How to Restore iPhone iPad Contacts from iTunes (Backup)

Contacts on the iPhone can disappear for many reasons, such as mistaken deletion, iOS upgrade, device crash or damage, etc. It is relatively easy to restore contacts with iCloud. However, if you don’t rely on iCloud and have got backups of your iPhone with iTunes, it is also possible to restore iPhone contacts. But you should know that iTunes won’t allow you to restore ONLY contacts from the backup and it will wipe the existing data on your iPhone.

What if you want to restore JUST contacts from the backup? In this guide, we will show you how to restore only contacts from iTunes backup without wipe any current data on your iPhone. Absolutely, we will also offer you a tutorial about how to restore contacts from iTunes backup in a traditional way. Let’s get it started!

How to Restore ONLY Contacts from iTunes Backup without Erasing

There are quite a lot of options around you can have to restore certain contacts from iTunes backup. In this part, 2 of them are recommended as both of them are good at data backup and restore with ease. Let’s take a look.

#1. PhoneTrans – Restore Contacts from iTunes Backup in Clicks

PhoneTrans is a professional phone switcher. It helps switch data between different devices. Besides transferring data, PhoneTrans provides several options to keep data safe. You can back up data with PhoneTrans, also, restore the typical data from iTunes backups, iCloud backups, and Google Account, etc.

You can follow the steps below to restore only the contacts from iTunes backups.

Step 1. Go to the official page and download the latest PhoneTrans. Also, you should connect your iPhone iPad to the computer with a USB cable.

Step 2. Choose Phone Restore and tap on iTunes Backup. And then click on Start Restore to go on.

Step 3. With its instructions, you will see there are several data you can choose to restore from iTunes backup. Now choose Contacts and tap Restore now to go on.

Seconds later, you will see all the contacts have been restored from iTunes to your iPhone iPad.

#2. PhoneRescue for iOS  – The Best Recovery Tool to Restore Contacts from iTunes Backups

To restore only contacts from iTunes backup, you have to take advantage of some powerful iTunes backup extraction tool. And here we highly recommend PhoneRescue for iOS, which can compensate for the limitations of iTunes.

1. Don’t need to erase anything on your iPhone before restoring. All your previous data will be kept 100% secure.
2. Allow you to restore only contacts from iTunes backup.
3. Enable you to preview the iTunes backup files in advance so that you can choose the right backup that stores your wanted contacts.
4. Support you to selectively extract contacts from iTunes (backup). That’s to say you can choose the contacts you prefer to restore.

PhoneRescue for iOS is compatible with all the models of the iPhone iPad and iPod touch, including the latest iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro (Max). And it also supports both Windows and Mac operating systems. Now, Free Download PhoneRescue for iOS on your computer prior (or click the Download button below), and then follow the steps below to restore only contacts from your iTunes backup.

Step 1. Open PhoneRescue for iOS > Select Recover from Backup > Click on Right Arrow.

Step 2. Select the backup that contains the contacts you want to extract, then only tick Contacts and click on OK to scan contacts in your backup.

Step 3. Preview and select the contacts you want to restore > Click on the To Device button to get them to your iPhone directly; also you can click on the To Computer button to download them to the computer.

Method 2. How to Restore Contacts from iTunes Backup with iTunes

With this method, all the current data on your iDevice will be lost and replaced by the contents in backup like photos, videos, messages, notes, calendar, settings, etc. If you want to keep current data safe and restore only contacts from iTunes backup, please move to method 1.

Step 1. Run iTunes and connect your iPhone to the computer.

Step 2. Right-click your iPhone under the Devices list and click Restore Backup…

Step 3. Select the latest backup entry appearing under the most recent date and click the “Restore” button.

The Bottom Line

PhoneRescue manages to recover your contacts and other types of media data and personal info. Besides, you can also download iCloud backup and recover data with PhoneRescue for iOS, such as messages, voice memos, photos, videos, WhatsApp chat history, etc. Any question or comment about this article or PhoneRescue is welcomed. Meanwhile, don’t forget to share this article with your friends. Now Download PhoneRescue for iOS to Start free trial >