How To Clear All Contacts At Once From iPhone Or iPad
iPhone and iPad users sometimes make the mistake of mass deleting all their contacts and other personal information before passing the device on instead of restoring it to factory settings. This is especially common if the user is just handing the iPhone or iPad over to another family member, but it also happens when the device is being sold.
In order to protect your privacy and avoid the complications that come from sharing an Apple ID with another person, you will need to not only erase all your contacts from your iPhone or iPad, but you will also need to sign out of iCloud completely and erase all your data from the iPhone or iPad completely by restoring the device to its factory settings.
If you are planning to hand the cleared device over to a family member and want to be able to share App Store and iTunes purchases, you can do that by setting up Family Sharing, which allows you to share purchases while having separate Apple IDs.
Using Your Mac Or Windows Computer
This method involves using iCloud to delete unwanted contacts and can be used on either a Windows or Mac computer employing a slightly different procedure.
On a Mac:
Changes made in iCloud will be synced to your iPhone, eliminating all those contacts you no longer want or need.
How To Delete All Contacts On iPhone 7 In Settings
Before we start, itâs highly recommended to backup your iPhone contacts for this will wipe all your contacts from your iPhone 7/7 Plus. To delete all contacts from iPhone 7 or iOS 10 with iCloud syncing:
Step 1. Go to Setting on your iPhone, and go to iCloud.
Step 2. When you see Contacts option, just tap it to turn it off.
Step 3. When a window pops up and tap on âDelete from My iPhoneâ.
How to Delete All Contacts on iOS 10 in Settings
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What Is The Fastest Way To Clean Up Contacts On iPhone
When it comes to default options, there is no fastest way to clean up contacts on iPhone. iOS doesnt allow deleting multiple contacts from iPhone unless youre using an iCloud or third-party app called Groups. With the default Contacts app on iPhone, you can only delete single contact at a time.
Ive already mentioned all three ways to delete the contacts on iPhone: using the default Contacts app, using iCloud on the web browser, and using a third-party app called Groups.
Furthermore, when you disable the contacts from the account on iPhone, iPhone wont store contacts from that particular account, which is also mentioned in the above section.
Solution : Recover iPhone Contacts From A Backup File
Frankly speaking, this method is applicative if you lost all data on your iPhone. Otherwise the backup files will replace the existing data on your iPhone. You can read this post: Restore your iPhone from a backup to get the specific steps.
Obviously, the above two methods can assist you to get your deleted contacts back. But, there are some limitations: both of them dont give you the right to choose the ones you want to recover. However, sometimes you dont need to recover all contacts in the backup.
In addition, when you restore your iPhone contacts from a iTunes or iCloud backup file, the selected iTunes or iCloud backup will replace all the current data on your iPhone, which is really unnecessary most of the time unless you lost all your data.
You might be wondering: Is there another method which can break these limitations?
The answer is YES!
The demands for restoring iPhone contacts as well as other types of data are increasing. So, some free iPhone data recovery software has merged as remedy tools.
Among all this software, MiniTool Mobile Recovery for iOS is an outstanding representative. Move on to the next solution to get the details.
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Set Up Your Contacts Account
You can set up your email accounts to share contacts with the Contacts app. If you have a contacts account, like a business or school directory, you can set that up too. Here’s how:
If you have multiple accounts set up in the Contacts app and want to see contacts for a specific one, open Contacts and tap Groups in the upper-left corner.
How To Delete Individual Contacts On iPhone 7
Of course you can directly delete contacts on iPhone 7/7 Plus or any iOS 10 device, but it would be a tedious work if you want to remove multiple or all contacts from iPhone. Thatâs because your iPhone only allows you to delete contacts one by one and there is no checkbox to select all or multiple items. To delete individual contacts on iPhone 7 or iOS 10, follow the steps with pic below:
Step 1. Open the Contacts app on your iPhone 7 or iOS 10 device.
Step 2. Find the contact you want to delete from iPhone, and tap on the âEditâ option at the upper right.
Step 3. Scroll down and you will see the âDelete Contactâ section, just tap on it. Confirm that you want to delete the contact from your iPhone.
How to Delete Individual Contacts on iPhone 7
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When Should You Bulk Delete All Your Contacts
Address book management is another digital habit that can either help or mar your productivity. Yes, it’s easy to find a number with a search on your device, but why keep unnecessary numbers and get confused by them? They could even bring up bad memories.
