Contacts missing after iOS 18.6 update

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If you are unable to find your contacts which were stored on iCloud, then try this --> Restore contacts, calendars, bookmarks, and more using ...

Check if the email account has been removed from the iOS mail app.

Add the email account that stores your contacts in the IOS mail app and enable Contacts.

What is your default Contacts account?

Unlike some Android devices, contacts are neither stored locally on an iPhone nor in the SIM. They are synced to an email account that you have Google, iCloud, AOL, Exchange, Outlook, Yahoo, or any Other

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1. Is this your corporate/organization/enterprise/School Management iPhone? Then please contact the system administrator of your corporate//organisation/enterprise/School Management
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   1. Erase the profile added by you. If you have installed a profile on your own, --> Install or remove configuration profiles on iPhone - Apple ...
   2. Please contact the system administrator of the organization who provided the profile to you

Both my wife and I have 18.6.1

my ip16 seems fine

her ip15 has problems

Many of her contacts have disappeared, but when clicking on info in messages of one showing just a number, this shows the contact details ?

another difference is ;

settings, apps, contacts - mine shows default account is my MS account

my wife’s does not even show the default account menu item.

Again... what were you syncing your contacts with?

Contacts can be synced to iCloud, an Exchange account, or virtually any email account.

The most likely cause for contacts going missing is a problem syncing with the account they were being synced with.

This happened today to my wife's iphone 16 pro after it updated to 18.6.3. So this seems to be a thing that can happen after any update from at least 18.6 on.

It's unfortunate that Apple has not acknowledged or corrected this after so many months of it being an issue.

For any Apple employee that cares to have an IT person run down the symptoms of this so you can actually fix it, this is for you.

In here case:

1. she has icloud as her default location for contacts. She has had it that way for years. The small number of contacts coming from other connected accounts are FINE. It's only the icloud contacts affected.
2. She backs up all possible categories to icloud.
3. Like everyone experiencing this, She doesn't have most of her contacts listed in the contacts app either on the phone or on icloud.com.
4. Even though her phone backed up to icloud at 2:20 am this morning prior to any update by a half day, the only "archives" listed in icloud.com data recovery are from AFTER the update.
5. She has the same symptom as most that if she types a name when composing a text, all of that person's relevant info shows up until the text is sent.

IT guy speculation: Symptom 5 seems to indicate that either a) the contacts aren't really gone, they just aren't displaying correctly, or b) the contact informtion maybe cached somewhere and Apple may be able to use that to recover the contacts if the update deleted them.

For those that have missing contacts after an update, to know quickly if it's the Apple update contact bug, or if it's a problem with another account, you can simply do this: go to the contacts settings and see what your default is. If it's icloud, and you have contacts set to sync in icloud, then this isn't your fault. If you had it set to exchange or gmail or some other location, and that location is not syncing, then it may be you had unsynced contacts that are now gone.

Now a queation: has anyone who lost contacts, can see them in the text composeing area, and had icloud as their default contact location tried a full reset and restore? Do the icloud contacts correct after a reset and restore?

I was able to get my Contacts back by syncing with my work’s Outlook (which thankfully had all those numbers saved through years of syncing. Nothing else I tried work…it absolutely appears to be a direct result of the update…literally occurred 2 minutes after I ran the update.

Yes I’ve spent hours on the phone with Apple writing in here was my last resort to see if anybody had the same issue. Apple basically told me to start resaving my contacts and that they were aware of the issue.

It's not always the iOS update's fault!  Many things can cause phone problems.  If you tell people you think it's an iOS update, it might make it harder to fix or find a solution for the real issue.

Remember, the right question often leads to the solution!

Was/Is your device Jailbroken? If that's the situation, please be informed that attributing the issues to iOS updates may not be accurate.

iOS updates aim to enhance user experience, boost security, and fix bugs rather than disrupt core features. The majority of the issues after updates might stem from underlying, unmentioned factors. Updates won't typically alter personal data but may refine settings or features. Backup before major updates for safety. Review Apple's update details and backup advice for a smooth process.

Kindly consider checking your settings and addressing any device issues before attributing the issue to external factors. This could be a pure coincidence that the iOS update affected the iPhone functions.

Before initiating a standard iOS update, it's advisable to create a backup. Have you completed this step? If yes, proceed with the restoration from the backup.

See what each update does: About iOS 18 Updates, About iOS 17 Updates, About iOS 16 Updates, About iOS 15 Updates, About iOS 14 Updates, About iOS 13 Updates, About iOS 12 Updates, and so on...

Same thing happened to me, I’ve spent hours on the phone with Apple and their IT specialists and they have been extremely unhelpful and avoidant of the problem. I tried every solution -nothing has worked. Finally someone on Apple support told me they had been getting a lot of calls about this issue and were aware. Unfortunately their only advice for me was that it was okay if I start resaving contacts and that maybe a software update would fix the bug. I lost hundreds of contacts that I need for work so this has been extremely inconvenient.

I note this morning there is an update IOS 18.6.1 without any mention of their previous mess up.

Can I suggest everyone turn off their automatic updates and wait a couple of days before they do the update to see if there are any further disasters

Your last question is exactly what's happening to me. I did lose about 1/3 of contacts a few weeks ago, sometime afte the 18.6 update. Rounds with applecare and i had to do a full restore on my phone which did restore all contacts. Through that process all of my default contact saves, syncing, etc were all 100% checked and rechecked. FF to this morning and between client appointments, about 1/3 of my contacts have gone missing again. In each case it is lots of my most recent contacts and instantly discoverable because almost all recent text messages appear as phone numbers. Just went through round one with Apple to no avail and came here to the forum. If I start to compsoe a text message and type a contact there, they appear, even thought that exact person's contact isn't findable in my actual contacts.

Have you actually contacted Apple support?

These forums are NOT Apple support. These are user forums. Apple does not participate here.

This has also happened to my wife after updating to iOS 18.6 but her issue is different as not all contacts are gone but their names have been removed so we know who’s who.

I've tried everything the guy has said below but nothings worked.

Phone not jail broken.

I’ve read on twitter thats theres other users also experiencing these issues and similar.

Same thing happened to me, I lost some of my contacts but not all and was unable to restore from previous dates. Tried scheduling an appointment for support and was called prior to my appointment so lost my spot and need to sign up again tomorrow.

On this occasion Sravan you are incorrect.

Immediately after my update today of ios 18.6 my contacts have lost a multitude of my contacts names and sone numbers as well

New iPhone 16 so not an age problem

None of your suggestions work unfortunately, for me anyway

This happened to me too after updating to iOS 18.6.

Strangely, only contacts that I saved through WhatsApp in iCloud contacts are missing.

And even weirder: My own contact poster in contacts got deleted (my number is still there) and my Apple Account picture also is gone, but only on my iPhone and iPad, not on my Mac.

There are multiple people on Reddit with the same problem: https://www.reddit.com/r/ios/s/4Q1xuJBbfw