How to Restore Contacts from iTunes Backup to iPhone?

Want to restore contacts from iTunes backup to iPhone? Check the way to recover lost or deleted contacts with iTunes backup or not.

Lora

By Lora / Updated on June 7, 2023

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How to recover lost iPhone contacts

“Last night, I accidentally reset my iPhone 7 to factory settings. Unfortunately, all contacts were lost, I can’t found any previous data on the iPhone. The contact is very important. Now I'm want to only recover lost contacts from iTunes backup. Anyone could help me to recover lost iPhone contacts?”

- Question from Apple Communities

Contacts on the iPhone might be lost. Many factors can cause your iPhone contacts to be deleted, including accidental deletion, iOS update failure, iPhone damage, or even iPhone loss, as experienced by the above user.

Contacts may be easily restored using iCloud. But if you have already made an iTunes backup, it’s easy to restore contacts from iTunes backup to iPhone. Using iTunes backup to restore iPhone contacts has one disadvantage that you need to restore the entire iTunes backup to the iPhone not only contacts to cover all existing data on your iPhone.

Where are contacts stored in iTunes backup

When you use iTunes' Backups function to back up an iPhone, all data and settings are immediately saved as a backup copy on your computer. For Mac users, go to the /Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ folder to find iTunes backup.

Users on Windows can locate the iTunes backup folder by going to \Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\.

Please keep in mind that an iPhone backup is merely an archived data file and you cannot get access to the iTunes backup to preview your contacts or other detailed iPhone data.

How to restore contacts from iTunes backup to iPhone

It is quite simple to restore contacts from iTunes backup. Simply follow three simple steps to learn how to restore contacts from iTunes backup to iPhone.

Note: All current data saved on your Apple Device will be deleted and replaced by iTunes backup contents such as photographs, movies, messages, notes, calendar, settings, and so on with this method.

Therefore, if you are willing to accept this drawback, then follow the steps below to learn how to recover lost or deleted contacts from iTunes backup.

Step 1. Launch iTunes and connect your iPhone to the computer which has stored the iTunes backup.

recover-data-via-itunes

Step 2. Click the devices icon and then click “Restore Backup” under the Backups menu.

choose-a-backup

Step 3. Select the latest iTunes backup according to the iPhone name in the popup window and click “Restore”. Wait for the iTunes backup restore process to complete, and you will get all your contacts back.

However, nothing is perfect — recovering lost contacts from iPhone backups using iTunes works by executing an all-or-nothing deal, which overwrites the existing data on iPhone and restores everything from the backup. How to restore lost or deleted contacts without iTunes backup or backup & restore iPhone contacts separately?

How to restore lost or deleted contacts without iTunes backup

If you deleted or lost contacts accidentally and want to find them back without iTunes backup, MyRecover for iOS could be the best choice for you. It helps you to recover lost or deleted iPhone data with cutting-edge technics and fast speed.

As a professional iPhone data recovery software, MyRecover for iOS could recover 10 types of iPhone lost data with ease, including photos, videos, contacts, notes, voice memos, reminders, call history, WeChat history, and so on.

Download Software iOS 10 and later
Secure Download

Step 1. Download and install MyRecover for iOS on your computer. And then connect your iPhone to the computer with a lightning cable.

connect-ios-device

Step 2. Tap “Trust the computer” on your iPhone and then click “Scan Now” to start the scanning process.

scan-now

Step 3. Wait for the scanning process to complete. Select the contacts you want to restore and then click “Recover”.

click-recover

How to back up & restore iPhone contacts only

If you only want to back up contacts and restore iPhone contacts, you could try FoneTool to select the data you want to back up. FoneTool, as a free iPhone backup tool, assists users in backing up photos, music, videos, contacts, and messages selectively or full backup and restoring at a fast speed.

Step 1. Download and install FoneTool on your computer. Click “Custom Backup”.

mb-custom-backup

Step 2. Connect your iPhone with the computer and then tap “Trust the computer”. Tick "Contacts" only or other iPhone data. You could select the contacts you want to back up.

select-contacts

Step 3. Set “Backup to storage path” and then click “Start Backup”.

mb-custom-backup-click-start-backup

The bottom line

It’s easy to restore contacts from iTunes backup to iPhone by following the steps above. Just a few clicks to get your contacts from an iTunes backup file back. If iTunes cannot restore iPhone from backup, or you only want to recover iPhone contacts, you could try MyRecover for iOS to retrieve lost contacts without iTunes backup.

Lora
Lora · Editor
Lora is an editor of AOMEI Technology. She is also a tester and editor of AOMEI Data Recovery Tools. -- "Keep testing, write the most useful tutorials for helping people recover the lost data for Windows and phones" is the most meaningful thing for her. Dedicated to creating helpful tutorials, she hopes her tutorial can assist users to effortlessly solve data loss problems on their personal computers and mobile phones.