I recently bought a new iPhone and have not synced it yet. I started using it and now I am afraid that if I sync it with the iCloud backup I would lose all my new messages and content. Does Apple merge this new contacts to my previous back up or do they get lost?
iPhone X, iOS 13
If you restore a backup it will overwrite everything on your phone. However, if you synced your contacts with iCloud in the past (which is completely separate from iCloud backups, even though they both have “iCloud” in their name) then the iCloud contacts and those on your phone will be merged.
If your contacts come from other sources, usually email accounts such as gmail, AOL, Yahoo, MS Exchange or Outlook then those contacts will come back when you add the email account in Settings/Passwords & Accounts.
If you restore a backup it will overwrite everything on your phone. However, if you synced your contacts with iCloud in the past (which is completely separate from iCloud backups, even though they both have “iCloud” in their name) then the iCloud contacts and those on your phone will be merged.
If your contacts come from other sources, usually email accounts such as gmail, AOL, Yahoo, MS Exchange or Outlook then those contacts will come back when you add the email account in Settings/Passwords & Accounts.
How to sync a new iPhone
