My iPhone seems to have randomly lost several of my regularly used contacts. I tried turning iCloud off and back on to “merge” contacts but this did not fix it. What happened? Please help. Thank you.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 15 Pro, iOS 18
"Missing contacts on iPhone: My iPhone seems to have randomly lost several of my regularly used contacts. I tried turning iCloud off and back on to “merge” contacts but this did not fix it. What happened? Please help. Thank you."
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Troubleshooting Missing Contacts:
Some things to try...
A. Enable Contacts in iCloud Settings:
See If “Contacts” is somehow disabled in settings across all of your devices.
B. Retrieve Contacts from Other Devices:
Have a Mac?: Enable Contacts in iCloud on both your iPhone and Mac, and then search through using either device. Using a computer may be more user-friendly when searching through Contacts.
C. Also, Try the Following:
“How do I recover missing contacts on iPhone?: My history of calling/texting the contact is there, but it only shows a phone number from the person. No contact is saved in my phone.”
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Thanks for the followup reply.
Extract and Archive your Contacts:
Have any device that is not booted up yet, that itself has access to your Contacts? If so, power off your router, and then try exporting them. The goal here is to avoid synchronization with Apple’s servers. Go here: Export or archive contacts in Contacts on Mac - Apple Support
I will try to back up later. I have an old Mac laptop. It is also linked to the same Apple account. I could back up to it???
Also when I have extra hours of my life to spare, I will be called Apple support back. A few contacts I resaved in my phone have already been deleted again. This is very frustrating that Apple did not believe I was not at fault. The update did nothing to stop this.
None of these options have worked.
I have noticed 3 additional contacts that I have used this morning—are now gone as well.
My history of calling/texting the contact is there, but it only shows a phone number from the person. No contact is saved in my phone.
Apple customer service was unable to explain this -- other than eluding that I am deleting them myself. Something is very wrong and it is not due to my own actions.
How do I recover missing contacts on iPhone?
