How to Back Up Contacts on iPhone in 6 Trustworthy Ways (Guide in 2025)

Backing up contacts on your iPhone is an effective way to protect your important data from loss. With backup, you can avoid data loss due to accidents. Even though your iPhone is lost, you can still restore your contacts to a smartphone with your backup. Learn how to back up contacts on an iPhone from this guide, and get 6 trustworthy methods directly.

Part 1: How to Back Up Contacts on iPhone with iCloud

Have you enabled your iCloud backup feature on your iPhone? If you think that the free iCloud storage space is too small to back up all your iPhone data, you can enable the contact backup only, which will save more cloud storage.

Here's the guide for contact backup with iCloud on an iPhone:

Step 1: Please open the Settings app on your iPhone, and click your user name.

Step 2: Choose "iCloud" > "Contacts", and enable this option only. When it prompts, choose "Merge".

Step 3: Then all your contacts will be backed up to your iCloud account. You can log in to your account to view your contacts.

Part 2: How to Back Up iPhone Contacts to PC in 1 Click

When your iCloud storage space is full of data, you can back up your iPhone contacts to your PC with iReaShare iPhone Manager. This program can easily transfer all contacts from an iOS device to a Windows computer. Furthermore, it enables you to manage your iPhone contacts on your PC, such as modifying contact info, deleting and adding contacts, etc.

Main features of iReaShare iPhone Manager:

* Save contacts from an iPhone to a PC in 1 click.

* Allow you to preview and select contacts before the backup.

* Create new groups on the PC for your iPhone contacts.

* Import contacts from a PC to an iPhone for restoration.

* Restore contacts from backups without overwriting existing contacts.

* Transfer videos, text messages, music, photos, and more to PC for backup.

Download iReaShare iPhone Manager.

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Steps to backing up iPhone contacts to a PC swiftly:

Step 1: After installing the iPhone Manager software on your PC, please connect your iPhone to the computer with a USB cable, and click "Trust" on the iPhone. The software will recognize your device quickly.

Step 2: Choose the "Contacts" option on the left panel, and select your desired contacts.

Step 3: Tap "Export" and select a file format you want. Then all the checked contacts will be stored on your PC.

Part 3: How to Save Contacts from iPhone to Gmail

"How do I back up my iPhone contacts without iCloud?" Maybe you want to back up your data to cloud storage but not iCloud. If so, you can choose Google cloud storage, which means that you can use your Gmail account to back up your iPhone contacts.

Here's how to back up iPhone contacts:

Step 1: Unlock your iPhone and launch the Settings app. Then locate and choose the "Contacts" option.

Step 2: Tap "Accounts" > "Gmail" to add your Gmail account to your iPhone.

Step 3: Enable the icon next to "Contacts". Go back to the "Contacts" screen, click "Default Account", and choose "Gmail". Then all your iPhone contacts will be synchronized to your Gmail account.

Part 4: How to Save Contacts on an iPhone with Google One

If you have installed Google One on your iPhone, you can use it to upload your contacts to your Google Account. It can sync the details like names, phone numbers, email addresses, birthdays, and social profiles.

Here's the guide:

Step 1: Launch the Google One app on your iPhone, and click the "Menu" icon on the top left.

Step 2: Choose "Settings" > "Sync settings". To make sure you can sync your contacts, please tap "Contacts" > "Check status", and then click "Allow" to grant the access to your iPhone contacts.

Step 3: Click "Set up sync" > "Upload contacts" to upload your contacts. Once done, click "Next".

Part 5: How to Store Contacts on iPhone with iTunes

Using iTunes can help you store your contacts to your computer because iTunes can sync your iPhone contacts to your Windows Contacts. However, it will also transfer your contacts from your PC to your iPhone. If you don't want this, you can remove your contacts from the PC first.

Here's how to sync iPhone contacts to PC with iTunes:

Step 1: Run iTunes on your Windows PC, and connect your iPhone to the PC with USB.

Step 2: Once connected, click the "iPhone" icon on the iTunes interface, and choose the "Info" option.

Step 3: Click "Sync Contacts with" and choose "Windows Contacts". Then click "Sync" at the bottom. After that, your iPhone contacts will be imported to your Windows Contacts app on the PC.

Step 4: To verify the transfer, you can click "Start" and open the "People" app to check if there is your iPhone contact list on the computer.

Part 6: How to Back Up Contacts to Files on an iPhone

You can directly save all your contacts on your iPhone to the Files app, which is equivalent to backing up your contacts on your iPhone's local folder. Thus, we recommend you to send the contact file to yourself with email, and save it to your computer at the same time.

Here's how to store contacts on an iPhone:

Step 1: Open the Contacts app on your iPhone, and navigate to your contact list.

Step 2: Long-tap the "All Contacts" and choose the "Export" option on the popup menu. Then click "Done".

Step 3: Tap "Save to Files", and then click "Save". Your contacts will be saved to the Files app on your iPhone.

Step 4: Go to the Files app, and find the vCard file. Next, tap and hold it, and click "Share" > "Mail". Input your email address, and send it to yourself.

Step 5: Sign in to the same email account on your computer, and download the vCard file.

Part 7: FAQs about iPhone Contact Backup

Q1: Can I back up my iPhone contacts to the Outlook app?

Yes, you can choose Outlook when syncing contacts with iTunes. But please make sure your have installed the Outlook app on your PC, which means your contacts are stored locally on your computer's hard drive within the Outlook program but not the cloud backup of your Outlook account.

Q2: Can I directly export all contacts from an iPhone as a VCF file?

Of course, you can. The guide details are in Part 6.

Q3: Can I restore the backup contacts to my iPhone?

Yes, you can import your backup contacts to your iPhone with iReaShare iPhone Manager, which will not replace your current contacts. Thus, you won't lose any contacts on your iPhone after the restoration.

Conclusion

With this complete guide, you can now easily back up contacts on your iPhone. Whether you want to back up your contacts to iCloud, Gmail, or PC, you can make it effortless. But if you want to manage your iPhone contacts on your PC, and restore contacts without losing existing ones, you can try iReaShare iPhone Manager. This software can also help you back up your messages, audio files, images, and more.

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Elowen Wilson Senior Editor

Elowen has been specializing in iOS devices and data transfer for over three years. She is very familiar with all generations of iPhones and iPads, so she is able to provide readers with all kinds of useful guides and tips about iOS backup, data recovery, unlocking, system repair, etc.