i had this problem too.
i live in Iran, if you live in same country or at least you are facing filtering too. i would suggest connecting using a proxy like hotspot shield.
this actually solved my problem
i have seen one more solution ,
go to settings and clean all your cache and data from your contacts storage and contacts.
i've seen some people got solved their same problem with that solution.
My issue is using emoji in a contacts name. I have the issue on two different s3's, a Nexus 7. Both s3's are running different custom roms... I wasn't having this issue until just the other day when I backed up my phone upgraded the rom, and restored, it duplicated all my contacts. Since then, nothing but issues! I sure would like to have my emoji back in the contacts
EDIT
I logged into my Google account via web browser and restored my contacts to the day before I started having isseus - restored them, still have the emoji (which I set from back when I had ios, and it just stuck). It just seems that if a contact is created with emoji on Android, it doesn't like to sync it... That's the way it seems anyway.
I deleted the google account and reinstalled it and that worked.