Android Phone app still showing contacts from deleted account

[carolinetoynbee]

Hi. I had two Google accounts on my android phone. Android Phone and Android Contacts showed both sets of contacts. I have deleted one of the Google accounts from my phone. The contacts associated with this account no longer show in Android Contacts but are still showing in Android Phone. Does anyone know how to purge them and just leave Android Phone and Android Contacts listing the contacts associated with the remaining account?

 

[tube517]

Your contacts may have merged and both accounts had both sets of contacts.

This happened to me before as I have 2 gmail accounts.

 

[smvim]

From your description, it sounds like the Contacts app on your phone now has content in it from two partially merged Google accounts. Something to keep in mind is when you've set up your phone to sync with your Google account, it's your online Google account that's the primary and your phone is simply the secondary. It's your online Google account data that resides in Google's servers, and then when you use your phone or when you use a web browser on a desktop computer all your doing is remotely accessing that online data. On occasion, like when your phone doesn't have online access (you're disable WiFi and mobile data), some data will just be held on your phone but once it has online connectivity again it's just merged with your primary Google account.
So with the Contacts app on your phone apparently holding contact entries from different Google accounts, what you need to do is reset the Contacts app to its original state on your phone; and then clean up the contact entries in your Google accounts using a either a web browser on a computer or your phone. And you need to do this while Contact syncing is disabled so once everything is straightened out, you enable syncing again so the online Google account data just repopulates the Contacts app with the now cleaned up Contacts data.
-- Open up the Contacts app on your phone, make note of any contact info that's only on your phone and not in your Contacts when you access your Google account using its web interface (using a web browser on a computer or on your phone.)
-- Now go into your phone's Settings >> Accounts >> Google menu and disable Contacts from syncing.
-- While still in your Settings menu, go to Apps, find and open the Contacts app entry, tap on the 'Force stop' button and then find and tap on the Clear data button. Using Clear data wipes the app's settings and config data, along with the app's cache. This essentially returns the app to its original, unused status.
-- The next step is to clean up the Contacts in your online Google accounts. Use a web browser on a desktop or your phone (a desktop/laptop will have a bigger display and make things easier) and go to http://contacts.google.com. Log into your respective accounts and clear out any duplicates, add in missing entries, etc. Get both accounts cleaned up and organized. In the left side column there's an Export menu where you can save your Contacts list as csv or vcard file as a backup just in case something goes wrong.
-- With the Contacts data in your online Google accounts cleaned up, now go back to your phone. Go into Settings >> Accounts >> Google again, enable syncing with Contacts again. Depending on how many contacts you have, it may take a few minutes to repopulate the Contacts app with your data.
At this point the Contacts app should be showing just that one Google account you've chosen. Do a quick test by creating a test entry in your Contacts app on your phone to see if it then shows up in your online Google account. Do the same in the web interface so that test entry hen shows up on your phone.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! You can also try clearing cache/data from the Phone app as well.

 

[carolinetoynbee]

Hi. Thanks for your detailed feedback. I'm not sure the contacts have merged. On my phone, in the Contacts app, I can only see one set of contacts (those for the undeleted account). The Phone app shows both sets of contacts (those for the undeleted account and those for the deleted account). In my browser, the undeleted Gmail account shows only the undeleted contacts and the deleted account shows only the deleted contacts. So, the only place where both contacts show up together is in the Phone app.

I have tried turning off wi-fi (to prevent syncing), stopping the Phone app and clearing the cache and the storage in the Phone app. They magically reappear again as soon as I open the Phone app.

 

[B. Diddy]

Ok, here's another possibility -- go to Settings>Apps, tap Menu>Show System, then find Phone & Messaging Storage. As long as there aren't any crucial text messages you want to keep on your phone, try clearing the cache/data from that app.

 

[smvim]

Hi. Thanks for your detailed feedback. I'm not sure the contacts have merged. On my phone, in the Contacts app, I can only see one set of contacts (those for the undeleted account). The Phone app shows both sets of contacts (those for the undeleted account and those for the deleted account). In my browser, the undeleted Gmail account shows only the undeleted contacts and the deleted account shows only the deleted contacts. So, the only place where both contacts show up together is in the Phone app.

