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Syncing

Why a contact needs review

What the Needs review status means, what causes it, and how to clear it.

A contact shows Needs review when your accounts disagree about one of its values. We don't pick for you. You choose which values to keep.

What causes it

Two cases:

  • One account deleted a value that another account still has. For example, a phone number.
  • One account changed a value that another account removed.

Find the contact

  1. Open Contacts.
  2. Tap the Need review filter. It also lists possible duplicates.
  3. Look for the Needs review status on the contact.

To see what every status means, open What the statuses mean.

Clear it

  1. Tap the contact. A Needs review panel opens.
  2. Read what each account has. A value that was removed in an account is marked "Removed in {accounts}".
  3. Do one of these:
    • Tap Accept current values to keep the values as they are now.
    • Tap Edit these values instead to change them yourself. The page says "saving clears this warning".

What happens next

The Needs review status goes away. The tooltip on the status says to review the contact before the next sync.

If something goes wrong

  • "We couldn't accept this resolution. Try again." Tap Accept current values again.
  • The contact says Not synced instead. That is a different status. See Read the Sync log and the linked answer.
  • A possible duplicate. That is a different status. See Review a duplicate.

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.