Skip to main content

How to restore deleted or missing contacts on your iPhone

Illustration of a Contact Poster on an iPhone
Finished version of a contact Poster in iOS 17. Nadeem Sarwar / DigitalTrends

It seems that no one can remember more than a couple of phone numbers (at best) these days. I don't remember any, and can you even remember your closest family member's phone number at this point? Probably not. That's when you starting thinking about the iPhone contacts feature being a godsend. Despite the tech, however, there can be times -- like installing iOS 18 beta -- when your contacts go missing or get deleted. Fortunately, there are a few ways to recover your old contacts via your iPhone and other devices. We'll guide you through each technique so you can get back to functioning as normal quickly.

Recommended Videos

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

10 minutes

What You Need

  • Your iPhone

  • An iCloud account

Luckily, iCloud makes it easy to restore your contacts on the best iPhones. Here’s how to restore contacts on an iPhone from iCloud using iOS.

To avoid losing your data and contacts, check out our guides on how to backup an iPhone and how to use iCloud.

Illustration of a Contact Poster on an iPhone
Finished version of a contact Poster in iOS 17. Nadeem Sarwar / DigitalTrends

Recover contacts using iCloud on your iPhone

If you’ve lost or deleted a contact by mistake, don’t panic. We have a fix. Your contacts are set to sync with iCloud by default, so you can go to Settings and turn them off and on to sync to your iPhone again.

Step 1: Go to Settings > [Your name] > iCloud.

Step 2: Turn Contacts off and select Keep on my iPhone.

Step 3: Turn Contacts on and select Merge. Wait a little while, and you should see the deleted contacts back on your iPhone.

Recover contacts using iCloud.com

This is another trusted method for retrieving lost contact information — as well as other things like Reminders and Calendar events — and it comes directly from Apple. All you need is a computer, your Apple ID and password, and a bit of time.

Step 1: Pull up iCloud.com and use your Apple ID and password to log in.

Step 2: When you’ve signed in, go down and select the Data recovery button.

Step 3: Go down to the Restore contacts.

Selecting Data Recovery through iCloud.com.
Bryan Wolfe / Digital Trends

Step 4: You’ll find a list of archives you’ve created in the past. Using their dates, locate an archive that should contain your full contacts list and hit Restore.

Selecting contact backup you wish to restore.
Bryan Wolfe / Digital Trends

Step 5: Hit Restore once more to confirm and start the restoration. Afterward, you’ll get an email at the address linked to your Apple ID.

More techniques for restoring iPhone contacts

Here are some more things you can try:

  • If the above techniques don't work, you can also try to restore your phone from an iTunes backup, which will also have contact data.
  • If you still have your old iPhone and haven't changed many contacts since then, you can port them over or add important ones.
  • Consider reaching out on Facebook or to another mutual friend to get contact info again. Not remembering a friend or contact's info is not as embarrassing as it might seem.

What about new contacts?

Most of the above techniques will update and replace all of your contacts on any iPhone, rather than merely adding any that are missing. So, assuming you’ve added new contacts since the last backup, you will lose those new contacts. The good news is that your iPhone will automatically backup your new contacts before it completes this restore, so you will be able to retrieve them later.

You can retrieve your new contacts by following the first three steps above. When you do, make sure you select the archive made on the same day you restored your phone. Of course, if you accidentally restore with the wrong archive, no worries. You can use the same process if you accidentally select an incorrect archive to restore your contacts.

Jackie Dove
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Jackie is an obsessive, insomniac tech writer and editor in northern California. A wildlife advocate, cat fan, and photo app…
Latest iPhone Fold rumor tells us a little more about the camera
Semi-open state of a foldable iPhone concept

Foldable phones have been around for over five years now and there are several options available. It's not just Samsung and Google in the folding space, but Motorola, Huawei, Oppo, OnePlus and Honor too. There is one company notably missing however, and that's Apple. 

The company has long been rumoured to be working on a folding iPhone, and there's talk of a larger folding device too. Both are speculated to enter mass production in late 2026 with a launch then happening towards the end of next year or early 2027. 

Read more
Forget the iPhone 17 Pro design, the 20th anniversary iPhone could be the boldest yet
Leaked render of iPhone 17 Pro Max rear panel.

There are always plenty of rumours surrounding the next iPhone, with some even appearing over a year before the model in question is due to be announced. For this year it is the iPhone 17 series that is expected to be announced in September, with several reports claiming there will be a design change for the Pro models coming, as well as the arrival if a super slim iPhone. 

But the latest report we are talking about here isn't about this year's iPhone, or even next year's. It's for the 20th anniversary iPhone model, that is set to arrive in 2027, alongside a potential folding iPhone. According to Mark Gurman's latest Power On newsletter, picked up by Macrumors, the iPhone Pro that launches alongside the folding iPhone will feature a "bold" design that makes more extensive use of glass.

Read more
Don’t hold your hopes for a fancy design refresh on the iPhone 17 Pro
The Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max's screen.

For nearly half a decade, Apple has sold smartphones that fundamentally serve the same design language originating on the iPhone 11. Later this year, the iPhone 17 series will hit the shelves. If you’ve been expecting an aesthetic makeover, there’s some bad news for you, unless you’re ready to spend big bucks on one of the Pro models. 

According to Bloomberg, the iPhone 17 Pro “will look meaningfully different,” compared to its iPhone 16 series counterpart. Alongside the rumored super-sleek iPhone 17 Air trim, these two are reportedly the biggest design refreshes in recent years on Apple smartphones. The approach, however, would still be quite modest. 

Read more