How To Fix Samsung Galaxy S9 Cannot Delete Duplicate Contacts

The #Samsung #Galaxy #S9 is considered as one of the best performing flagship model released last year. It has several outstanding features that has helped in making it popular among consumers. This phone sports a 5.8 inch Super AMOLED Infinity Display , has a single 12MP dual pixel rear camera, and uses a Snapdragon 845 processor paired with 4GB of RAM. Although this is a solid performing device there are instances when certain issues can occur which we will be addressing today. In this latest installment of our troubleshooting series we will tackle the Galaxy S9 cannot delete duplicate contacts issue.

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How To Fix Samsung Galaxy S9 Cannot Delete Duplicate Contacts

Problem: Level 2 Technicians with Verizon point to Samsung and Customer Service at Samsung point to Verizon or Google as the source to why they can’t solve this problem.  I’ve tried on my Galaxy S5 to now with my Galaxy S9 to get resolution but it isn’t happening. The problem is related to the contacts for the phone. I can turn off all sync and remove Google or Verizon Cloud to isolate the contacts listing but the problem remains. I cannot delete copies of contacts that are created when I update contact information. For example, a friend gives me a new address or phone number. I call up my contacts and write over the old information to replace with the new information.  When I call up that contact, it will show the old and new information leaving me stumped over time which is the new and correct one. If I go into edit I will see multiple tabs across the top section that show phone a few times and Google. How do I delete those multiple copies of the phone information to have the relevant information. I don’t want to have history of the person’s information just what the current relevant information is.

Solution: Before performing any troubleshooting steps on this phone it’s best to make sure that it is running on the latest software version. If an update is available then I suggest that you download and install it first.

You will usually have duplicate contacts in your phone if you sync your contacts from multiple sources.  To fix this problem you can try merging the duplicate contacts in your phone.

  • Open Contacts.
  • Touch More Options, and then touch Manage contacts.
  • Touch Merge contacts.
  • Select the contacts you want to merge, and then touch MERGE.

Once the contact has been merged you can further edit this to your preference.

You can also choose which contacts list to view on your phone. It’s best to choose one source so as to eliminate the possibility of viewing duplicate contacts.

  • From Contacts, touch More Options.
  • Touch Settings and then touch Contacts to show.
  • Select the account with the contacts you want to display.

If your Google Contacts list has duplicate contacts then you should fix this by following the steps listed below.

  • Log/sign in to your Gmail account, click on Gmail on the top left corner and select “Contacts.”  Now you can see all the contacts synced from your phone and Gmail.
  • Click on click on “More” located at the top of the screen and from the drop down menu, click on “Find & Merge Duplicates…” option.
  • Gmail will scan for the duplicate contacts and show you the list. Click on “Merge” and all your duplicate contacts will be merged into one.

In case the above steps fails to fix the problem then proceed with the additional troubleshooting steps listed below.

Check if the issue occurs in Safe Mode

An app you downloaded in your phone could be causing this problem. To check if this is the case you will need to start the phone in Safe Mode since only the pre-installed apps are allowed to run in this mode.

  • Turn the phone off.
  • Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen appearing on the screen.
  • When SAMSUNG appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  • Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  • Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  • When Safe mode appears in the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume down key.

In case the issue does not occur in this mode then it’s likely that the problem is caused by an app you downloaded. Find out what app this is and uninstall it.

Wipe the cache partition of the phone

The phone system cached data is used to speed up the access to your phone apps. Sometimes this data can get corrupted which results in issues occuring on the device. To check if a corrupted cached data is causing the problem you will need to wipe the cache partition of the phone from the recovery mode.

  • Turn off the phone.
  • Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  • When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  • Press the Volume down key to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
  • Press the Power key to select.
  • Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and press the Power key to select.
  • When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  • Press the Power key to restart the device.

Check if the issue still occurs.

Perform a factory reset

One last troubleshooting step you should consider is a factory reset. This will revert your phone back to its original factory condition. Make sure to backup your phone data before doing the reset as it will be deleted in the process.

  • Turn off the phone.
  • Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  • When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  • Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
  • Press Power button to select.
  • Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  • Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  • When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  • Press the Power key to restart the device.

Do not install any apps in your phone after the reset. Try to check first if the issue still occurs.

It’s very likely that the problem will now be resolved.

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