Three Easy Ways to Batch-Delete Old Contacts in iOS
It’s that time again. No, not time for your annual physical, although that’s probably a good idea, too. We mean smartphone spring cleaning time. And while you may remember to clear your home screen of the apps you haven’t touched in six months, or archive those emails for inbox zero, there’s one part of your digital life you may neglect to prune: your contacts list.
Let’s face it, you probably don’t need your old Intro to Chemistry study buddy’s cell number in your phone anymore … or the digits of that guy you did Jägerbombs with six months ago (didn’t you walk home with one shoe that night?). Anyways. In the current version of iOS, there’s unfortunately no simple way to swipe and delete a bunch of contacts at once. But there’s an easier way than going one by one through the contacts on your phone.
The first method is through iCloud, assuming you sync your iOS device with Apple’s cloud service in the first place. Log into the iCloud website, and then click on Contacts. Select the contacts you want to delete, holding down the Control button to select more than one at a time. Then either hit the Delete key on your keyboard, or click the Settings button on the lower left and pick Delete.
Alternatively, if you collect your contacts on Google — a good option if you’re a heavy Gmail or Drive user — you can delete contacts from there. The changes will be reflected on your iPhone as long as Contacts syncing is enabled.
Another option is a third-party app like My Contacts Backup. This app offers offline backup of your contacts list and cross-device syncing over email, along with an easier way to delete a large number of contacts. Cleanup ($1) also makes mass deleting contacts easy — you can even apply a filter to search for a specific name or organization.
Ah, a clutter-free, duplicate-free, bad-memory free Contacts list. You’ll keep your contacts this organized all the time now, right?
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