Good management of your contacts is easier with a leaner list.
Mass-deleting your contacts is also a simple privacy step. You should delete sensitive numbers before you loan your device to someone or pass it down to a family member. In any case, it’s always wise to go for the nuclear option when you pass on, donate, or sell your old phone.
Thus, you should protect your privacy by erasing all your data from your iPhone or iPad. Signing out of iCloud prevents others from accessing data you’ve saved there. And if you get a new phone, why not start off with these steps for a clutter-free and minimal phone.
How To Remove All Of Your Contacts For An Account
If you just want to remove all your contacts from a specific account, theres an easy way to do this. You can simply turn Contacts off for the account you no longer wish to see. Follow these steps to get rid of all these contacts from your list in one go:
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Delete A Number From Icloud
If you want to know how to delete a number from iCloud, follow the steps below.
- Visit iCloud.com on any browser and log into your iCloud account.
- Select that contact and press the Delete key on the keyboard. Or you can click on the gear icon at the bottom left and select Delete.
- Then select Delete in small the pop-up dialog box to confirm that.
Deleting Duplicate Contacts On iPhone One By One
If you check the duplicate contacts present on your device and notice that they all have the same information, the best solution would be deleting the redundant contacts. In this section, you will learn how to remove duplicate contacts on iPhone. To do this, follow the steps we have outlined below:
Step #1: Tap the Phone icon. This should be available on your Home screen. Step #2: Tap Contacts at the bottom of the page and then locate the duplicate contact you wish to delete. Tap on the contact. Step #3: Click Edit on the top-right corner of the screen. Step #4: Scroll down the page to locate Delete Contact. Tap on it. Step #5: Tap on Delete Contact in the dialog box that appears to confirm you want to remove the contact.
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Get Started: Retrieving Contacts On iPhone Xr Without Backup
Step 1: Select recovery mode
Launch the software and choose “Recover from iOS Device” mode. When prompted, connect iPhone XR to computer with a lightning cable.
Then, click Start Scan button to proceed.
Step 2: Scan iPhone XR and find deleted contacts files
In the next screen, check “Contacts” option and press Scan button.
The application will then begin scanning the iPhone XR for lost contacts. This should take a few minutes.
Step 3: Preview and recover contacts from iPhone XR memory
Once finished, you will get a resulting panel.
From there, click “Contacts” category on the left list, then check the contact you need to restore on the middle pane, and after that click the Recover button to save the contacts to computer.
How To Delete Multiple iPhone Contacts From Icloud
You may want to delete contacts on your iPhone in batches when there are lots of contacts that you no longer need storing in the Contacts app. However, mass deleting contacts on the iPhone is by no means easy since the iPhone Contacts app doesnt provide the multi-delete choice, which means you have to remove your unwanted contacts one by one. It doesnt matter. If youve synced your iPhone to iCloud, you can mass delete your contacts in iCloud. This article will tell you how to delete multiple contacts from iCloud as well as how to delete the duplicate contacts.
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How To Delete iPhone Contacts
Whether youd like to delete a single contact, or remove all contacts associated with an email account, follow along for how to easily delete iPhone contacts.
Contacts on iPhone can be a bit tricky since they can be sourced from various accounts . First well tackle how to delete an individual contact, below will go over how to remove all contacts associated with an email account.
How To Mass Delete Contacts On iPhone Using Icloud
If you are using the iCloud app on your computer, your contacts are backed up in the cloud for use across all other Apple devices. iCloud backs up data on all devices, including macOS and iOS machines as well.
One of the noticeable features of iCloud is that if you make any changes to it, it will be updated to all your iCloud devices automatically. For instance, if you change any contact information on the iCloud app on MacBook Pro, the change will also be reflected on your iPhone or another iOS device.
Now, the one thing we are looking for here on the iCloud web version is that here you can select and quickly delete multiple contacts at once. How to mass delete contacts on iPhone using iCloud.
If you didnt like the iCloud method then you can continue with the Groups app. It is a third-party app that will help you to bulk delete contacts on iPhone.
