How to delete multiple contacts on iPhone

Touch and hold a contact with two fingers, then drag up or down to select multiple contacts to delete. For more control, you’ll need a third-party iPhone app.

The “Contacts” app is often saved in a folder and forgotten about. It is very likely that you have some old and duplicate contacts cluttering you up. We will show you some ways to delete multiple contacts on an iPhone.

Apple technically has an official method for deleting multiple contacts at once on an iPhone. It was added in iOS 16, but as we’ll show below, it’s not really very practical.

Unfortunately, you’ll need a third-party app to mass delete contacts in a way that makes the most sense. The good news is that there are great apps out there for the job. We’ll also recommend a few for you and show you how to use them.

The official method to delete multiple contacts on an iPhone is a bit strange. You can delete multiple contacts with a simple gesture, as long as they are next to each other in the contact list.

First, open the “Contacts” app on your iPhone or iPad.

Next, go to “All Contacts” or the account you want to use, if it’s not already there.

Now we are going to select multiple contacts by dragging to select. So, tap and hold the first contact with two fingers.

Drag both fingers down (or up) until you have selected all the contacts you want to delete. Release your fingers.

Touch and hold with one finger any of the selected contacts to bring up the menu. Select “Delete X contacts”.

Finally, confirm your choice by tapping on “Delete Contacts”.

That’s all about it! This method is not great if you want to select contacts that are not sorted.

Apple’s method of deleting multiple contacts leaves a lot to be desired. For more controls, we will use a free application called “Easy Cleaner”. You can install it from the App Store.

To get started, open the app and give it permission to access your contacts. Tap “Continue” and then “OK.”

EasyCleaner has a feature called “Contact Enrichment” that will label certain contacts automatically. It is not necessary to enable this for what we are doing.

Select “All Contacts” at the top of the screen.

Touch and hold a contact to select it, then select other contacts to delete.

Now, with all the contacts you want to delete highlighted, tap on the trash can icon in the bottom right corner.

Confirm your decision by selecting “Delete”.

This is a much more useful way to delete multiple contacts at once.

There are two methods that we can use to delete a bunch of contacts at once on an iPhone. First, you can use the two-finger press-drag method from the above section “How to delete multiple contacts on iPhone”.

However, for a better method, we will use an application called “Easy Cleaner”. This will give you a lot more control over who you want to remove. Start by opening the app and giving it permission to access your contacts.

There is a feature called “Contact Enrichment” that will tag certain contacts automatically. You do not need to enable this.

Then select “All Contacts” at the top of the screen.

You can now touch and hold a contact to select it. After selecting one, you can touch all the other contacts you want to delete until they are all highlighted.

Finally, tap the trash can icon in the bottom right corner when you’re ready.

Confirm your decision by selecting “Delete”.

This is a good easy method to delete a bunch of contacts at once. Much more intuitive than Apple’s drag method.

Apple finally added a tool to remove and merge duplicate contacts in iOS 16. It’s not perfect, but it catches most duplicates. If duplicate photos and videos are a problem, there is a solution for that too.

First, open the “Contacts” app on your iPhone or iPad.

Next, go to “All Contacts” if it’s not already there.

If the app has identified duplicates, you’ll see a card at the top of the screen indicating how many have been found. Tap “View Duplicates.”

Select the contact you want to merge or tap “Merge All” to merge them all at once.

If you select an individual contact, you’ll see where the duplicates are pulled from. In this case, I have the same contact listed twice from my synced Google account. It also shows what information will be merged. Touch “Merge” to continue combining.

Finally, confirm your decision by selecting “Merge” in the pop-up window.

Apple’s built-in feature is pretty good if you don’t have a lot of contacts to filter. For a more advanced tool, check out our complete guide to remove duplicate contacts on iPhone and Android devices.

As with deleting a contact group, there are two methods you can use to delete all contacts. The first is the two-finger press-drag method from the above section “How to delete multiple contacts on iPhone”. Just start at the top of the contact list and drag to the bottom.

Again, there is an easier way to do this by using a third-party app. We will use an application called “Easy Cleaner” to do it quickly. Install the app and give it permission to access your contacts.

You can skip the “Contacts Enrichment” feature. It is not necessary to delete contacts.

Then select “All Contacts” at the top of the screen.

First, touch and hold a contact to select it.

After selecting a contact, a checkmark button will appear in the upper right corner. Touch the button to select all your contacts.

With all contacts selected, tap the trash can icon in the bottom bar.

Confirm your decision by tapping “Delete” one more time.

Boom! All your contacts are gone just like that.

Managing contacts is not a fun task, but it is necessary to do it from time to time. It is easy for contacts to accumulate and stay with us for many years. Fortunately, services like iCloud and Gmail make it easy to sync contacts between devices when you make changes.