[Q] Weird problem - contacts keep multiplying - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Dad had a weird problem with his Samsung Galaxy - all the contacts duplicated numerous times so that sometimes there were 15-20 of each and it didn't matter if they were stored on the Sim card or in the phone.
Carphone Warehouse told him it was faulty and caused by water damage even though it had never got wet and everything else works fine, so he bought a HTC Sensation XL put the sim card in and then the exact same thing happened, so he sent that phone back and got a Samsung Galaxy Nexus which he's had a week, and guess what? it's happened again
All the contacts have been deleted off the sim card so its blank and Dad only entered 6 or 7 contact details into the phone, then today all of a sudden there are multiple copies of some of the contacts - any ideas what the cause is or for a cure? Dad is on Orange pay monthly and has already had a replacement sim card in case the first was faulty.
Cheers

Perhaps it could be synced Google Contacts?
Or any other kind of contact syncs?
Any kind of backup (Titanium Backup, MyBackup, etc?) that would restore the numbers?
Did he/you install any apps before this happening? Any contact/phone/sms/dialer apps perhaps?

No he hasn't synced with Google Contacts apart from when its forced on the Nexus, but he has no contacts to sync anyway as he dosen't use a computer, his only contacts are what he's manually entered. He hasn't downloaded any apps at all, and uses the phone as it come out the box - he only has it cause he likes the big touchscreen and he can see it ok, he dosen't use any features apart from calls, texts, email and the camera.

Hmm, sounds very weird indeed.
You said you tried both getting a replacement SIM card and a brand new phone, but not at the same time?
I would suggest doing a factory reset and a SIM card wipe (or even a replacement if easily possible) at the same time, and then try and enter 1 NEW phonenumber (not one that's been in the phone/SIM card before) and leave it for the amount of time that it took before it began multiplying the numbers before, to see if it does it again.
If it doesn't, try and enter some of the old numbers into the phone, and so on.
If it does multiply, then I don't know what's wrong.

ShaunIOW said:
No he hasn't synced with Google Contacts apart from when its forced on the Nexus, but he has no contacts to sync anyway as he dosen't use a computer, his only contacts are what he's manually entered. He hasn't downloaded any apps at all, and uses the phone as it come out the box - he only has it cause he likes the big touchscreen and he can see it ok, he dosen't use any features apart from calls, texts, email and the camera.
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Contacts you manually enter are automatically set to sync with Google contacts. What I think is happening is you keep resetting the phone and he enters in the contacts before all the Google contacts from the previous times are being restored therefore all the multiples are being synced together. So let the phone sit after a restore. The multiples should show up after a little bit. Go through and delete the duplicates and see if they come back.

ResolutionHD said:
Contacts you manually enter are automatically set to sync with Google contacts. What I think is happening is you keep resetting the phone and he enters in the contacts before all the Google contacts from the previous times are being restored therefore all the multiples are being synced together. So let the phone sit after a restore. The multiples should show up after a little bit. Go through and delete the duplicates and see if they come back.
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Cheers I think you may have solved the problem
I logged into Dads google account online and found his contacts and there were 529 with loads of duplicates (40 or 50 of some), so I deleted the lot, turned off autobackup to google and sync on his phone and did a factory reset - he now has no contacts on the sim card, in the phone or stored with google so hopefully when he re-enters them they won't duplicate, I'll give it a few days then see what happens if I let it back-up and sync, but I've a feeling its sorted it.

ShaunIOW said:
Cheers I think you may have solved the problem
I logged into Dads google account online and found his contacts and there were 529 with loads of duplicates (40 or 50 of some), so I deleted the lot, turned off autobackup to google and sync on his phone and did a factory reset - he now has no contacts on the sim card, in the phone or stored with google so hopefully when he re-enters them they won't duplicate, I'll give it a few days then see what happens if I let it back-up and sync, but I've a feeling its sorted it.
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Click to collapse
Lol no problem
Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2 Beta-6

Related

Contacts...Not Syncing?

I went on deployment for about 3 months and had my phone in airplane mode for the entire time...once i returned to the states, it seems as if all of my contacts have gotten messed up. Numbers I had are no longer in my contacts, Facebook won't sync contact pictures, numbers, etc. Number I have aren't showing up as the persons name...i.e. 123-657-3828 should show up Mr. Mister but instead it shows up as the number...Anyone have any idea what's going on and how to rectify?
zervic said:
I went on deployment for about 3 months and had my phone in airplane mode for the entire time...once i returned to the states, it seems as if all of my contacts have gotten messed up. Numbers I had are no longer in my contacts, Facebook won't sync contact pictures, numbers, etc. Number I have aren't showing up as the persons name...i.e. 123-657-3828 should show up Mr. Mister but instead it shows up as the number...Anyone have any idea what's going on and how to rectify?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe try removing your Google account from accounts and sync and then add it again and sync up.
Sent from my cm7 Aria.
Can't fix your issue but just wanted to say thanks for serving. And welcome home wherever that may be.
Thank you
Don
Sent from my HTC Aria using XDA Premium App
Oh god, don't use facebook sync, its horrible at this point. Rely on google and all your problems will be solved.
I recently did a factory reset on my phone and ran into this problem after the phone froze and restarted. I knew the contacts were on my SIM card as I moved them there in case my backup failed. If all your contacts are on your SIM, try taking the card out, put it back in, then start up the phone again. I've had to do it twice since my reset. Hope that helps.
Sent from my HTC Liberty using XDA App

Duplicate Contacts & Unable to Delete them!

