Contacts Replicated Themselves & Can't Sync To Google

[PGB1213]

Hello All!
I hope this note finds everyone well & enjoying today.

Suddenly, on my Android 5.1 phone (ZTE Maven AT&T) the Contacts list has multiple entries for every contact. Some have two, some three & a few have four. Each entry on the list has a dot next to it. Some have the same color dot for every contact, some have different colors. The Contacts app is one that came with the phone. I think it's the Google contacts app. The phone also has 'AT&T Address BOOK", but I don't use it.

I logged into Google on the computer & if said some, but not all of my contacts had duplicate entries. I told Google to fix it, which went smoothly. Next I went to the phone Settings - Accounts - Google & told the phone to sync. The screen said "Syncing Now" and an arrow circle spun. When it got done, it said "Last Sync 11-29-2019". Today is 08-29-2020. The duplicates were still on the phone, but on line at Google was OK. I tried again & got the same results.

I can't find anything on the phone that says to fix duplicates. Google help pages only said to sync. Since it won't sync, that's out.

Do any of you know how I can:
A) Get rid of the duplicate contacts on the phone?
B) Get the phone to sync to Google?

Thank You Very Much for helping. I sure am lost!

Paul

 

[SilverRae]

I'm having the exact same problem for a few months now. It fixes temporarily when I remove my affected Google account from my phone, but then acts all corrupted again some days later. Its driving me nuts. Also shows a persistent syncing contacts notification from time to time for days but doesn't progress and vaguely says elsewhere "Trouble syncing" with syncing turned on. Haven't seen any causes or permanent fixes in my searches yet. Please post reply if you find a fix!
Samsung Note 10+

 

[SilverRae]

... It fixes temporarily when I remove my affected Google account from my phone, but then acts all corrupted again some days later.

To clarify, I re-add the google account just after removing it. And I've cleaned up where contacts are stored (eg device, this account, another account) and made a backup CSV file when it was in a good state. Replicates are typically only visible on my phone, but deleted contacts agfe t my google contacts throughout including as viewed on chrome on my laptop. The whole merge duplicates and other features do not fix the problem. Maybe temporary bandaid but when my 300 contacts become 5000 in replicates, merging up to 10 at a time every time it happens isn't practical.