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So, all or some contacts from your iPhone are gone without a trace. Was it something you did? We’re not judging. We’re not interested in the “Why”, only in the “How to restore contacts on iPhone“.

You’re in the right place! This article will teach you how to find deleted contacts on iPhone. Choose where to start:

Restore contacts on iPhone without iTunes

✔ Retrieve deleted contacts only, no other data on your iPhone will be changed;

✔ You will need to log in to your Apple ID.

How to retrieve deleted contacts without backup

✔ Save your contacts from iCloud to your iPhone;

✔ You will need to log in to your iCloud.

Retrieve deleted contacts to computer

✔Automatically search for contact backups on PC and in iCloud;

✔Find deleted contacts, extract them to PC, then import to iPhone.

Restore contacts from iCloud

✔Download contacts from iCloud to your device;

✔All data types (contacts, photos, messages, settings) will be overwritten.

Restore deleted contacts to iPhone with iTunes

✔Restore contacts from iTunes to your device;

✔All data types (contacts, photos, messages, settings) will be overwritten.


Retrieve deleted contacts iPhone

When it comes to iOS restore, iTunes doesn’t know mercy differentiate between types of data. It can only restore your device as a single piece.

However, CopyTrans Shelbee knows the difference! It allows you to restore contacts only, so that other types of data (photos, messages, settings) are left intact.

CopyTrans Shelbee interface

💙 What CopyTrans Shelbee can do for you:

    – Restore selected data (only contacts, messages, etc. without deleting other data);

    – Restore apps to any iOS device with ease even if they have been removed from the App Store after ***;

    – Restore data from an iTunes backup;

    – Restore data from a corrupted iTunes backup;

    – Restore an encrypted backup.

Free download

***provided you made a backup with CopyTrans Shelbee v2.1 and above before they were removed from the App Store.

So, here is how to retrieve deleted phone numbers on iPhone:

  1. Download and install CopyTrans Shelbee:

    Download CopyTrans Shelbee

    If you need help installing CopyTrans Contacts, please refer to the installation guide.

  2. Run CopyTrans Shelbee and connect your iPhone. Select “Custom restore”. CopyTrans Shelbee main menu

  3. Click on the green pencil icon: you will see a list of all iTunes backup available. Select the backup with your contacts. Click on the pencil and choose the backup you wish to restore

  4. If your backup is encrypted, you will be asked for a backup password: enter it and click Next. What password?

    Enter the iPhone backup password in CopyTrans Shelbee

  5. Choose “Contacts” and click “Next”.

    ➕ The device contacts will be replaced with those from the backup.

    How to recover deleted contacts to iPhone

  6. CopyTrans Shelbee will ask you to choose where you want to save the backup of your device in case something goes wrong during Custom restore. Select the destination and click “Start”.

    Back up your data with CopyTrans Shelbee

  7. Wait until the restore process finishes.

    ➖ If the restore fails, see the troubleshooting steps for when a backup is corrupt.

    Restore in progress

  8. Finished! Your device will now restart.
    How to restore contacts on iPhone – result

💚 Some other marvelous things CopyTrans Shelbee can do:

✔️ backup and restore iOS apps;
✔️ backup iPhone to any PC folder or to external drive;
✔️ validate backups and check for password issues.

Free download

How to retrieve deleted contacts without backup

What to do when you have no backup and you don’t know what to do? Please don’t panic. Maybe you have your contatcs saved in iCloud? In this case we can offer you a great solution that will help you to manage your iPhone contacts on your computer. Just use CopyTrans Contacts.

CopyTrans Contacts main window
✔️ Manage all iPhone, iCloud, Outlook and Gmail contacts;
✔️ Work with different formats: .xlsx; .vcf; .csv;
✔️ Remove all contacts in a few clicks;
Download CopyTrans Contacts

How to retrieve deleted contacts without backup? Just follow the following steps:

  1. Download and install CopyTrans Contacts.

  2. Run the program and connect your iPhone to the PC. Your iPhone contacts will appear in the program’s main window.

    💡 Please wait until all your contacts finish loading (the cogwheel in the bottom right corner should disappear). It may take quite a while, but only the first time. Next time, the program should start much faster.
    outlook icloud contacts

  3. To get to see all iCloud contacts listed, connect to your iCloud account. Click More > Cloud setup.

  4. Add cloud accounts to CopyTrans Contacts

  5. Now click +New connection > iCloud.

  6. icloud contacts to outlook

  7. Enter your iCloud account credentials and make sure that the Contacts box is checked. Click Add account.

  8. window to add icloud account to copytrans contacts

  9. CopyTrans Contacts will list all iCloud contacts. Now you can save these contacts on your PC.

  10. how to import contacts from icloud to outlook

  11. Or you can just move your iCloud contacts to iPhone.

  12. save Exchange contacts to iPhone

  13. That is it! That is how to retrieve deleted contacts without backup in a few clicks!


How to retrieve deleted contacts

to computer

Here, you’ll learn how to recover deleted contacts using an iPhone backup. If you have no idea about backups, we got you covered – CopyTrans Backup extractor will automatically search your PC and iCloud and find all the backups.

Some good reasons to use this method are:

📌 You don’t know anything about backups or if you have any;

📌 You want to merge old and new contacts on your iPhone;

📌 You want to recover contacts without the actual device.

Why is CopyTrans Backup Extractor exactly what you need?

Get a free trial version

  • Extract photos from iPhone backup in .HEIC, .PNG and .JPEG formats
  • Extract videos from iPhone backup in .MOV and .MP4 formats
  • Extract contacts from iPhone backup in .VCARD format (separate files)
  • Extract text messages from iPhone backup (SMS, iMessages, WhatsApp, LINE) in .PDF (with attachments that are placed in a separate folder)
  • Extract notes from iPhone backup in .HTML format
  • Extract calendars from iPhone backup in .ICS format

So, PART ONE: retrieving deleted contacts from a backup.

