How do I force Google/GMail Contacts to re-sync?

StewartR

StewartR

Messages
11,513
Name
Stewart
Edit My Images
Yes
Here's a screen shot from my Android phone, reached via Settings > Accounts > Google:

upload_2017-6-20_16-58-39.png

You can see that Contacts hasn't synced for nearly a month. I have new contacts on my phone that I want to access via my PC, and vice versa. So how do I force it to re-sync?

I'm using Android 7.0 (Nougat) on a Samsung Galaxy S6.
 
Last time this happened to me I just switched off sync then switched it back on again and it synced immediately.
 
wontolla said:
Last time this happened to me I just switched off sync then switched it back on again and it synced immediately.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion. I tried it but unfortunately it doesn't work for me.

Disable sync and then re-enable: no effect.
Disable sync, reboot phone, enable sync: no effect.
Disable sync, reboot phone, enable sync, reboot phone: no effect.

Any other ideas, anyone?
 
Mr Bump said:
try it over WIFI
Click to expand...
No joy. I use WiFi nearly all the time - at home and in the office - and it makes no difference whether I'm on WiFi or 4G.

Here's an example. I'm on WiFi now. I added an entry to the Google calendar, and then went straight to the account settings screen. By the time I got there, the Calendar had already synced automatically, but Contacts and Gmail still have unsynced data:

upload_2017-6-21_12-31-4.png
I'm not so bothered by GMail because it's easy to sync manually whenever I want to read my mail. (Though it's a little annoying not getting notifications if the sync isn't happening automatically.) However Contacts is disastrous because I don't know how to sync it manually.
 
There is a suggested solution. I've not tried it. So back up first.
  1. Go to Settings->Apps
  2. In the menu go "Show system apps" (this should reveal "Contacts Storage")
  3. Scroll down and select "Contacts Storage" (not "Contacts")
  4. Then choose "Storage"
  5. Go "Clear Cache". (Not "Clear Data" which might wipe all your contacts)
  6. After that the Contacts should sync on their own.
  7. Check under Sync settings a few minutes later to see how it got on
See if you get that syncing feeling.
 
Last edited:
THE OTHER THING IS LOG ON TO YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT ON THE WEB AND CHECK YOUR PASSWORD IS NOT DUE FOR A CHANGE AND CHANGE IT.
THEN CHANGE IT ON YOUR DEVICE.
 
ianp5a said:
There is a suggested solution. I've not tried it. So back up first.
  1. Go to Settings->Apps
  2. In the menu go "Show system apps" (this should reveal "Contacts Storage")
  3. Scroll down and select "Contacts Storage" (not "Contacts")
  4. Then choose "Storage"
  5. Go "Clear Cache". (Not "Clear Data" which might wipe all your contacts)
  6. After that the Contacts should sync on their own.
  7. Check under Sync settings a few minutes later to see how it got on
See if you get that syncing feeling.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion, Ian.

This failed at step 5. 'Clear Cache' was not enabled because the cache storage in use was zero. That sounds wrong.....
 
Mr Bump said:
THE OTHER THING IS LOG ON TO YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNT ON THE WEB AND CHECK YOUR PASSWORD IS NOT DUE FOR A CHANGE AND CHANGE IT.
THEN CHANGE IT ON YOUR DEVICE.
Click to expand...
NO NEED TO SHOUT! ;)

I changed my Google account password via my desktop PC. That logged me out on the phone so I logged back in. Contacts and GMail still won't sync.
 
you could remove th account and readdit is spose.
 
just a thought, is gmail set to sync under gmail

open gmail
3 bars on top left > settings
>your account-(fred blogs at gmail.com)
scroll down >data useage then make sure sync gmail is ticked
 
There was an update on the Play Store (for me at least) for the Gmail app. Might be worth updating as it mentioned synching in the update.
 
troutfisher said:
just a thought, is gmail set to sync under gmail

open gmail
3 bars on top left > settings
>your account-(fred blogs at gmail.com)
scroll down >data useage then make sure sync gmail is ticked
Click to expand...
Yes. I checked. I have 4 GMail accounts associated with this phone, and all 4 are set to sync automatically.

Interestingly the account that was bothering me HAS now synced its GMail. But it still hasn't synced its Contacts....

upload_2017-6-21_20-42-5.png
 
Last edited:
Meeten said:
There was an update on the Play Store (for me at least) for the Gmail app. Might be worth updating as it mentioned synching in the update.
Click to expand...
Good idea, but I'm running the latest version of the Gmail app. (I set my phone to automatically update most of the apps I use.)

I tried to check to see whether I'm using the latest version of the Contacts app too, but that's a bit trickier. It seems to be a built-in Samsung app and it's not available in the Play store so i can't check the version number. I tried to install the Google Contacts app from the Play Store to see whether that would be better at syncing but I was told it's not compatible with my device. (Probably because it's a Samsung, and Samsung don't like you not using the built-in apps.)
 
Another thing to check. Just in case. Contacts might not update when no change has occurred. So maybe the new contacts you created, were somehow not linked to the google account.
 
ianp5a said:
Another thing to check. Just in case. Contacts might not update when no change has occurred. So maybe the new contacts you created, were somehow not linked to the google account.
Click to expand...
Checked. The new contacts are definitely linked to the Google account in question.

Actually I didn't need to check. When I get the list of Sync Settings, the symbol in the Sync Contacts entry shows that there is unsynced data. The phone 'knows' that there is unsynced data, but it won't sync it, even though it quite happily syncs the Calendar / Chrome / Drive data automatically.
 
Forget the Google rubbish and buy an iPhone? :)

<runs away and hides>

PS. A stupid suggestion probably but tapping the "sync" circular arrow icon doesn't force a sync does it?
 
Have you any contacts on the phone only, ie not on the Google servers? If not, you could remove the account from the phone and add it again and it should synchronise for you.
 
This has happened to me before, I ended up have to re-set the phone

Once I had done this everything worked as it should
 
Quoth said:
Have you any contacts on the phone only, ie not on the Google servers? If not, you could remove the account from the phone and add it again and it should synchronise for you.
Click to expand...
I have new contacts on my phone that I want to access via my PC, and vice versa. So I'd need to export the phone contacts somewhere before removing the account. That's certainly an option - but one I'm a bit nervous about because it's my primary Google account and there is do much stuff associated with it....
 
Keith W said:
This has happened to me before, I ended up have to re-set the phone

Once I had done this everything worked as it should
Click to expand...
That's a terrifying thought. I seem to have 252 apps on this phone. I can't imagine how long it would take to set everything up again after a reset.
 
I just did this for a new tablet.

Log into Google from the PC.

Switch on phone and log into Google.

Sync'd straight away.
 
Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions.

I decided to delete this particular Google/Gmail account from the phone and then re-add it. Slightly stressful but it seems to have worked and all the syncing seems to be working properly. Fingers crossed...
 
StewartR said:
Thanks everyone for the help and suggestions.

I decided to delete this particular Google/Gmail account from the phone and then re-add it. Slightly stressful but it seems to have worked and all the syncing seems to be working properly. Fingers crossed...
Click to expand...

like i said in post 10 then
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top