Contacts being added automatically on iPhone

I have noticed many contact cards in my Contacts that I didn't add. They are people I sent emails to using Apple Mail on my Mac. How do I stop this from happening? Running the new iOS17 on a new iPhone 15 plus.

iPhone 15 Plus, iOS 17

Posted on Dec 3, 2023 11:49 AM

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Posted on Dec 12, 2023 5:17 PM

I had this happen and found out how to fix it, for me at least.


On your Apple device where they appear, go to Settings > Contacts > Accounts > Choose the account that is causing this issue. In my case, it was Gmail. Choose Gmail, then disable Contacts. It will show:


Turn off Contacts

Are you sure you want to continue? All Gmail contacts will be removed from your phone.

Delete from My iPhone

Cancel.


I chose Delete from My iPhone and it removed all of the new ones that were added.

47 replies

Dec 3, 2023 7:39 PM in response to TKaplan21

TKaplan21 Said:

"Contacts being added automatically on iPhone: I have noticed many contact cards in my Contacts that I didn't add. They are people I sent emails to using Apple Mail on my Mac. How do I stop this from happening? Running the new iOS17 on a new iPhone 15 plus."

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Disable or Enable iCloud Contacts:

Is Contacts enabled in iCloud? If so, then it may be contact cards gathered from another device. If not, then try enabling Contact in iCloud Settings on you devices.

Mar 21, 2024 10:32 AM in response to TKaplan21

To solve this problem:


On your Iphone in a broswer go to gmail.

select the account in the drop down

select "manage accounts on this device."

choose your gmail account

"manage google account"

slide the menu to the right and select "people and sharing"

select "contact info saved from interactions".


if you have more than one google account you will need to do it for each account on your iphone.


Hope this helps!




Dec 3, 2023 8:13 PM in response to TKaplan21

TKaplan21 Said:

"I do have Contacts enabled in iCloud on both my iPhone and my Mac. If I turn those off won't the syncing between those devices stop so that when I do update or add a contact myself it won't flow through to the other device?"

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Inaccessibly of Contacts on Devices:

Yes. If not downloaded, then it will not sync between your devices. For contacts to be available across you devices, then Contacts must be enabled in iCloud settings on all devices associated to your Apple Account.

Feb 11, 2024 9:03 AM in response to Cortex21

This is not exactly correct. It is not on the left navigation panel; it is on right side of your Gmail account screen. Click on the gears icon for settings. Click “all settings”. Scroll down to close to the middle of the page where it reads “ create contacts for auto complete”. Click “I’ll add contacts myself”. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click save changes.

Feb 16, 2024 5:57 AM in response to jongrahl

Do you know if this will affect the ability of Apple Mail to auto populate email addresses from prior correspondences?


For instance, if I start a new email and begin typing a name in the To: field, "Dan..."

A drop-down list of names that begin with Dan appears (and the associated email):


Dan A - dana@gmail

Danny Z - dannyz@gmail


None of these individuals are saved into my i/macOS Contacts app, so I assume this feature works based off of prior correspondences to these individuals. This is a convenient feature that I do not want to lose.


However, I too am having the problem you described: emails recently began to be added to my i/macOS Contacts, sometime even appearing as DanA@gmail, etc. I also found instances of duplicated contacts. I changed no settings myself, so I suspect that it must be related to an i/macOS update and/or a gmail setting.


Seems like a highly undesirable effect, so not sure why Apple/Google would impose it as the default setting (instead of an opt-in approach).

Mar 31, 2024 11:19 AM in response to SoCalVG

I know it has something to do with Gmail cuz like what you said, they’re getting added into my “email” under LISTS. I accidentally deleted myself cuz it had one of my emails as the contact … I deleted it and then I wasn’t in any contact list which I don’t get why it wouldn’t have been kept in the iCloud list but to try to get it restored took almost an hour on the phone with Support and only one part of the problem was resolved due to the associate not knowing what to do and blamed the rest on gmail.

So I’m still at square one 🙄

Contacts being added automatically on iPhone

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