deleted contact from my iCloud account, went to iCloud account to the recovery and there were no contact files to backup from. Yet, I go to recent calls and the full info is there, no option to add back to contacts. So seems although deleted, it is somewhere that recent can bring visible. Puzzled: my contacts sync, but no backup file in iCloud?
iMac 27″, macOS 10.13
I tried that and there was no archive to restore. Later discovered I was not synching contacts in iTunes, they seem to synch without iTunes, but maybe that was why there was nothing to restore in iCloud.
But all was not lost. Going to recent calls on my iPhone, many contacts were visible, going to info for each one I could share the contact even though I could not "add" it back. Sharing to myself, they could be added back to contacts. Not all were visible which maybe when they deleted I had turned off WI-FI while doing deletes. I was cleaning an old computer I am giving to someone and forgot to first delete iCloud internet account and was manually cleaning out the contacts when I did not need to do. I forgot where the contacts were really located and were not on the old computer.
Anyway a big saver was that on my desktop I had created a "no-longer needed" contact list that resided on the desktop which had some needed ones too and I could copy many from there back to iCloud. My advice to anyone is to use your desktop to keep a copy of your contacts that are in iCloud. Rebuilding my iCloud contact list I made sure they are in both places.
Took me several hours to restore, but all is well and a little wiser. Thanks for your interest.
I tried that and there was no archive to restore. Later discovered I was not synching contacts in iTunes, they seem to synch without iTunes, but maybe that was why there was nothing to restore in iCloud.
But all was not lost. Going to recent calls on my iPhone, many contacts were visible, going to info for each one I could share the contact even though I could not "add" it back. Sharing to myself, they could be added back to contacts. Not all were visible which maybe when they deleted I had turned off WI-FI while doing deletes. I was cleaning an old computer I am giving to someone and forgot to first delete iCloud internet account and was manually cleaning out the contacts when I did not need to do. I forgot where the contacts were really located and were not on the old computer.
Anyway a big saver was that on my desktop I had created a "no-longer needed" contact list that resided on the desktop which had some needed ones too and I could copy many from there back to iCloud. My advice to anyone is to use your desktop to keep a copy of your contacts that are in iCloud. Rebuilding my iCloud contact list I made sure they are in both places.
Took me several hours to restore, but all is well and a little wiser. Thanks for your interest.
Good day to you Charles Palenz,
Are you using these steps to attempt to restore contacts from iCloud? If you accidentally deleted your calendars, bookmarks, or contacts from iCloud
Restore your contacts or bookmarks from an earlier version
1. From your iPad or computer, sign in to iCloud.com.
2. Click your name at the top of the iCloud.com window, then click Account Settings.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the page. Under Advanced, click Restore Contacts or Restore Bookmarks.
4. Click Restore next to the date before you deleted the content.
5. Click Restore again to confirm. After the restore completes, you'll get a notification on iCloud.com and an email to the address on file with your Apple ID.
Any chance that contact was syncing with a different account or stored locally on your device? You can verify if there are other accounts set to sync by going to Settings > Contacts > Accounts.
Thanks.
Recovering deleted contacts
