Why does one Contact's details appear only under another Contact on the phone?

[bardiferous]

I'm helping a non-techie friend. So, in Google Contacts, he has hundreds of contacts. There currently is a problem with two of them - but ONLY in the Contacts on the Android. They appear correct in any web view.

To anonymize, let's call one contact David Kale and the other Ama Zone.

So, In Google [Preview] Contacts, they appear individually - under All Contacts. Likewise, in the older Contacts, they each are in the group My Contacts and again appear individually. All good so far.

The phone is the AT&T Samsung Galaxy Express, SGH-1437, Jelly Bean 4.1

Going to the Contacts app (the default app that came with the phone) - Ama Zone does not appear in the list view or when searching for Ama or Zone. Stranger than fiction! Her phone numbers and email address come up under David Kale, along with his contact info.

We changed the settings for Contacts: Contacts to Display to Gmail/Google contacts only. Then confirmed that the Google account is indeed sync'ing the Contacts, we made some superficial changes to both contacts and made sure that Contacts re-synced after that. But no changes to either in the Contacts list; Ama Zone's contact info still appears as part of David Kale's contact.

HELP!

 

[SpookDroid]

Maybe your friend linked those two contacts and 'merged' them into one in the phone. Not sure if those merges carry over to Google Contacts.

To check if this is the case, open the contact you do see (David's), and you should see a CONNECTED VIA section with a chain link icon. Tap the icon and see if Ama's contact is there. If it is, just remove it and they should become two separate contacts once more.