How to Recover Deleted Contacts from iPhone: 5 Top Ways

Have you ever experienced a scenario similar to the one described above? Accidentally deleting your contacts on iPhone is indeed a disastrous thing. You may be wondering: Can deleted contacts be recovered on iPhone? Thankfully, the answer is Yes.                      

If you have already created a backup of your contacts and stored it somewhere in advance, the process of restoring the deleted contacts from iPhone will become quite easy. If you don't, it can be a bit tricky.

But don't worry too much, we will share 5 effective ways here to recover deleted contacts from iPhone with or without backup.

Method 1. Restore deleted contacts on iPhone from iCloud

As you know, iCloud is an iOS data backup and synchronization service developed by Apple for users, so you can make full use of this cloud storage service. If you have synced your iPhone contacts via iCloud, you can go to iCloud.com to restore contacts. Let's see how to get deleted contacts back on iPhone.

Tip: Before starting, you need to find out how to see if Contacts is enabled in iCloud.

Go to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > APPS USING ICLOUD. You can see if you have enabled Contacts.

Step 1. On your web browser, go to icloud.com, and sign in with your Apple ID.

Step 2. Click Account Settings in the pop-up window.

Step 3. Scroll down to find the Advanced option, and click Restore Contacts.

Step 4. Select the latest version of your contacts, and click Restore.

Notes:✎...   

If you haven’t enabled Contacts in APPS USING ICLOUD, this approach will not work, jump to the next way to get how to retrieve deleted contacts on iPhone without computer.

When you choose an archive of contacts from iCloud, the current contacts on your iPhone will be replaced and the contacts you have now will also be archived.

Method 2. Recover deleted contacts from Gmail

In fact, Google can also backup iPhone contacts via email ID. If you are used to syncing contacts in Gmail, it is not a difficult task to know how to retrieve deleted contacts on iPhone. You can easily recover lost contacts from iPhone without computer. Here are these instructions on how to recover deleted contacts from Gmail on iPhone.

Step 1. Go to Settings > Mail > Account & Passwords on your iPhone.

Step 2. Tap Add Account and select Google. Enter your account and password to sign in to Gmail.                  

   

Step 3. Tap the Contact button to enable. Then click Save to complete the process.      

Step 4. Open the Contacts app on your iPhone and check if these steps are working to fix the problem of how to restore deleted contacts on iPhone.

Method 3. Restore deleted iPhone contacts from iCloud backup

If you have created an iCloud backup containing your contacts, you can select restore your iPhone from iCloud backup by resetting your iPhone. Honestly, this method is more suitable for restoring contacts to new iPhone without setup. Check the following steps on how to restore contacts on iPhone from iCloud backup.

Notes:✎...   

When restoring the data, the original data of iPhone will be wiped, so make sure to create a new backup in advance to avoid data loss.

You cannot preview all the files and restore selected data to your iPhone before the restoration process.

During the restoration process, make sure your iPhone is connected to a stable WiFi network.

Step 1. To start with, you need to reset your iPhone. Tab Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.

Step 2. After rebooting your iPhone, you can begin to set up iPhone. Select Restore from iCloud backup on the Apps & Data screen > sign in with your iCloud Apple ID. 

Step 3. Choose the right backup you want to recover from. Thus, the deleted contacts are recovered successfully to your iPhone.

Method 4. Get the deleted contacts from iPhone using iTunes or Finder

If you have already used iTunes or Finder to backup your iPhone contacts, it is a pretty good alternative to solve this problem of how to retrieve deleted contacts from iPhone without iCloud. However, this method will not only restore iPhone data, but also remove the existing data from iPhone. If you don't mind, follow the steps below to learn about how to recover lost contact from iPhone.

Part 1. How to get the deleted contacts from iPhone with iTunes

If you have used iTunes to backup iPhone to Windows computer before you delete iPhone contacts, you can perform the following steps on how to get the deleted contacts from iPhone.

Step 1. Launch iTunes and connect your iPhone to your PC with a USB cable. Click Trust on your iPhone to trust this computer.

Step 2. Tap the iPhone icon on the upper-left corner of this interface.

Step 3. Go to Summary > click Restore Backup under Manually Back Up and Restore.

Step 4. Select an iTunes backup you want to restore and click the Restore button to perform the restoration process.

Part 2. How to recover lost contact on iPhone using Finder

In addition, Apple has designed an iTunes-like tool called Finder for Mac users. if you have previously downloaded a backup of iPhone to Mac through Finder, this method is available for you.

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to Mac > Run Finder on your MacBook.

Step 2. Scroll down to select iPhone in the left pane, and click on the Restore Backup button under the Backups option.    

Step 3. Select an iPhone Backup on the pop-up window and click the Restore button.    

Wait for the restore process to finish and you will be able to find the deleted contacts on your iPhone.

Some disadvantages of using iTunes or Finder:
1. When restoring from backup, it will erase all existing data of your iPhone and then import the backup data.
2. Since it can only execute full backup and restore operations, you can't freely select the data you want to restore.
3. If the amount of files backed up is too large, it will consume a lot of your time to restore the data.

Method 5. Recover deleted contacts without backup

As mentioned previously, many users don't go ahead to back up or sync their contacts on iPhone, so how to restore contacts on iPhone without backup? Here comes up with a professional iPhone data recovery software, named FoneTool, you can easily perform iPhone data recovery with only 3 simple steps. 

Developed by a talented team with over a decade of experience focusing on data security, it ensures that no data is erased during the recovery process.

Advantages:

 Recover more than 10 types of iPhone data, covering contacts, photos, videos, notes, call history, etc.

 Selectively preview and choose the data you want to restore. 

 With deep and fast scanning technology, it can help you recover deleted or lost iPhone data with a super fast speed.

 Support all kinds of iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and iOS versions, including the latest ones.

Now just download and install FoneTool on your PC, and check out how to find deleted contacts on iPhone.

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to your PC with a USB cable > Launch FoneTool > Go to Toolbox > Choose the iOS Data Recovery option.

Step 2. Click the Contacts icon > Tap on Start Scan.

Step 3. Go to Contacts and select the data you need, then click Recover to PC to begin the task.

Wait for the recovery to finish and you can view the deleted contacts on your computer.

Further reading: How to backup iPhone without losing data

Except for iPhone data recovery feature, FoneTool is also a professional iPhone data backup tool. If you need to back up your iPhone on Windows PC, you can also use this tool to make it.

Step 1. Open FoneTool, and click Phone Backup > Selective Backup > Get Started.

 Attention: If you want to create a full backup, you can click the Full Backup.

Step 2. Click an icon to select the data you want to backup, then click OK.

Step 3. Tap Backup Storage Path to select a path to save the backup. Click the Start Backup button.

Then wait for the backup to finish, you can easily find your backup files on the My Backups page.

To sum up

This article mainly introduces 5 methods of how to recover deleted contacts from iPhone. You should have figured out how to recover deleted contacts from iPhone without computer using iCloud or Gmail. Hope you find the most suitable method to solve this problem.

By comparing these methods, you may find the best recovery method is to use the professional iPhone recovery software - FoneTool. With its help, you can recover your contacts more easily. And this recovery process will not have any risk of data loss.

Moreover, to avoid accidental data loss, you can also use it to better help you back up your iPhone.