How to Edit an Email Account Used for the Contacts App on an iPhone

Written by Jack Lloyd

Last Updated: May 25, 2021 Tested

This wikiHow teaches you how to view or hide email contacts in your iPhone's Contacts app by changing a linked email account's "Contacts" settings.

Method 1

Method 1 of 3:
Changing the Default Email Account

1
Open your iPhone's Settings. Do this by tapping the grey gear icon on one of your phone's Home screens (it may be in a folder named "Utilities").
2
Scroll to the fifth group of options and select Contacts.

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3
Tap Accounts. It's at the top of your screen.
4
Select an email account you wish to edit. For example, if you wish to change the Gmail settings, select Gmail.
5
Slide the Contacts switch left or right. Doing so will either disable or enable contacts synchronization from your selected email service.
- For example, sliding the switch right to the "On" position for Gmail would add your Gmail contacts to your Contact book.
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Method 2

Method 2 of 3:
Adding a New Email Account

1
Open your iPhone's Settings. It's the grey cog icon on one of your Home screens (or, if it's in a folder, in "Utilities").
2
Scroll to the fifth group of options and select Contacts.
3
Select Accounts. This option is at the top of the page.
4
Tap Add Account. It's near the bottom of this page.
5
Select your preferred email provider. Your options here will vary depending on your pre-existing accounts, but some popular options include the following:
- iCloud
- Google
- Yahoo
- Outlook
- You can also select Other to add an email provider not listed here.
6
Enter your account details. Depending on your selected server, these will vary.
- Once you're all signed in, you'll be redirected to that service's settings.
7
Slide the Contacts switch right to the "On" position. After doing this, you should be able to see your selected email account's contacts in your Contacts app.
8
Tap Save. This is in the top right corner of your screen. Doing so will confirm your account details and your Contacts settings.

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Method 3

Method 3 of 3:
Filtering Email Contacts

1
Open your iPhone's Contacts. The Contacts app resembles a person's silhouette on a grey background. It should be on one of your Home screens.
2
Tap Groups. It's in the top right corner of your screen.
3
Review your Contacts groups. Here, you should see several groups of locations from which contacts are synchronizing to your iPhone.
- If a location has a checkmark next to it, it's currently being synced.
4
Select each location you wish to remove. While doing so won't delete the contacts permanently, you won't see them in your Contacts app anymore.
- You can undo this action at any time by re-checking the location(s) you un-checked.
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Warnings

You can't delete synchronized contacts from your phone the way you can delete manually entered ones. If you don't want to see your Gmail contacts anymore, you'll have to either hide them via the Contacts app or stop synchronizing them from within Settings.

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About This Article

JL

Written by:

Tech Specialist

This article was written by Jack Lloyd. Jack Lloyd is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. He has over two years of experience writing and editing technology-related articles. He is technology enthusiast and an English teacher. This article has been viewed 1,582 times.

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Co-authors: 3

Updated: May 25, 2021

Views: 1,582

Categories: IPhone Applications

Article SummaryX

1. Open Settings.
2. Select Contacts.
3. Tap Accounts.
4. Select an email account.
5. Slide the Contacts switch on or off.

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