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I have an iCloud account, but I am backing up via iTunes.

I want to restore my iPhone because of the "other" files taking up a really huge portion of my phone's memory (2 GB and I have only 16 GB of storage).

I just want to back up my contacts. I've checked my iCloud account online and my contacts are there. Can I recover the contacts back to my phone after restoring to a new iPhone too?

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  • Have you tried syncing the contacts from iOS to the computer with iTunes? That would let you see that they are all safely stored before you wipe. Instructions are in iTunes help as they differ between OS flavors and versions. – bmike♦ Mar 13 '14 at 19:35
  • i am syncing with windows 8.1.. i have no idea how to sync contacts with itunes.. only icloud – Christian Burgos Mar 13 '14 at 20:52
  • support.apple.com/kb/HT3191 should give you some options. There's nothing wrong with cloud syncing - just this might be useful instead of that. Using both can sometimes be painful if you end up duplicating things and your software can't easily dedupe contacts. – bmike♦ Mar 13 '14 at 21:09
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Yes, as long as your contacts are synced with iCloud, you can reset your phone without losing them. If you can see them on iCloud.com, they are synced.

First make sure you have a current iCloud backup of your phone before resetting. You can backup manually by going to "Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Back up Now".

Second, make sure your contacts are being synced "Settings > iCloud > Contacts" button turned ON (green showing).

Now, after you reset your phone (Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings), you can set-up the phone as a "new phone" (i.e. not from your iCloud backup). Add your iCloud account and turn on Contacts syncing (switch button to green). Your contacts will then be downloaded from iCloud onto your fresh iPhone installation.

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  • what if i haven't back uped in cloud yet but its synced on icloud. – Christian Burgos Mar 13 '14 at 3:50
  • As long as your contacts are synced with iCloud you should be able to restore them back to your new iPhone. I only suggested also doing a full iCloud backup of your phone in case you had any problems and wanted to restore the phone back to its current settings. However, the iCloud backup would not be required to re-sync your contacts after the iPhone reset. – Todd Mar 13 '14 at 11:22

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