You’re a parent and your life is ultra-busy, but your kid(s) just deleted all of your contacts on your iPhone when they got bored of playing the new developmental game app on the iOS App Store. Maybe you aren’t a parent, but by some freak accident, your contacts app is now completely blank and waiting patiently for you to enter your first friend’s phone number. It’s a scenario that has happened to the best of us, but it is by no means the end of the world. One thing that can certainly be said about Apple products: they just work, no understanding necessary!
Just like us consumers, Apple has come a long way. The richest company on the face of planet Earth has developed its iCloud services to the point that previous meltdowns over losing your 1000 contacts and appointments over the next 6 months are a thing of the past. I dare say, if you have an iOS or MacOS device, you mustturn on all iCloud services and make the $0.99 (or better yet $2.99) per month purchase to upgrade your storage.
What does this do? You see, the iCloud service is something that requires an Internet connection, but it saves all of your contacts, calendar events, photos, videos, reminders, notes, bookmarks, Safari passwords, and more to Apple’s remote server storage. What does this mean to you? It means that if the information that gets saved to your iCloud account is deleted from your iPhone, it is still available on Apple’s servers. There are much more expensive services that can recover your data which was only saved to your iPhone, but why waste time and money when you could have just used the very user friendly and very secure iCloud in the first place?
So, how do you recover those contacts from the iCloud that were once fully and blessedly stored on your trusty iPhone? Well, read on and all shall be revealed!
Make Sure Your iCloud Service is Still Turned On
First thing’s first. Did the “Contacts” service on your iCloud get turned off? On your iPhone, go to the Settings app (the grey one with the gears). From there (if you are using iOS 11), scroll down to “Accounts & Passwords”. Then, click on “iCloud”. Then, check to make sure that the little ‘switch’ across from “Contacts” is green with the white, circular ‘switch’ towards the right side. If it is not, then go ahead and tap on it. If it asks you to “merge contacts”, go ahead and do so. If your contacts do not come back (give it 5 minutes) or if the ‘switch’ was already green, then read on.
Login to iCloud.com
From your desktop or laptop computer, go onto your favorite browser and go the address icloud.com. Once the page loads, type in your AppleID – this will be an email address associated with your Apple account – and password. If you have two-step authentication turned on (recommended), you will have to tap “allow” and a 6-digit code will pop up on your iPhone that you will have to type into the prompt on your browser (click “OK” on your phone afterwards).
Restore iCloud Data
Once you are logged in, click on the “Settings” app on your Internet browser (such as Safari). From there, scroll down until you see the “Advanced” section. Click on “Restore Contacts”. A new small window will pop up which will prompt you to select from a previously saved version of your contacts. Go ahead and choose the one with the most recent date (or an older date if the most recent was after your contacts got deleted) by clicking on the “Restore” word to the right of the date. Go ahead and click the “Restore” ‘button’. From there, just give it about 5 to 10 minutes of Internet connection on your iPhone (restart/power down your iPhone for good measure), and you’ll have your contacts back like magic! You can also restore files, calendars and reminders, and bookmarks saved in iCloud with this method – if you didn’t notice!
Final Thoughts
If you think about it, this service provided by Apple is pretty top notch. However, look forward to it improving in the future. Before you know it, you’ll be able to simply ask Siri to restore your contacts or other iPhone data.
Just like us consumers, Apple has come a long way. The richest company on the face of planet Earth has developed its iCloud services to the point that previous meltdowns over losing your 1000 contacts and appointments over the next 6 months are a thing of the past. I dare say, if you have an iOS or MacOS device, you mustturn on all iCloud services and make the $0.99 (or better yet $2.99) per month purchase to upgrade your storage.
What does this do? You see, the iCloud service is something that requires an Internet connection, but it saves all of your contacts, calendar events, photos, videos, reminders, notes, bookmarks, Safari passwords, and more to Apple’s remote server storage. What does this mean to you? It means that if the information that gets saved to your iCloud account is deleted from your iPhone, it is still available on Apple’s servers. There are much more expensive services that can recover your data which was only saved to your iPhone, but why waste time and money when you could have just used the very user friendly and very secure iCloud in the first place?
So, how do you recover those contacts from the iCloud that were once fully and blessedly stored on your trusty iPhone? Well, read on and all shall be revealed!
Make Sure Your iCloud Service is Still Turned On
First thing’s first. Did the “Contacts” service on your iCloud get turned off? On your iPhone, go to the Settings app (the grey one with the gears). From there (if you are using iOS 11), scroll down to “Accounts & Passwords”. Then, click on “iCloud”. Then, check to make sure that the little ‘switch’ across from “Contacts” is green with the white, circular ‘switch’ towards the right side. If it is not, then go ahead and tap on it. If it asks you to “merge contacts”, go ahead and do so. If your contacts do not come back (give it 5 minutes) or if the ‘switch’ was already green, then read on.
Login to iCloud.com
From your desktop or laptop computer, go onto your favorite browser and go the address icloud.com. Once the page loads, type in your AppleID – this will be an email address associated with your Apple account – and password. If you have two-step authentication turned on (recommended), you will have to tap “allow” and a 6-digit code will pop up on your iPhone that you will have to type into the prompt on your browser (click “OK” on your phone afterwards).
Restore iCloud Data
Once you are logged in, click on the “Settings” app on your Internet browser (such as Safari). From there, scroll down until you see the “Advanced” section. Click on “Restore Contacts”. A new small window will pop up which will prompt you to select from a previously saved version of your contacts. Go ahead and choose the one with the most recent date (or an older date if the most recent was after your contacts got deleted) by clicking on the “Restore” word to the right of the date. Go ahead and click the “Restore” ‘button’. From there, just give it about 5 to 10 minutes of Internet connection on your iPhone (restart/power down your iPhone for good measure), and you’ll have your contacts back like magic! You can also restore files, calendars and reminders, and bookmarks saved in iCloud with this method – if you didn’t notice!
Final Thoughts
If you think about it, this service provided by Apple is pretty top notch. However, look forward to it improving in the future. Before you know it, you’ll be able to simply ask Siri to restore your contacts or other iPhone data.
