How to Backup Contacts on iPhone in 4 Proven Ways

Needless to say, backing up your iPhone contacts is very important, as it not only keeps your contacts safe but also means when switching to a new device, you're much less likely to lose any important contacts. To make a copy of your iPhone contacts, here are some suggestions for you.

It's better to make two copies of your iPhone contacts: one in the cloud and one offsite. This not only ensures that you can access contactsfrom anywhere with an internet connection but also adds additional layers of security to your contacts if there's a data breach, a hack, or a malware threathappens to your device.
Regardless of what storage plan you have in place at this point - cloud or offsite, make sure that it has enough capacity to house your data.
Make a disaster contacts recovery plan. Thus, you don't have to worry about data loss.

It's a little more work to make two or multiple backups, but if you do it, you'll be glad to spend the extra time doing this when a disaster happens.

Part1. How to Back up Contacts on iPhone Locally

As we discussed above, it's better to make a copy of important data in both local storage and cloud service. Thus, you don't have to worry about data loss anymore. Currently, there are two options for you to make a local backup. One is via iTunes, and another is via a third-party program.

Each way has its pros and cons. Let's start with the third-party program.

Option 1. How to Back up iPhone Contacts with Qiling MobiMover

Our first (and most recommended) backup solution is to use this iPhone data transfer tool- Qiling MobiMover. With it, you can selectively export wanted data to a computer for safekeeping or back up your entire device to the computer safely. It is superior to iTunes because it allows you to access and view backed-up data. Apart from that, it also has capabilities:

Transfer data from one iPhone to another
Move data between a computer and an iOS device
Create a backup or your iPhone or iPad
Manage your WhatsApp data in your preferred way
Batch convert HEIC pictures to JPG

To backup contacts on iPhone:

Free Download
Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

Step 1. Connect your iPhone your PC with a USB cable, launch Qiling MobiMover, then unlock your iDevice and click "Trust" in the prompt. To back up your iPhone, choose "Phone to PC" > "Next".

Step 2. Select "Contacts" and click the default path to set a custom storage path if you need to. Afterward, click "Transfer".

Step 3. When the transfer process has finished, you can go to view the contacts on your computer. You can view the contacts you back up on your computer freely and transfer them back to your iDevice whenever you need to.

The contacts backed up to the PC or Mac will be saved as an HTML file, which you can view with a browser and transfer back to your iPhone from the computer.

Option 2. How to Back up iPhone Contacts with iTunes

You can create a backup of your iPhone contacts with iTunes. But bear in mind that the contacts you backed with iTunes can't be accessed unless they are restored to your device, which will erase your current data. If you don't mind that, follow the steps below to back up contacts on iPhone using iTunes.

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to the computer and launch iTunes.

Step 2. Unlock your iPhone and trust the computer.

Step 3. Tap on the Summary.

Step 4. Click on the "Back Up Now" from the right pane.

Part 2. How to Back up iPhone Contacts to Cloud

Backing up iPhone contacts to the cloud is another way to keep your data safe. For iOS users, the best cloud backup solutionshould be using iCloud since it is convenient and easy to use. But if you want to try different backup solutions, using Google is a good option. Whichever way you eventually decide to use it, follow the steps below to do it.

Option 1. How to Back up iPhone Contacts via iCloud

Before getting started, keep in mind that every iCloud account comes with 5GB of storage. If you have more than 5GB of contacts to back up, rememberto upgrade your iCloud storage plan.

Step 1. Open Settings on your iPhone.

Step 2. Go to [your name] and select "iCloud."

Step 3. Tap on "Contacts" to turn it on.

Step 4. Then, your contacts will be backed up to iCloud.

Note: when you delete a contact on your iPhone, it will also disappear in iCloud either.

Back up iPhone Contacts via iCloud

In addition to syncing specific contacts to iCloud, you can achieve the same goal by backing up your whole device. Here are the steps.

Step 1. Go to Settings on your iPhone.

Step 2. Tap on [your name] > iCloud > iCloud Backup.

Step 3. Enable iCloud Backup and then click "Back Up Now."

Step 4. Then, your contacts and other data will be backed up to your iCloud.

Option 2. How to Backup iPhone Contacts to Google

To backup iPhone contacts to Google, you first need to export your iPhone contacts as a VCF file with the help of iCloud and then import it to Google. Here are the details:

To export iPhone contacts as a VCF file:

Step 1. On your iPhone, tap "Settings" > [your name] > "iCloud" and toggle on the "Contacts" option.

Step 2. On your computer, open a browser and visit iCloud.com.

Step 3. Enter your Apple ID and password as required and choose "Contacts."

Step 4. Select the items you want to backup and click the "Gear" icon, and tap "Export vCard" to export the contacts from your iPhone to vCard, which will be saved as the .vcf file.

How to export iPhone contacts

Then to import iPhone contacts to Google:

Step 1. Go to "Google Contacts" (https://www.google.com/contacts/) and sign in with your Google account.

Step 2. Choose "Import Contacts..." on the sidebar and click "Choose File" in the pop-up window.

Step 3. Find the exported contacts (.vcf) from your computer and import them to your Google Contacts.

How to import iPhone contacts to Google

By doing so, you can export your iPhone contacts to Google successfully. If your iPhone contacts are not syncing to Gmail, learn how to fix it from the related article's solutions or try other alternative ways to backup your iPhone contacts.

The Bottom Line

As we mentioned earlier, it is advisable to make two copies of your iPhone contacts in the cloud or in a local storage. Thus, you don't have to worry about data loss. You can now use any backup solutions we introduced above to get the job done.