Remove contacts from one account only on phone

[Android Central Question]

I have three Google accounts connected to my phone for email purposes. However, I do not NOT want the bajillion contacts from my work account (I teach at a school so this includes all students, parents, staff...) Showing up in my contacts.

I have unsynced that accounts contacts. But now they are all still in my phone when I go to contacts.

 

[Mooncatt]

This is a somewhat convoluted process, so follow these steps exactly. I've been through this before and took a lot of trial and error to figure out what to do.

First remove the Google account for work from the phone (via the settings > accounts option in the phone's main settings screen) and verify that also removed all the contacts associated with that account.

In the same main accounts screen, turn auto-sync off. This prevents contacts and anything else from being synced when you add the account again.

Re-add the account, then verify contacts have not synced.

Put your phone into airplane mode to make sure there's no net connection.

Go back to the accounts setting and turn auto-sync back on. Being in airplane mode prevents contacts (or anything else, for that matter) from being added back to the phone, as auto-sync must be enabled for the next step to happen.

(Technically you could have skipped the above steps and start with the next one, then manually remove the contacts. That's fine with just a few contacts. In a case like yours, removing and re-adding the account in this manor acts like a "delete all" function to make the process quicker overall.)

Go into the settings for the account you just re-added and turn off the contacts sync, and any other individual sync option you don't want.

Turn airplane mode off and return the phone to normal operation, then verify again that those contacts are not on the phone. If the contacts are there, then something didn't go right and we'll have to look more into how the contacts got synced.

Please register an account here to let us know if this worked or if you have any other questions. If the contacts are still there after this, it's usually because one of the steps wasn't followed properly. Each step must be done in order for specific reasons, and most problems are because the user either didn't read something correctly or tried to shortcut the steps.

 

[Joshua Greve]

I really appreciate your detailed answer, and it all makes sense.

I will follow your instructions meticulously, and let you know how it all turns out. I appreciate your help again!

 

[Joshua Greve]

Ugh. It didn't work. I turned of auto-syncing, added the qork Google account, turned off airplane mode and checked my contacts... They all came back. I understand why Google doesn't always offer features that would be useful to me. But this does not seem like some idiosyncratic preference on my part. It seems pretty straight forward that most people who work at a big corporation or what have you are not going to want everything from Google suites introduced into their device.
Any other thoughts? Or did I perhaps miss something?

 

[Joshua Greve]

Here is a thought: can I

1) add these accounts,

2) turn off sync for everything(individually, not just with the general "Turn off syncing" button, but turning of the sync for each feature under both my personal and work account)

3) Delete ALL of my contacts on my phone

And then .. (and this is the perhaps scary part that I need advice on)

4) Turn on sync for all of the features I want synced (obviously NOT turning on sync for my work contacts).

Now,the last step is scary to me bc I don't know if then Google will sync the changes I've made to my phone to my account (thereby deleting all of my contacts for real... Yikes!) Or (what I would hope would happen, bit don't feel confident will happen) reload all of my personal contacts back on to my phone.


Basically, I am trying to create a clean slate on my phone and then simply reupload my personal contacts.

Delete all contacts on my phone

 

[Dspopieux]

Usually there is an option in contacts app to select which contacts you want to be shown in your contacts list. Maybe try that.

 

[methodman89]

I have three Google accounts connected to my phone for email purposes. However, I do not NOT want the bajillion contacts from my work account (I teach at a school so this includes all students, parents, staff...) Showing up in my contacts.

I have unsynced that accounts contacts. But now they are all still in my phone when I go to contacts.

From Contacts, Settings, you should have the screens I'm posting. Select the account to sync as shown. Follow the above instructions to clear it out first.

 

[Mooncatt]

Now,the last step is scary to me bc I don't know if then Google will sync the changes I've made to my phone to my account (thereby deleting all of my contacts for real... Yikes!) Or (what I would hope would happen, bit don't feel confident will happen) reload all of my personal contacts back on to my phone.

Ditto, I'm not sure how well that method would work, but simply because I've never tried that. Maybe someone else can chime in if this would also delete the contacts on the server side.

When you mentioned the contacts showing up again the first time you tried, did you make sure those contacts were deleted from your phone when you deleted the account in the first step? The way you worded that made it sound like it's possible they were still there all along.

 

[Mooncatt]

Usually there is an option in contacts app to select which contacts you want to be shown in your contacts list. Maybe try that.

That method could work, but one thing I noticed when I did this is if you start dialing (especially if by name) is it'll still reference that contact and auto-filling won't work as well if you have similar named contacts on the different accounts. I use voice dial a lot, which made this doubly annoying.

 

[B. Diddy]

Try this:

1. In Settings>Accounts, go to the Google accounts you don't want contacts from and turn off the Contacts sync for each of them.
2. Go to Settings>Apps, tap Menu>Show System, and select Contacts Storage.
3. Clear the cache and data from Contacts Storage.
4. Now open Contacts again and give it a few seconds to re-sync. Are the unwanted contacts still there?

