Ultimate Guide to Backup Contacts to iCloud

Part 1: How to backup contacts to iCloud?

This usually happens automatically if you are using iCloud. You might only need to ensure that it has been updated as new contacts are added to your address book. However, if you don’t already use iCloud these are the steps to be taken:

I. In settings go to your Apple id.

II. Select “iCloud”, it appears on the second part of the menu.

III. You will see a list of apps that use iCloud, that is, that have their data constantly backed up on iCloud. If you have just begun using iCloud you can select the apps that should be backed up.

IV. Select “Merge”, if the option appears. This backs up all existing contacts onto iCloud. You don’t need to do this separately across all your devices. iCloud acts as a repository for all your contacts across all Apple devices.

Part 2: How to manage contacts backed up to iCloud?

As mentioned above updating this list of contacts from time to time is vital. A lot of times, redundant data which should be deleted remains on the list. The following steps need to be taken to manage your contacts.

Deleting contacts from iCloud: This refers to the ordinary way of deleting contacts from your address book. Once deleted from the address book the changes reflect in your iCloud account as well. There are 2 ways to delete contacts:

I. Select the contact that you want to delete and press “delete” on your keyboard. A dialogue box appears and you have to select “Delete”.

II. Alternatively, you can choose to “Edit” the contact. At the base of the Edit page, you will find the option “Delete contact”, select it.

Adding contacts to iCloud: This too just requires changes to be made in the address book. They will automatically reflect on the iCloud account. To add a contact, the following steps should be followed:

I. In your address book, click the ‘+’ sign.

II. Enter the relevant details of the new contact. Sometimes the same contact may have more than one number/email id. Don’t add information relating to an existing contact under a newone. You can just link additional information to existing contacts. This helps reduce redundancy.

III. Click “Done”.

IV. To change the order in which your contacts appear, select the cog that appears on the left-hand side.

V. Here, select “Preferences”. Choose the preferred order you want the contacts to appear in and click “Save”.

Creating or deleting a group: Creating groups allows you to club contacts depending on your interaction with them. It also helps in sending messages to many people at once. The following steps enable you to do the same:

I. Click the “+” sign and add a new group.

II. To delete a group, select “Edit” and choose “Delete”

Adding contacts to the groups: After you have decided what groups there are going to be, you have to classify your contacts into these groups. To add people from your contact list to a group:

I. Select “All contacts” in your list of groups and then click the “+” sign.

II. All your contacts appear. You can drag and drop contacts into whatever groups you find suitable.

III. Hold down the Command key to select multiple contacts at a time and drop them into the right group.

Part 3: Restore iCloud contacts to iPhone selectively

Dr.Fone - Data Recovery (iOS) is a hassle-free software that comes in handy when you accidentally delete relevant data. While other methods also help you restore contacts, you are required to download voluminous files and have a duplicate copy of your entire contacts list, when all you needed was probably a single contact. With Dr.Fone you can easily select the specific contact. The following steps help you do the same:

I. Using a computer, go to the Dr.Fone website. Download and run Dr.Fone. Select Data Recovery, and then you will see “Recover from iCloud Synced File”, select it and then sign in with your iCloud id and password.

Note: Due to the limitation of iCloud synced files. now you can recover iCloud synced files including contacts, Videos, Photos, Note and Reminder. 

II. iCloud synced files are automatically detected. You will see several files, choose the one you want to restore contacts from.

III. After the particular file is selected you have to download it. You can choose to only download Contacts by selecting the same in a pop-up window. This saves time as only contacts and not all data of the phone will be downloaded.

IV. The downloaded file will be scanned. You can peruse each contact in the contact list and select the ones you want to restore.

V. After selection, click “Recover”.