My contacts list on my Samsung S5 is continually updating and has been for 3 hours, what is going on?

[kenbjones]

My contacts list on my Samsung S5 is continually updating and has been for 3 hours - help please!

Good morning all,

my contacts list has now been updating for 3 hours, like a previous user described. I don't really want to go back to factory settings as I'll lose stuff that I don't want to lose. Is there any alternative way of halting this process so that I can use my phone. I have thousands of e-mail and linkedin contacts and cant afford to have the phone out of action all day - help please!

many thanks

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: My contacts list on my Samsung S5 is continually updating and has been for 3 hours - help please

Welcome to Android Central! I've seen this behavior on my wife's HTC One M8 as well, where Google Contacts seems to sync endlessly--and she also has LinkedIn, with upwards of 6000 contacts. What helped was to go to Settings>Accounts and completely remove the Google account, then add it back again. Assuming you've synced all of your other Google info, this shouldn't cause any permanent loss of data--it will be resynced back to the phone when you add the account back.

 

[MorrisCMorris]

Re: My contacts list on my Samsung S5 is continually updating and has been for 3 hours - help please

That didn't work for me. It only occured since the AT&T update installed this morning. Does that change your advice?

 

[Patricia Rodgers]

Did you ever get an answer to your contacts constantly updating? Thanks

 

[lbandrew]

I tried B.D.s suggestion for the same problem. It allowed me to remove the account but not to add it back. Now I'm really stuck! And open to any ideas. This is just one of a multitude of problems including overwarming of battery, failure of display to ever go off, "settings not available" continuing to occur frequently, and a claim of insufficient storage in my supposedly 16 GB S5 Galaxy which unfortunately seems to be from Africa so Samsung US denies any responsibility...and it was GSM unlocked, so no carrier help available. Loved it for about 6 months!:'(

 

[latifa001]

What if your contacts are only stored on the phone and not in your Gmail? Clearing data or factory restart erases every contact I assume. Is there a solution for this scenario whilst keeping your contacts that are only stored on the phone? Anyone?

 

[Crashdamage]

What if your contacts are only stored on the phone and not in your Gmail? Clearing data or factory restart erases every contact I assume. Is there a solution for this scenario whilst keeping your contacts that are only stored on the phone? Anyone?

In the Contacts app, go to:
Menu (3 dots upper right) > Import/export contacts > Export to storage > Export contacts? (It gives the location of the resulting .vcf file - write it down) > OK

Make a duplicate copy of the .vcf file for backup and save it to your computer or cloud storage, somewhere not on the phone. After resetting the phone, open Contacts and import the .vcf file to restore your contacts.

All that said, I very strongly, urgently recommend saving contacts to your Google account! This provides instant online backup of your contacts making it nearly impossible to ever lose them. Also makes reloading or transferring contacts to a new device a snap. And they automatically sync between multiple devices, computers, etc.



Android since v1.0. Linux since 2001

 

[latifa001]

Thank you! But I can't go anywhere in the Contacts app,it just keeps saying that it is updating and I cant go to the Menu...Is there another solution?

Yes I have definitely learned my lesson and on my new phone I immediately saved the contacts to my Google account!

 

[Crashdamage]

Re: My contacts list on my Samsung S5 is continually updating and has been for 3 hours - help please

I assume you already tried rebooting the phone. If not, try it.

Also...you didn't say what phone you have. The steps below are for my Nexus 6. Your phone may be somewhat different, but the idea is the same.

Go to: Settings > Apps > All (scroll right to see) > Google Contacts (or your contacts app) > Force stop > Clear cache

Hopefully, that does it and you can do the export.

Android since v1.0. Linux since 2001

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Re: My contacts list on my Samsung S5 is continually updating and has been for 3 hours - help please

I assume you already tried rebooting the phone. If not, try it.

Also...you didn't say what phone you have. The steps below are for my Nexus 6. Your phone may be somewhat different, but the idea is the same.

Go to: Settings > Apps > All (scroll right to see) > Google Contacts (or your contacts app) > Force stop > Clear cache

Hopefully, that does it and you can do the export.

Android since v1.0. Linux since 2001

Has a Samsung S5.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Re: My contacts list on my Samsung S5 is continually updating and has been for 3 hours - help please

Also at this point, I would try a cache wipe.

Also, don't know if booting into safe mode would stop the updating and maybe you could get them into Gmail that way.

 

[latifa001]

Thanks both, but unfortunately force stop/clear cache or rebooting in safe mode doesn't help...

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Thanks both, but unfortunately force stop/clear cache or rebooting in safe mode doesn't help...

Did you wipe cache in recovery? How about taking it to a Best Buy, Samsung store or your carrier and see if they can at least get your contacts on your SIM or SD card, then you can reset and add them to Google.

 

[Crashdamage]

@Kelly Kearns: Gonna be hard to do much of anything if he can't get into the Contacts app Menu. Gotta get what appears to be a runaway process stopped, get into the Menu and do an export.

@latifa001: What happens when you do a force stop? Just never stops, stops and immediately restarts or...?
What happened in safe mode? No change?

 

[Kelly Kearns]

@Kelly Kearns: Gonna be hard to do much of anything if he can't get into the Contacts app Menu. Gotta get what appears to be a runaway process stopped, get into the Menu and do an export.

@latifa001: What happens when you do a force stop? Just never stops, stops and immediately restarts or...?
What happened in safe mode? No change?

Well I was just thinking that the carrier or Samsung might have something they can do to stop something.

If he can install Package Disabler, wonder if he could stop the process by disabling it with that and then get what he needs.

 

[Crashdamage]

Well I was just thinking that the carrier or Samsung might have something they can do to stop something.

If he can install Package Disabler, wonder if he could stop the process by disabling it with that and then get what he needs.

Might be worth a shot...