How to Backup iPhone Contacts without iCloud (3 Ways)

Why Do You Want to Backup iPhone Contacts without iCloud?

Contacts contain phone numbers, names, birthdays, and other information of friends and families. So you definitely don't want to lose them. In lots of conditions, you will need to backup your contacts. For instance, recently iPhone 14 removed the SIM card slot with eSIM. To safely transfer contacts to eSIM, you can save your SIM contacts to a safe place.

Apple makes it easy for users to backup contacts via iCloud. You can either choose to create a full iCloud backup including your contacts or sync only iPhone contacts to the iCloud server. However, iCloud only offers users 5 GB free storage space to store iOS data and it only allows users to store less than 50,000 contacts in total. What’s more, you may also meet the iPhone contacts not syncing to iCloud issue now and then. So you want to backup iPhone contacts without iCloud.

How to Backup iPhone Contacts without iCloud

Besides using iCloud to backup contacts, there are three alternative methods can help you make it. Next, I’ll show you the detailed steps of these three methods. You can first read and then choose a suitable way according to your situation.

Method 1. Backup iPhone Contacts without iCloud but with FoneTool

The easiest method comes first. It’s a wise idea to let one professional backup tool help you backup iPhone data. FoneTool, one free iPhone backup expert is a good choice. It provides an easy way to backup and restore your iPhone contacts, messages, photos, music, etc.

★ It allows you to selectively backup the contacts you need.

★ It enables you to check the backup files anytime you want.

★ It will not erase any existed data on your device during restore.

This tool supports most iPhone models including iPhone 8/X/XR/XS/11/12/13/14 and it is fully compatible with the latest iOS 16. You can even restore the backup files to another iDevice as you want. Download the tool on your computer and follow the steps below to backup iPhone contacts.

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to computer via the USB cable > Tap “Trust” to give your computer access to your iPhone.

Step 2. Click Phone Backup and go to Selective Backup > Choose Contacts.

Step 3. Preview and select the contacts you want to backup > Click OK to confirm.

Step 4. Choose the storage space > Click Start Backup to start.

When the process is finished, you can check the backup task on the Backup History screen. Here you can choose to locate, browse, restore or delete the backup files.

Method 2. Backup iPhone Contacts without iCloud but via iTunes

As is known to all, iTunes can help us backup the whole iPhone content including contacts. Actually, it can also help you only sync contacts to computer and the backup files are readable. Before getting started, please make sure you have installed the latest iTunes on your computer to avoid errors like iTunes won’t recognize iPhone problem.

Step 1. Connect your iPhone to computer and launch iTunes.

Step 2. Click the Device tab > Click Info.

Step 3. Check the box “Sync Contacts with” > Select “Windows Contacts” or “Outlook”.

Step 3. Check All Contacts > Click Sync at the bottom of the screen.

When it finished, you can run Outlook and open Contacts to have a check. Or if you sync with Windows Contacts, you can click Start and type your username > find and open the username folder and then you should see the Contacts folder.

Method 3. Backup iPhone Contacts without iCloud but via Email Account

If you are using email like Google, Yahoo, Outlook, etc, you can choose to directly sync iPhone contacts to these mail accounts.

Step 1. Go to Settings > Scroll down and choose Accounts & Passwords.

Step 2. Tap Add Account > Tap Google (or other mail you prefer) >Enter the required information to add your Gmail account and click Next.

Step 3. Click Save when your account is verified.

Step 4. Turn on Contacts Sync > Click Save to confirm.

Conclusion

If you want to backup contacts on iPhone without iCloud, you can try FoneTool and iTunes to backup contacts to PC or sync contacts to mail accounts.

Comparing these three methods, the most efficient way to backup iPhone contacts is using FoneTool, which lets you backup and restore contacts selectively. Download FoneTool and discover more!