Deleted contacts after deleting old email account

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Deleted contacts after deleting old email account

I recently deleted an old email account off the mail app. I haven’t used this work email since I left the job years ago. I only kept it in the mail app in vase I needed an old email. Mail suddenly kept popping up a window for settings every time I used the app, so I finally deleted it. Later that day I noticed basically all of my contacts from the last 5 years are no longer in my phone. I tried recovering from Icloud contacts recover. No luck. I’ve completely erased my phone twice now to 2 different back ups from before the erase. Its not putting those accounts, account settings or contacts back on phone. Whats the point of backing up your device if you can’t recover the data lost.

iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Sep 19, 2025 4:45 PM

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Answer 1

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KiltedTim

Level 10

224,982 points

Sep 19, 2025 5:04 PM in response to tasha79

Unfortunately, you were syncing your contacts with that email account.

You say you haven't used it since you left the job, which leads me to assume it was an Exchange account.

Echange is designed to be secure. Data synced with Exchange is "owned" by Exchange. It is not backed up either to iCloud or a backup to a computer. It's a security issue. Under normal circumstances, you'd be advised to contact your Exchange administrator or help desk to have them recover the data on the server. Backing up company data is the responsibility of the company.

I'm afraid the data is gone.

It's not fun to hear this, but it's a fact and anyone who reads this needs to understand it. I've been in IT for over 36 years. This isn't 'opinion', it's fact:

Data in a corporate Exchange account belongs to the company, not you. You should NEVER store personal information on company owned systems.

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