Delete a contact

Delete moves a contact to Deleted and removes it from your other two-way accounts. You can bring it back for 12 months. Delete forever erases it for good, and you can't undo it.

Delete one contact

1. Tap Contacts. Find the contact and open it.
2. Tap More actions, then Delete. The menu reads "Moves it to Deleted · restore it from the Contacts screen within 12 months."
3. A box titled Delete this contact asks you to confirm. It reads "{name} moves to Deleted and can be restored for 12 months."
4. Tap Delete. Tap Cancel to keep the contact.

A contact that is already in Deleted has no Delete in More actions.

Delete several contacts

1. Tap Contacts.
2. Tick the box beside each contact you want to delete. The bar that appears shows how many are selected.
3. Tap Delete….
4. A box titled Delete 3 contacts (with your number) asks you to confirm. Tap Delete, or Cancel to go back.

When it finishes, a message reads "3 contacts deleted." If some failed, it reads "2 deleted, 1 could not be deleted."

The box tells you what will happen. For example, "Deletes 3 contacts from all your accounts. You can restore them from Deleted for 12 months." If a read-only account will keep its copy, the box says so: "Deletes 3 contacts here, but not in" followed by the account names, and "Read-only accounts keep their copy."

Which accounts a deletion reaches

We send the deletion to each account that holds the contact and meets all of these:

• It is a Two-way account. A Read-only account keeps its copy.
• It is not unlinked. An unlinked account is never changed.
• It can be paused. A paused account gets the deletion when it syncs again. The box says so: "{account} isn't syncing right now, so it gets the deletion when it syncs again."

A contact that is over your plan's limit is deleted in ContactZapp only. It stays in your accounts. The box says "{n} more is over your plan's limit, so it's deleted here only and stays in your accounts."

Whether a deletion made in ContactZapp reaches your other accounts doesn't depend on the setting in Choose how deletions sync. That setting is for contacts you delete directly in an account.

The Sync log shows each deletion as "You deleted" and the contact's name, with the accounts it was removed from. See Read the Sync log. History shows "You deleted" and the name too.

What Deleted means

Deleted is a filter on the Contacts list. A deleted contact is hidden from your normal list, and its details are kept so you can restore it. Open it and a notice reads "This contact is deleted. Restore it from the Contacts list, or erase it permanently from More actions."

You can restore it for 12 months after it was deleted. See Restore deleted contacts. After 12 months it can't be restored. Its row reads "This can't be restored — History only keeps 12 months." and still offers Delete forever.

Once the 12 months have passed, ContactZapp may remove the contact for good. It only does that when none of your accounts still holds a copy. It never changes your accounts when it does.

Delete a contact forever

Use this when a contact must be gone, and you are sure.

1. Open the contact. Or tap the Deleted filter and find its row.
2. In the contact's details, tap More actions, then Delete forever. In the Deleted list, tap Delete forever on the row.
3. A box titled Delete this contact forever reads "{name} will be permanently erased from ContactZapp and all your connected accounts." and "This cannot be undone, even from Deleted."
4. Tap Delete forever.

We show Deleting forever… while it runs, then Deleted forever. If it can't finish, you see Couldn't delete forever.

What it does:

• It erases the contact and its history from ContactZapp.
• It deletes the contact from each two-way account we can write to.
• A later sync doesn't bring it back, even if an account still holds a copy.
• You can't restore it, from Deleted or anywhere else.

What it doesn't do:

• Read-only accounts keep their copy: "{account} is read-only, so its copy won't be deleted."
• A paused account keeps its copy: "{account} is paused, so its copy won't be deleted." Resume it first if you want it removed there too.
• An account with no address book chosen keeps its copy.
• An unlinked account keeps its copy: "{account} is disconnected, so its copy was not deleted."
• An account we can't reach keeps its copy: "{account} could not be reached after several tries."

For each of these, we list the account under "Erased from ContactZapp and every account we can write to. Remove it yourself from:". Remove those copies yourself, in the account.

If something goes wrong

• "We couldn't save this change. Try again in a moment." The deletion didn't go through. Tap Delete again.
• The contact is still in Google, Microsoft, iCloud or CardDAV. Check whether that account is read-only, paused or unlinked, or whether the contact was over your plan's limit. The Sync log shows where the deletion went. See A change did not reach an account.
• You deleted a contact by mistake. Tap the Deleted filter and tap Restore. See Restore deleted contacts. This only works for Delete, not for Delete forever.
• A contact was deleted in an account and you want it back there. See Choose how deletions sync.