How can i restore contacts on my iphone

If you accidentally delete contacts on your iPhone or suffer a loss of data, you may be able to restore your contacts from iCloud.
You need to have a current or recent iCloud backup to restore your lost contacts.
To start the restore process, open the iCloud website and restore your contacts from a recent backup on the Account Settings page.

If your iPhone is your central communication hub, responsible for voice calls, text messages, email, as well as all sorts of other messaging apps as well, then your contacts are no doubt critical. Whether you accidentally delete some contacts or lose your entire address book through a catastrophic mishap, all is not lost. You can easily tap into iCloud and restore your contacts from a recent iPhone backup.

Table of Contents Show

How to restore lost iPhone contacts from iCloud
Method 1: Recover deleted Contacts from iCloud backup
Method 2: Recover deleted Contacts from iCloud.com
Method 3: Recover Contacts from iCloud without losing existing iPhone data
Method 4: Turn Off and On iCloud Contacts on iPhone
Method 5: Use Merge iCloud Contacts option
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How do I get my iPhone contacts back?
How do I restore my contacts?
How do I restore contacts on my iPhone without backup?
How do I restore my contacts from iCloud?

How to restore lost iPhone contacts from iCloud

1. Open iCloud.com in a web browser and sign into your account.

2. Click Account Settings.

Click Account Settings on the iCloud website. Dave Johnson

3. At the bottom of the page in the Advanced section, click Restore Contacts.

Scroll to the bottom and click Restore Contacts. Dave Johnson

4. In the pop-up window, find a recent backup that you want to restore. Click Restore.

If there's more than one backup, choose the one you want to restore. Dave Johnson

Your selected backup will replace all the contacts on your iPhone — it's not possible to selectively restore just a selection of contacts from iCloud to your device. Any existing contacts on your iPhone will be backed up in a new backup archive to iCloud, though, making it possible to restore them again if you need to.

You should also wait for the restore to complete on your iPhone before you make any additional changes to your contacts. If you add, remove, or edit any contacts while the restore is taking place, those changes could be overwritten or replaced by the restore process.

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Dave Johnson is a technology journalist who writes about consumer tech and how the industry is transforming the speculative world of science fiction into modern-day real life. Dave grew up in New Jersey before entering the Air Force to operate satellites, teach space operations, and do space launch planning. He then spent eight years as a content lead on the Windows team at Microsoft. As a photographer, Dave has photographed wolves in their natural environment; he's also a scuba instructor and co-host of several podcasts. Dave is the author of more than two dozen books and has contributed to many sites and publications including CNET, Forbes, PC World, How To Geek, and Insider.

Method 1: Recover deleted Contacts from iCloud backup

You can recover your iPhone contacts using the backup file saved in iCloud. This method will get back your lost contacts, but all the current data is deleted and replaced with new the backup file.

Hence, it’s important first to take backup in iCloud or iTunes and then perform contacts recovery from iCloud.

Steps to recover Contacts from iCloud backup:

Open Settings on your iPhone
Navigate to follow General > Reset > Erase all Contents and Settings

Figure: Reset options on iPhone

Select Erase Now in the confirmation box and follow the prompts until you reach the Apps & Data screen.
On Apps & Data screen, tap Restore from iCloud Backup.

Figure: Apps & Data screen on iPhone

Sign in to your iCloud account.
Select the backup file from the list and wait to finish.

Figure: Steps to choose backup file in iCloud

Method 2: Recover deleted Contacts from iCloud.com

In case the iPhone is inaccessible, lost or stolen, iCloud.com allows you to restore Contacts using the automatically archived backup versions. It is also helpful, when you want to retrieve accidentally deleted contacts.

Note: iCloud archives the current version of Contacts, whenever you restore a previous version.

Figure: iCloud.com window

Steps to recover Contacts from icloud.com:

Open icloud.com in your web browser on computer.
Sign in to iCloud account.
Click on Settings.
Under Advanced, click Contacts.

Figure: Restore Contacts in icloud.com

You will see the list of available archived versions with date and time. Click Restore against the Contacts version you want to recover and wait until iCloud finishes the restore process.

