Short answer: in the Contacts app, place two fingers on a contact and drag down to select several. Then touch and hold the selection and tap Delete Contacts. To delete hundreds or all of them, use iCloud.com › Contacts on a computer, or turn off an account's contacts in Settings. Back up first: deleted contacts don't go to a Recently Deleted folder.
Steps
- Back up: on iCloud.com, open Contacts, select all and choose Export vCard, or let an app such as Spaceclear save a .vcf backup.
- Open the Contacts app (or Phone › Contacts).
- Place two fingers on the first contact and drag down the list. The contacts you pass are selected and highlighted.
- Lift your fingers, then touch and hold one of the selected contacts.
- Tap Delete Contacts and confirm.
- To remove one contact: open it, tap Edit, scroll down and tap Delete Contact.
Deleting lots of contacts
| You want to remove | Best way | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A handful in a row | Two-finger drag in Contacts | Only works on neighboring contacts |
| Hundreds, scattered | iCloud.com › Contacts on a computer | Command-click or Ctrl-click to select, then delete |
| Every contact from one account | Settings › Apps › Contacts › Contacts Accounts › [account], turn off Contacts | Removes them from the iPhone only; the account keeps them |
| Every iCloud contact | iCloud.com › Contacts › select all › delete | Deletes on all your devices |
| Empty and unreachable entries | A cleanup app such as Spaceclear | Contacts with no name, or no phone or email |
Before you delete: check where contacts live
Contacts on your iPhone can come from iCloud, Gmail, Outlook, Exchange or a SIM import. Deleting a contact deletes it from the account it belongs to, and from every device using that account. Tap Lists at the top left of Contacts to see each account separately. To change where new contacts are saved, go to Settings › Apps › Contacts › Default Account. If everyone appears twice, read clean up contacts after switching phones first.
Recovering deleted contacts
For iCloud contacts, go to iCloud.com on a computer, open Data Recovery in your account settings and choose Restore Contacts. You can pick an archive from a recent date; restoring replaces your current contacts with that version. For Gmail contacts, Google Contacts on the web has its own undo for recent changes. Or restore from the .vcf backup you made in step 1.
Doing it with Spaceclear
Spaceclear's Contacts cleanup finds contacts you can safely remove: entries with no name, entries with no phone number or email, and duplicates matched by name, phone or email, which it merges instead of deleting, so no number or address is lost. Before the first change, Spaceclear saves a .vcf backup of all your contacts and keeps the 10 most recent; restore one any time from Backups. The free plan includes ten contact fixes a day. For merging, see merge duplicate contacts.
FAQ
Can I delete all contacts on iPhone at once?
Yes, two ways. To remove them from the iPhone only, turn off Contacts for each account in Settings › Apps › Contacts › Contacts Accounts. To delete them for good, select all on iCloud.com › Contacts and delete; that removes them from every device using that iCloud account.
If I delete a contact on my iPhone, is it deleted from iCloud?
Yes, if the contact is stored in iCloud. Deletions sync to iCloud and to your other devices. Contacts stored in Gmail or Outlook are deleted from those accounts instead.
Why can't I select multiple contacts on iPhone?
The two-finger drag works only on contacts next to each other in the list. For scattered contacts, use iCloud.com on a computer, where you can Command-click or Ctrl-click to pick exactly the ones you want.
Updated 2026-11-13