It is not impossible that one loses contact details on your iPhone; perhaps they were mistakenly deleted. Rest assured, you can get it all back! With how upgraded Apple is, it has put necessary factors in place to keep all your data secure. This way, even your missing contacts of your iPhone are kept safe in a backup in iCloud or your computer. However, retrieving your contacts can only be made possible by following the right steps and methods. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how to retrieve deleted contacts on iPhone.
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Method 1: Retrieve from iCloud Using iPhone
You can restore your contacts from iCloud if your iPhone is set to synchronize contacts with iCloud. iCloud has become very useful to iPhone users as it allows you to save lots of files that you cannot save on your iPhone because of the small space. With iCloud, data synchronization is made very easy between your Apple devices. For instance, accessing your contacts between your Macbook and your iPhone. This also implies that you can log into iCloud and get all your iPhone contacts back peradventure if you’ve lost them. Merging your contacts from iCloud with iPhone has to be done through the following steps below.
- Get your iPhone and open the Settings app.
- If it is the case that you are running iOS 10.3 or something higher, click on your name then iCloud. But if you are running iOS 10.2 or earlier, you are to click on iCloud.
- The next step is to search ‘Contacts’ in the list and toggle it OFF.
- Click ‘Keep on My iPhone.’
- Next, toggle Contacts ON again.
- The last step is to tap ‘Merge.’
Method 2: retrieve Contacts from iTunes Backup
One method that guarantees your contacts are stored in the backup is backed up your iPhone to iTunes. iTunes helps to create a backup of your iPhone anytime you synchronize with iTunes. iTunes also enables you to restore a backup of your device, and this means your iPhone eventually reverts to the time when the backup was made. This further implies that one would lose any data that have been added, removed, or edited after the backup was created. To use the method, follow the steps below.
- Open iTunes on your PC and connect your iPhone.
- Tap your device icon
- Tap the ‘Restore backup’ in the ‘Summary’ section
- Select the backup you wish to restore from
Photo by Ben Kolde on Unsplash
Before you restore the device with iTunes, you might need to disable ‘Find My Phone’ on your iPhone, and to do this, go to your iCloud settings and click ‘Find My Phone’ and toggle it off.
Method 3: Extract Contacts from iTunes Backup
This restoring files method is perfect for those who are not sure about restoring backups because of a potential overwrite of some files. You can choose to extract the particular data you need from a backup of your iPhone and save them to your laptop instead of restoring the entire backup. The process is simple and straightforward, and here’s how to.
- Download and install iBackup Extractor on your Mac or PC
- Select an iPhone backup from the list to view its contents
- Tap the ‘Contacts’ tab check if the contacts have been saved in the backup
- Choose the contacts that are needed and click ‘copy to outlook/contacts/address book.
- Open iTunes and then connect your iPhone.
- Tap the device icon- Info- Tick – ‘Sync Contacts with.’
- Choose Outlook or Windows Contacts or Address Book
- Tap ‘Apply’ to transfer
Method 4: Transfer From an Old iPhone or Android With Contact Transfer
To transfer contacts from iPhone to iPhone you have to understand some basics which are as simple as backing up your current iPhone and turning the new one on. The simple know-how is as follows.
- Open the Settings app.
- Pick your Apple ID name banner at the top of the screen.
- Select ‘iCloud.’
- Select ‘iCloud Backup.’
- Select ‘Backup Now’
After the backup is done, give it a minute or two to synchronize completely to iCloud. Then turn the new iPhone on and place it next to the old one so Apple’s Quick Start protocol can begin synchronizing.
Method 5: Seek Help From Others
This is the easiest method as all that you have to do is talk to friends if you are missing any information. You can share contact via mail, message, Whatsapp, and so much more. This method might take a while to send everything, so you advise that you use one of the methods above.