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Deleting multiple contacts at once on your Mac: what you need to know



Do you know how to delete multiple contacts all at once from your iPhone? We don't blame you if you're not sure. The ability to quickly and easily select names and numbers to delete from your iPhone used to be a more complicated process that you needed to log into iCloud.




Here is how you can delete multiple contacts at once on your Mac



1. Open the Contacts app or go to the Phone app and select Contacts from the bottom menu.2. Find the contacts you want to delete. 3. Then, use two fingers to select one contact and drag up or down to select more than one contact to delete. You'll know if they've been selected as they'll be highlighted gray. 4. Once you've selected all the contacts that need deleting, release your fingers.5. Then long press on the gray, selected contacts and a menu will pop-up, asking you if you want to Copy, Share, Merge or Delete the contacts. Hit delete.


One third-party app stands out to delete contacts in bulk on your iPhone: Groups. In addition, the freemium app provides advanced features through in-app purchases. However, the ability to delete contacts is a free tool.


That's it. You can now go into the built-in Contacts app on your iPhone and verify that the selected contacts have been deleted. These contacts are also no longer listed on your other devices, including the iPad and Mac. While Groups isn't the most attractive app available, it gets the job done quickly and efficiently. Give it a try.


Even so, there are also many reasons to delete those same details from your contact list. For example, you may not want to have contact information on hand for a former partner or a person you have a disagreement with.


The iPhone does have the option to import contacts from the SIM, which is handy if you're reusing an old SIM card. If you have contacts stored on other services, such as with Google's online services like Gmail, these can also be combined with your main contacts list.


If you have signed into iCloud on your devices, you will also have had the option to synchronize your contacts across all of your hardware. Naturally, any changes you make to the contact list on one device affects all others.


If you want to delete one or a few contacts that you no longer need, you can do that for each individual contact. If you have iCloud syncing enabled, deleting a contact on one device will delete it from others.


If you have organized contacts in groups, you can also delete the group itself via the Mac Contacts app via the same method. If the group is used as part of a Smart Group, you will have to edit the Smart Group to remove related contacts or delete the Smart Group first, before you can delete the group.


The nuclear option is to completely remove all contacts on a device. This could be useful for short contact lists where every single contact has to be removed, but it is probably better for longer lists to go through the collection gradually as there may be some you want to keep.


Things are also complicated by the fact that many of the contacts will be saved to cloud storage services, including iCloud, Google, Yahoo, and others. In the case of non-Apple contact lists, you won't be able to delete them individually from the device unless you interact with the services directly.


Bear in mind that, with the use of iCloud and other third-party cloud storage services, you may not necessarily have deleted all copies of your contacts, so it is best to check through multiple devices.


Step three: Release the Ctrl (or Command) key, and your selected contacts will remain selected. Notice that there's no longer an Edit option, nor is there a Delete icon or anything similar. This is where Apple makes things mildly confusing, in my humble opinion.


If you want to delete multiple contacts at once using your mobile device, downloading a free third-party app is your best bet. Note that you'll need to grant these apps access to your contacts in order for them to work.


Quick tip: If you have a new iPhone and want to transfer contacts from your old iPhone, check out our help guide, plus some troubleshooting tips if you're having trouble getting your contacts to show up.


Whether you own an early model iPhone or the newer iPhone 13 or iPhone 14, there's unfortunately no way to delete multiple contacts at once using your iPhone. If you want to avoid erasing contacts one-by-one, the easiest way to delete multiple contacts from your iPhone is to do it on a Mac or PC. We'll cover how to delete a single contact on your iPhone, as well as how to quickly delete multiple contacts on your computer.


