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My contacts on my phone got deleted, how can I get them back?

My contacts on iphone got deleted somehow and can the contacts be restored?

iPhone XR, iOS 14

Posted on Aug 6, 2021 1:10 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Aug 6, 2021 1:31 PM

I did the restore but it didn’t restore any of my phone contacts

6 replies

Aug 6, 2021 1:15 PM in response to Foxtrot1971

Contacts don’t “get deleted”; you did something to remove them. Contacts are tied to email accounts, so if you delete an email account from your phone the contacts associated with that account will be removed also. If the contacts that you deleted were associated with an Apple email account (iCloud, Mac, Me) you can recover them as described in this link→Restore contacts, calendars, bookmarks, and more using iCloud.com - Apple Support

Aug 6, 2021 1:21 PM in response to Foxtrot1971

Go to icloud.com and sign in. (You can do this on mobile too.) then tap on account settings then go all the way down and tap on restore contacts. This will allow you to use a iCloud backup and take the contacts off of it. Note that if your iCloud is full you won't be able to back up so there will be no back ups to restore. also note that backups are done automatically. Also note that if your last backup was during the contact you want was deleted, don't worry! All your previous backups are never deleted unless you do it manually.


If you want to learn more about back ups check out this article: How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch with iCloud - Apple Support, and here: Restore contacts, calendars, bookmarks, and more using iCloud.com - Apple Support

Aug 6, 2021 1:39 PM in response to Foxtrot1971

Foxtrot1971 wrote:

I did the restore but it didn’t restore any of my phone contacts

Where they iCloud contacts? Those are the only contacts that can be restored from iCloud. If they were gmail contacts, Outlook contacts, MS Exchange contacts, yahoo contacts, etc then you need to use whatever tools the ISP provides.


And did you recently delete an email account?

Aug 6, 2021 2:05 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Well I finally got the low down on why I lost all of my names and phone numbers. I let one of my grandkids play a few games on my phone. He said he was messing around and saw something that said “Find my Phone” and he said he clicked on a few things. I just believe something happen after he clicked on those things. Now I have a partial list of phone numbers on paper but it want let me put those in. In the upper left hand corner it says “My Card”. I put the contact info in and post, but it want go to my contact list.

My contacts on my phone got deleted, how can I get them back?

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