Smart Option to Recover Deleted Contacts on iPhone

Posted by Jathter on December 24th, 2013

I decide to write this article because I read this question today:

How to restore lost contacts on iPhone 4S? Please help? I updated my iPhone and when I opened up contacts, i lost all my contacts on my iPhone. PLEASE HELP ME. I tried to restore from back up, but this popped up "iTunes could not restore "..." because an error occurred. What do I do???

In this article, I will tell you how to recover lost contacts on iPhone with 2 ways:

Way 1: Learn how to retrieve lost contacts on iPhone after update from iCloud backup

Though Contacts syncs through iCloud, Mac users can use the inevitable syncing latency to their advantage and often retrieve deleted contacts by going to the Contacts (or Address Book) application. This also works with the iCloud web interface, and is best with recently deleted contacts, or with devices that have been offline from iCloud:

# Disable the internet connection by pulling down the Wi-Fi menu and turn Wi-Fi OFF
# Launch Contacts (or Address Book) in OS X, or Contacts from iCloud.com on the web, and use the search feature to locate the contact in question
# Open the contact and pull down the File menu, choosing “Export” then “Export Vcard” to save the contact(s) as a .vcf file – this will serve as a backup in case the next step does not work
# With the contact still selected, click the sharing button arrow and choose “Email Card” to launch the default mail app with the contacts vcard attached
# Turn Wi-Fi back on to send the email containing the contact card
# Go to the iPhone, open the email and choose the attachment, selecting to “Create New Contact”

The reason to turn off wi-fi quickly is to prevent Contacts from syncing changes with the iPhone. If done fast enough, you will often find the contact deleted from your iPhone is still sitting in iCloud.com or Contacts app in OS X.

Way 2: Learn how to recover lost contacts from iPhone 4S without backup
You need an iPhone data recovery program to get back lost contacts on iPhone. If you do not have iCloud or iTunes backup, try the way below:

Step 1: Download and install program on your computer. Launch it and connect your iPhone with computer.

Step 2: Select “Recover Data from iOS Device” as recovery mode.
For iPhone 5S/5C/5/4S users, click the "Start Scan" button to scan your iPhone.
For iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS users need to enter DFU mode to scan for lost files:
1) Hold your device and click the "Start" button.
2) Pressing the "Power" and "Home" buttons at the same time for exact 10 seconds.
3) Then release the "Power" button, but keep holding "Home" for another 15 seconds until you get the message of successfully entering.
Whatever the device you use, the program will automatically begin scanning your iPhone for lost contacts after you doing the steps accordingly.

Step 3: When the scan is over, you can preview all found data before recovery. To recover lost contacts on iPhone 4S, choose "Contacts" to preview, mark it and click "Recover" to save contacts on your computer.