Who wouldn’t be irked when unknown contacts repeatedly flood your phone like digital parasites? But don’t let this blow your top just yet, as there are known solutions to this issue that should effectively give you control over your device.
In this post, we’ll show you seven proven troubleshooting tricks to help eliminate the issue for good so you can keep only the people you want in your contacts.
Why does my phone have so many unknown contacts?
Unknown contacts may appear on your phone’s recent calls or contacts list for many reasons. It could be a software glitch or oversight, such as when you sync with your PC to update your smartphone’s phonebook.
But there are two far more sinister reasons. First, contacts in your phone will appear if you get bombarded by calls from unknown callers, which happens if you’re a target of scammers and persistent telemarketers.
Second, this happens if other people access your phone or accounts. In such cases, your contacts list may get entangled due to synchronization, which causes them to appear as unknown contacts on your phone.
How to Get Rid of Unknown Contacts on My Phone
The solutions are not experimental; they’ve been proven and tested. We recommend you apply them in the order they are presented so you get results far more quickly than if you apply them in random order.
WARNING: Note that some of these procedures may differ slightly depending on the OS version installed on your phone or the device’s model.
FIX 1. Stop sharing your accounts with other people
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 4 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 20 seconds |
| Things Needed | • Any smartphone |
The best way to prevent having unknown contacts saved in your phone is to stop sharing your accounts with other people. This way, their contacts won’t get mixed up with the ones saved in your device due to automatic contact synchronization.
It’s why this issue is common for households that share one device with multiple account sign-ins. If possible, you must refrain from logging into your accounts using someone else’s device or letting others open their accounts on your phone.
If someone else’s account is already signed into your device, you need to sign out of it and log in using your account. Doing so should stop their contacts from syncing with your device’s contact list.
You can do this on iPhones by signing out the Apple ID in question so you can use a personal account instead. For Android devices, you need to sign out of the active Google account if it’s not yours.
Step 1: Open iPhone Settings.
Step 2: Open the Apple ID profile.
Step 3: Scroll down and choose the option to Sign Out.
Step 4: Enter the password for the Apple ID to continue.
FIX 2. Use the Android feature for blocking unknown numbers
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 5 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 20 seconds |
| Things Needed | • An Android phone |
If you’re an Android user, you can make use of your phone’s built-in feature that blocks incoming calls from unknown numbers. This action prevents unsaved phone numbers and known scam callers and spam callers from getting in contact with you.
It also prevents these unknown numbers from being saved on the recent calls tab of the phone app or the messages list on your device’s messaging app. We think it’s a good precautionary measure to take if you don’t want to deal with unknown numbers.
Step 1: Go to the device’s Phone app.
Step 2: Tap the kebab menu to access more options.
Step 3: Go to the phone app’s Settings menu.
Step 4: Go to the Block Numbers menu.
Step 5: Toggle off the Block Unknown Callers/Numbers switch.
Note: Unknown numbers will no longer show up on your contacts and recent calls list. You can only see them when you return to the Block Numbers menu.
FIX 3. Disable your phone’s Google backup feature
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 5 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 20 seconds |
| Things Needed | • Any smartphone |
If the situation makes sharing a device or accounts with other people unavoidable, some viable options will stop unknown contacts from being saved in your phone. For one, disable the backup feature on the Google account linked to the device.
Doing so will stop the Google account in question from backing up and saving the information on the devices it’s connected to, which may include various contacts. Contacts won’t be saved on other devices the Google account is signed into.
It’s a good compromise to take when sharing one Google account across multiple devices or vice versa. This will prevent confusion with any contacts that are saved as an unknown number when Google sync kicks in.
Step 1: Go to your device’s Settings.
Step 2: Scroll down and open your Google account’s settings menu.
Step 3: Scroll down and open the Backup menu.
Step 4: Scroll down and turn off the Backup by Google One switch.
Step 5: Confirm this action by clicking the “TURN OFF & DELETE” option.
FIX 4. Turn off Google Contacts sync on your phone
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 5 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 25 seconds |
| Things Needed | • Any smartphone |
Speaking of Google sync, you can also turn this feature off to prevent saved contacts from being shared between multiple devices. It’s an alternative solution you can take if you still have unknown contacts saved in the phone even with the backup disabled.
With Google Contacts sync turned off, your phone won’t save the contacts that are linked to the Google account connected to it. You can also prevent multiple devices using the same Google account from sharing their contacts list with the sync.
Step 1: Follow Steps 1 and 2 on the previous solution to open the Google settings menu on your phone.
Step 2: Scroll down and open the Settings for Google apps menu.
Step 3: Open the Google Contacts sync menu.
Step 4: Select the Status tab and turn off Auto-sync for Google contacts.
Step 5: Go to the Also sync device contacts tab and turn off synchronization from other devices connected to your Google account.
