How to get deleted contacts from iTunes backup? (Windows PC)

So my nephews were playing with my phone and somehow managed to delete a couple of important contacts (don’t even ask me how they found the delete button).

I thought, “No big deal, I’ve got iCloud,” but nope..those contacts are nowhere to be found there. The good thing is I do have a recent iTunes backup saved on my Windows laptop. Problem is, iTunes will only restore the whole backup, and I just want those specific contacts back without messing up my current stuff.

Tried a couple of “free” tools I found on Google, but apparently they’re stuck in the past and don’t support iOS 18 backups.

Anyone here knows an easy way to just pull contacts out of an iTunes backup on Windows?”

iPhone

All Replies

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

Mack

Participant

August 19, 2025 at 7:19 am

Good point, I think my backup is encrypted. I should remember the password though. I’ll try a trial extractor first and see if those numbers pop up before spending on anything. Thanks guys.

Ezra Flint

Participant

August 19, 2025 at 6:40 am

Agree with @Mira. I learned the hard way that free tools are outdated for newer iOS versions. If you’ve got the backup on your PC already, a proper extractor will save you from having to mess with a full restore.
Also..make sure your iTunes backup isn’t encrypted, or you’ll need the password to even open it.

Mira Lennox Lennox

Participant

August 19, 2025 at 6:28 am

I had this issue last month. I used a trial of a paid iPhone data recovery tool on my Windows laptop..not the free “fake” ones, but something up to date. It let me open my iTunes backup, preview contacts, and export them to CSV without restoring. The trial showed me all the contacts, but I had to get the full version to actually save them.
If you just need a few numbers, maybe grab the trial first to see if they’re even in there.

Mack

Participant

August 19, 2025 at 6:18 am

Yeah exactly, I don’t wanna overwrite everything just to get like 3 numbers back. Do you know any extractor that actually works with iOS 18?

Nina Calder

Participant

August 19, 2025 at 6:04 am

itunes is annoying that way..it’s basically “all or nothing” when it comes to restores. If you restore, you get the whole phone overwritten.
For contacts specifically, you’ll need some kind of backup extractor that supports the new iOS format. Most of the old free ones stopped updating after iOS 15 or 16.

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)