+10 votes
4.2k views
in IOS by (2.1k points)
Knocked accidentally several contacts from my iPhone 4S and I forgot to back them up with iTunes. Now I need to urgently recover, but I have heard that there is no way to recover a deleted except through iPhone backup data. Is that true? Can I retrieve data from the device itself without an iTunes backup?Please help! Thanks in advance. 
 
Is there any way to recover the iPhone 4S contacts from the device itself? 
 
The belief that there is no way to retrieve data from iPhone without iTunes backup is totally wrong. And although because of the special technology used in iOS devices is difficult to retrieve data directly from the iPhone, is not impossible. There is a program that allows you to recover 5s/5c/5/4S/4/3GS iPhone contacts without backup files to iTunes or iCloud backup.
by
I guess this is what you could do if someone you know could recover iPhone contacts:-
 
1. Get an iPhone and take a backup of the same on your system - use iTunes to do that;
2. Now (this is really critical and follow it at your own risk) log into your iCloud account on the phone and restore that phone while pointing to the iCloud backup. In this was you will have all of the iCloud data in that phone;

3. Now use another computer (or at least another user account on the same computer) to take a backup of the phone with your data - don't use the same account as every time iTunes takes a backup of your phone, it overwrites the previous one. So you risk a chance of loosing the data which originally came with the phone;

4. Get a FonePaw iPhone Data Recovery software and install it on the computer which has your data backed up.

I hope this will help you!

11 Answers

+8 votes
by (18.3k points)

Steps to retrieve iPhone contacts without backup

 

1. Connect your iPhone to PC 
 
First of all, connect your iPhone to PC, then run Wondershare Dr.Fone for iOS. There are 3 modes available recovery: Recover from your iOS device, Recovering from iTunes Backup and Restore from iCloud backup. Just choose the default selection. 
 
This is what you see when you connect your iPhone 4/3GS. You can choose to go to "Advanced Mode" for further exploration for iPhone. Just click on the button at the lower right corner.
 
2 . Scans your iPhone looking for deleted contacts
 
If you use the iPhone 5s/5c/5/4S , you can click directly on the " Start Scan " after connecting the device. Then the program starts scanning your iPhone 5/4S looking for deleted contacts in it.
 
Hold your iPhone and click the "Start " button.
Press the Power and Home buttons at the same time the iPhone for exactly 10 seconds. The program will count the time for you .
After 10 seconds have passed , immediately release the Power button but keep pressing the Home button . After 10 seconds , it will inform you that you've successfully logged into the system, you can stop pressing the Home button .
When the program begins to analyze the iPhone contacts looking out a window like the following will be displayed.
 
To retrieve the contacts , select the square in front of contacts and click the Retrieve button, then you can save content on your computer. If needed you can also save the rest of the data.
 
3. Preview and recover deleted contacts on iPhone 
 
After the analysis, you can preview all the information by Wondershare Dr.Fone for iOS. Select "Contacts" category on the left side and you can preview all your contacts out as you can see below, including details thereof such as name, mailing address, and more. 
 
Note: The data found and shown here include those that you have on the iPhone now. If you only want to retrieve the contacts out of it, slide the button at the top of the window to the "deleted items only." Then, mark them and recover them.

 

+8 votes
by (160 points)
edited by

A good way to recover deleted contacts, call history from iPhone is to use a good iPhone data recovery program—iPubsoft iPhone Backup Extractor, here's a step by step iPhone recovery guide that helped me last time.

How to retrieve the deleted contact on iphone ?

+9 votes
by
edited by

Actually, If you have synced your iPhone to iTunes constantly on computer, the iTunes can automatically back up your iPhone contacts and update it every time when you sync it. So it is possible for you recover contacts from iTunes backup without iPhone. However,all you need is a iPhone contact recovery program.This iStonsoft iPhone Backup Extractor can help you extract your contacts from the iTunes backup when you lost your iPhone.

+14 votes
by (220 points)
edited by
Feel free to read this guide about "how to retrieve contacts from iPhone".

I hope it helps.
+11 votes
by (570 points)
edited by
It is hard to say you can recover them or not. You had better to try to use a iphone data recovery tool.

Recover Lost Contacts from iPhone 4/4s/5 without iTunes Backup
+6 votes
by
edited by
To restore deleted iPhone contacts without itunes backup, you can directly scan and recover contacts from iPhone in a simple way.
The steps of directly scan and recover contacts from iPhone:
a) Connect your iPhone to the computer
b) Enter DFU mode and scan iPhone
c) Preview and recover iPhone contacts
+12 votes
by
To recover deleted contacts from iPhone without backup:
1.Select the device to scan
2.Enter the DFU mode and then scan your iPhone 4
Hold your iPhone and click "Start".
Press "Home" and "Power" button at the same time when you click "Start", and hold for 10 seconds. The program will count it for you.
After 10 seconds passing, release "Power" and keep pressing "Home" for another 10 seconds.
3.Preview and recover deleted iPhone data, including contacts.
+14 votes
by
edited by
Hey,

You have many ways to recover deleted contacts from iPhone.

1. using Gmail account. If you have all your contacts in your gamil or other email account. I think you can find them back from them.

Hope you can find back your contacts easily.
+13 votes
by
If you don't back up your datas in iCloud,you can try measures below:

1.To ensure the contacts have not been deleted for long,if you deleted it a long time without back up in iCloud,sorry,It is hard to retrive your contacts

2.If you don't want to take so much time to do the recovery job, one click to do all the job would be a perfect way. Check  the iMyfone iPhone Data Recovery tool which could make  messages and contacts recovery much easier. Just follow the steps, you can do the work by only several clicks.
+14 votes
by
edited by anonymous

I think you can download an recovery tool, some of them can help restore many kinds of files from various devices.  Search for mobikin doctor for ios, it can help you. Recover Deleted Contacts from iPhone

+14 votes
by
With Coolmuster iPhone Data Recovery to recover iPhone data .Three steps to complete the operation process:1. Connect your iPhone device .2. Scan your device or backup files for free 3.Preview and save your data
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