 

[Joshua Greve]

Ditto, I'm not sure how well that method would work, but simply because I've never tried that. Maybe someone else can chime in if this would also delete the contacts on the server side.

When you mentioned the contacts showing up again the first time you tried, did you make sure those contacts were deleted from your phone when you deleted the account in the first step? The way you worded that made it sound like it's possible they were still there all along.

To the best of my knowledge, I did and they were gone. Yeah, makes no sense. I don't have complete confidence that I didn't meaa up something though I was pretty careful. I am going to try methodman's advice as well and if that doesn't work I am going to try yours again with more care.

Thanks to everyone here for sharing their advice and thoughts!

 

[methodman89]

To the best of my knowledge, I did and they were gone. Yeah, makes no sense. I don't have complete confidence that I didn't meaa up something though I was pretty careful. I am going to try methodman's advice as well and if that doesn't work I am going to try yours again with more care.

Thanks to everyone here for sharing their advice and thoughts!

What I suggested could be done in the amount of time that it took to read this post.
SMH

 

[VidJunky]

What I suggested could be done in the amount of time that it took to read this post.
SMH

On my HTC in my Google contacts I had a tab that said phonebook in the upper left corner. If I expanded that I could literally see all the accounts from which my contacts/phonebook was drawing and displaying. Then it was a simple task of checking and unchecking boxes. On my Samsung I tried to find such an option and couldn't locate a simple way like that because turning off accounts displayed in the contact app was going to be my advice too. That is until I couldn't find it.

 

[Joshua Greve]

What I suggested could be done in the amount of time that it took to read this post.
SMH

Not sure what to do with your advice given my contacts settings. But, sincerely, thanks for taking the time to post those pics above. My apologies for bothering you.

 

[Joshua Greve]

My contacts settings.

 

[Joshua Greve]

On my HTC in my Google contacts I had a tab that said phonebook in the upper left corner. If I expanded that I could literally see all the accounts from which my contacts/phonebook was drawing and displaying. Then it was a simple task of checking and unchecking boxes. On my Samsung I tried to find such an option and couldn't locate a simple way like that because turning off accounts displayed in the contact app was going to be my advice too. That is until I couldn't find it.

Thanks. I have a Pixel 2xl now if that helps.

 

[Joshua Greve]

Try this:

1. In Settings>Accounts, go to the Google accounts you don't want contacts from and turn off the Contacts sync for each of them.
2. Go to Settings>Apps, tap Menu>Show System, and select Contacts Storage.
3. Clear the cache and data from Contacts Storage.
4. Now open Contacts again and give it a few seconds to re-sync. Are the unwanted contacts still there?

I actually tried this the other day. Oddly enough, nothing changed, period. I thought this would have worked, too.

 

[Joshua Greve]

So, I don't expect it to stick, but I came back here originally tonight to report the following:

After I tried and failed to implement mooncat's advice the other day, I simply deleted the work account again and they came off my contacts. So I just left it off. Then today, after visiting earlier (much to methodman's chagrin lol), I decided to go back, add the work account back and try out Methodman's advice assuming all the contacts came back. When I realized my settings are not as robust as his, I went back to check out my contacts... None of the work ones were there!

Then (and this is the weird part) I went back to the sync option and all of the syncing was one. It was set to sync all the work contacts. ?!? But none of them were there in my contacts. So I quickly turned off the syncing for work contacts.

I can't make sense of any of this at all, but I decided to share this bizarre take in case it helps (or comforts) anyone else in the future who thinks they're taking crazy pills.

Anyway, the short of it is that I have both accounts on my phone again and I only have my personal contacts. Again, I don't expect this to stick, but if it does, thanks mooncat!

 

[VidJunky]

When you open your contacts does it look like my first pic? Obviously I have a Samsung and you have a Google phone but Google contacts should at least be similar in appearance and/or function.

If you're seeing what I have follow the progression of the pics and see if it helps.

 

[Joshua Greve]

When you open your contacts does it look like my first pic? Obviously I have a Samsung and you have a Google phone but Google contacts should at least be similar in appearance and/or function.

If you're seeing what I have follow the progression of the pics and see if it helps.View attachment 304614View attachment 304615View attachment 304616View attachment 304617View attachment 304618

Thanks. Actually every pic you took, oddly enough, looks almost exactly like on my pixel.

You may have now seen my latest update, but see that last pic of yours? I'll come back to it on a moment.

So, I deleted the work account a couple days ago and left it off out of frustration. I came back today, re-added it, and the work contacts didn't reappear to my surprise. Now, back to that last pic of yours, I assumed my phone must have remembered that I had turned those off last time (per mooncat's advice) before I had just deleted it as a tantrum. But I can back and it had all syncing switched on, just like in your pic. Yeah, makes no sense. I quickly turned them off apart from Gmail. I know I repeated myself here but your pics offered a nice visual.