  1. Download and install CopyTrans Backup Extractor:

    Get CopyTrans Backup Extractor

    If you need help installing the program, please refer to the installation guide.

  2. Run the program and log in to iCloud if you want to find more backups. Once ready, click on “Find Backups”.

    We care about your online safety: your credentials go directly to Apple through a secure SSL connection.

    Find iPhone backups with CopyTrans Backup Extractor

  3. Wait for the backup hunt to be complete. You will see a list of all available backups: choose the latest backup which contains deleted iPhone messages.

    ➕ If you are restoring from iTunes backup, you may be asked for a backup password. What password?

    ➕ iCloud backups will be marked with a cloud icon (☁️) and they are never password-protected.

    Enter the iPhone backup password in CopyTrans Backup Extractor

  4. Here, you need to select components to extract. Choose Contacts and press Next. You will be prompted to select the destination folder.
  5. How to retrieve deleted contacts to computer with CopyTrans Backup Extractor

  6. Done! Choose “Go to folder” to open the directory with your Contacts.

    How to restore deleted contacts — result

How to get deleted contacts back

OK, you’ve extracted contacts to computer with CopyTrans Backup Extractor. Now it’s time for PART TWO (optional): restoring deleted contacts to iPhone.

For this, you will need CopyTrans Contacts, which will import iPhone contact files to device, where you can merge them with existing contacts. You can choose which contacts to import.

  1. Download and install CopyTrans Contacts from the following page:

    Download CopyTrans Contacts

    If you need help installing CopyTrans Contacts, please refer to the installation guide.

  2. Run CopyTrans Contacts and connect your iPhone. You will see a loading icon: the program is retrieving all your contacts, messages, calendars and notes. Wait until the loading is completely finished, only then proceed to Step 3.

    ➕ If your iPhone is encrypted, you may be asked for an iPhone backup password. What password?

    The loading icon in CopyTrans Contacts

  3. Click on “Import contacts”.

    Import selected button in CopyTrans Contacts

  4. A new window will open. Click on “From a file”.

    Select source of contacts in CopyTrans Contacts

  5. Navigate to the folder on your PC containing your contacts, select all the contacts you want to import.

    ➕ To select several files, hold down Ctrl while clicking on each individual contact.
    ➕ To select all contacts at once, press Ctrl+A.

    Find deleted contacts from iphone on PC and import them back

  6. That’s it! Now you know every step of how to restore contacts on iPhone.

    How to get deleted contacts back on iPhone – result


How to restore deleted contacts on iPhone

from iCloud

If your contacts were synced to iCloud, search for them at icloud.com.

Facts about iCloud contacts:

    📌 As you turn on iCloud contacts on any iOS device, your contacts are uploaded to iCloud. All the changes you make are also pushed to your other devices;

    📌 As you turn off iCloud contacts on any iOS device, your contacts won’t be deleted from iCloud, they just won’t update automatically.

    ☹ When you restore contacts from iCloud, the current contact set on iPhone will be replaced. Use CopyTrans Backup Extractor and CopyTrans Contacts if you want to merge 2 sets of contacts.

Here is how to get contacts from iCloud:

  1. Go to iCloud.com.
  2. Log in with your Apple ID and enter your password.
  3. enter your Apple ID and a password

  4. Go to “Settings”.
  5. go to settings

  6. Scroll down until you see the section with Advanced settings. Then click on “Restore Contacts”.
  7. scroll down to advanced settings

  8. You will see a list of previously created archives, sorted by date. Choose the archive you need and click on “Restore”.
  9. choose an archive and click on restore button

    😱 “I don’t see any archived contacts!

    Don’t worry. If your contacts weren’t synced to iCloud, they must be in your iCloud backup. With iPhone, it’s always one or the other.

    Find and unpack iCloud backups to your PC and you’ll be fine!

  10. Click on “Restore” again.
  11. click on Restore button

  12. Wait a little bit…
  13. wait a little bit

    That’s it!

    How to restore contacts from iCloud – result


Restore contacts from iPhone backup

using iTunes

Restoring contacts from an iTunes backup will restore contacts, but also everything else – so your most recent photos, messages and notes may disappear.

💡 Don’t lose one trying to save the other! Restore contacts only with CopyTrans Shelbee or get full control over importing contacts using CopyTrans Backup Extractor plus CopyTrans Contacts.

    But just in case, here is how to recover contacts on iPhone using iTunes:

  1. Run iTunes and connect your iPhone.

  2. Wait until the iPhone is recognized by iTunes; then click on the iPhone icon. Open iTunes

  3. In the “Summary” screen, click on “Restore Backup…”. Restore via iTunes

  4. Disable the “Find my iPhone” feature if necessary. To help you, here is our guide on how to turn off Find my iPhone.Disable find my iPhone if asked to

  5. If there is more than one backup entry, select the one with the contacts you need and click on “Restore”. How to recover deleted contacts on iPhone using iTunes backup

  6. After the restore is complete, you will have your iPhone contacts recovered from the backup you choose.

  7. iTunes restore in progress

Now you know how to restore contacts on iPhone in 4 ways. In the future, do not forget to back up your iPhone at least once in a while!

Avatar for carina
By carina

Carina is part of team CopyTrans since 2008 and is always happy to share her passion for web marketing, graphic design & social media. With coffee running through her veins, she enthusiastically dives each day into the depths of the Internet searching for new cool stuff to be shared with you and her team.