I delete contacts on Xiaomi and they reappear – reasons and solutions

You deleted the contact on Xiaomi's smartphone, but it reappeared in the phonebook after a while? This problem is familiar to many users of MIUI devices, the brand's brand shell. Most often, the "resurrection" of remote contacts involves synchronizing accounts, caching data or crashing system applications. In some cases, even third-party messengers like WhatsApp or Telegram, which automatically add numbers from chats to the phone book, are to blame.

In this article, we’ll look at all the possible reasons why contacts return after deletion, and offer step-by-step instructions for each, how to turn off sync, clear the cache, configure applications, and even manually edit system files (for advanced users), and we’ll look at what to do if a problem occurs after a MIUI update or reset.

We warn you right away that some methods require caution, especially if you're working with an ADB or a file system, but most solutions are available even to beginners -- just follow the instructions.

Why Remote Contacts Are Returning to Xiaomi: 5 Reasons

Before you start fixing a problem, it's important to understand the root of the problem, and here are the most common scenarios where contacts are resurrected:

• 🔄 Sync with a Google account or Mi Account, if you delete a contact locally but it is saved in the cloud, the system will automatically restore it the next time you update the data.
• 📱 Duplicate contacts in different accounts, for example, the same number can be stored in Google Contacts, Mi Cloud, and memory SIM-map.
• 🤖 Automatic addition from instant messengers. Apps like Viber or Truecaller can create contacts from call history or chats.
• 🗑️ Cache of the Contacts app. Sometimes the data is not physically deleted but is left in temporary files, which leads to its re-display.
• 🔧 Failures in operation MIUI. After updating or resetting the settings, the system may not properly handle changes to the phone book.

Most often, the problem is solved by turning off sync or cleaning the cache, but in rare cases, deeper intervention may be required. Next, we will discuss each method in detail.

Method 1: Disable contact sync in Google and Mi Account

The most common reason for contact resurrection is automatic sync with cloud services, so if you delete a number on your phone but it's still in Google Contacts or Mi Cloud, the system will restore it the next time you update, and to avoid that, you need to temporarily turn off sync.

Instructions for Google account:

1. Open Settings → Accounts and Sync → Google.
2. Select your account and uncheck the box opposite the “Contact”.
3. Remove the problematic contacts on the phone.
4. Go to Google Contacts via your browser and delete them there.
5. Return to the settings and turn on the sync again.

For Mi Account:

1. Go to Settings → Accounts and Sync → Mi Account.
2. Turn off the “Contact Synchronization” option.
3. Remove unnecessary numbers on the device.
4. After 5-10 minutes, turn the synchronization back on.

If after these actions the contacts continue to return, proceed to the next method.

💡

Before you turn off sync, export your contacts to the VCF file (via Settings → System → Import / Export) to help restore important numbers if something goes wrong.

Method 2: Clearing the cache and data of the Contacts application

Sometimes remote contacts remain in the app cache and are displayed again after rebooting or updating MIUI. To completely erase them, you need to clear the contact system application data.

How to do this:

1. Open Settings → Applications → Application Management.
2. Find the Contacts app** (or Contacts) and tap it.
3. Select Storage → Clear cache and Clear data (Warning: This will delete all local contacts!).

Once the data is cleaned, all contacts will disappear, but you can restore them from a backup (if you have one), or manually add the numbers you need, which helps in 70% of cases when the problem is related to a damaged cache.

Export contacts to VCF| Write important numbers on paper | Disable cloud sync | Make sure the phone has enough charge-->

Method 3: Checking for duplicate contacts from different sources

If the same contact is stored in multiple locations (e.g., Google, Mi Cloud, and other locations) SIM-The system can automatically restore it from another source, so to avoid this, you need to combine or remove duplicates.

How to find and eliminate duplicates:

1. Open the Contacts app** and tap three dots in the upper right corner.

If duplicate contacts are linked to WhatsApp or other messengers, go to the settings of these apps and turn off the “Show contacts in the phone book” option** (on WhatsApp: Settings → Account → Contacts).

Method 4: Reset the settings of the Contacts app (without data loss)

If previous methods didn’t work, try resetting the Contacts app to factory settings, which won’t delete the contacts themselves, but will return the standard display and sync settings.

Instructions:

1. Go to Settings → Applications → Application Management → Contacts.
2. Slip on three dots in the upper right corner and select Reset App Preferences.

After reset, check if the remote contacts are returning, and if the problem persists, it may be due to deeper MIUI failures.

Method 5: Using ADB to force the removal of contacts (for advanced ones)

If standard methods don’t work, you can try removing contacts via ADB (Android Debug Bridge), which is suitable for advanced users, as it requires working with the command line.

Step-by-step:

1. Turn on Developer Mode** on your phone: Settings → About Phone → MIUI version (shap 7 times).

adb shell content query --uri content://com.android.contacts/raw_contacts


adb shell content delete --uri content://com.android.contacts/raw_contacts/where"display_name="Name Contact"

Replace the name contact with the name of the contact being removed (without quotes). Be careful: the wrong command can delete all contacts!

⚠️ Attention: Use ADB This can cause irreversible changes to the system. Before executing commands, back up your contacts and firmware.

Method 6: Complete resetting of settings (last resort)

If none of these methods work, the last resort is to reset your phone to factory settings, which will delete all data, including contacts, apps and settings, so only use this method as a last resort.

How to perform the reset:

After reset, add contacts manually or import only verified backups.This is guaranteed to solve the problem, but will take time to reconfigure the device.

💡

If the problem occurred after the MIUI update, try rolling back to the previous firmware version via Fastboot or wait for a patch from Xiaomi.

FAQ: Frequent questions about returning contacts on Xiaomi