How to Recover Deleted Contacts on iPhone?

The evolution of the media of communication from the telephone to today’s smartphones has not only impacted the way of use of technology but also our behaviours. When we used telephones we used to look in the telephone directory for any contact. Consequently, there came mobile phones with limited features. At that juncture, we used to maintain a diary containing all our necessary contacts. Meanwhile, technology kept pondering how to ease our life.

Finally, there came smartphones. Here we save the contacts on the device and the habit of maintaining a diary got extinct. This habit brought a problem with it. If somehow the phone gets damaged, we tend to lose all our contacts. Then it becomes a sturdy job to retrieve everything. However, there is a solution to this problem also. You can recover deleted contacts if you know how to. Hence, in this article, we will be discussing how to retrieve deleted contacts on iPhone. Let’s get going.

How to find deleted contacts on iPhone?

Now, this becomes the hot topic of the hour- How to recover deleted contacts? There are many solutions to make up for your obliviousness of not maintaining a physical diary. Technology has enabled us to back up contacts and recover at the time of need. In the following segments, we shall try to elaborate on some of such solutions to recover deleted contacts on iPhones. It can be done via mail, iTunes, Mac backup, iCloud, external apps, etc. We shall devise all in this article.

A. Retrieve deleted contacts (iPhone) via email

You can recover deleted contacts on your iPhone if you have saved your contacts to your email account. Here is how to retrieve –

• Firstly, open the settings app and head to ‘Mail’.
• Secondly, go to ‘accounts’ and select the email in which you saved your contacts.
• Having selected the account you will see options like contacts, calendar, mails, notes, etc. under the tab. Tap on the contact to toggle to sync your contacts.
• Finally, restart your iPhone and open the contacts app. You will see all the contacts embedded in the list.

B. Recover deleted contacts (iPhone) via iCloud

iCloud is the cloud computing service offered by Apple Inc. Here you can store your digital data. Apart from this, you can backup your contacts on iCloud for your convenience at the time of need. When lost, you can retrieve deleted contacts on your iPhone with the help of iCloud. Just execute the following steps to sync your contacts-

• First of all, open http://iCloud.com from any of your Apple devices.
• Secondly, sign in to your account using the required credentials, as in, your Apple ID and password.
• Now, scroll down until you see the advanced option.
• Under that tab, click on restore contacts and then click on restore next to the date before your deleted your contacts.
• Finally, click on restore to confirm the restoration. Now you can check your contacts.

How to reverse the restore

You can reverse the restore as well. For this, head to the ‘restore contacts’ option by following the aforementioned steps. Now, click on restore next to the date after you restored your contacts and confirm. Voila! your restoration will be undone.

C. Retrieve deleted contacts on iPhone using iTunes backup

If you have backed up your data to iTunes, your contacts along with every other data can be recovered. If you don’t remember doing any backup still you can try this method, as iTunes executes automatic backup sometimes. In that case, your phone will be reverted to the phase when the backup was executed. Here is how you can retrieve deleted contacts (iPhone) via iTunes-

• Priorly, open the iTunes app on your computer and connect your iPhone to it.
• Now, click on the device icon to head to the ‘summary’ section and look for ‘restore backup’.
• Having clicked on it, you have to choose the backup from the list you want to restore on your iPhone.

Pertinent to note, you may need to disable ‘find my phone’ on your iPhone to restore deleted contacts via iTunes. To do so, go to the iCloud settings on your iPhone and toggle off the ‘Find my iPhone’ option.

D. Retrieve deleted contacts on your iPhone using external apps

Some external software can become handy under such circumstances. In this segment, we shall illustrate such software for your reference.

1. Contact Transfer

Through this software, you can restore contacts from any device be it an old iPhone or Android.

• Firstly, download the software on your PC and launch it on your PC.
• Secondly, choose the source and destination devices, the source being the one from which the contacts would be transferred and the destination being the desired device.
• Connect those devices and click on continue.
• Then select the contacts you want to transfer and click on ‘transfer’ to initiate the process.

2. PhoneRescue

• Download the PhoneRescue app on your iPhone and run and then connect your iPhone.
• Select contacts to scan and preview and recover contacts on iPhone.

E. Retrieve deleted contacts without computer

This is probably the last resort to recover deleted contacts on iPhone. If you have done a backup recently, then you can erase all of your data and restore the last one on your iPhone. In this case, you will lose all the recent data. This process is time-consuming, hence, use this one if there is no option left.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Final Words

Technology has advanced to assist us to a great extent. However, the human touch in every process can not be replaced. So, if you need to recover a handful of contacts, asking your friends or relatives can be the most convenient.

In this article, we have demonstrated every possible way to recover deleted contacts on iPhone. We anticipate that this article provides you with the answer to the question – how to find deleted contacts on iPhone? Let us know any feedback or further queries from your side. Inspire us to improve. Happy Reading!