Duplicate contacts after whatsapp installation

[isicles]

Hi,

I am new to the world of android. Moving from windows mobile.

I got a new phone mi a1. Got started using my gmail account. Checked my contacts. It had in total 3 contacts. Then installed whatapp. works well. Checked my contacts again. Now i had 6 contacts. Each names showing up 2 times.

Checked contacts.google.com. Had in total 3 contacts and not 6.

Linked one contact in contacts app to check. Now cannot even unlink it.

So now i have total 5 contacts in my contacts list. (2 Contacts shown twice and one contact linked which cant be unlinked).

Any idea why this happens? What is the solution? Once this sorted i can move my actual contacts from Hotmail to gmail.

Hoping to find the solution soon.

Thanks

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Go to Settings>Accounts (in the system settings, not the WhatsApp settings). Is there a WhatsApp account listed? If so, select it and see if there's an option to turn off Contact Sync.

 

[Rukbat]

And go to Google Contacts, click or tap More, click or tap Find & merge duplicates, and let it clean up the mess.

 

[isicles]

Sync turned off. But duplicates still remain.

I removed WhatsApp from settings - account and no more duplicates in contacts and WhatsApp working fine but it reappears after a while.

 

[isicles]

When I log on web on Google contacts, no duplicates there. Only on phone.

 

[A Bochur]

when you have contacts that use WhatsApp, your contacts app will make a separate contact for that person but your contacts app is supposed to link them automatically.

so you should just link all of them. in the contacts app go to the menu and select 'manage similar contacts' and link them

 

[isicles]

Contacts app has a option to merge duplicates. When tried it tells no duplicates found.

I can manually link each contact one at a time.

 

[isicles]

Am I the only one with this issue? No one can help me?

 

[B. Diddy]

I'll move this to the WhatsApp forum, for more specific traffic.

 

[isicles]

Thanks.

Hope it resolves the issue.

Thanks again

 

[A Bochur]

it's supposed to link them automatically. that's what happens on my phone and any phone that I've seen.

a work around is to hide WhatsApp contacts from showing in your contacts list. go to settings>contacts>contacts to display, and select "Google contacts" out select custom and allow all besides for WhatsApp

Did you test it to see if it happens every time, by adding a new contact which has WhatsApp and see if they link or it comes as two separate ones?

 

[isicles]

If i use contacts to display method, when using search, it shows twice again and when i go to dialer - contact it also shows twice

I tried adding a new contact which has WhatsApp to check as per your suggestion but it again shows twice in contact list. WhatsApp did not find the contact to begin with even after refreshing WhatsApp but then i had to go to whatsapp - setting - contacts - show all contact (Enable to also use hidden contacts) and select it. Once done it showed up as contact on whatsapp and appeared twice on contacts.

I am using MI A1 with stock android 7 if it is important.

Another observation :

When i try to edit Original contact it just says saving to : gmail account but when i try to edit WhatsApp contact for the same, it adds one more line - Linked Contact followed by saving to.

 

[A Bochur]

the only thing i can suggest at this point is to use a different contact app

 

[Naufrago]

Am I the only one with this issue? No one can help me?

I had the same problem, then I found this thread on Google.

After a few attempts trying above mentioned solutions, I guess I managed to solve the issue;

1- Go to contact app - settings - accounts
2- Click WhatsApp account then turn off auto-sync
3- Go back to accounts page and turn off auto-sync for all accounts. You'll recieve a warning, ignore it.
4- Remove WhatsApp account
5- Check duplicate names if they are gone
6- Go to contact app - settings - accounts again
7- Click plus sign to add new account and add WhatsApp
8- Turn on auto-sync which you turned off in step 3

Above worked for me on my Nokia 8 with Oreo, hope this helps. Please let me know the outcome.

 

[isicles]

Will try this and update you.

Thanks

 

[isicles]

As soon as refresh contacts done in WhatsApp, duplicates return

 

[Colm Kavanagh]

I had the same problem, then I found this thread on Google.

After a few attempts trying above mentioned solutions, I guess I managed to solve the issue;

1- Go to contact app - settings - accounts
2- Click WhatsApp account then turn off auto-sync
3- Go back to accounts page and turn off auto-sync for all accounts. You'll recieve a warning, ignore it.
4- Remove WhatsApp account
5- Check duplicate names if they are gone
6- Go to contact app - settings - accounts again
7- Click plus sign to add new account and add WhatsApp
8- Turn on auto-sync which you turned off in step 3

Above worked for me on my Nokia 8 with Oreo, hope this helps. Please let me know the outcome.

Have tried this on my Nokia 8 with Oreo also. Works until Whatapp Syncs again. Simple solution is to just turn off WhatsApp Sync individually. If you add another step as follows

9. Repeat step 2
Seems to fix the phone app issue but whatsapp will not keep in sync with your gmail contacts any longer. It will still have all the contacts saved as normal up to the point you turn it off so is a nice workaround until WhatsApp sort out this bollix sync it has.

 

[Porii]

Go to setting. Go to System apps. Go to contacts. Click on Display preferences. Click on Configure contact list and select your google account. (If you want to see only whatsaap contacts then select whatsapp)

 

[ApikM]

Just refresh your Whatsapp contacts. Perhaps it will sync with your Google contacts.

 

[Vikashmnk]

Turn off internet first and Remove duo and WhatsApp and paytm account from users account setting. It will not remove the app but contacts and open these app and it will create again accounts. Now open every account and off the sync. Now check the contacts list you will not see any duplicate. Now you can on the internet.