[Definitive Guide]How to Restore Contacts on iPhone/Android Phone [2021 Update]
Last Updated on December 8, 2020 by Jason BenThe Last Article You Need to Read About: Contact Backup (to iPhone, iCloud, Gmail, Android, Computer), Recover Contact (from iPhone, iCloud, Android), Don’t Miss it.
Social communication is the social interaction between people and people, is the use of a certain way (tools) to convey information, exchange of ideas to achieve an intended purpose of the social activities. Nowadays, rapid changes in the economic and social environment make the contact between people more important. Because only continuous communication and information exchange with various of entities, can enrich ourselves, develop ourselves and expand ourselves.
You want to communicate with others, you must have contact first. In the ancient past, people get contact by yelling “Hairy buddy, WOW!”, “Ah, here”, “Go Hunt”. That works most of the time.
However, Sometimes, they just lose contact due to a remote distance or faucitis.
Boom! In a flash, people get telegram, then they get telephone, then they get cellphone. And Bang! They get iPhone and Android Phone. People prefer to communicate with others via text message, Messenger, WhatsApp, Line or email, so they save contacts to their phone or other IM app. “It is so convenient, we don’t have to yell and we get contact with people more than Dunbar’s number”, they said.
1 How to Save Contacts to iPhone/Android Phone
To add contact to iPhone or Android Phone is extremely easy, what you got to do is just launch contacts application on your phone and tap in a new contact.
Add New Contact on iPhone
Add New Contact on Android Phone
2 How to Save Contacts to Google Contacts (Gmail)/iCloud
Save contacts online is a good way for people that want to share the same contact list over various devices. If you save contact on Google Contacts, then your contact list will be synced to Android devices and Gmail.
If you save contact on iCloud, then your contact list will be in all your iOS device simultaneously. Every time you add, import, delete or change contact, all terminal device will get the latest version, which is quite convenient for people that have more than one device.
It happens if you store contact list with multiple services like Gmail, Facebook and Outlook at the same time and when you want to merge them to one contact list such as iPhone Contacts, duplicate contacts are listed there and annoying you like a baddy.
If you just got a few duplicate contacts, you’d better remove them manually. Just seat tight and be patient.
But!
What if you got tremendously huge number of duplicate contacts and you don’t want to have your finger get blister? You need better solutions.
1 Remove duplicate contacts on Android phone or Gmail
To merge duplicate contacts in Google Contacts is super easy.
Step 1 Login to Google Contacts
Login Google Contacts
Step 2 Click over Duplicates at the top-Left
Google Contacts > Duplicates
Step 3 Select to merge contacts
Merge Contacts
More information about Google Contact, Check it at: Gmail Help > Contacts
2 Remove duplicate contacts on iCloud
Make duplicate contacts disappeared on iCloud, read this support page on Apple Support and follow the instructions. You will also see operations to do that on Mac and Windows PC. Changes you make appear automatically wherever you sign in with iCloud Account. Your contact list on iPhone will be kept current without connect the device to computer.
Every time you start using a new service/device, you need to import contacts from previous service/device.
It is easy usually. But it can be a tough job that might get you drowned, especially when the terminations between which you want to transfer contacts are isolated from each other, such as iPhone and Android Phone.
1 Transfer Contacts from iPhone to Android Phone
It is just a piece of cake to copy contacts between different iPhones or between different Android Phones. Meanwhile transferring data between these two mobile systems is complicated.
Use Share Contact option on iPhone Contacts to move a few contacts only is feasible. Launch Contacts app and select the specific contact you want to share and swipe down, choose to share via either Message or Email. If you choose to share with Mail, you will receive a vCard file. Then you just need to put the vCard to your Android Phone and import it in the settings. But if you have a lot to move, you’d better abandon this method.
Export from iCloud to vCard and VCF
Since contacts on iPhone and iCloud are kept in the same copy by syncing, so if you have added Contacts app to APPS USING ICLOUD list (See how to do that), you can export all contacts from iCloud.com and import them to your Android Phone.
Let’s see how we can do that.
Step 1 Go to iCloud.com via computer browser.
Step 2 Select contacts that you need or select all contact by click over the gear icon and click Select ALL.
Step 3 Click over Export vCard, you will download a VCF file on your computer.
Step 4 Copy the VCF file to your Android phone (internal storage or SD card).
Step 5 Go to the setting of your Android phone contacts and import contact from VCF file.
If you have logged in google account on your phone, you can import the VCF file to Google Contacts and the list will be downloaded from Google cloud service.