Hey!
My friend just bought a Samsung Galaxy S2, and soon he faced a weird problem; All contacts had 3 duplicates(four numbers total/contact)!
I tried to batch delete them with Samsung's contacts app, but for some reason, they weren't gone! I also tried Go Contacts, but the problem still existed.
The phone is completely stock.
Any help appreciated!
I had a similar problem. I backed everything up/synced to Google contacts. Then I removed the duplicates in Google (on a PC), then synced the contacts back to the phone.
You can merge contacts in Google which should take care of many of the duplicates, but for some reason it isn't perfect & there will be some (there might be a lot) you'll have to delete manually.
I don't see any reason why you can't do this with a phone running stock.
Thanks. I will tell him. I also wondered how can this problem exist on a completely stock phone.
you wont have duplicates in google not i would think anyway .. on ur ph u would prolly be seeing Ph contacts sim contacts and google contacts.. just delete ph and sim contacts, best to stick with google ones as each time u buy new ph first thing u can do is log into ur google account and have them back in minutes..
pretty sure there is a checkbox on which one u want to use , make sure all 3 are not checked maybe..
pretty sure if you go into one of the menus there is an option of which contacts to display, i usually pick sim only and that fixes it

APP for managing contacts

Im having issues trying to clean up my contacts Ive got many doubles and I want to clean up my phone and SIM contacts its Ive tried before to delete them but they never seem to delete from my contacts.
EDIT: NVM fixed it
For those of us that might be having the same problem, would you mind enlightening us on how you fixed it?
Do it from a PC. Yes it is painful but it only has to be done once. I do not recommend using SIM contacts for a very simple reason. Many people today have email and phones plus IM etc datafilled with their contacts. Only phone numbers are supported on the SIM and even that has a limit of 1 number per contact. so if you have a contact with 4 phone numbers, that will be 4 contacts on your SIM and in your device when you import them.
I know this is the way it worked for GSM long ago and I don't think this has changed.
Best workaround is sync to Google. If you want a local copy after cleaning things up on a PC, export you contacts to your external SD card...
I cleared the data from contacts and contact storage from manage applications and then I synced my google contacts
There is app to delete duplicate contacts ..sorry I forgot the name...but its very effective...and also just like others stated always use google to sysnc contacts...this way when getting new phones...its easier and you wont have duplicates...

[Q] Cannot copy SIM contacts to phone or sync with Gmaiol

Hi all -
My mom just inherited an AT&T Samsung Galaxy II (rooted, OS ICS 4.0.3, Build IML74K.117) and I am trying to move her contact from her SIM to her phone or, even better sync with her Gmail account.
From the Contacts app, I'm opening the menu and selecting SIM Management, then choosing Copy Contacts From SIM and selecting the option of the Gmail account (I've also tried selecting the Phone option as well). Instead of going to the screen where I can choose the contacts to copy, the phone just goes back to the SIM Management screen. (I took a screenshot of it but it's been 8 minutes and the text is still in Send mode on her phone.)
Any ideas on what is preventing me from being able to move the contacts? My next move is to take it back to stock and see if that doesn't help but that's really a last resort and something I'm trying to avoid.
Thanks in advance!
Lauren
Can you see the contacts when you log into her Gmail account on a computer?
bellino13 said:
Can you see the contacts when you log into her Gmail account on a computer?
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Click to collapse
Hi, thanks for responding...
No, because she is coming from a stone-age phone and has never had anything linked to her Gmail account before, which is also new. So in this case, I'm attempting to transfer the SIM contacts to her phone/Gmail account in order to A) get them on the phone in a more unified manner and B) sync with Gmail so that she now has an online backup of her contacts. She's coming from a Motorola Razr circa 2005. For real.
I couldn't say for sure, but the problem could be that the format in which the Razr stored the contacts is not being read by the SGS2 which is kicking you back out of the menu.
This is probably an old thread but no Gmail sync along with cannot send mms, indicate that you probably have no internet access.
Make sure you do have first, either wifi or mobil data turn on
bellino13 said:
I couldn't say for sure, but the problem could be that the format in which the Razr stored the contacts is not being read by the SGS2 which is kicking you back out of the menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, the format is universal and can be read by pretty much any phone.
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda premium

[Q] Google contacts repeatedly download until full (25,000)

Hi,
I have a problem that might be to do with the new google contacts, at least it happened within the past couple of weeks or so.
Problem is I can not add any contacts, or rather I can, but they do not stay for very long. I save them to my google account where I have around 900 contacts.
I have now tried Contacts Fix Sync, and it reports that I have 25,000 contacts! So I am assuming the reason why new contacts are not added is because it is full. Using Contacts Optimizer, it turns out they are all duplicates (which is not the case when logging into my contacts on my PC).
So somehow it seems the google contacts keeps on downloading until it is full.
I have tried everything I can think of: reseting/erasing my phone (One Plus One), and now I have just tried on another different phone (LG G2), and it is the same problem.
It seems that recently, I am not sure when, google implemented a new Google contacts system, perhaps that is the problem, perhaps not.
Anyhow, it is quite annoying to say the least, basically I am not able to add new contacts. Any suggestions?
I have also asked this question in the Gmail Help Forum, so I hope I am not violating any rules. If I am, let me know and I will delete this. I also asked a similar question in the OPO XDA forum yesterday as I then thought it was to do with OPO (had not tried on the other phone at that time) - I will delete that one if I can.
Thanks in advance.

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