Contacts saved on your android device are automatically synced with your google account. you can remotely access these contacts on other devices connected to your account. syncing google contacts is intuitive and the benefits are huge.
there is only one problem: the contact synchronization sometimes does not work. If some contacts saved on your android smartphone are missing from google contacts, or if your contacts stop syncing with other devices, one of the 12 solutions listed below should help you fix the problem with google contacts not syncing .
1. check your internet connection
Your android device needs an active internet connection to sync contacts with the cloud. If you can’t find some contacts on other devices connected to your google account, please make sure the main device where the contact is saved has internet connection.
If you’re using mobile data, switch to a Wi-Fi connection and see if it syncs the missing contacts. you can also enable airplane mode, wait a few seconds and turn it off again. doing so may fix problems with your device’s wireless and mobile network connection.
Finally, make sure the secondary device also has an internet connection. Otherwise, your device may not receive updated contact information from Google.
2. check contact sync settings
still can’t find some google contacts on your secondary devices? Go to your account settings and confirm that you have enabled contact sync.
1. On your android device, go to settings>accounts. On the accounts page, make sure the option synchronize data automatically is turned on. select your google account to continue.
2. tap account sync.
3. make sure contacts is turned on. you can manually restart contact sync by turning the option off and then back on.
Alternatively, tap the three-dot menu icon in the top right corner and select sync now. make sure the device has an internet connection.
3. check google sync settings
Google may not recognize (or sync) some contacts on your device as Google Contacts unless you tell it to. this could be because the contacts were created by another app or for some other obscure reason.
If some contacts on your device are not synced with your google accounts no matter what you try, follow the steps below to set your device to automatically save and sync all contacts on your device as google contacts.
1. Go to settings>google >account services and click google contacts sync.
2. select sync status.
3. enable the synchronize automatically option.
4. Go back to the google contacts sync page and tap also sync device contacts.
5. Turn on automatically back up and sync contacts across devices.
6. select the account you want your device’s contacts to be backed up and synced.
4. disable battery saver
Android devices have a battery saver feature that temporarily suspends syncing and other background activities that drain the battery. If google contacts are not syncing to your android device, please disable battery saver and try again. open the notification panel and touch battery saver to turn off the function.
if this option is not in the notification panel, go to settings>battery>battery saver and touch the button shut down now button.
5. disable data saving
Data saver is another android feature that can prevent contacts from syncing between your devices. If you’re connected to the internet via mobile data, enabling data saver will temporarily suspend apps and processes that use data in the background until you disable the feature or connect to a Wi-Fi network.
disable data saving to resume contact sync. go to settings> network & internet >data saver and turn off the use data saver option.
6. allow background data and battery usage
If you prefer not to disable battery saver and data saver, you can set the Contacts app to bypass the system-wide restriction on background data and battery usage. that will ensure uninterrupted synchronization of your contacts.
1. go to settings>apps & notifications > app info or (all apps) and select contacts from the list of apps installed on your device.
2. select mobile data & wifi.
3. turn on background data and unrestricted data usage.
4. Go back to the Contacts app info page and tap battery.
5. if the background restriction is set to restricted, click it and select remove.
which will allow the app to use your device’s battery in the background. wait 3-5 minutes and check if the missing contacts are now visible on other devices.
7. clear cache of contacts app
An application can malfunction if its cache files become corrupted. If your contacts are still not syncing with other devices, try clearing the cache data of the contact app. open the contact app info page (settings>apps & notifications>all apps>contacts) and select storage & cache.
tap the clear cache button.
8. update contacts app
Your device may not be able to sync your contacts with your google account if the contacts app is buggy or out of date. Launch google play store, search for contacts and check if there is an update available for the app. you can also update contacts via this link.
9. check date and time settings
have wrong date & setting the time could cause synchronization problems. go to settings> system > date & time and check use network-provided time and use network-provided time zone.
10. edit contact name
You can save a contact to your android smartphone or tablet with just about any name you see fit. contact names can include letters, numbers, emojis, and special characters. however, it’s important to note that you may not be able to sync contacts that have certain special characters in their names.
From our investigation, we discovered that contacts with the following special characters may present a problem during contact sync:
- apostrophe (‘)
- ampersand (&)
- equals sign (=)
- asterisk (*)
- hash sign (#)
- more than one period followed (…..)
As a guide, a contact name should not contain any special characters that cannot be used in a gmail username.
11. check google contact storage
You can only save 25,000 contacts in your google account. Regarding the size, the storage allocated for contacts in your google account is 20mb.
To check the number of google contacts you have, visit the google contacts panel in your preferred browser and sign in to your google account. you should see the total contacts in your account just before the first name in the list.
If you have up to 25,000 items, delete some unnecessary contacts to resume syncing.
12. re-add google account
if your contacts still won’t sync with google, disconnect and re-add your google account as a last resort. Go to settings> accounts and select the affected google account.
tap the delete account button and wait until the account is disconnected from your device.
Go back to the accounts page and tap add account to re-add the google account.
enjoy seamless syncing
One of these troubleshooting techniques should fix google contacts sync issues on your android device. We should mention that rebooting your device or installing the latest android OS can also help. try them and let us know how it goes.