How to remove a contact for good?

[Odysee]

Hey guys - I have deleted a few contacts in my phone recently, but whenever I search my phone for that particular contact, they're still there... (Not in the contacts, but in the phone) - this is super annoying.

How do I permanently delete some of these contacts, please?

***Update*** https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/how-to-remove-a-contact-for-good.2172772/#post-27596384

 

[russell_314]

Is this what you're talking about? I know it says iOS 7 but I think it's still correct

 

[Odysee]

Is this what you're talking about? I know it says iOS 7 but I think it's still correct

Ah, no not this - I know how to remove this.

So, let's call this contact 'David Jones'. I delete his contact, and then search my phone for 'David Jones' - and I see a 'Call David Jones' in the Facetime section, and Call 'David Jones' in the 'Phone' Section too. The contact just will not disappear. Here is a screenshot.

(The contact is NOT in my phone).

 

[MacNut]

I would say just wear glasses....

 

[Odysee]

Hmm, just found that this 'contact' is being found by: Siri Found in incallservice

Whatever this is?

 

[russell_314]

Okay this should work.

Go to
Settings
Scroll down to Siri & Search
Scroll down to Contacts
Turn all three things off.
Go back out of the settings then back in and turn them on.

 

[Odysee]

Okay this should work.

Go to
Settings
Scroll down to Siri & Search
Scroll down to Contacts
Turn all three things off.
Go back out of the settings then back in and turn them on.

Thanks, man - tried that and this contact is still here unfortunately :/

 

[ivanwi11iams]

This is rather weird.

I suggest resetting the device, and trying again.
Also, do you have an iPad or iMac? If so, same issue on those, too?

 

[Odysee]

Ended up restoring the iPhone. Thanks a lot for your help anyway guys.

 

[Helmsley]

Try this;

Messages > New Message

Start typing the number of the contact. Press the "i" next to it. Then "remove from recents".

 

[Odysee]

Try this;

Messages > New Message

Start typing the number of the contact. Press the "i" next to it. Then "remove from recents".

That is the first thing I tried. I can confirm that this user was not anywhere on the phone. Apple support tried lots of steps, and in the end, asked me to backup and do a factory reset. Did that and that user is now gone. Ahhh, at last. lol.

Thanks for your help tho man.

 

[ventmore]

That is the first thing I tried. I can confirm that this user was not anywhere on the phone. Apple support tried lots of steps, and in the end, asked me to backup and do a factory reset. Did that and that user is now gone. Ahhh, at last. lol.

Thanks for your help tho man.

Must be a name you **really** don’t want appearing on your phone to go through all that.

 

[Minorite]

Just to make sure, it didn't appear in Contacts anymore, right? And no chance it was some re-sync from Gmail, FB, iCloud, etc.?

 

[Odysee]

Must be a name you **really** don’t want appearing on your phone to go through all that.

An ex.

 

[Odysee]

..Bumping an old topic here..

This problem has happened again, but with a few other contacts, not related to the original in the thread.

I have just discovered from @russell_314's recommendation that disabling Siri search for phone, messages, and facetime actually does remove these unwanted contacts, but as soon as you enable them again, boom, they're still there.

So.... I am assuming that these contacts are stored somewhere in my iCloud drive? Or are they stored locally? How would one remove these?

Quite shocked that it's not really that straight forward, to be honest. Right now, I have all these options disabled (Siri search: phone messages and facetime) until I have a fix for this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated as always.