: Resync iCloud Contacts back onto iPhone

The first bit of advice you'll hear to recover disappeared iPhone contacts is by turning iCloud syncing off and on again on iPhone's Settings.

• In iPhone, open Settings, and select [Your Name] > iCloud.
• Within iCloud settings screen, turn off Contacts if it's on, then select Keep on My iPhone.
• Turn Contacts back to On condition. You then get a message and tap Merge to resync all contacts to iPhone.

With this done, all contacts details are returned to address book on the iPhone where you could look up the phone numbers, email addresses or other information.

Way 2: Restore Contacts from icloud.com

As an Internet-hosted backup system, iCloud also regularly and fully archives more than one previous versions of contacts or even the latest contact archive in its server. You can go to iCloud website and use the most relevant archive for restoring lost contacts on iPhone at any time.

• First sign up for iCloud account on icloud.com site on the computer.
• On the opening menu, click Settings icon and you'll be taken to the next window, from which click on Restore Contacts under Advanced section all the way on the lower left.
• Among the archives of iPhone contacts, identify the one that may includes the lost contacts, and then click Restore to retrieve the contacts archive on iPhone from iCloud.

Way 3: Retrieving Contacts with iCloud Backup by Restoring iPhone

This method is specifically a way of restoring the iPhone with an iCloud backup, so you can get the deleted contacts. It begins by wiping the iPhone to put it back to its most original state when it was first got out of the box. This is helpful especially when you tend to switch to a new iPhone and prefer to get the same files on the previous model without setting anything up.

• Pick up your iPhone and open Settings. Then scroll down to tap General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings to automatically clean up anything on the device.
• Your iPhone will restart and you'll reach a screen entitled App & Data.
• Tap Restore from iCloud Backup and log into with your Apple ID to view a list of complete iCloud backups.
• Choose the most recent or relevant one to retrieve lost contacts from and the iPhone will perform a immediate restoration.
• When it's done, navigate to contacts list and check how many contacts are recovered on iPhone.