How to get my contacts back?

[Subjective-C]

I upgraded my dad's iPhone 4S to iPhone SE a couple of weeks ago. Now that he has the new iPhone SE, he thought he could delete his contacts on his 4S. So he did, now his contacts in iCloud is empty, and then to his surprise his iPhone SE's contact list has also become empty because he does not know how the whole iCloud thing works.

Fortunately, I do have a backup of his iPhone 4S in iTunes which I did a couple of weeks ago when setting up his new iPhone SE. So, I performed a restore from the backup via iTunes. All good, his contact list is back! Unfortunately, as soon as he logins to his iCloud on the new iPhone SE, contacts becomes empty.

I understand because the iOS system is sync'ing with the iCloud where the contacts is indeed empty.

So, what is the solution? I do not want to manually enter the contact list into the iPhone SE. Any idea? Thanks.

 

[wacky4alanis]

Since he doesn't know how iCloud backup works, it seems like it is doing more harm than good. You could just turn it off...

 

[Subjective-C]

Since he doesn't know how iCloud backup works, it seems like it is doing more harm than good. You could just turn it off...

Are you suggesting there is no way to get the contacts back on the phone even though I have an iphone backup in iTunes?

 

[wacky4alanis]

No - I don't use iCloud myself, so I have no clue how to solve your problem (other than what I already said). Hopefully there is a way. Good luck!

 

[Subjective-C]

No - I don't use iCloud myself, so I have no clue how to solve your problem (other than what I already said). Hopefully there is a way. Good luck!

Thx. Anyone else? Any suggestion? Thx.

 

[C DM]

Thx. Anyone else? Any suggestion? Thx.

You can potentially restore from the backup with contacts being there and then perhaps backup contacts separately (there are some apps for that or it could be done via iTunes I believe) and then use that backup to import contacts into iCloud using the iCloud website at http://www.icloud.com and hopefully that will make the contacts stay.

 

[844957]

Can't you just restore the new phone from 4s backup

That or signout of icloud on the new phone, restore the 4s and sign in to iclould. check online to see if the contacts are updated and sign back in on the new phone

 

[rjcchan]

Restore from iTunes after signing out from icloud. when you sign in to icloud again it should ask whether you want to synch contacts. Say no. then if you want to use icloud to synch contacts, you can flip the switch in settings and it should ask whether you want to merge. I believe yes is the correct answer. I had a similar problem. As I recall that is how i solved it.

 

[alex.houston]

I upgraded my dad's iPhone 4S to iPhone SE a couple of weeks ago. Now that he has the new iPhone SE, he thought he could delete his contacts on his 4S. So he did, now his contacts in iCloud is empty, and then to his surprise his iPhone SE's contact list has also become empty because he does not know how the whole iCloud thing works.

Fortunately, I do have a backup of his iPhone 4S in iTunes which I did a couple of weeks ago when setting up his new iPhone SE. So, I performed a restore from the backup via iTunes. All good, his contact list is back! Unfortunately, as soon as he logins to his iCloud on the new iPhone SE, contacts becomes empty.

I understand because the iOS system is sync'ing with the iCloud where the contacts is indeed empty.

So, what is the solution? I do not want to manually enter the contact list into the iPhone SE. Any idea? Thanks.

It should be possible to restore deleted contacts by logging into the icloud.com on your computer and using "Restore Contacts" option in the Settings app on icloud. See the article "How to Recover Files, Contacts, Calendars and Reminders in iCloud" https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/recover-files-contacts-calendars-in-icloud/