Deleted contacts reappear when sharing links

[potatochipsyum]

Okay I guess I'm just trying this again. My old thread got pushed far away by the spam bot posts, and I guess it was just bad timing and my thread was unlucky. so I assume that's why so few people replied because so few people were able to see the post anymore. This severely limited the visibility of the thread and I didn't get any solution. But thank you to the people who did try to help me. For now I just deleted my old thread and I'm trying again here now since I'm hoping for a solution.

The problem is everyone has their contacts list and everybody deletes old contacts, you deleted and you expect it to just be deleted. End of story, right? Nope. For some unknown reason when I share a link, let's say for example from the YouTube app to the Google messaging app, my contacts list appears, but instead of it being my current contacts list, it's every contact that I have ever had and deleted mixed in with the rest of my contacts. As you might assume this is very inconvenient because you would have to scroll a lot more to get through a longer list of contacts that are already deleted, it just makes the contacts list a lot longer. These deleted contacts do not appear when looking normally at any Samsung or Google account data, or in the Google or Samsung contact apps, or in any folder or category or setting of any of these apps.

I followed the advice I was given, and I cleared the cache of every messaging and contacts app as well as checked every folder and every category and every setting in every contacts app, and cleared the cache of my entire phone, the screen with the glowing yellow options that requires a phone restart.

I have also deleted all of my Google and Samsung backups as well as any backed up contacts files in my phone, so there should not be any contacts saved to any cloud or any server or to my phone itself other than the ones that are current and up-to-date, my normal contacts that appear when I look at the Samsung or Google contacts apps.

I have searched and scoured every possible place in any and all accounts and all over my phone and I cannot figure out how these deleted contacts are able to appear only when I'm sharing the link of a video from the YouTube app to the Google messaging app, but I think it does happen when just sharing a link in general that requires the contacts list to appear if I'm not mistaken.

I don't know how it's possible for contacts that were deleted a long time ago to still appear because it suggests that either samsung, or google, or an app, or my phone itself, or some kind of cloud or faulty backup are somehow storing these deleted contacts and bringing them up again. I have left Samsung support feedback, and I have left Google feedback, and I just can't seem to get any solution yet. I don't know what could be causing this, but it is driving me crazy because it's just such a weird mystery. I can't even begin to express my frustration with this.😧

Please if anybody has any ideas or Solutions or suggestions, please help me! This issue has been a thorn in my side for so long now. Thanks and I hope you have a good night.

[potatochipsyum]

I can't imagine what's causing this to happen on my end? I even cleared the cache from the Google and Samsung contacts apps and cleared the cache and data from the Quick Share Apps of which I think there were three, and the issue still persists for me anyways😮

[realaud]

I don't think there's any place left for them to hide. It obviously has something to do with the share data, but I can't imagine any place else to look. Is this recent on this phone only, or has it continued frim phone to phone and did you use Smart Switch to transfer or start from scratch?

[potatochipsyum]

I actually factory reset this phone once or twice before and the problem still persisted😱

[realaud]

But, did you restore a backup or start from scratch?

[potatochipsyum]

I think the issue still persisted even starting from scratch, but I'm also convinced that the issue is not coming from backups because the names of the contacts in Samsung backups and Google Backups from what I can see to the best of my ability were the same amount of contacts as in the same number of entries. I've also deleted backups including the contacts backup file on my phone and created new backups and synced again, and the issue persists anyway. It was also a nightmare making my phone go back to normal, getting my wallpaper back, all of my settings Etc all of that hard work for nothing. Factory resetting does nothing except make me regret that I factory reset my phone LOL

[potatochipsyum]

Also I just tested it and tried to share this thread with the share button and even that causes the select recipients contact list to show deleted contacts the same way 😨

[realaud]

I can suggest a really drastic measure, that you can feel free to ignore if it makes you wary to try.

In the contacts app, go to manage contacts and move all your contacts to a single location. Google contacts would be my suggestion, because I know they can be downloaded to a .csv file. Once in Google, once again check that all the old contacts are gone. Go to contacts.google.com and check the "hidden contacts" folder and make sure they are not hiding there. If they are delete them from there. That will probably solve the issue. If it does not solve it, the drastic step would be to export the contacts to a csv file and save it. Then delete every single one of your contacts, try sharing again woth no contacts snd see if they show up. If not, then import the csv file to bring your contacts back.

It occurred to me that I had deleted some contacts a long while ago, and when I was editing my contacts on the Google website, I noticed that folder (where I expected to only find one hidden contact) and all the ones I deleted were there. I believe that because Google acts as a backup for contacts, when you delete them it just saves them as hidden, in case you want them back. It's just conjectute, though.

[potatochipsyum]

I'm looking in contacts.google.com right now and I cannot find any hidden contacts folder as you describe?

[realaud]

Are you on a computer ir looking at the desktop view? I'm sorry it's called other contacts

[potatochipsyum]

I tried viewing it through the normal View and through the desktop view. I don't see any option for a hidden folder anywhere. 😕