How To Get Deleted Contacts Back Iphone

You may have accidentally deleted one or a few contacts while cleaning up the address book. Before you get tensed, please note that there are ways to get them back. Some are easy, while others involve significant steps. Depending on your situation, here are six methods to recover deleted contacts from iPhone.

Check Your iPad or Mac
How to Restore Deleted Contacts from iCloud.com
How to Restore Deleted Contacts from Settings App using iCloud
How to Restore iPhone from iTunes or Finder backup
How to Restore iPhone from iCloud backup
Recover iPhone Contacts Using Third-Party Tools

Check Your iPad or Mac

If you own other Apple devices like iPad or Mac, you may be using iCloud to save your contacts. When you delete contacts from one of the devices (say iPhone), it is automatically removed from all your synced devices. But what if the other device is not connected to the internet? In that case, it still has the contact!

So, if you accidentally deleted a number from iPhone, immediately disconnect the internet on one of your synced iPad or Mac. Next, open the Contacts app, and the deleted contact will still be there. Use the Notes app to type the number or save it directly to your iPhone.

How to Restore Deleted Contacts from iCloud.com

iCloud has a thoughtful option that lets you recover erased contacts with ease. Here is how to do that.

Visit iCloud.com on a Mac or Windows PC. Sign in with the same Apple ID that you use on the iPhone.
Click on Account Settings >
From the bottom left, click on Restore Contacts.
Click on Restore next to the most recent contact archive entry.
Read the notice and click on Restore again to confirm your action. Once the process completes, you will get a notification on iCloud.com and also on your email.

How to Restore Deleted Contacts from Settings App using iCloud

Suppose you delete a contact when the iPhone is not connected to the internet. Then, using this method, you can recover it.

Do not turn on Wi-Fi or mobile data.
Open the Settings app and tap on your Apple ID banner from the top.
Tap on iCloud.
Turn off the toggle for Contacts. Choose Keep on My iPhone.
Now, turn on Wi-Fi or Cellular data, and tap on the same Contacts toggle again. Finally, choose Merge.

If the methods mentioned above did not work for you, you might recover it by restoring from a recent computer or iCloud backup.

How to Restore iPhone from iTunes or Finder backup

Before you proceed, you must know that you might lose photos, music, and other personal files that were created, downloaded, or added to the iPhone after backup's creation.

For example:

Suppose on 9th July, you have 200 photos and 300 contacts on your iPhone. You create a full backup of the device. This backup has 200 pictures and 300 contacts.
On 11th July, you have 210 photos and 303 contacts. If today you restore from the backup made on 9th July, you will lose the 10 pictures and 3 contacts that were added since.

But, if the contact you deleted is vital, restoring a recent backup might bring it back. You can see how to do this in our step-by-step guide.

Pro Tip: Before you Restore, archive the old backup. Then create a new backup. After that, restore from the old archived backup. This way, if you do not find the contact, you can restore it again from the backup made today.

How to Restore iPhone from iCloud backup

The primary drawbacks of restoring from an iCloud backup are the same as a computer backup.

You can check if you have a recent backup or not by opening the Settings app → Tap on iCloud → iCloud Backup → Last successful backup: Date + Time.

tap on apple id and then tap on icloud in iphone settings

tap on icloud backup and check recent backup

If you have a backup that you believe is old enough to have the deleted contact, follow our guide on how to restore it from iCloud backup.

Finally, one more way to get back deleted contacts is to use third-party software on your Mac or PC. Some of them you can try are:

EaseUS MobiSaver
dr.fone iPhone Data Recover
APowerRescue
PhoneRescue
Stellar Data Recovery

That's all!

Signing off…

This is how you can recover deleted contacts on iPhone. In my opinion, the best and easiest it the iCloud.com method. It has minimal chances of error or causes no major data loss. It is the method that Apple recommends officially on its support page.

You may also like to read:

Export iPhone Contacts as VCF or Excel
Set up Emergency Contacts on iPhone and Apple Watch
How to Share Contacts from One iPhone to Another iPhone
HomePage Smart Contact List iOS App: Stay Connected Wherever You Go

The founder of iGeeksBlog, Dhvanesh, is an Apple aficionado, who cannot stand even a slight innuendo about Apple products. He dons the cap of editor-in-chief to make sure that articles match the quality standard before they are published.