I've had an issue with Google Contacts not syncing following a firmware update on my Galaxy S3

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AC Question

I've had an issue with Google Contacts not syncing following a firmware update on my Galaxy S3 last year (now android 4.3) -have recently resolved this by enabling the google.contacts.sync app which had somehow been disabled.. in the meantime I had tried various methods to try and get on top of my contacts including importing contacts from my gmail account in csv files ..I tidied the contacts up but ended up with numerous linked contacts (over 2000!) and the only method I could come up with for clearing and deleting these additional linked contacts was to delete the links and then the 'ghost' contacts one by one! a long and tedious procedure. I got halfway through the B's in the list and then decided (after checking with forums etc in Google) to back up the contact list in my gmail account to a google csv file on my laptop and then delete the contacts on my S3 device with the intention of simply switching on the sync again to populate the s3 contacts with the up to date list and with no annoying linked contacts. I then deleted the 'Not Assigned' group of about 280 contacts with no apparent problem.. fine so far.. then I proceeded to delete the main contact list before a syncing renewal ..as I thought! .. but the deletion of these actual contacts was apparently completed but I then received a notification message on the S3 saying that the deleting of over 250 was too much for the device and I was given the choice of * proceeding with the deletion *undoing the deletion or *doing nothing for now. I opted to undo the deletion and would then look further into what could be done.. in the meantime I was left with an 'Ongoing Notification' on the S3 (which has disappeared while I was tortuously typing this question to your excellent forum!!)

I now see that my contacts list in the S3 device have been restored ..deletion undone! ... with the bonus that all the linked contacts and annoying avatars signifying all the linked 'ghost contacts' have been deleted .. mission accomplished almost by accident! I seem to have solved the problem myself but as I've plodded all this way with my one finger typing I would still submit this in case the story might help someone else with contacts problems!!!