Generally speaking, I love Android, but sometimes, when I’m adding a new account on a phone and get the Google contacts not syncing” error, I’m seriously considering other platforms. And I’m not the only one…
Specifically, when you’re setting up a new phone or adding a secondary account on it, it offers you the possibility to sync your Gmail contacts with the Contacts app. However, sometimes, Google contacts will not sync with your devices, which can be very frustrating.
Still, you should keep calm and carry on. If you’re having the hardest time getting Google Contacts to sync since there are somethings you can do in order to fix this.
Why are Google Contacts not syncing?
After doing a bit of research, we found a lot of Android users wondering how to sync contacts from their phone to Gmail and vice-versa. And they were almost fed up with getting this error. It looks like Google is also aware of this, by the way.
Therefore, this is what happens: Once you add your Google Account to your phone, either your Google or Gmail Contacts should automatically sync. Yes, it appears to only be happening when people add an account to the phone. But in the eventuality of this not happening, due to unknown reasons, there are a few things you can try in order to fix the issue.
How to sync Google Contacts on Android
One of the following steps will most likely fix your contacts sync issue once and for all.
Make sure Android Sync is activated on your phone. In order to do this, go to Settings > Data usage > Menu and see if Auto-sync data is checked. Even if it is, try turning it off and on a few times.
Make sure Google Contacts sync is turned on. Go to Settings > Accounts > Google and select the account you’re using. Make sure Contacts is checked. Again, even though it is, turn it off then on again a few times.
Make sure that Background Data is enabled. If restricted, some apps or features will not work unless you’re connected to a WiFi network. Go to Settings > Data Usage > Menu and see if “Restrict background data” is selected or not.
Clear both app cache and data for Google Contacts. Go to Settings > Apps Manager, then swipe to All and choose Contact Sync. Select Clear cache and clear data.
Remove your Google Account and set everything up once again. Go to Settings > Accounts > Google and select the account you’re having issues with. Choose the Remove account option, then go through the setup process one more time.
Again, these are some official solutions for the Google contacts not syncing issue, coming directly from the search engine giant’s representatives. But I wanted to know what users who were unable to sync Google contacts with Android are saying about this. So I also found a very interesting solution.
One account to rule them all
Apparently, merging your accounts could be the solution, many users reporting that this worked. Specifically, you need to follow these steps:
- Go to Contacts
- Tap Menu, then select Contacts to Display
- Select Device (usually a blue phone icon). After this, only the contacts on your phone will appear
- Tap Menu again and select Merge Accounts
- Select the Merge with Google option, which will merge all your contacts with Google.
- Go back and select Menu again.
- Select Contacts to display, then All contacts. You should see all your contacts this time
Wrap-up
Were these solutions useful for you? Are you still getting the “Google Contacts not syncing” message after trying these?
Let us know how everything went, by dropping a few lines in the comments section below!
Comments are closed.