Recover deleted iPhone contacts — without breaking a sweat

If you deleted it inside Delete Contacts, open the Trash tab. Every deletion stays there for 30 days. Tap restore to put it back. If you deleted it outside the app (e.g., directly from iOS Contacts), check iCloud.com → Account Settings → Restore Contacts — Apple keeps a 30-day archive there too.

30 days. After that, the entries are permanently removed. You can manually empty the trash sooner if you want to commit deletions immediately. Restoring is one tap per contact.

If they were deleted with Delete Contacts and the trash is still within 30 days, yes — one tap. If it's been longer, your best bet is restoring from a vCard backup you exported earlier (Delete Contacts can export to CSV, Excel, or vCard before any destructive operation), or from iCloud's contacts archive at iCloud.com → Account Settings → Restore Contacts.

Three options: (1) restore from the Delete Contacts 30-day trash; (2) import a vCard backup file you've saved; (3) check other sync sources (Gmail, Exchange, Outlook) — if the contact was synced from one of those, it's still there even if iOS removed its local copy.

Yes. In Delete Contacts, the trash has a 'Restore all' option that puts every recoverable entry back into your address book in one operation. If restoring from a vCard backup, importing the file recreates every contact in the export with all fields intact.

No. Apple's iCloud Contacts archive keeps deletions for 30 days, after which they're permanently removed. iOS itself doesn't retain deleted contacts. That's why Delete Contacts builds in its own 30-day trash — a second safety net under your direct control.