If your contacts disappeared from iPhone by mistake, do you know how to get them back? In this article, MiniTool Software shows you 5 different methods on how to restore contacts on iPhone. There is always one solution that meets your requirement.
Contacts Disappeared from iPhone!
Contact on iPhone records a person’s social information including name, phone number, mail box, address, and more. It plays a vital role in your daily life for you rely on it to keep in touch with relatives, friends, colleagues and clients by calling them, sending messages and emails, or posting things.
To avoid the loss of iPhone contacts you must take good care of the contacts all the time. However, accidents are unpredictable.
For instance, after upgrading iOS to the latest version, you may find that some of your files are missing including iPhone contacts. Or perhaps, iPhone keeps deleting files but you don’t know the reasons.
If you don’t possess the ability to keep all your contacts memorized, your life will fall into pieces if you lose the contacts in your iPhone.
Some of you may just accept this cruel reality and give up the opportunity to recover the deleted contacts in your iPhone for you may be thinking the recovery is a long and complex process. On the other hand, you may don’t know how to restore contacts on iPhone.
In this article, we will show you how to get deleted contacts back on iPhone in 5 ways:
- Restore iPhone contacts from iCloud
- Recover iPhone contacts from a Backup File
- Rescue iPhone contacts with MiniTool Mobile Recovery for iOS
- Recover deleted contacts on iPhone through a cloud service
- Import contacts through SIM card
Solution 1: Restore iPhone Contacts from iCloud
It is quite possible that you deleted contacts on your iPhone by mistake. As long as you are sure that the deleted iPhone contacts are included in the previous iCloud backup file, you can enter the iCloud official site to restore contacts from iCloud.
Here is a step-by-step guide:
1. Open iCloud.com, sign into it with your Apple ID and password, and click Setting at the lower-right side to enter the setting interface.
2. Click Restore Contacts from the lower-left side Advanced section to continue.
3. You will get a pop-out window as below. All available iCloud versions will be listed in this window with their archived date and time. Here all you need to do is select the version that contains the contacts you want and click Restore to start the restoring process.
4. Follow the wizard to complete the restoring process.
5. Press Done when all end.
Solution 2: Recover iPhone Contacts from a Backup File
Frankly speaking, this method is applicative if you lost all data on your iPhone. Otherwise the backup files will replace the existing data on your iPhone. You can read this post: Restore your iPhone from a backup to get the specific steps.
Obviously, the above two methods can assist you to get your deleted contacts back. But, there are some limitations: both of them don’t give you the right to choose the ones you want to recover. However, sometimes you don’t need to recover all contacts in the backup.
In addition, when you restore your iPhone contacts from a iTunes or iCloud backup file, the selected iTunes or iCloud backup will replace all the current data on your iPhone, which is really unnecessary most of the time unless you lost all your data.
You might be wondering: Is there another method which can break these limitations?
The answer is YES!
The demands for restoring iPhone contacts as well as other types of data are increasing. So, some free iPhone data recovery software has merged as remedy tools.
Among all this software, MiniTool Mobile Recovery for iOS is an outstanding representative. Move on to the next solution to get the details.
Solution 3: Rescue iPhone Contacts with MiniTool Mobile Recovery for iOS
MiniTool Mobile Recovery for iOS is a professional iPhone data recovery program which can be used to recover various types of data, including iPhone contacts.
As for iPhone contacts recovery, this software supports recovering 10 iPhone contacts each time for free. So, you can download and install this Free Edition on your computer to have a try first.
MiniTool iOS Recovery on WindowsClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
This software has three recovery modules: Recover from iOS Device, Recover from iTunes Backup File, and Recover from iCloud Backup File.
These three recovery modules are designed for different situations. You can see the following guides to get more information.
Recover Contacts from iPhone Directly
It’s possible that you don’t form a habit to make a backup regularly. Once the iPhone contacts disappeared accidently, you are unable to get them back from the previous backup files.
Recover from iOS Device of this software is just designed for a situation like this. As long as the lost iPhone contacts are not overwritten by new data, you can use this recovery module to get them back.
Here is a guide：
1. Connect your iPhone to the computer via a USB cable.
2. Open the software.
3. Press Scan to start the scanning process.
4. The scanning process will last for a while. When it ends, you can see a data type list on the left side of the interface. Then, you need to select Contacts from the list to make the software show you the items in it.
5. You can go to find the iPhone contacts you want to recover and then press the Recover button to select a suitable location to save them.
If you want to recover all your lost iPhone contacts without limitations, you can upgrade this software to a full edition.
