Reset contacts on iPhone to only iCloud

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Level 1

15 points

Reset contacts on iPhone to only iCloud

There are many more contacts on my iPhone than those syncing to iCloud. Probably because in the past I added accounts, like Google, then later de-linked from those accounts, but apparently what was imported to the phone remained. My phone is now linked exclusively to iCloud, but many non-iCloud contacts remain. Is there a way to clear the phone of all contacts other than iCloud? Or maybe de-link from iCloud, clear the contents of ALL contacts on the phone, then re-link to iCloud? The goal being an exact match iPhone<>iCloud only.

iPhone SE, iOS 16

Posted on Jun 8, 2023 09:26 AM

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Answer 1

Eric--F

Community Specialist

Jun 12, 2023 05:38 PM in response to smelending

Thanks for reaching out smelending,

It sounds like you're trying to remove contacts associated with email accounts other than your iCloud email account. We can help.

While there isn't a way to selectively sort and delete contacts based on where they came from, you can adjust which ones are visible by following these steps: Manage and delete contacts on your iPhone or iPad.

You can also remove other email accounts to remove associated contacts. This is talked about here: If your iCloud Contacts, Calendars, or Reminders won’t sync - Apple Support

"If your contacts, calendars, and reminders are in iCloud, then iCloud automatically updates your information. If your information is in a third-party account, like Google or Yahoo, you can change your default account to iCloud. Changing your default account to iCloud won't move your existing information from a third-party service to iCloud."

Hope that helps.

Take care.

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Answer 2

WinsC1

Community Specialist

Jun 16, 2023 06:26 PM in response to smelending

Hey smelending,

If you're able to export the contact as a vCard from the non-iCloud source, you can then import it into iCloud with the steps here: Import or export a vCard in Contacts on iCloud.com - Apple Support

Otherwise, you'll want to recreate the contact to associate it with your iCloud account. You can find more details on using multiple Contacts accounts here: Use other contact accounts on iPhone - Apple Support

Thanks!

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Answer 3

smelending Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 16, 2023 12:03 PM in response to Eric--F

Hi Eric, I'm having trouble following your instruction. Studying the "Manage and delete" link you sent, the only section that seems relevant is how to "Turn Contacts on or off for an account," which says: "To remove contacts, turn off Contacts, then tap Delete from My iPhone." This appears to be invalid. I am looking at Settings>Accounts. To simplify my iphone, I deleted a Google account, and I un-checked "contacts" for accounts Yahoo and Outlook, leaving contacts checked ON for only my iCloud account. This did NOT remove non-iCloud contacts from my phone.

Apple's instruction adds: "Delete from My iPhone." I see "Delete Account" at the bottom of the yahoo and outlook accounts, but that would delete the account, not just contacts right? I still want calendar and email for my yahoo and outlook accounts.

CONCLUSION: Unchecking Contacts does NOT remove them, contrary to Apple instruction, and as you wrote, there is no easy way to identify those contacts. You suggest I can hide them, but I did not see anything in that link about making them visible or not. Besides, that would not be satisfactory because for privacy I want them off my phone.

It appears I will have to go one-by-one and manually delete each non-iCloud contact.

Correct me if I am wrong. Thanks for your help.

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Answer 4

AdvisorMP

Community Specialist

Jun 16, 2023 12:21 PM in response to smelending

Thanks for following up smelending,

You are correct in that the steps provided will impact the account as a whole. Your approach of removing the contacts individually will accomplish exactly what you are looking for without removing access to calendars or email as well, and may be a better solution for you overall.

Take care.

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Answer 5

smelending Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 16, 2023 02:16 PM in response to AdvisorMP

One hopefully-final question. Although I wanted to delete non-icloud contacts from my phone, as I start working through them I find there are a few contacts on my phone that are not in iCloud that I would like to have in iCloud. The iPhone<>iCloud sync is limited: if I add or delete a contact on my phone--it will be mirrored in iCloud. But is there a way to get iCloud to add a contact that is on my phone (presumably imported from a non-iCloud source in the past) that iCloud is not seeing? Maybe, a way to "copy" or "send" a contact from iphone to iCloud?

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Answer 6

smelending Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 16, 2023 02:32 PM in response to smelending

GOT IT! partially. I can "share" a contact in my iPhone to my MacMini (by airdrop I presume) it comes in as a Vcard to downloads, clicking on it asks if I want to add it to contacts, which also adds it to iCloud!

BUT I've read that one cannot set up a group of contacts in iPhone - which would have made it easy to "Share" several.. so I guess I'll have to do it one at a time.

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Answer 7

smelending Author

Level 1

15 points

Jun 16, 2023 02:56 PM in response to smelending

sorry. I should do more experimenting before writing. suddenly, ALL contacts from iPhone have now sync'd into iCloud. That saves me the trouble of sharing... and I can now update everything on my Mac mini contacts and have it corrected in iCloud and iPhone. I think.

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Reset contacts on iPhone to only iCloud

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