How to delete Read-only Contact on iPhone

Close Contacts app. then

Settings, your name, iCloud

Turn off Contacts

Say yes delete contacts from device

Restart the phone

Open Contacts app. It should be empty.

(If Contacts not empty then you have contacts stored elsewhere and it needs to be addressed -come back)

Assuming they are empty, turn Contacts back on in iCloud settings as above

Try again.

If the above did not work then use a computer to sign into iCloud.com and enter Contacts

Or use Mac contacts app

Try to delete it there.

If that fails try the more complex process that has some risks.

In iCloud.com or in the Mac Contacts, select all contacts and "export as vcf"

(This is a good backup strategy anyway and should be done regularly)

Look at the resultant folder of vcards and make sure they are all there.

Delete the bad one from the folder

Clear all your contacts from iCloud or the Mac contacts app.

Import the modified folder of vcards

NB this will add all the vcards to whatever is there so make sure you have cleared all existing contacts first.

So, I found a solution.

There’s several hundred “Me toos,” and more than this one thread containing complaints recently. Clearly this IS a new bug, and I concur it was introduced in 15

This is how I fixed it after observing the behavior:

1. open the affected contact, remove ALL fields so there’s no data left (no phone, no name, no email, etc. - clear EVERY field)
2. you will not be able to hit “Done,” until there’s at least some info somewhere, so I put three blank spaces in the field for “Notes” and then was able to hit “Done.”
3. close out Contacts, and reopen it - if you did like me, you’ll have a ton of “No names” at the bottom of your contacts
4. you should now be able to successfully remove these Contacts that you could not before

Sincerely,

Someone who works in software QA for decades…

[Edited by Moderator]

Hey, I had the same problem for the past few days and managed to delete the contact throughout my computer.

Simply by login in my iCloud account > Contacts > Selecting the contact I wanted to delete > Delete contact.

I tried many different things, but this one worked.

Hope it can help someone else as well.

I worked it out.

click on the contact which won’t delete, then press social profile (in my case it was suggesting they were on whatsapp) then add contact, then you can delete the normal contact as normal.

the social profile is causing the issue as it’s reading it from another app I think. I may have added these contacts from WhatsApp directly too.

I had the same problem so after following all the advice here, with no success, I logged into my iCloud on my laptop and accessed my contacts via the Contacts tile, clicked Edit (top LH corner) then Delete (bottom LH corner) . The two contacts I’ve been trying to delete since March are now gone, thanks to crowd sourcing! 😁

I had this same issue and absolutely none of the above helped. Luckily I was able to work it out for myself though!

The contact I was trying to delete had a chat archived in WhatsApp, once I deleted the WhatsApp chat my phone allowed me to delete the contact.

I have tried logging into iCloud online and deleting contacts. After doing so I am able to re-enable contacts on my phone and delete.

As a test I kept contact disable on my phone iCloud account, and reverified contacts were off on all other accounts). Then I added a contact and tried to delete, but kept getting same error. In order to delete I had to turn back on contacts, merge contacts, log into iCloud on desktop and delete, then turn off/on contacts on phone in order to delete. Why are all contacts read-only even if it is on a single device and/or I disable contacts in iCloud? This is quite cumbersome.

I actually fixed it this morning! I have an iPad so I checked the contacts on there and all of them were still there so I went to the iCloud settings, turned of the contacts (chose the keep option), turned it back on (chose the merge option), checked my phone and they were all back. I have no reasoning as to how or why that worked but it did. It’s frustrating you can’t just simply delete a contact from your phone. Definitely not worth all the trouble. I should’ve just blocked the contact instead.

I had this issue with a contact . I tried all that was stated but I went into the contact, press edit then delete the actual phone number and saved the contact without a number. After that I went back in and pressed edit then I was able to delete the entire contact. It disappeared out of my contact list after that . Hope this helps!

This just worked for me

login in my iCloud account > Contacts > Selecting the contact I wanted to delete > Delete contact.

SOLVED IT! Contacts were saved through WhatsApp so delete them through WhatsApp and they disappear from contacts app

I was able to delete my contact after I turned off the Siri suggestions feature. Go to settings > Siri & Search > Contacts > turn off the Show Contact Suggestions feature.

I can see that when I add a new contact to write in whatsapp and I try to deleted it, the iphone present the error message tha you say. But if I delete the messege on whatsapp and y try to delete the contact it is deteleted correctly

Delete it from WhatsApp it should solve the problem!! Also put in the number and see if u haven’t double saved it, like first with one name then the order!! Delete the first name you save it then go on WhatsApp and delete the contact as well it should fix it