A contact is missing from an account
Check why a contact you expect isn't in one of your accounts, in the order to look.
A contact you expect isn't in one of your accounts. Your contacts are safe in ContactZapp. These checks go from the most common cause to the least.
Steps
- Open Contacts and find the contact. See Search and filter contacts.
- Read its status. Synced means it is in every two-way account. Any other status explains the gap in the steps below. To see all of them, open What the statuses mean.
- Open the contact. For a Not synced contact, read the reason at the top of its panel, under Why this contact isn't synced:
- "Not in {accounts} yet. It's added at that account's next sync." Nothing to do.
- "This may be a duplicate. It won't sync to {accounts} until you merge it or choose Don't merge." See Review a duplicate.
- "A change couldn't reach one of your accounts. Open the contact to see which one and retry." See A change didn't reach an account.
- If the status is Needs review, see Why a contact needs review.
- If the status is Frozen (plan limit), the contact is over your plan's contact limit. Open Settings › Plan & billing to see your numbers. A frozen contact stays as it is in your accounts.
- If the status is Deleted, tap the Deleted filter and restore it. See Restore deleted contacts.
- Check the account that should hold the contact. Open Settings › Accounts:
- A paused account doesn't sync. See Pause or resume an account.
- An account that shows Reauthorize is skipped. See Reauthorize an account.
- A read-only account is one where "ContactZapp reads this account and never writes to it." Contacts from your other accounts don't arrive there.
- "No address book selected — nothing syncs from this account." Open the account and choose an address book.
- If the contact has labels, open the account's settings and check Which labels to sync. "Off: this label isn't synced from {account}, and neither are contacts that have only this label." See Use labels.
What happens next
A contact that isn't in an account yet is added at that account's next sync. Nothing to do.
If something goes wrong
- You deleted the contact in one account, and the others still have it. Open Settings › Sync and check Pass deletions on to the other accounts. When it's off, the contact's details say "Deleted in {accounts}. Deletions are not passed on to your other accounts." Tap the account's badge and choose Recreate on {provider} to put it back there.
- The numbers on the dashboard don't match your plan. See the linked answer on why Synced can show fewer contacts than your plan allows.
- None of this explains it. Open the Sync log and look for the account in the latest run.
Related questions
Why is a contact Not Synced or Needs review?
Open the contact. The reason is shown at the top of its panel, under Why this contact isn't synced. The usual reasons are:
- It isn't in one of your accounts yet. We add it at that account's next sync, so there's nothing to do.
- It may be a duplicate. It won't be added to your other accounts until you merge it or choose Don't merge.
- A change couldn't reach one of your accounts. Open the contact to see which one and retry.
- You deleted it in one account and Pass deletions on to the other accounts is off. The other accounts keep it.
Needs review means one of your accounts deleted a value, such as a phone number, that another account still has. Open the contact, check what each account has, then press Accept current values or Edit these values instead.
What happens if I delete a contact directly in a connected account?
At its next check of that account, ContactZapp sees the contact is gone. What happens next depends on Pass deletions on to the other accounts in Settings › Sync, which is on by default.
When it is on, the contact moves to Deleted in ContactZapp, and we delete it from your other two-way accounts. You can restore it from Deleted for 12 months. When it is off, your other accounts keep their copies. The contact shows as deleted in that account, and you can put it back there with Recreate on Google (or Microsoft, iCloud or CardDAV) in the contact's details.
Read-only accounts are never changed, so they keep their copy either way.
On the free plan, why does Synced show fewer contacts than the plan limit (for example 87, not 100)?
Synced only counts contacts that are done: inside your plan's limit and with nothing waiting on you. A contact inside the limit isn't counted as Synced if it needs your attention. A possible duplicate, or a contact with values that need your decision, shows under Need review until you resolve it. After that it moves to Synced. A contact also shows as Updating or Not synced for a short time while a change is still going out. That usually clears on its own.
Contacts past your plan's limit show as Frozen. A frozen contact that also needs review is counted in both Frozen and Need review, so the numbers can add up to more than your total. The plan card in Settings › Plan & billing shows the contacts that sync out of your plan's limit, with a note that says how many contacts your address book holds.
How is a contact with multiple labels synced?
A contact with several labels syncs when at least 1 of its labels is turned on for the account. The labels that are turned off aren't brought in from that account. A contact with no labels always syncs.
When we send the contact to your two-way accounts, we send the labels it has. Labels that an account already has on the contact, and that you turned off for it, stay in place. A label that is off for one account can still reach it from another account that has the label.