How to Backup iPhone Contacts with iTunes Quickly
Want to backup iPhone contacts with iTunes but do not know how to do? This guide tells you the detailed steps to backup iPhone contacts to computer with iTunes.
Why Backup iPhone Contacts with iTunes?
Keeping backups is vital to prevent data loss. When you lose data or even get your iPhone lost, you can simply perform a restore on your iPhone like nothing ever happened as long as you have a backup copy.
Generally, there are 2 reasons why backup contacts are important.
• To avoid data loss. Your contacts contain not only the name & phone number but more details including email, address, birthday, etc. It will be a major disruption to your life if you lose them accidentally.
• To safely transfer contacts to new iPhone. Especially for iPhone 14 and newer users. Since iPhone 14 has removed the SIM slot but you may store some contacts on a SIM card. Backing up and restoring contacts is a safe way to transfer your contacts.
When it comes to backing up iPhone data, the traditional way is using iTunes or iCloud. However, iCloud only offers users 5 GB of free storage space to store iOS data which is far from enough to save the backup. So you’d like to backup iPhone contacts to computer with iTunes.
Keeping backups is vital to prevent data loss. When you lose data or even get your iPhone lost, you can simply perform a restore on your iPhone like nothing ever happened as long as you have a backup copy.
Is It a Good Choice to Backup iPhone through iTunes?
If you do not want to pay more storage plan of iCloud to save your contacts, iTunes is another traditional way to go to backup iPhone contacts to PC. However, its unfriendly design and complicated operations often drive people crazy. Besides, backing up iPhone contacts with iTunes is not that convenient.
- You cannot only backup iPhone contacts. iTunes will backup the entire iPhone content including your contacts and the backup files are unreadable.
- Restoring contacts to iPhone will cause data loss. It will first erase the existing content on your iPhone and then restore the whole iTunes backup content.
In other words, iTunes does not allow you to selectively backup or restore iPhone contacts. You will never know what will be restored to your iPhone before the restoration. If you are OK with it, keep reading to see how to backup iPhone contacts using iTunes. Or if you prefer a more flexible and safer way to make it, click here to jump to the next part to learn more.
How to Take Backup of Contacts in iPhone
Step 1. Download and install the latest version of iTunes on your computer.
Step 2. Run iTunes and connect your iPhone to computer via USB cable.
Step 3. Click the Device tab > Select This Computer > Click Backup Up Now to start.
Keep your iPhone connected to computer until the backup process is completed.
Better Alternative: How to Backup Contacts on iPhone Without iTunes
Although iTunes indeed can help you backup iPhone contacts to computer, it’s not the best solution because of its disadvantages. So here comes another tool named AOMEI FoneBackup that allows you to backup iPhone contacts the way you want.
- Preview and select the contacts you need to back up.
- Easily back up 2000+ contacts in 20s, which is faster than other tools.
- Directly view and restore the backup after the process.
- No target device data loss during the restore process.
- Directly export iPhone contacts to CSV/EXCEL/VCF.
AOMEI FoneBackup supports all iPhone models including iPhone 16 and it is fully compatible with the latest iOS 18. Get it now and follow the steps below to backup iPhone contacts without iTunes.
1. Run AOMEI FoneBackup> Connect your iPhone to computer via USB cable.
2. Click the Phone Backup option > Choose Selective Backup and click the Contacts icon to view and select the contacts you want to backup > Click OK to continue.
3. Select the storage path to save your contacts > Click Start Backup button to make it.
After the backup, you can check the backup task on the My Backups screen. Here you can choose to locate, browse, restore, or delete the backup files.
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You can click the triangle icon to run an incremental backup next time. It will only backup the newly added contacts to save both space and time.
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The backup files can be restored to any iDevices. So you can take advantage of this feature to transfer contacts from iPhone to PC and more to your new iPhone.
Conclusion
Now you know how to backup iPhone contacts with iTunes. As you can see, iTunes will not allow you to only backup contacts. If you prefer a more flexible way to backup want to want, AOMEI FoneBackup is a better choice. It can help you backup contacts, messages, photos, videos, and songs selectively.