FIX 5. Reconfigure your Google account’s contact settings
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 5 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 40 seconds |
| Things Needed | • Any smartphone or PC • A working internet connection |
Another alternative solution you can try is managing the privacy and sharing settings on your Google account. You can do this by logging into your Google account using the browser of your phone or a PC.
Once signed in, you need to manage the settings configuration of your Google account to stop your saved contacts from being saved on the devices it’s connected to. This method will also prevent your Google account from saving contacts from your devices.
Step 1: Go to Google’s web page using your phone or PC’s browser and click the Sign In button.
Step 2: Enter your login credentials to open your Google account.
Step 3: Click your Google account’s profile icon and click Manage your Google Account.
Step 4: Go to the People & sharing tab.
Step 5: Navigate to the Contacts section and turn off the options for “Contact info saved from interactions” and “Contact info from your devices.”
FIX 6. Disable the contacts syncing on Facebook
| Difficulty | Easy ●●○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 10 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 60 seconds |
| Things Needed | • Any smartphone |
The unknown contacts saved in your phone may also come from other sources such as your Facebook app. After all, contact syncing is a permission that most apps on your phone may have been given access to, with or without your knowledge.
We think that it’s best to check the device permissions you have on your Facebook app to see if it has access to your contacts list. If it does, that would explain why you have some unknown numbers saved on your phone due to synchronization.
As such, your only option to stop this is to revoke the contact permission for your Facebook app. Please note that this also extends to other apps installed on your phone that may have access to its contacts list.
Thus, we recommend performing this action on other apps that you also suspect are syncing their contacts with your phone.
Step 1: Go to the device’s Facebook app.
Step 2: Tap the hamburger menu on your Facebook app.
Step 3: Scroll down and click Settings & Privacy to access a drop-down menu and open Settings.
Step 4: Scroll down and open Device permissions.
Step 5: Click the See Info button beside Contacts to check its details.
Step 6: Click Update Settings if Contacts permission is allowed.
Note: If it’s not allowed, you don’t have to continue to the next steps.
Step 7: Select Open Device Settings.
Step 8: Go to App permissions.
Step 9: Click on Contacts.
Step 10: Select Don’t Allow.
FIX 7. Double-check your iPhone’s Apple ID and iCloud feature
| Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
| Number of Steps | 5 |
| Time to Perform Fix | 25 seconds |
| Things Needed | • Any smartphone |
For iPhone users, we suggest checking whether the Apple ID signed in to your device is yours or not.
Plus, you need to ensure that the iCloud and iCloud Drive features on your iPhone are turned off to prevent the contacts of other Apple IDs from syncing.
We recommend performing this action if you share an iPhone with a family member or friend while using separate Apple IDs.
This way, there won’t be any unknown contacts saved in your phone every time you or someone else signs in and out of an Apple ID.
Doing so will save you from the potential headaches that repeated switching will cause.
Also, you won’t have to worry about answering an unknown contact or that someone will have access to a message that isn’t intended for them.
Step 1: Open iPhone Settings.
Step 2: Open the Apple ID profile.
Note: Ensure that your personal Apple ID is logged into your iPhone. Sign out if the active Apple ID isn’t yours and sign in with your account.
Step 3: Click on iCloud.
Step 4: Toggle off the switch beside the Contacts app to stop it from using iCloud.
Step 5: Scroll down and ensure that the iCloud Drive switch is also turned off.
Why are there unknown contacts in my iPhone?
Sharing an iPhone or Apple ID with someone else is the biggest reason you might find some unknown contacts on your device. You shouldn’t give anyone access to your iPhone or Apple ID unless you trust them completely.
Or, do so only if you need the person to have access to your device and it’s of absolute necessity.
If you check the Apple ID signed in to your iPhone, you can see all the devices connected to the account. You can use this information to trace who else might be using your Apple ID, causing some unknown contacts to be synced to your iPhone.
FAQs about Unknown Contacts
Can someone add a contact on my phone?
Someone can add a contact on your phone if they have access to the device or any account linked to it that has access to its contacts lists. This can be a close friend or family member you’re sharing your phone or accounts with.
Otherwise, the only other possibility is if someone you don’t know can hack your phone and gain unwanted access to it.
Why are my contacts showing up as unknown?
Contact synchronization from other accounts linked to your phone can share and save their contacts list on the device. This causes these synced contacts to appear unknown on your phone since they were taken from another source.
It can also happen if other devices are linked to the same account your phone is connected to. If contacts syncing is enabled, the devices in question will have access to each of their contacts list, causing them to appear as unknowns.
How do I turn off unknown contacts?
Block unknown numbers on your Android phone or use the Silence Unknown Callers feature if you’re using an iPhone. Both features will allow you to stop incoming calls from unknown contacts and spam callers.
