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[Complete Guide] How to Stop Sharing Contacts on iPhone
Why are my contacts syncing with another iPhone? How to stop sharing contacts between 2 iPhones? This guide will tell you everying you want to know.
By Lena / Updated on March 7, 2024
How to Stop Sharing Contacts between iPhones
I’m using the same Apple ID with my Dad on my iPhone 13, iOS 16. Everything is fine except for receiving strange contacts on both of our iPhones. I want to have my only own contacts on my iPhone. What can I do to stop sharing my contact information on iPhone?
- Question from Apple Community
Contacts are important for making calls and sending emails. It’s good to see your contacts are safe and sound on your iPhone, but keeping receiving strange contacts or giving away your contacts is definitely not what you want.
iCloud offers an easy way for users to sync contacts. When you keep the same ID on 2 iPhones, the contacts could be merged. It's a good choice to transfer contacts from iPhone to iPhone.
Contacts should be very private. There is nothing worse than sharing contact information with others. The following sections will give you a very thorough explanation and solution to stop sharing contacts between iPhones.
Section 1. Why Contacts Are Shared and How to Stop It
Your contacts are showing up on another iPhone because iCloud Contacts are enabled on both iPhones. All of your contacts are uploaded to iCloud of the same account and then it will send and merge all the contacts to each iPhone to sync contacts.
► Will you lose contacts after stopping the sharing? The answer is No. Besides, you can choose to transfer contacts from one Apple ID to another.
How to Stop Sharing Contacts on iPhone
When you find you are sharing contacts with others, you can disable iCloud contacts and delete the strange contacts on iPhone.
1. Go to Settings on iPhone.
2. Tap [your name] and select iCloud.
3. Find Contacts and turn off it to stop sharing contacts between 2 iPhone.
4. You would receive the prompt What would you like to do with the previously synced iCloud contacts on your iPhone? Select Keep on my iPhone.
5. Open Contacts app on iPhone and delete the unwanted contacts.
Clearing the others’ contacts on your iPhone is not enough. Removing your contacts on the other iPhone makes you really separate 2 iPhones. After you have stopped receiving contacts from another iPhone, your contacts are still on the other iPhone. This section will help you erase them on the other devices.
1. Open a browser and go to iCloud.com.
2. Sign in your Apple ID and select the feature of Contacts.
3. Find your contacts and delete them from iCloud.
Now you can create a new Apple account for your own use. If you want to backup iPhone contacts, just turn on iCloud Sync to save contacts to your new account.
☛Tips: Before you sell or give away your iPhone, you need to wipe iPhone clean to prevent privacy leakage. If your ID is signed in on a strange iOS device, you could use find my iPhone to erase it.
Section 2. How to Unsync Google Contacts between 2 iPhones
Your contacts could be also uploaded to the server of Google. If you are sharing the same Google account with others and both of you are using Google Contacts, your contacts would also be merged on 2 iPhones.
1. Open Settings app on iPhone.
2. Scroll down the screen and select Accounts and Passwords.
3. Select Gmail and then turn off Contacts.
☛ Tips: To delete your contacts on the other devices, you could also go to contacts.google.com to pick up and delete them.
Section 3. How to Keep Contacts Separate on Two iPhones Perfectly
Having contacts stored in another place makes it always safe even if you unexpectedly lost them for some reason. Both iCloud and Google will automatically sync your contacts when the Internet is connected. It's a convenient iPhone contacts backup way. Now you have stopped sharing contacts on iPhone and you should use another solution to backup and sync iPhone contacts.
FoneTool is a perfect solution for iPhone backup and data transfer. It can help you save contacts to computer and transfer contacts to another iPhone. With all the necessary contacts in backup, you could stop cloud sync and feel free to remove the unwanted contacts.
★ Selectively Backup & Transfer: You can view all contacts and decide to backup/transfer some of them or all.
★ Widely Compatible: FoneTool supports all iPhones including the latest iOS 17/16, iPhone 15/14 series.
Let's see how to transfer iPhone contacts to computer as backup:
Step 1. Download FoneTool and connect iPhone to computer with USB cable.
Step 2. Select Phone Transfer on the home screen > Go to iPhone to PC and click Start Transfer.
Step 3. Click Contacts and select the contacts you want to transfer.
Step 4. Click Start Transfer > Select a path to store your contacts > Select the format you prefer (If you want to export iPhone contacts to Excel, please choose CSV.) > Click Transfer to complete the task.
If you want to transfer contacts from computer to iPhone, please choose PC to iPhone option.
Besides contacts, FoneTool also can help you transfer other iPhone data like photos, videos, music, and messages. You can freely share data between iPhone and computer, between iPhone and another iPhone/iPad.
Bonus Tip: Let Family Sharing Helps You Sharing iTunes Library
Most users are sharing accounts with others because they want to share the same iTunes library. But it will also share a lot of private information, otherwise, you won’t want to know how to stop sharing contacts on iPhone.
In fact, using Family Sharing could also let you share the purchased iTunes library with another Apple ID.
1. Open Settings app on iPhone.
2. Tap the [your name] and select Family Sharing.
3. Set up your family and invite your family members.
Conclusion
That's all about how to stop sharing contacts between 2 iPhones. Turn off Contacts in iCloud will help you stop sharing contacts between iPhones.
When you want to backup iPhone or transfer data to your family or friend's iPhone, you can let FoneTool help you make it. It's the best choice on how to transfer data from one Apple ID to another Apple ID. You could share it to help more people.