Why can't I delete old contacts from my device?

[jstblv]

I cannot delete any old contacts I no longer need from my phone, it states the contact is "read only".  How, if I am in control of my phone.  It appears all my contacts have this "read only" yet my sister has the same phone and hers does not. Is it read only because I had the Verizon store transfer my contacts? I have had to turn off every feature possible and stop apps just to see if it would help.  I am not on any social website. I don't get it.  Also, every time I make a call it changes my contact person to a favorite, yet I go into the contacts and the "star" is not filled in to make it a favorite.  I am so frustrated after having this phone for less than 2 weeks.  Any photos transferred over also do not download to use them.  So what...they sit there for their prettiness?

[vzw_customer_support]

This is a quandary, and we want to jump in with both feet to see this fixed for you, jstblv. Our first instinct too was social media contacts, so thank you for ruling that out. We are going to need a few additional pieces of the puzzle. What is the make and model of your phone, and what apps have been installed on the phone?

DavidH_VZW
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If my response answered your question please click the �Correct Answer� button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!!

[jstblv · Accepted solution]

I have a new purchased at Verizon Motorola Droid Turbo (older model) so it came with all the standard apps already on the phone.  None that I added.  The only way I have been able to determine to fix this, as I thought it has something to do with an old Microsoft Exchange link from contacts that were transferred from an even older phone I had prior. Think back as to how many times you ported your phone number and transferred contacts.  Some accounts may not be active anymore, but your contacts remain.  So my solution I did on my own. NOTE:  I found this process PAINLESS in the end, even better than I ever could have expected.  No frustration at all.

1. I used my laptop to go into my actual email accounts, and delete contacts I no longer wanted (note Microsoft accounts like Hotmail or Outlook somehow doesn't let you delete old email addresses that aren't actual contacts but are email addresses you used to respond to someone or email customer service for a company, they store that information, and I found NO resolution to delete them, manage them, or clean them up, they just sit there, and therefore, will transfer over to your phone if sync is on so on my DROID I made sure to "turn OFF the sync of contacts from Hotmail or Outlook"  to avoid this from happening.  And made sure that sync contacts was OFF at all times.

2.  From my Droid phone I exported my contacts to my internal storage card (I say this as I do not have an external SD card that was used for any of this), and I backed up my phone by using one of my chosen "cloud" methods and made sure to check all those files I wanted backed up (much like you may do from your desktop/laptop accounts) so I did not lose any photos that ported over at the store at the time of purchase.  I did not have any music on my phone old or new Droid so that was not a concern for me, but again, the Cloud probably would take care of that as well.

3.  I then went and restored my Droid to factory settings to delete everything.  And started over as if it was a new phone, and remember, make sure you do NOT sync your Microsoft contacts (especially if they were on an exchange server....and from what I see online they say yahoo too...and yes, some of my contacts on my previous phone were from an old yahoo account I no longer had is my guess after learning all that I did).  NOTE:  even though you log off all your accounts PRIOR to trading in your phone and wipe it clean, your external accounts keep these contacts, so if you add an account to your new phone and sync they come over.  So going into your accounts via a laptop or desktop method and cleaning and deleting from them will remove old contacts and files first.

4.  When I started over it was actually PAINLESS.  It brought only those contacts I wanted from my google account and because I backed up to my cloud and my internal storage, my restore was simple and was able to download everything without trouble. You probably know your phone well enough now from all your frustration on this matter, that restoring only those apps you wanted and your personalized screens, is easy.  Yes, all the "standard" apps come back as default, but it was easy to go in and fix this to make them the way you wanted them.  Look at the time wasted in trying to resolve this problem you've spent, well restoring took SO MUCH LESS time than I originally invested.  Again, you probably know your new phone pretty well by now which took the learning curve off the process.

RESULT: Now I can delete and edit all my contacts and no longer have just email addresses in my PHONE contact list (they are where they belong in my email accounts).  NOTE: I also found by doing this, it also brought in bookmarks I use all the time and have stored in my cloud, which the Droid did not have when the transfer of info from my trade in old phone to my new Droid at the time of purchase from the store.  So it was well worth doing...something is happening at the Verizon store when they transfer info from one phone to the other, as not all info is being transferred I learned through doing this, and I am so glad I did as I have more of what I use and wanted than when I started.  I am not alone in this problem from all my online searches.  Many have this problem with the Motorola Droid phones.  And no answers.

No trip needed to the store...and done in the comfort of my home.  If I had to guess it probably took me all of a half hour from start to end with the restore.  In the end, now all my accounts I use are cleaned up is the bright side too.

[jstblv]

Additional note: Make sure you leave "sync contacts" OFF from those accounts ongoing, otherwise, if you sync all on that particular account they will come back into your new phone.  I sync contacts from ONLY my google account now, since Motorola uses google so much.