[ThomasSmailus]

Recently reset my phone to factory and installed apps from scratch (ie not a phone restore from backup) as Apple has been suggesting I try to fix an issue with the OS (surprise it didn't fix it, so its the OS itself, not the hardware ).. but in any case, now 2 weeks or so post that I noticed my contacts are way out of date.. a lot of contact updates and adds I'd done are not there.

So I try searching for what this might be about and can I fix it (Apple only storing one backup of a phone on itunes of course doesn't help so there's no way to go back to a prior iphone backup now, again another frustrating and different ecosystem aggrivation).

Come across the imore article ( https://www.imore.com/how-get-lost-icloud-contacts-back-your-iphone ) and think, hey let me try this. But I cannot. Because the iOS that was in effect on the article back in Feb 2017 doesn't exist on my phone in June 2017. Still iOS 10, I assume, but an update must have changed it in the contacts/phone app/config space or Lory Gil was running a wholey different iOS than I have.

My [Settings]->[Contacts] does NOT have a 'default account' area.
My [Phone]->[Contacts] does NOT have a 'groups' button in the upper left.
And since I have no cred yet, as I just signed up, I have no ability to post this question in the article to which it applies. Brilliant.

[Just_Me_D]

If your contacts are indeed associated with iCloud, you should login to the iCloud website via a computer to verify whether or not all of your contacts are available. If they are, initiate the native Contacts app your iPhone, select “Groups” in the upper left corner of the screen, and then be sure that a checkmark is present next to everything therein. Afterwards, select “Done” in the upper right corner. If all of your contacts do not populate the Contacts app at that time, sign out of iCloud on your iPhone, reboot it, and then sign back in. Your contacts should sync back to your device.

[Tartarus]

In addition to the above:
If there is no “Groups” button in the upper left, this means that your contacts are only saved to iCloud. This means that there are no contacts that are on your iPhone or in other syncing services.

[Ledsteplin]

If you only have iCloud toggled on for contacts in settings > iCloud, and no other accounts, then the default account option in settlngs > Contacts will not show. Try going to iCloud > Toggle Contacts on. If already on, toggle it off, choose delete from my iPhone, then toggle back on.