Disable WhatsApp Contact sync - so it stays disabled?

[Ph33nix]

Hello everybody,

I came back to Android in the form of a Nokia 8 after a lot of years and am really delighted so far. But I kept my contacts in my outlook account as I am still using that one as my main account.

Then I noticed that I ended up with a lot of double contacts in my phone book. I think I now have figured out that WhatsApp is messing with it, as it reads the accounts into its own contract list and then syncs it back with the telephones phone book.

I tried disabling the WhatsApp sync (see attached picture) but it only stays off for a few minutes and it will turn itself on again. Then all the deleted double entries will come back right away.

Anybody had a similar experience and was able to stop WhatsApp from creating it's own accounts in the phone book? Or basically stop it from turning itself on again?

Thank you in advance.
Regards

 

[Thacy]

Open Contacts app, go to Menu icon > Settings > Contacts to display. By default, All contacts is ticked. You should be able to customize which contacts to display in phone number book.

 

[Ph33nix]

Hej Thacy,

thank you for your help.
I was reminded that there is a independent "Contacts"-App as well, here I cannot find double contacts as I can get rid of WhatsApp in the way you described. Actually, the double contacts only show up in the "Phone"-App on the contacts tab (the one I primarily use for contacts).
Now after testing some more, if I disable the contact sync in the "Contacts" app the WhatsApp sync will stay off for a longer period. But it will turn itself on again after refreshing my contacts in WhatsApp.
The only thing I can come up with right now is to turn off the WhatsApp sync everywhere, delete the double contacts in the "Phone"-App by hand and hope I don't get new WhatsApp contacts in the near future until I find a better solution/an update fixes the disparity between the "Phone"- and "Contacts"-App.

If somebody has a better solution, I am all ears.

Thanks, Ph33nix