You do not like to lose a digital address book, because then you will lose all contacts. It is therefore wise to make a backup. In this article we explain how.
iPhone contacts backup
Your address book on the iPhone is precious, probably more than you realize. If you lose your phone or it gets badly damaged, the collected contacts are gone. But you can guard against that by making a backup. If you lose a device, you will at least have the contact details.
You can make a backup in several ways, the easiest one is via iCloud. You probably don’t even have to do anything for it, because usually the backup of contacts is already enabled on your Apple devices. If that is not the case or if you want to check it, follow the steps below on your iPhone:
- Go to the Settings app and choose ‘iCloud’;
- Set the slider behind ‘Contacts’ to green.
And this is how it works on the Mac:
- Go to the System Preferences and click on ‘iCloud’;
- Check the box for ‘Contacts’.
Once you have turned everything on, the contact information is automatically shared with iCloud. This means that you can find all contacts via iCloud.com. Via the website it is also possible to add new contacts or to edit information about contacts. After saving, the data is immediately synchronized on other devices.
Export on Mac
If you have a Mac, you can also export contacts from the Contacts app and store the information locally or on a cloud service of your choice. This may be more convenient if, for example, you use Google Drive, Dropbox or Stack a lot. How to export:
- Open the Contacts app on Mac;
- Go to ‘Archive’;
- Move your mouse cursor to ‘Export’ and then choose ‘Contacts archive’;
- Give the file a name, put it in a folder of your choice and click ‘Save’.
If you want to put the contacts back, go back to the Contacts app and choose ‘File> Import’. Then choose the backup file and the contacts will be loaded again.
Contact list as PDF on Mac
In addition to archiving your contacts as a backup file, it is also possible to save them in a list as a PDF. This is useful if you want to print them or take them with you. It goes like this:
- Go to the Contacts app on the Mac;
- Choose ‘Archive’ and then ‘Export as PDF’;
- Choose a file name and folder and click ‘Save’.