All contacts have changed to "custom"

[user9KwkDWDHky]

March 28, 3025 noticed all names of over 1000 of my contacts changed to "custom." Have most recent update on my S24+. Use Gmail app with 2 accounts - Gmail and Comcast email. Sent report thru samsung members app. Any wisdom?

[user9KwkDWDHky]

Before I start trying other things, below link to screenshot of one problem contact. Name of whole contact still intact. All names of different phone numbers in the one contact have changed to "custom," does this help?

https://1drv.ms/i/c/7e930e7d767f43f1/Eb80aKWMvWtItf09nwxVrn8BvIGvmMyp3Pfo-_vUX8YCkg

[realaud]

OK, so that's basically an easy enough fix, though not if you have to manually do it for every phone number for every contact.  The contact name is intact, so that's good.  The telephone number identifier has reverted to custom.  All you need to do is use the drop down to change it back to mobile, main, home, etc.  It is tedious if you have hundreds or thousands of contacts with multiple numbers, but there is no way to automate the process.  I'm going to assume the number you listed first for the contact is the number you usually use to contact them by, so you can still reach your contact and know who you are calling.  The rest you will have to reconfigure when you are waiting for a train, in a doctor's waiting room, watching TV or otherwise killing time.    I would start with the people you contact most frequently and anyone really important, then go on to the lesser used ones when you have time to spare.

As I said, backing up your contacts, doing a factory reset and restoring your backup may clean up whatever glitch caused this change. The worst that happens is it stays the same and you will have to go through the process I outlined above. 

BTW, you know you can just upload screenshots directly to the app.  If you are using the app, tap the "+" next to the text window to add the screenshot.  If you are using the web interface on a computer, tap the camera icon on the toolbar of the text window.

[user9KwkDWDHky]

Have all contacts backed up to Google. Nervous about factory reset. Will I also lose any customization data of other apps? Also all backed up contacts have the " custom problem. One default contact for a name can have many different numbers that I created a custom (typed things like Aaa emergency, aaa travel insurance, aaa auburn. Aaa leominster) names. Tx

[realaud]

If you factory reset your phone, you will lose customizations unless you restore your backup, so make sure you have a current backup.  I do not think a reset will help in this case, as the contacts are now in Google as they currently are.  For things like businesses, (AAA, in the example you gave), most likely the primary numbers are not mobile unless you have a specific contact name - I list those as "main".  In most cases, it's easy to discern which numbers are mobile or landline.  If you have a contact, most likely you list the primary number as the one you call most/are most likely to call and you would know if it was a landline or mobile line. In your example, most of the extra fields would be custom - however, I personally would make a separate contact for road service or customer service, or membership services, rather than put them under one umbrella because I do not want to have to scroll through a business contact with multiple numbers when I want to quickly make a call.  But I also do not have thousands of contacts. We all have our conventions for our contacts.  As long as you follow a uniform pattern of entry, you should be able to figure out which number belongs to which.  With AAA, for example, it's easy enough to look up which number is for which unit.

[user9KwkDWDHky]

Tx. May wait for next update to see if solves problem.

[realaud]

An update will not put the designations back, because the update does not know what you had them at.  As far as the device knows, that's they designations you gave the numbers, so you may as well just start changing them back. Also, even if there was an update to fix it, who knows when the next one is coming, so you would have to live with the error for however long that was.  The bottom line here, is the only way to change it back would be to do it manually, unless you had a backup from before the change was made.  I recommend that once you get it sorted, you make a complete backup of your phone and contacts using Smart Switch and a flash drive.  This way, you always have a correct base configuration of your phone.

[user9KwkDWDHky]

When I bought this s24+ on nov 2024., they used smart switch. Would my contact old info be hanging out there?. Tx for your patience.

[realaud]

If you still have the old device, turn it on and see if your contacts are showing the way you originally configured them.  If they are, you can copy them via Smart Switch, but Smart Switch will not overwrite anything that is already on your new device, so you may have to delete or hide the contacts that are on your current phone.  Since you backed up your current contacts to Google, you would just change the storage location on your phone to phone, by going to the same "all contacts" window in the contacts app and selecting phone as the default save location. and the Google contacts should not show.  After you copy the contacts back, if they are correct, you can then go to manage contacts and merge the phone contacts with the Google contacts. Or, just to make sure they remain correct, you can delete the Google contacts entirely and then move the "new" contacts into Google.