Samsung Galaxy S7 and Gmail Contacts not Completely Syncing

[K Car]

I was having some issues with sync, notifications, etc. on my Samsung Galaxy S7, so I backed it up and performed a factory reset. Once completed, I reloaded my device using Google backup and my primary (free) Gmail account. Once all of the syncs completed, I looked at my contacts and expected to see all of “My Contacts” from Gmail to be available. However, only 358 of 467 “My Contacts” were synced to the phone. I checked the “Contacts to Display” setting and confirmed that it specified my Gmail account, as I never maintain contacts on the local phone database. However, still only a subset of contacts shows up. I initially thought that it was pulling from an old backup, but I see recently added contacts on the phone. Further, I added comments to a contact on Gmail on the PC and the changes synced to the phone. I also added comments to a contact on my phone and it synced to Google on the cloud (verified on PC). Thus, sync appears to be working, at least partially.

I forced a “Sync now” under Phone>Settings>Google>account and nothing changed. Last night, I occasionally got the message “Sync is experiencing problems… “ but I’m not seeing that message today. I also turned off Contact Sync in the same area and nothing changed.

I cannot see any kind of pattern with the missing contacts.

This is not an import/export issue, but a SYNC issue.

Phone is not rooted. System is completely updated (Android 7.0). Also, I’m using the default Contacts app in Android. Everything else on the phone seems to be working/syncing fine, including Gmail, G Drive, etc. Phone is on WiFi and running in High Performance mode. I have had the phone about 18 months and it has always worked fine.

I have been using and supporting Android/Gmail/Google Apps for me and my IT clients for years and have always boasted that “it just works”, but this issue has me quite puzzled.

 

[SpookDroid]

Is there a specific contact that you can see online but you can't on your phone? Some of the contacts on your phone might be merged or your settings are set to only show Contacts with phone numbers (and GMail online will show contacts with just e-mails, too). Sometimes Sync 'breaks' with symbols on the contact name. I would also try removing the Google account from the phone and re-adding it, see if that helps restore the missing contacts.

 

[K Car]

Thanks, dude. There are 109 contacts that show up in Google contacts that will not sync to the phone. It's not the phone number or email address. For example, mt wife's contact has multiple phone numbers and 2 email addresses. She shows up in My Contacts on Gmail web interface but not on the phone.

A few new developments:
1. Tablet -- I added my Google account to an Android tablet, and it too only synced 358 of 467 contacts from Google.
2. Created new contact on Gmail web interface, and it immediately synced over to the phone.

SOLUTION (but I don't know why!)
I started identifying some of the missing contacts and looked at their contact card on Google. When I deleted their website URL or the link to their Google profile from the Profile field on the Gmail web interface, their contact immediately synced to the phone.

Bizarre!

 

[Javier P]

Yeah, it's a known problem. See here.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=853430

 

[SpookDroid]

Google+....grrrrrr

 

[K Car]

Jeez, I've been banging my head against the wall for the last 12 hours with this issue... 3 factory resets and a bunch of Google searches later, it's stinking Google+.

Hopefully, this post will save someone else some time until they get this issue fixed.

Ken

 

[mdtorres76]

Thanks guys. I got the same problem, noticed it in January 2018. It has been resolved after following Javier P's link.

 

[RichiRicheh]

This thread came up when I searched for contacts not syncing. The solution I found was different so I thought I'd share. Also in fairness the symptoms I had were a bit different as well. I have contacts syncing over but ending up in "Other Contacts" in GMAIL. They also synced over without phone numbers.


The fix:

1. Installed Google's Contact app
2. open the APP and set the default contact location to the 'targeted gmail account'
3. At the top of the app in the menu tap it. On my phone it gave me suggestions - click it
4. Very top option is 'Backup Contacts" select back up

Done.

When I log into Gmail now all of the contacts listed there are in my gmail contacts with phone numbers.