Old contacts reappearing after update

[CynicalLoner]

After having problems for weeks with my phone not updating properly to 5.0, I decided to go to an AT&T DSC and decided to have them update the phone for me. I noticed however after the update was successful that old contacts that I used to have years ago but have since deleted (or so I thought) have appeared again on my phone. Deleting the numbers out of my phone apparently does not get rid of them from my account permanently it seems, so I'm here to ask what method can do that? I don't like having to go remove old contacts out of my phone every time I'm going to update my phone or anything. On the contact list when tap a name, it says connected via device and google account, so anyone's number that I did have already in my phone is now there twice, including old numbers that they had.
Would love a solution to fix that problem if anyone knows.
Thank you

 

[B. Diddy]

Were the old contacts associated with the Phone Account (as opposed to your Google account)? I wonder if AT&T stored your old Phone Account contacts in the past when you did a prior contact transfer, and then assumed you wanted them back when they did the update for you.

In general, I never add contacts to the Phone Account--always to the Google account. The Phone Account is not very useful, since it doesn't automatically sync anywhere--that means if something happens to the phone, those contacts are lost.

In the meantime, try Duplicate Contacts.

 

[CynicalLoner]

Well I've had 2 different phones since then I've had saved those old numbers so I don't believe it has anything to do with the ones saved in the phone itself. It seems to be from the Google account itself, but how do I remove contacts from it permanently then?

 

[B. Diddy]

Delete the contacts from Google Contacts on the web. Those deletions should sync with the phone.

 

[CynicalLoner]

From where? I've tried logging into my gmail with that account and checking contacts but they weren't there.

 

[B. Diddy]

If the contacts on the phone were associated with your Google account, then they should be syncing with your Google Contacts on the web. (That's why I was asking if the contacts in question were associated with your Google account or the local Phone account.) If the contacts aren't in your Google Contacts on the web, then I still suspect that those contacts were originally saved to the Phone account. When you brought the phone to the AT&T store for the update, that's probably when the contacts got put back on the phone. Delete them from the phone again, and if you don't want to deal with this each time, try to avoid having the people at the AT&T store do the update for you.