Where did these contacts come from?!?!?!

[dawindbag]

I just got a new HTC One and am moving back to Android for the first time in years (Since 2.1/2/2) from a Windows Phone. I'm starting to get it set up and I ran into a problem I just can't sort out, hoping you folks can help.

There are now close to 500 contacts on my phone that were imported from somewhere, and I have no idea where. The contacts that shouldn't be there are one-off contacts that were work contacts previously emailed from either Outlook on my work computer, from my old phone with my work email connected via EAS or from my Hotmail account. Some of these random account are anonymous craigslist accounts but the vast majority look like people that were probably emailed or cc'ed t one point in the course of work.

These accounts are listed as "Phone" when you view them, not as LinkedIn or Hotmail or Gmail. None off these accounts are stored in any of the social or webmail accounts I have. The most bizarre element is that they weren't there 2 days ago when I first set up my phone, the synced in from somewhere overnight. The kicker is that my work email account, where most of these came from, isn't connected to this phone yet.

So any ideas on where these contacts came from? How I can get rid of them? Thanks.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Are you using HTC Sync or some other non-Google program that is intended to sync your phone contacts with either your desktop or some cloud service?

 

[dawindbag]

I plugged my device into my laptop with HTC Sync briefly. Would HTC Sync scan my PC and location contacts/email addresses from a PST file on it?

ETA: Just revisited the HTC Sync settings and see there is an option to sync from Outlook contacts. That's certainly where the data came from, that really sucks. Most frustrating is that it apparently didn't just sync the Outlook contacts, but all emails in my inbox/outbox as well.

So, any ideas on a fast way to edit/delete the contacts on my phone?

 

[B. Diddy]

Not sure. What happens if you turn off that Outlook sync function, then sync again? I wonder if that would wipe out the previously synced contacts, but I'm guessing it won't.