So, can you delete multiple contacts at once on your iPhone? No, you can't bulk delete contacts from your iPhone; however, you can easily do this on your Mac or PC and the changes will sync to your iPhone via iCloud. If you want to remove multiple contacts from your iPhone, skip to the Mac or Windows PC sections below. For those who just want to delete a single contact, here's how to delete contacts from your iPhone:


You can remove multiple contacts at once from your iPhone using the Contacts app on your Mac. In order for this to work, you need to check and make sure that your contacts are synced via iCloud. To check this on a Mac with macOS Ventura installed, open System Settings, click your name, click iCloud, and make sure the Contacts app is toggled on. To check this on a Mac with older software, open System Preferences on your Mac, click Apple ID, and make sure the Contacts app checkbox is selected. Once you've done that, you're ready to delete iPhone contacts using your Mac:


Whatever kind of PC you use, you can manage and delete your iCloud contacts via the iCloud website with any web browser. Here's how to delete contacts from your iPhone by signing into iCloud on your PC and removing the unwanted contacts:


If you're selling your device or giving it away to someone else, restore the phone to factory settings. This will erase all personal information from the device while still keeping your contacts, photos, and other personal information saved in iCloud so it can be transferred to your new device. If you delete your contacts, they will be removed from iCloud and you will not be able to sync them to your new phone.


To restore your iPhone or iPad to its factory settings, open the Settings app, tap General, and select Transfer or Reset iPhone (or Transfer or Reset iPad). Then tap Erase All Content and Settings, tap Continue, and confirm by entering your device passcode. Once you confirm, your data will be erased from the device, as if it were brand-new out of the box. Now you know how to delete all contacts on your iPhone or iPad in a way that will still keep them saved in your iCloud Contacts app!


If you don't know how to delete multiple contacts on iPhone, we'd understand. It isn't obvious, and until recently had to be done using iCloud. You might think that you'd be able to perform a simple function like this by selecting multiple contacts using an edit button, tapping a bullet point next to individual contacts and binning them. That's how it's done on iOS Messages and iOS Mail, after all. But no, for some reason, Apple hasn't made that a feature on iOS Contacts.


Thankfully, though, there is now an easy way to delete multiple contacts on your iPhone. It combines the drag select feature of iOS 16 with the long press function that allows you to delete contacts quickly on iPhone.


Before we start, it's worth noting that this feature is only suitable for deleting groups of contacts that are next to each other. You can't select multiple contacts individually like you'd select multiple individual messages in iOS Messages, for example. If you've got a lot of spring cleaning to do in your contacts book, you're best off learning how to delete multiple contacts on iCloud. You can use this feature to select more than one group of contacts, though.


If you've been maintaining and migrating the same Contacts list across Macs over the years then you've probably come across your fair share of duplicate contact cards. They can also appear seemingly out of nowhere after setting up iCloud Contacts on your Mac for the first time.


Unless you intentionally keep certain information for the same contact separated out for whatever reason, duplicate cards will add nothing but irritation to your day, so here we're going to show you how to merge and/or remove them, whether you're sat at your Mac or not.


You can delete contacts from your iPhone if you no longer need a contact due to an ended relationship, a service provider you no longer use, or other reasons. There is a couple of ways to do it. First, either delete several contacts simultaneously or delete all contacts on iPhone.


If you would prefer to use a third-party app to delete all contacts on your iPhone, there are a few worth noting. Groups is a free app that includes in-app purchases for additional features. However, it allows you to delete all contacts on your iPhone quickly.


The majority of iPhone users make extensive use of this miniature marvel of electronic technology. As its proponents are well aware, it is much more than a means of engaging in communication. Your iPhone is a powerful, mobile computing device that fits in your hand and can go everywhere with you. The apps available for your iPhone make it possible to run a business on the go, watch movies wherever you are, and of course, communicate via multiple methods.


Apple continues to pour innovative features and cutting-edge technology into each new release of the iPhone. One aspect of the iPhone and its underlying iOS operating system that has remained the same for some time is the Contacts app. It is an app that performs as advertised, managing the contacts on your iPhone and across all of your Apple devices if desired.


As you may have noticed if you were ever inclined to clean up your contacts list, there is no method built into the Contacts app that easily lets you delete multiple contacts on your iPhone. This may be an oversight or a subtle way to make you give some thought to actually deleting a bunch of people that you once were connected to in some way. In any case, you need to delete contacts one-by-one if you are doing it through the Contacts app. 2ff7e9595c


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