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How To Quickly Delete Multiple Contacts On iPhone
Deleting multiple contacts at once on iPhone is no small feat. Erasing contacts individually from your iPhone will take a long time since theres no multi-delete option in Contacts on iPhone. In fact, the easiest way to quickly delete multiple contacts from iPhone or from iPad is to do it on a Mac or PC. You can easily mass delete multiple contacts on your computer and the results will show up on your iPhone, as long as you have Contacts enabled in your iPhone’s iCloud settings. This tip covers how to remove multiple contacts from iPhone 7, iPhone 6, and older models. Well also cover how to delete a contact from your iPhone individually and what to do if youre clearing all your contacts at once from your iPhone because you are getting rid of the phone.
The above video is a preview of an iPhone Life Insider Daily Video Tip
The easiest way to remove contacts from your iPhone 7 or iPad depends on whether you want to erase a single contact or remove many contacts at once.
How To Delete Multiple Contacts At Once From Your iPhone
Perhaps it’s outdated information for a former work colleague or an old flame. Maybe it’s the phone number and email for a PR person that you added years ago. Regardless, the Contacts app on your iPhone is likely filled with out of date information on people or is no longer necessary to keep. In these cases, the ideal solution would be to delete these rogue listings in bulk. Unfortunately, Apple doesn’t make it possible to remove multiple contacts at once in an efficient manner.
However, there are two solutions worth considering when you want to delete multiple contacts. One of these requires using iCloud on your Mac or PC the other is a third-party app.
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How To Merge Contacts On iPhone And iPad
To merge contacts on iPhone and iPad, the following is what you will need to do.
Step 1:First, you will need to make sure that the device is powered on and unlocked.
Step 2:After that, go to the Home button on the iPhone or iPad and then press it. It is located at the bottom of the screen.
Step 3:The next step will be to tap the Contacts application on your devices screen.
Step 4:After that, you will need to find the two or more contacts that you would like to merge on the list.
Step 5:Next, you will need to tap on the correct listing, and then click the Edit button that is found on the top-right corner of the devices screen.
Step 6:Scroll to the bottom of the screen and look for the Link Contacts button. It is right above the delete button.
Step 7:Once you have done that, you will need to look for the other contact you want to merge with the contact you just selected.
Step 8:Follow through the last few steps to make sure that you merged the contacts correctly, and then click the Done button.
Note: You can also use third party apps such as SmartMerge and ContactClean to merge contacts on iPhone and iPad.
How To Merge Duplicate Contacts On iPhone From Address Book
Address Book makes it easy to merger automatically these duplicate contacts. Before start, you have to have you iPhone or Address Book already synced with the MacBook and Backed up.
- Step1. Start Address Book and pull scroll down the Card menu.
- Step2. Choose Look for Duplicates to get a report back of the number of duplicates found.
- Step3. Click Merge to combine those contacts.
If you have any question, please leave your comments.
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Retrieve Contacts From Itunes
This is another Apple route for getting back lost contacts from iPhone XR. To apply this method, you need to use iTunes to back up contact list previously before the date & time when you deleted contacts from iPhone XR.
If the contacts are backed up, then follow the instructions in an Apple Document on How to restore an iOS device from an iTunes backup to retrieve deleted contacts information.
The Bottom Line
Losing contacts on an iPhone XR is a bad experience, and there’s really no excuse for nor back them up to computer via iTunes, or cloud server via Apple iCloud, Google, Dropbox, etc. To avoid the risk of contacts loss follow our guide on how to back up contacts on an iPhone.
Delete Multiple Contacts From Icloud
It is an easy task to delete multiple or all iPhone contacts from iCloud at once.
- Step 1: Sign in to iCloud.com with your Apple ID and passcode. Then tap on Contacts.
- Step 2: Hold down the Ctrl key or Command key on your keyboard and select multiple contacts that you dont need.
- Step 3: Either hit the Delete key on the keyboard or click on the gear icon and choose Delete.
- Step 4: Then select Delete in the popups.
When you click on the gear icon, you must have seen the Select All option in the menu. Yes, if youd like to delete all contacts in iCloud, you can simply click Select All and then Delete to empty the whole All Contacts list.
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A Quick Way To Delete Contacts On iPhone Using Icloud
Now, if you want to mass-delete contacts from your iPhone, you can use iCloud to accomplish this. However, you have to make sure that youre already using iCloud in the first place. Because if your iCloud is enabled for Contacts, that means that all your contacts are stored in the cloud. This also means that all your devices using iCloud are synced.
To delete multiple contacts on your iPhone, the trick is to use the web version of iCloud on your Mac. Instead of using your iPhone, this is what you should do: