Unlock your devices in 3 steps
Recover data in 3 steps
Feb 21, 2025 • Filed to: Data Recovery Solutions • Proven solutions
Not many things cause more pain than an iPhone 15 breaking by a fall, someone stealing it, or you losing it somewhere. At this time, the concern is more about recovering your data and, most importantly, the contacts that seem lost forever. But fret not, as there are ways to recover contacts from a lost iPhone, and the best part is that those are fairly easy to follow.
In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn those in detail, so all you need to do is follow them in order to get your contacts back. So, without further ado, let’s dig in!
A broken/lost iPhone means all your contacts are lost, but with the assistance of iCloud, you can get them back. With iCloud, all our iPhone contacts get synced automatically, making it easy to recover contacts from broken iPhones. That’s not it. iCloud also stores your deleted contacts for up to 30 days, so there’s hope even if someone did a factory reset.
But there’s a catch. The contacts that are restored on your device using iCloud replace/overwrite the contacts that already exist. If you’re ready to take the risk, learn how to restore contacts from iCloud backup.
If you’ve got a new phone, follow the step-by-step process to retrieve your lost contacts:
Note: You cannot toggle the Contacts off if you have a screentime passcode enabled. The iPhone displays a message like this:
If you don’t promptly get a new iPhone, you can use the Mac computer to retrieve your lost contacts alongside other things like calendar events and Reminders. All you need is your Apple ID and password to log into your iCloud account. If you’re wondering how can I get my old contacts back without investing hundreds on a new iPhone, follow the steps in order:
Additional Tip: If you haven’t synced the contacts to iCloud due to its limited storage and can’t retrieve your lost contacts, you can retrieve them from iTunes backup, which also backs up your contact data. You can also reach out to your mutual friends/family members to get the contact info, but this shouldn’t provide you access to your exclusive contacts.
iCloud seems a reliable way to retrieve your lost contacts, but there are a few drawbacks to it: firstly, your contacts must be synced with iCloud, and restoring the backed-up data replaces and deletes the existing contacts. If you aren’t comfortable with that or didn’t sync your data with iCloud, you need a third-party application to do the job. And Dr. Fone-Data Recovery (iOS) is probably one of the best in this space.
Developed by Wondershare, it’s a top-rated iPhone data recovery software with the highest success rate. It can perform data recovery under any possible scenario, such as corrupt updates, accidental deletion, broken phones, malware attacks, etc. Since it provides a preview of recovered data, you can choose to recover selective files. It’s compatible with the latest iOS versions, making it reliable software for recovering your lost contacts.
Here’s how to recover deleted contacts without backup using Dr. Fone-Data Recovery (iOS) software:
On your Windows or Mac computer, visit the official Wondershare website and download the Dr. Fone-Data recovery software. Install and launch it, and tap on the “Data Recovery” module from its welcome screen.
The new window prompts you to plug in your iOS device, so use a USB-C cable to connect and make sure to allow the connection. You can also connect them wirelessly by connecting the devices to the same WiFi.
From here, Dr. Fone lets you select the data type you want to scan, be it contacts, photos, music, videos, etc. Select the relevant and click on the “Start Scan” button to start scanning your iPhone.
The software takes some time to scan the available data, and the more data, the more time it takes to complete the scan.
Once the scan is successfully completed, the software displays the retrieved data, which includes both available and deleted data. You can choose to preview and restore any according to your needs. Then, tap on “Recover to Computer” or “Restore to device” to restore all your contacts and other relevant data.
The best part about using this technique is that the data isn’t overwritten, and you can save your deleted contacts alongside the existing ones. As you can preview the data, you can selectively get back the contacts that you need.
Using the above-mentioned methods, we hope you can recover contacts from a lost iPhone with ease, irrespective of its condition. iCloud can be a great way to do that, provided you’re willing to overwrite your existing data. If you don’t and perform a selective restore, then Dr. Fone's Data Recovery app is worth a try. Also, make sure to back up your contacts so you won’t have to go through the hassle again.
staff Editor
