How to Recover Contacts After iOS Update?

If you think you have already lost your contacts beyond recovery, after the iOS update glitch, trust me, reading this blog will change your perspective. You will be like – Okay, I have options, I can try something, so here are the tools. While resolving issue of lost contacts in iPhone due to iOS update glitch, I have tried to keep it simple, helpful, not overly technical and completely beginner-friendly. This will definitely help you to recover your deleted contacts from iPhone. Now let’s get straight to the issue.

How and why contacts get lost after iOS update on my iPhone?

It’s not uncommon for any iPhone user to open their device after an iOS update and find an empty or incomplete contact list. This usually happens because:

The update turned off iCloud or email account sync for contacts.
You were signed out of iCloud or your Google/ Exchange account during the update.
The update restored an older backup, replacing your newly added contacts.
In rare cases, the contacts’ database gets corrupted during the update process.
The update was glitchy and your contacts or other data were mistakenly removed from the device.

Most of the time, your contacts aren’t deleted, they’re just not synced or remain hidden. Turning on contact sync or restoring from a backup usually brings them back. But if they are deleted, don’t worry, I will help you get them back.

How to fix Sync issue on iPhone and recover contacts?

Missing contacts does not always mean they are deleted, sometimes your iPhone contacts might not be syncing properly. This usually happens because updates can log you out of iCloud or email accounts, disable the “Contacts” toggle, or temporarily block the connection between your phone and the cloud.

To fix this, first verify where your saved contacts are located.

Log into iCloud.com/contacts or your Google/Outlook account via a computer to determine if they are there.
If they are, just re-enable sync on your iPhone.
Go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > Contacts and disable it, wait a few seconds, then enable it again.
Repeat the same thing under Settings> Contacts > Accounts if you have Gmail or Exchange accounts. This makes the iPhone grab a new one from the cloud.

Once the above is completed, you can try checking your contacts list, the missing contacts must be visible now. If the contacts aren’t showing up even now, they may have been deleted or were stored locally. In that case, try restoring from an iCloud or Finder backup made before the update.

How to Recover Contacts after iOS update?

Whether your iPhone contacts went missing or got deleted by mistake, the below methods can help you to recover deleted contacts from iPhone.

Method 1: Recover from iCloud Backup

If you had iCloud Contacts enabled before that buggy update, there’s a good chance your contact list is backed up there.

On a computer or another device, open a browser and go to iCloud.com.
Log in with the same Apple ID you use on your iPhone.
Click on Contacts. If you can see the missing contacts here, then your data is safe in the cloud.
Click on restore to get the contacts back on your device.

Remember, this method won’t work if the device was not syncing properly with iCloud or if you turned off contacts sync before the update. You can always give it a try.

Method 2: Restore via Finder or iTunes on Mac or PC

If you are someone who regularly backs up your iPhone to your Mac (using Finder) or PC (using iTunes), you have got an extra way to recover your lost or missing contacts.

Connect your iPhone to your computer. Open Finder (on macOS Catalina or newer) or iTunes (on older macOS / Windows).
Find your device in the sidebar, and choose the option to restore from backup.
Select a backup that you want to restore, the one made before you updated your device.

But there’s a drawback to this method, as restoring from backup replaces everything on your device with what was in the backup, hence you cannot selectively restore your deleted contacts or message with Finder.

This means any new photo, messages, or app data added to your iPhone after that backup was created will be lost forever.

Method 3: Use a Data Recovery Tool (like Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone)

Sometimes both iCloud and backups may not work in your favor, maybe you never backed up, or maybe those backups got corrupted by the update. That’s where a reliable recovery tool comes to recovery and can make all the difference. Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone is one of the tools that many have tried with good success rate and has been highly recommended for its superior recovery features and data recovery modules.

How Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone helps:

The tool can scan your iPhone internal storage directly for deleted contacts and other file types and recover them on your computer.
The tool offers a dedicated iTunes recovery module that allows you to recover data stored in a backup even if it is hidden, inaccessible or encrypted, also allowing selective recovery for contacts or any other file types.
It lets you preview recoverable contacts before you restore, so you can decide which data you want back.

How this works? – First install the tool Stellar Data Recovery for iPhone on your Mac or Windows computer, run the tool and select the data you want to recover and then connect your iPhone to the Mac or PC with a USB cable, once you hit scan the tool scans your device for deleted data or contacts. The tool is safe and does not require any special permissions or debugging.

Final Thoughts:

So here’s the recap of this blog – you lost your contacts or other data after an iOS update, but you are unsure how to recover, if you think you lost the plot and the contacts remain irrecoverable, you are wrong, at the first place chances are your data never got deleted it could be a sync issue so try re-syncing the contacts, if it doesn’t work try recovering them possible from iCloud backup, Finder backup, or try recovery with an iPhone data recovery tool.