The restored contacts would now appear on all your synced iOS devices.

Method 3: Recover Contacts from iCloud without losing existing iPhone data

Recover deleted contacts using Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone. The utmost benefit of using the software to retrieve contacts from the iCloud backup file is that it doesn’t delete or replace your existing data on iPhone or iPad.

Further the software lets you select and restore only the required contact names and numbers.

You can use this iCloud contacts recovery software in situations of accidental deletion, iOS crash, locked iPhone, inaccessible, broken, stolen iPhone, etc.

Steps to restore contacts from iCloud backup to iPhone without losing existing data:

Download Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone on PC or Mac.
On the software main screen, select Recover from iCloud Backup.

Figure: Select Recover from iCloud backup

Select Contacts & Call Logs and click Next.
Enter the Apple ID and password.
From iCloud backup files, select the relevant backup of your iPhone and click Scan.

Figure: Select iCloud backup file and scan

Once the scanning finishes, preview the found contacts before recovery. If you don’t see the desired contacts in the list, click Deep Scan at the bottom.
Select the contacts that you want to restore and click Save. You can save the recovered contacts on your iPhone or computer.

Method 4: Turn Off and On iCloud Contacts on iPhone

If your contacts have disappeared from iCloud or iPhone, try to toggle off and then toggle on the iCloud sync of your contacts. This method works if you have enabled iCloud sync on your iPhone or iPad.

Steps to fix missing contacts from iPhone:

Go to Settings > iCloud > Contacts.

Figure: iCloud option on iPhone

Toggle Contacts option off and then on.

Figure: Turn off/on Contacts

When iCloud asks to replace your iPhone contacts with iCloud contents, select Delete from My iPhone. Your contacts would appear on iPhone and iCloud.

Method 5: Use Merge iCloud Contacts option

If you have synced iCloud contacts with your iOS devices, once try the merge option to restore missing contacts on iPhone.

Merging contacts in the iCloud backup with those in your device often gets back all the contacts on iPhone.

Steps to merge contacts from iCloud:

Go to Settings > iCloud > Contacts. Turn off the Contacts option.
Select Keep on My iPhone in the message box.
Turn on Contacts again.
Select Merge. Contacts from iCloud will now be visible on your iPhone.

Conclusion

Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone is the best way to restore iPhone Contacts from iCloud. It is not only quick to recover the deleted or lost contacts on iPhone and iPad but it also ensures that your existing data on the device is protected. Without deleting the current photos, videos, messages, call logs, and other iPhone data, the software restores contacts from iCloud.

About The Author

Nishat

Nishat Paiker is an expert technical writer and editor with over 8 years of experience. She has deep knowledge about data recovery and loves to explore new technology and DIY tools. Nishat has keen interest in photography. You will often find her giving photography tips and hacks.

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How do I get my iPhone contacts back?

Restore your contacts or bookmarks from an earlier version Click your name at the top of the iCloud.com window, then click Account Settings. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Under Advanced, click Restore Contacts or Restore Bookmarks. Click Restore next to the date before you deleted the content.

How do I restore my contacts?

Restore contacts from backups.

Open your phone's Settings app..

Tap Google..

Tap Set up & restore..

Tap Restore contacts..

If you have multiple Google Accounts, to choose which account's contacts to restore, tap From account..

Tap the phone with the contacts to copy..

How do I restore contacts on my iPhone without backup?

Recovering Deleted Contacts on iPhone Without iCloud or iTunes Backup.

Step 1: Choose "Recover from iOS Device" mode. ... .

Step 2: Scan iPhone to search for deleted contacts. ... .

Step 3: Preview and select deleted iPhone contacts. ... .

Step 4: Begin restoring iPhone contacts without backup..

How do I restore my contacts from iCloud?

To Restore Contacts from iCloud: Step 1: Sign in to iCloud.com. Step 2: Go to your Account Settings. Step 3: Scroll down to “Advanced” and click “Restore Contacts.” Step 4: Find the date of the backup you want and click “Restore” next to it.