Recover iPhone Contacts from iTunes Backup File
If you have made an iTunes backup before the contacts disappeared, you can apply this recovery module to get them back. But, at first you should make sure that the iTunes backup file you want to use is saved on your computer.
MiniTool iOS Recovery on WindowsClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Then, you can follow these steps to restore contacts on iPhone:
1. Open the software.
2. Switch to the Recover from iTunes Backup File
3. The iTunes backup file that is saved on the iTunes default storage path will be detected and shown here automatically. If you can’t find it here, you can press the Select button to find it from your computer and make it to be diaplayed on the interface manually. Then, select the target iTunes backup file and press Scan to start the scanning process.
4. When the scanning process ends, you can also see a data type list on the software. Select Contacts to show all the detected iPhone contacts.
5. Select your needed iPhone contacts and then press the Recover button to choose a location to save them.
After these steps, you can access the specified path to view these recovered iPhone contacts immediately.
Recover iPhone Contacts from iCloud Backup File
If you are sure that the deleted contacts are stored in the previous iCloud backup files, you can use the Recover from iCloud Backup File module to recover your iPhone contacts. When using this module, you need to make sure that the net connect of your computer is enabled.
Here, you can still use the free edition of this software to have a try.
MiniTool iOS Recovery on WindowsClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
1. Open the software.
2. Switch to the Recover from iCloud Backup File module.
3. Input your Apple ID and password.
4. Click Sign In.
5. Select the target iCloud backup file.
6. Click DownLoad.
7. You will receive a popup window where you can select the data type you want to recover. Here, you want to recover your deleted iPhone contacts. So just click Contacts and Confirm to continue.
8. The software will begin to download the iCloud backup. When the downloading process ends, you can only see the downloaded iPhone contacts. Then, you can choose the ones you want to recover to save them.
To break the limits to recover all your lost iPhone contacts, you still need to upgrade this software to a full edition.
The Way to Import the Restored Contacts into Your iPhone
You may notice that these three recovery modules just help you to save contacts to your computer. You may want to know how to import these contacts to your iPhone.
Actually, you can do this through iCloud.com. But, first you should make sure that you have set iCloud to archive your iPhone contacts automatically.
Then, the specific steps are as following:
Sign in to iCloud.com, click the Contact icon and you will enter the contact interface. There is an icon like this on the lower-left side.
Click it and you will get a list as below. Select Import vCard and import the contacts saved in the storage path. Then, the stored contacts will be shown in the iCloud.com and your iPhone synchronously.
So far, you have discovered that with MiniTool Mobile Recovery for iOS, you can retrieve deleted iPhone contacts easily and effectively.
Solution 4: Recover Deleted Contacts on iPhone Through Cloud Service
If you are using Google Contacts and the deleted iPhone contacts are included in it, you can also recover deleted contacts on iPhone by setting your iPhone to sync with Google contacts.
Solution 5: Import Contacts Through a SIM Card
iPhone doesn’t allow you to store contacts into your SIM card, but you are still able to copy the contacts from a SIM card from your old phone to your iPhone.
This method is available in the case that you are sure the deleted contacts are stored in the old SIM card or you discover that there are no contacts after you insert the SIM card from an old phone to your iPhone.
The steps are simple. Just tap Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Import SIM Contacts > On my iPhone and then the contacts stored in the SIM card will be imported to your iPhone directly.
Some Useful Suggestions
From the above introduction you can notice the importance of making and updating backup files. In general, backup files are used to restore the original data after its loss. Data overwriting is happening all the time.
If you can’t recover the lost data from your iPhone by using a third party software, you still can recover them through a previous backup file. For instance, you can recover data from water damaged iPhone as long as there is/are available backup file(s).
There are many iPhone data backup solutions at present. For iPhone contacts, iCloud backup and iTunes backup are the two most commonly used methods. You can also use a cloud service to record your contacts. Google contact is a good choice.
Backup technology has really improved nowadays and you can rely on it to add a layer of security to your iPhone data.
Bottom Line
This post tells you how to restore contacts on iPhone in 5 different ways. You can just select an available one according to your actual situation.
Should you have any questions when dealing with the iPhone contacts recovery issue, you can just contact us via [email protected] or let us know in the comment.
How to Get Deleted Contacts back on iPhone FAQ
- Install MiniTool Mobile Recovery for iOS on your computer.
- Connect your iPhone to your computer via a USB cable.
- Open the software and press Scan to start the scanning process.
- Select your needed contacts and recover them.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Stella has been working in MiniTool Software as an English Editor for more than 7 years. Her articles mainly cover the fields of data recovery including storage media data recovery and phone data recovery, YouTube videos download, partition management, and video conversions.