Missing custom labels of contacts on iPhone

I have the same situation, and I am so upset by this. For example, I have contacts for specific medical facilities which had at least 10 numbers. Each number had a customized label for the assistant, radiology department, billing, etc. Everything is now listed as phone. I don't know what number belongs to who under that contact. It is so frustrating. My default contacts is my Gmail account. I've spent multiple times with Apple on the phone and got nowhere. They are blaming it on Google. However, it was caused by the Apple update. And because it changed on my iPhone, when I log into Google from my MacBook, I'm going to my contacts, they have all been changed. Obviously they changed due to the changes made through the iPhone. This is how it works. When you add contacts and emails on your iPhone and your default is your Gmail account, it automatically updates in Gmail. Now I have no way of retrieving any of this back to the way it was. What a nightmare! I really hope someone has a solution for this.

HERE IS THE SOLUTION IF YOU USE GOOGLE CONTACTS and had the above problem. But ACT FAST! You only have 30 days to fix this from the time Apple messed it up, because Google only allows you to revert changes in Contacts from up to 30 days ago. This problem seems to have occurred sometime in late December 2023.

1. Open https://contacts.google.com/ in your web browser.
2. Click the "Gears" icon in the top right of the webpage.
3. Choose "Undo Changes".
4. Click "Custom".
5. Put 30 in the "Days" box.
6. Click "Undo".

Wait approximately less than a minute. It should revert your Google Contacts to how it was 30 days ago. Including your custom labels.

After doing the above, BACK UP all your Google Contacts! So if this happens again, you'll have a backup. (At least as of the time you backed it up.)

Backup instructions are here:

https://support.google.com/contacts/answer/7199294

Information on "Undo changes to contacts" can be viewed here:

https://support.google.com/contacts/answer/7280886

I've tried to revert to backups using 'Data Recovery' on iCloud website. Makes no difference as far as I can see.

I have spent my life ensuring contact info is correct, Personal Phone, Work Phone etc....

This is infuriating.

This has been happening to me and others and i NEVER get it fixed. There MUST be an answer but I've yet to get one all way up to Level 2 Support.

Same problem. For the first time in 14 years of using an iPhone. I have many contacts who have several numbers written down with different labels. It always worked. And today I discovered that all the custom labels have disappeared, and all phone numbers are now simply labeled "phone". It's horrible. This is incredibly terrible.

All contacts stored in my icloud account.

And how can this be restored now?

What is your default Contacts account? If none, please add an email account and enable contacts.

See the pic below

Unlike some Android devices, contacts are neither stored locally on an iPhone nor in SIM. They are synced to an email account that you had 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.

I logged into my account through iCloud.com. Once there, I went to Data Recovery and then down to restore contacts. There were several archives listed and I chose one where I knew the labels were still there and restored back to that one.

Hope this helps you guys too. Good luck!

I logged into my account through iCloud.com. Once there, I went to Data Recovery and then scrolled down to restore contacts. There were several archives listed and I chose one where I knew the labels were still there and restored back to that one.

Hope this helps you guys too. Good luck!

I found while I thought I was entering contacts into my iPhone they were actually going to gmail contacts. How I don’t know. But when I turned off all contact syncing, it removed a bunch of numbers I added only in iPhone. They were on Google. 17 numbers in one contact. Syncing was stripping any custom labeling added from iPhone. They show “phone” on iPhone and “other” on google. I would advise to not sync any contacts ever unless it is copy paste manually. I only ever wanted them on my iPhone with iPhone data backup. Now I have to enter them all back into my iPhone no syncing.

This has just happened to me. Is it something to do with Sonoma? I only just upgraded to it last Friday. All my contacts in Apple Contacts app have lost their phone and email labels. I too have multiple phone numbers and email addresses for individuals and it's now impossible to identify most of them.

I tried doing a data recovery from iCloud but it's made no difference :-(

Has anyone successfully managed to sort this problem please?

I have the same issue. All of my custom contact labels have been reset to phone. I only use iCloud for my phone contacts. Very frustrating and hopefully, a solution is forthcoming.