How to Delete Contacts On Your iPhone

Going through your contacts one day, you suddenly realize how many of them are little more than clutter. We’ve all been there, where reaching the number you want means scrolling past ten people you haven’t spoken to in years and another six you’re struggling even to remember. 
 

You’re ready to clean up your contacts list. Once you’ve done the challenging part of the job — deciding which contacts get to stay and which have to go — it’s time to tackle the process. Follow this guide to learn how to trim everything from a single contact to your entire list.
 

How to Delete a Single Contact on Your iPhone

After a long internal debate, you’ve decided to finally let go of your ex’s number. Luckily, once you’ve made the choice, deleting a single contact on your iPhone is simple:

1. Open your Contacts app.
2. Find the contact you want to delete and tap to open it.
3. Tap “Edit” at the top of the screen.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and tap “Delete Contact.”
5. When the confirmation screen pops up, tap “Delete Contact” again.
    

When you follow the steps above, you will permanently delete the contact from your iPhone. If the contact is connected to your email account, deleting it on your iPhone will also delete the contact from any other device you have signed into your account.

You can remove email contacts from your iPhone’s contact list while retaining them on your other devices. This process is equally simple:
 

1. Open your iPhone Settings.
2. Select “Contacts” and then “Accounts.”
3. Find the account with the contacts you want to remove and tap to open in.
4. Move the toggle next to “Contacts” to the off position.
5. When the confirmation screen pops up, tap “Delete from My iPhone.”
    

While this process leaves the contacts intact in your email account and on other logged-in devices, they will vanish from your iPhone. If you decide to add them back to your iPhone later, you can do so by simply following the first three steps and moving the “Contacts” toggle to the on position.
 

How to Delete Multiple Contacts on Your iPhone

Sometimes you may need to delete more than a single contact — for example, if you’ve started a new job and want to remove all the work numbers from your previous employer. While the only way to do this directly on your iPhone is to delete each contact one at a time, there are several easier methods. 
 

Delete Contacts With Your Mac

Your iPhone stores contacts in its internal storage. If you’ve signed in to iCloud, your contacts are synced across all your devices. If you have a Mac computer, this means you can use it to delete multiple contacts at once: 
 

1. Open your Contacts app.
2. Select multiple contacts to remove by clicking each one while holding the “Command” (CMD) key on your keyboard.
3. Press the “Delete” key on your keyboard.
    

Delete Duplicate Contacts

If syncing with multiple accounts has created duplicate contacts, you can also use your Mac to resolve this issue:
 

1. Before you begin, make a backup by copying your contacts.
2. Open your Contacts app.
3. Click on the “Card” menu at the top and select “Look for Duplicates.”
4. When the popup box appears, click “Merge.”
5. Repeat steps 2-4 until you’ve merged all duplicate cards.

Once you’ve merged all duplicate contacts, you can go through and remove any outdated information.
 

Delete Contacts With iCloud

If you use a PC rather than a Mac — or if you need to borrow someone else’s computer — you can still delete multiple iCloud contacts at once. Though iCloud will push changes to your iPhone regardless of where they originated, this method does require access to a computer rather than a mobile device:
 

1. Open your internet browser and go to iCloud.com. Log in with your Apple ID and password.
2. When the main page loads, click on “Contacts.”
3. Select the contacts you want to delete by clicking each one while holding the “Control” (Ctrl) or “Command” (CMD) key on the keyboard.
4. Click the “Settings” gear in the bottom left corner of the screen.
5. Click “Delete” in the popup menu.
6. When the confirmation box pops up, click “Delete” again.
    

When you finish, iCloud will delete your selections across all of your logged-in devices.
 

Delete Contacts With Groups

Groups is a third-party iPhone app that lets you create contact groups within your larger contact list. While some features are only accessible via in-app purchases, you can still delete contacts with the free version. Once you’ve downloaded the app and allowed it to access your Contacts, you can use it to modify your contact list at any time:

1. Open Groups on your iPhone.
2. Tap “All Contacts” at the top of the Groups list.
3. Tap the circles to the left of the names to select the contacts you want to delete — a checkmark will appear when a name is selected.
4. Tap “Choose Action” at the top of the screen.
5. Tap “Delete contacts” in the menu that appears.
6. When the confirmation box pops up, tap “Remove from my iPhone!”
    