2 Transfer Contacts from Android Phone to iPhone
Method 1 Using vCard
As we know that iCloud Contacts supports to import vCard to transfer contacts from other sources. Taking that into consideration, the first job to do is to get vCard from Android. The luck thing is that almost all android phones support to export all contacts to vCard in Contact Settings. So, what you need to do is find out contact settings and export all contacts to vCard. When you’ve done the work, a VCF file is stored to your device. Copy that file to your computer, Open iCloud.com, Login with your Apple ID and Import the file. Dada! Done.
If your contacts are all in our Google Contacts(same as Gmail) or your Android phone is broken or lost, you can try to export vCard from your Google Contacts：
Step 1 Go to Google Contacts and Login with your Google Account.
Step 2 Select all contacts, click more button on the top menu and select Export.
Then just import the file to your iCloud or just send it via email to your iPhone.
Method 2 Using Google Account
Step 1 To use Google Account to sync your contact list to iPhone, you need to make sure that your contacts list on Google Contacts are update to date. You can do that by backing up contacts to Google.
Step 2 Add your Google Account to iPhone by go to Settings > Contacts > Account > Add Account. Just Tap in your Google Account.
Step 3 With that done, you contact list will be displayed on your iPhone, if not, go to enable the syncing.
Method 3 Using SIM card
When people using non-smart phone then save contacts on sim card, so both iPhone and Android Phone support to import contacts from SIM card, while only Android phone supports to export contacts to SIM which means we can use SIM card to do the delivery job.
Step 1 Export contacts to SIM in your Android phone.
Step 2 Swift the SIM card from Android phone to the new iPhone.
Step 3 Go to Settings > Contacts > Import SIM card Contacts.
1 Restore contacts for iPhone
If you have reinstalled your iOS or factory setting your iPhone, you will find that all your data have been removed. Or you just lost your iPhone. For any reasons that you want to restore contacts, you need to take your head above water first and try to recall that whether you have backup contacts to iCloud/iTunes or not. If you have, then things will be very easy. But if you haven’t. It will be a little up in the air.
Let’s see how to restore contacts from iCloud.
- If you want to restore contact back to iPhone (previous one or new one), you just need to login iCloud with your Apple ID when setting up iPhone (or just enable iCloud sync in settings).
- If you want to restore contact to computer or an android phone, you can find more details above How to transfer contacts.
- If you haven’t backed up contacts to iCloud, try to Recover Deleted Contact from Device.
2 Restore contacts for Android phone
To restore contacts for Android phone is just like restoring for iPhone. But you need Google account instead of iCloud account. You can restore contacts back to phone or to computer in vCard formats. It is only feasible if you have backed up contacts to Google. But if you haven’t go to Restore Deleted Contacts as below.
3 Restore Deleted/Lost Contacts
What if you accidentally lost or delete some contacts without backup to iCloud or Google Contacts? In this case, it is impossible for you to recover those contact from backup. What you can do is to scan your device and try to retrieve them back before they are replaced by other data. What you need is iPhone Data Recovery or Android Data Recovery.
How to recover deleted contacts with iPhone Data Recovery
Step 1 Download iPhone Data Recovery(Windows/Mac) and install it to your computer (make sure that your computer has the latest iTunes).Step 2 Launch the program and connect your iPhone to computer.
Step 3 Once iPhone is detected, select to recover from device and start to scan.
Step 4 It might take you some time. When it done, preview and select contacts to recover.
How to recover deleted contacts with Android Data Recovery
Just like what I say as above, you need to Download Android Data Recovery(Windows/Mac) and install it. Connect your Android phone to computer and follow the wizard guide. You will get your contacts back.
1 Backup contact list to computer in vCard(VCF)
Export contacts to vCard from iCloud Contacts, Google Contacts and even Android Phone is super easy. Just follow the steps as we list in Transfer Contacts and put the VCF file to your computer and keep it in a safe folder.
2 Backup contact list to Google Contacts
As you have a VCF file, you can upload it to Google Contacts or just set up to sync contacts to Google in your android devices.
3 Backup contact list to iCloud
As you have a VCF file, you can upload it to iCloud or just set up contact syncing to iCloud.
4 Backup iPhone contact list to iTunes
If you are an iPhone user, you can choose to backup all iPhone data to computer with iTunes Backup. But the backup file is not reviewable.
5 One Click to backup all phone data to computer
Another alternative to back up all phone data to computer is data backup &restore application. It is available on Mac and Windows and supports iPhone and Android.
Free Download
- For iPhone Users: Windows/Mac
- For Android Users: Windows/Mac
For more information, you can turn to How to Backup Contacts on iPhone.