Help removing previously synced contacts

[pedenski]

all my personal contacts are synced to my gmail account, which honestly consist of not more than a hundred people.

yesterday, i added my corporate email to my phone and forgot to remind myself not to tick on the "exchange sync contacts" - i was actually only going for the mails.

and sooo, i then noticed just now, that all contacts associated on my corporate mail exchange is now synced on my phone.

what's the simplest way to remove the previously added contacts? and retain only my gmail contacts. ive already disabled my exchange synced contacts option.


*just mentioned "contacts" six times. lol .

 

[jimbobcook]

Hi pedenski and Welcome to the forum

If im reading right and its pretty early for me what your after is possible...

If you open up your contacts and in the top left it should say "phonebook" with a down arrow next to it...? click that and untick your exchange account...

Hope that helps

 

[GuitarG20]

Hi pedenski and Welcome to the forum

If im reading right and its pretty early for me what your after is possible...

If you open up your contacts and in the top left it should say "phonebook" with a down arrow next to it...? click that and untick your exchange account...

Hope that helps

Just to second what jimbobcook said, this should fix your issue, OP

 

[forum1]

Just to second what jimbobcook said, this should fix your issue, OP

This works as a filter in the Contacts app, but at least with Android 6.0 (and I believe older versions, but I don't have access to an older device right now) the native Phone app doesn't use these filter settings and always displays the complete list of all contacts from all accounts. So, going back to the OP's question, how can one delete previously synced data? Simply turning off the sync item just stops further synchronization, leaving in place whatever is already in the local database. The question is, how does one delete that local copy, preferably without having to remove the entire account, add it back to the device, and hopefully getting to the sync settings quickly enough to turn off the specific sync item before the unwanted data comes back again. It would also be great if Google didn't default all sync types to on when you add an account, but that's another complaint for another time.

 

[forum1]

The most workable solution I have found thus far is to clear the data for the Contacts Storage app and then simply re-sync using whatever sync settings you have set. You will have to set the Apps settings control panel to "Show system" in order to see the Contacts Storage app. It's not the ideal solution as it blows all contacts away on the device, but it works in lieu of the sync manager allowing a specific sync item under a specific account to be deleted.