Once you’ve finished, you can open your iPhone’s Contacts app to confirm that your selections are gone.
 

 

How to Delete All Contacts on Your iPhone
 

In some circumstances, a fresh start and a clean slate are all that will do. If you’re doing a digital refresh, going off the grid or running away to join the circus and want to learn how to delete your iPhone contacts before you go, this section is here to help. Try the methods below rather than erasing them one at a time or in batches.
 

iCloud

While you can only delete selected iPhone contacts on a computer, you can choose to erase your entire contact list on either a computer or your iPhone.
 

Delete All iCloud Contacts on Your Mac

As you read above, iCloud keeps your data synced between all of your signed-in devices. Just like when you individually or batch delete contacts, your iPhone will reflect the changes you make on your Mac:
 

1. Open your Contacts app.
2. Click to select the first contact in your list. 
    
3. Scroll to the bottom of your list and hold the “Shift” key while clicking on the last contact to select it. All contacts should appear highlighted.
    
4. Right-click within the highlighted area and select “Delete Cards” from the menu.
5. When the popup box appears, click “Delete” to confirm.
    

Delete All iCloud Contacts on Your iPhone

If you’re starting to question your future as a trapeze artist, you may be looking for a slightly more cautious approach. If so, you can remove your iCloud contacts from your iPhone while keeping them in iCloud storage and on your other devices:

1. Open your iPhone’s Settings.
2. Tap on the “Your Name, Apple ID, iCloud, Media & Purchases” line.
3. Tap “iCloud.”
4. Move the toggle next to “Contacts” to the off position.
5. When the confirmation screen pops up, tap “Delete from My iPhone.”

Your synced iCloud contacts will disappear from your iPhone contact list. While the first method will completely erase your contacts, this method allows you to restore them on your iPhone by toggling “Contacts” on again.
 

Third-Party Contacts

If you have third-party accounts like Gmail or Facebook synced in your iPhone, your contact list probably also has contacts linked to those accounts. You can permanently delete your iCloud contacts on your Mac or through the iCloud website. However, you can only disable contacts linked to third-party accounts unless you delete them through those accounts directly.
 

Disable All Third-Party Contacts on Your Mac

Using your Mac makes it easy to disable third-party contacts on your iPhone:

1. Open your Contacts app.
2. Click on “Contacts” in the menu bar at the top of the screen.
3. When the “Contacts” menu opens, click on “Preferences.”
4. On the screen that opens, click the Accounts tab.
5. Select a third-party account from the box on the left and uncheck “Enable this account.”
6. Repeat step 5 until you have disabled all accounts.
    

Disable All Third-Party Contacts on Your iPhone

You can also disable your third-party contacts on your iPhone. As with iCloud contacts, this will only disable them on your iPhone while leaving them synced to your other devices:
 

1. Open your iPhone’s Settings.
2. Tap on the “Contacts” line to open.
3. Tap “Accounts.”
4. Choose an account whose contacts you want to disable and tap the name to open.
5. Move the toggle next to “Contacts” to the off position.
6. When the confirmation screen pops up, tap “Delete from My iPhone.”
7. Repeat steps 4-6 until you have disabled all accounts.

 

Browse More iPhone Tips With Gazelle
 

Knowing how to curate our contact lists is a valuable skill, whether we’re tidying up our digital lives or preparing to trade in our devices for something exciting and new. With so much of our lives stored in our phones, controlling our contacts is a necessary step to keep ourselves secure.

At Gazelle, you can buy or sell used iPhones quickly and securely. We inspect each phone we buy, and we only sell certified quality devices to make your purchases fast, easy and safe.
 

Check out more iPhone tips and tricks on our blog’s How-To section for help with everything from backing up your data to rescuing your water-damaged iPhone.

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