I have tried turning off wi-fi (to prevent syncing), stopping the Phone app and clearing the cache and the storage in the Phone app. They magically reappear again as soon as I open the Phone app.

Turning off WiFi affects WiFi connectivity, your phone still has its cellular connectivity (your base cellular connection, which is inherent to your cellular account, and mobile data, which relies upon that cellular connection but just using more bandwidth).
Just turning off online access isn't going to fix the problem, nor will fiddling with the Phone app. You need to look into fixing the problem with the Contacts app on your phone, actually and more specifically, you need to manually fix the syncing issue with the proper Google account you now want to use, and that involves the contacts database itself. That's why I wrote up that previous summary, so you can address the actual problem, not the incidentals. It's that contacts database file that different apps, like the Phone app, the Contacts app, your chosen text messaging app, etc., rely upon.

 

[marlon32]

Turning off WiFi affects WiFi connectivity, your phone still has its cellular connectivity (your base cellular connection, which is inherent to your cellular account, and mobile data, which relies upon that cellular connection but just using more bandwidth).
Just turning off online access isn't going to fix the problem, nor will fiddling with the Phone app. You need to look into fixing the problem with the Contacts app on your phone, actually and more specifically, you need to manually fix the syncing issue with the proper Google account you now want to use, and that involves the contacts database itself. That's why I wrote up that previous summary, so you can address the actual problem, not the incidentals. It's that contacts database file that different apps, like the Phone app, the Contacts app, your chosen text messaging app, etc., rely upon.

Hi, i know this is over a year old...but i'm having exactly the same issue since i added my Google account to my wife phone.

When following all of your instructions, the contacts do disappear. an hour later they are all back again.

I can only assume its to do with an app forcing a sync somehow.

My Google account is removed from my wife phone and there doesn't seem to be any trace of it...but somehow my contacts keep coming back to her phone.

Any further help would be much appreciated as this is not ideal at all!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Just to be sure -- where are you confirming that your Google account was removed from her phone?

 

[marlon32]

I've gone to Google, clicked the drop down by email address, click on manage accounts on this device, selected my gmail account and then deleted it

 

[B. Diddy]

Go to the system settings (not the app settings), then Passwords & Accounts. Under Accounts, do you still see your account listed there?

 

[marlon32]

Go to the system settings (not the app settings), then Passwords & Accounts. Under Accounts, do you still see your account listed there?

ive gone to:
system settings
accounts and backup
manage accounts

in there my gmail account it not listed...just my wifes account, plus other accounts for hers..facebook, whatsapp etc

 

[B. Diddy]

On your computer, go to your wife's Google account and then contacts.google.com -- make sure they haven't been somehow added to your wife's own Google account.

Also, does she have any other accounts on her phone, like WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.? If so, check the contacts in those accounts to make sure your contacts didn't somehow get merged into the contact lists of those accounts (and it's those accounts that are putting your contacts back in her main list).

 

[marlon32]

On your computer, go to your wife's Google account and then contacts.google.com -- make sure they haven't been somehow added to your wife's own Google account.

Also, does she have any other accounts on her phone, like WhatsApp, Facebook, etc.? If so, check the contacts in those accounts to make sure your contacts didn't somehow get merged into the contact lists of those accounts (and it's those accounts that are putting your contacts back in her main list).

Thank you for replying.

while playing around with the settings etc, i think ive managed to fix it!

ive gone to the Settings, then Apps and gone through each app which had a little orange logo in the bottom righthand corner (which symbolises a the second account on the phone) see pic https://imgur.com/gallery/vKAbDxB and then disabled each app.

They were Google, Play Store etc.

By disabling these, the contacts now have seemed to stop being pulled through.

 

[B. Diddy]

Glad you figured it out! Which phone do you have? That looks like a dual app/app clone feature that allows users to create a 2nd instance of an app associated with another account. Here's an article describing the feature on a Samsung phone: https://screenrant.com/samsung-clone-apps-dual-messenger-how/

 

[marlon32]

Glad you figured it out! Which phone do you have? That looks like a dual app/app clone feature that allows users to create a 2nd instance of an app associated with another account. Here's an article describing the feature on a Samsung phone: https://screenrant.com/samsung-clone-apps-dual-messenger-how/

yeah thats it!

my wifes phone is a Samsung s21 ultra