How to Fix “Google Contacts Suddenly Disappeared from Your Android Phone”?

If you pay attention to your Android phone over the last 4 years, you will find that there has been a marked improvement in Google services. Whether you talk about Google Dialer, Contacts, or any other Google service, they do their best to empower the user experience. And we know that Google Contacts has made things easier than ever. With its arrival, we don’t need to add contacts to Gmail separately.

It is also widely accepted, so we don’t need to share contacts with other phones unless we sync them with a Google account. If you synced Google Contacts but suddenly showed an empty list, what would be your reaction? It happens a lot to users who are concerned about getting their contacts. Therefore, here we will discuss the issue of a Google contact list that suddenly disappears.

How to Fix “Google Contacts Suddenly Disappeared from Your Android Phone”?

In my opinion, there is no concern from the developer’s end since they have adopted a new policy that requires users to sync their contacts with their Google accounts at all times. Previously when users saved contacts, they enabled syncing with their Google accounts. It still appeared in the phone book even when sync was disabled. Recently, the phonebook appears to show contacts when the sync option is enabled, but when you disable it, contacts disappear as well.

Until Google Play Services version 23.20, the no-sync feature allowed you to restore contact information wherever you logged in. But the recent Google System Updates Changelog says that until you enable sync, the device won’t show you contacts. As soon as you enable sync, the phone will start showing contacts, even those you added later. Before that changelog, all this would apply to your current device, so your contacts would not sync with any device that you use in the future.

To improve the user experience, Google has made a significant change to the syncing process across Android phones. From now on, the contacts on your phone will disappear when sync is disabled. I see a lot of people worried about recovering their contacts. The simple solution to this concern is to manually enable contact sync so that your phone starts showing contacts again. If you don’t know how to sync them again, follow these instructions to proceed.

Note: Most devices today have Google Contacts installed on their phones. But still, phones like Samsung do not have such a thing. So, on those devices, make sure the contacts exist at contacts.google.com. 

1. Simply open the Settings app.
2. Then head to the accounts section.
3. From there, tap on Google >> Your Google Account.
4. On the next screen, tap on Sync Account.
5. Following this, you can sync the status of services like Contacts, Calendar, Keep Notes, etc.
6. Now, next to Contacts, tap on the Sync option there.
7. That’s it; your contacts have now been re-synced and will soon appear in the phonebook.

If any user has difficulty re-syncing, we recommend you raise a help request on Google Forums. Also, especially for Samsung users, note that even if you have synced your Samsung account, the contacts will not appear. You need to re-sync the contacts with your Google account. To summarise, turning off Sync with Google Accounts Sync will now remove the previously synced contacts. So re-sync is the only option to get back. That’s it; if anyone has a query, please ask below.

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