Contacts on iOS and iPadOS devices are synced to an email account

Contacts on iPhones and smartphones are not stored locally but are synchronized with email accounts. The primary storage is on the email server, with a local copy on the device for offline access. Syncing allows changes made on any device to be updated across all connected devices. You can sync contacts with various email providers, enabling access from multiple devices. This method ensures convenience and seamless management of contacts across platforms.

When you add and enable the Contacts feature on your iPhone, it provides you with the ability to sync your contacts with a specific email account. This email account can be from various providers such as Google, iCloud, AOL, Exchange, Outlook, Yahoo, or any Other email client server that supports contact synchronization.

Please see the pic below for a better understanding...

If you are unable to find your contacts which were stored on iCloud, then try this --> Restore contacts, calendars, bookmarks, and more using ...

Check if the email account has been removed from the iOS mail app.

Add the email account that stores your contacts in the IOS mail app and enable Contacts.

What is your default Contacts account?

Use iCloud.com to restore and recover iCloud information

Contacts: Restore contacts stored in iCloud on iCloud.com

Unlike some Android devices, contacts are neither stored locally on an iPhone nor in the SIM. They are synced to an email account that you have Google, iCloud, AOL, Exchange, Outlook, Yahoo, or any Other

If you have a corporate email account added through a profile on your device, please check with your organization's system administrator.

1. Is this your corporate/organization/enterprise/School Management iPhone? Then please contact the system administrator of your corporate//organisation/enterprise/School Management
2. If it is your device, in that case, do you have any profile installed by your corporate/organization/enterprise/School Management?
   1. Erase the profile added by you. If you have installed a profile on your own, --> Install or remove configuration profiles on iPhone - Apple ...
   2. Please contact the system administrator of the organization who provided the profile to you

On an iPhone, contacts do not sync between different accounts like iCloud, Outlook, Google, etc. Each account keeps its own separate set of contacts, and they don’t automatically merge or share data.

The "default account" setting in Settings > Contacts > Default Account determines where new contacts you create on your iPhone are saved. If iCloud is set as the default, all newly created contacts go to iCloud. If you switch it to Outlook, new contacts go to your Outlook account instead.

However, changing the default account does not move or sync existing contacts from one account to another. For example:

• If you set iCloud as default and save 50 contacts, those are only on iCloud.
• If you later switch the default to Outlook and save 10 more contacts, those 10 are only on Outlook.
• The 50 iCloud contacts and 10 Outlook contacts remain separate, even though they can all appear together in the Contacts app if both accounts are enabled.

You can view and manage the contacts for each account under Settings > Contacts > Accounts — selecting an account like iCloud, Outlook, or Gmail shows its respective sync settings.

If you want to move contacts from one account to another, like from iCloud to Outlook, you’d need to export and import them manually — iPhones don’t have a native feature to sync contacts between different services.

Transfer iCloud Contacts to Yahoo Contacts

Log in to https://www.icloud.com using your Apple ID credentials. Tap Contacts app > Settings > Export vCard.

iCloud will import or export only vCards.

You need a third-party app to convert vCard file to CSV as Yahoo will only import using CSV file --> Import, export or print contacts in Yahoo Mail - SLN28070

Transfer Gmail Contacts to iCloud Contacts

Try to export the contacts from Google Mail on a web browser. During Export select export as vCard and then

log in to https://www.icloud.com using your Apple ID credentials, tap the Contacts app > Settings > Import vCard.