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When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.
My contacts list is just a mess. However, I've done nothing to it to cause this. It seems to just randomly "forget" people, or some of the detail, and most maddeningly, it repopulates ancient data from like, years ago. Is there any resolution on this? I see many people have posted this same problem. I suppose the follow-up question might be, why hasn't this been addressed (pun intended) and fixed over the years?
Hello juliene32,
Thanks for that info and for choosing the Apple Support Communities. If we understand correctly, you are having an issue with your contacts go missing or losing certain info in the Contacts app on your iPhone. Because contacts are not stored on your iPhone but are synced with an account, we recommend going to Settings > Contacts > Accounts and see what accounts are shown here. If iCloud is listed here, please see if you can restore contacts on the iCloud website with the steps from this Apple resource: Restore contacts stored in iCloud on iCloud.com - Apple Support
"You can restore your contacts from an earlier version that was automatically archived in iCloud. For example, you might want to restore an earlier version of your contacts to recover some that were accidentally deleted.
When you restore an earlier version, your current version is first archived in iCloud, so if you change your mind, you can go back to it.
1. On iCloud.com, clickin the toolbar, then click Data Recovery.
2. Click Restore Contacts.
3. Available versions are listed by the date and time they were archived.
4. Tip: If you recently deleted a contact either from iCloud.com or your device that you now want to restore, it may take up to 24 hours for the archive to appear.
5. To the right of the version you want to restore, click Restore.
6. There may be more versions than can be displayed. Scroll to see them all.
7. Note: Wait until iCloud finishes restoring your contacts before you change them. During the restore process, any changes you make aren’t saved."
If iCloud is not listed in Settings > Contacts > Accounts or you have other accounts listed there, we recommend checking the website for that account and see if it matches what you are seeing on your iPhone.
Cheers!
Hello juliene32,
Thanks for that info and for choosing the Apple Support Communities. If we understand correctly, you are having an issue with your contacts go missing or losing certain info in the Contacts app on your iPhone. Because contacts are not stored on your iPhone but are synced with an account, we recommend going to Settings > Contacts > Accounts and see what accounts are shown here. If iCloud is listed here, please see if you can restore contacts on the iCloud website with the steps from this Apple resource: Restore contacts stored in iCloud on iCloud.com - Apple Support
"You can restore your contacts from an earlier version that was automatically archived in iCloud. For example, you might want to restore an earlier version of your contacts to recover some that were accidentally deleted.
When you restore an earlier version, your current version is first archived in iCloud, so if you change your mind, you can go back to it.
1. On iCloud.com, click
2. Click Restore Contacts.
3. Available versions are listed by the date and time they were archived.
4. Tip: If you recently deleted a contact either from iCloud.com or your device that you now want to restore, it may take up to 24 hours for the archive to appear.
5. To the right of the version you want to restore, click Restore.
6. There may be more versions than can be displayed. Scroll to see them all.
7. Note: Wait until iCloud finishes restoring your contacts before you change them. During the restore process, any changes you make aren’t saved."
If iCloud is not listed in Settings > Contacts > Accounts or you have other accounts listed there, we recommend checking the website for that account and see if it matches what you are seeing on your iPhone.
Cheers!
Hi, Thank you so much for this information. I was able to get back several “missing” contacts by restoring a very old backup from the cloud. It’s not perfect, but I’ll take the win! I’ve had this happen in the past as well. It *might be* that my very very old apple account just needs to be put to rest and I create a new one. This one is years and years old and therefore, subject to all kinds of little problems. Thank you again, so much, for helping!
Hi juliene32,
We appreciate you for providing us that update and that you're able to recover some of the data for your contacts. Have a wonderful rest of your day.
Take care.
Any idea where contacts disappear to?
