Deleting Phone Contacts

[wenrob]

I wish there was a way to organize contact by category. Personal, Medical, Restaurants, etc. I also wish I could "hide" contacts that I don't necessarily want to delete but don't want to see either.

You can make groups or lists. For instance I have DH’s Family, My Family, Kid Name Friends, Doctors/Dentists, Schools, Food etc. This comes in handy when you want to put your phone on Do Not Disturb but you need a specific group to be able to still contact you. And/or you can put it right in the contact info. I usually choose Company or Nickname for this. When a parent of a kid’s friend calls it will pop up Full Name, kids mom or dad. If I need to call a doctor, typing “doctor” in my contacts search will bring them all up. As far as hiding them, maybe you could put a Z for first or last name (whatever order you use) then their full name in the other spot so it takes them all the way to the bottom of your contacts and you won’t be scrolling past them.

I’m pretty meticulous with contacts, if you have a number and address or multiples, I have them labeled accordingly. My family makes fun of me but if they need the info guess who they ask? If I hadn’t looked I would have said I’m pretty good about updating my contacts but there are some names in there I have no idea who they are. I suspect these are former contacts of older DD’s from school and clubs etc.

I cannot bring myself to delete my parents, BIL and grandma who have all passed. Plus if I do then I will lose texts and voicemails so I just leave them be. I do keep people I no longer speak to in my contacts. Two reasons- so I have a heads up that it’s them and can decide if I want that chaos back in my life (these people are on mute) and two, I still love them and have the small hope they’ll reach out in good faith someday. This actually happened last week.

 

[wenrob]

Really?


Okay I just googled it yes you can put them into categories but it still show the unsorted list when you open up your contacts. Or at least that is what it did for me on my iPhone (8).

Select “Lists” to view them. I don’t think you can set that as the default.

 

[tony67]

I've cleaned them out many times, but they keep coming back every time I get a new phone they get restored.

 

[Babs Johnson]

Did the same thing after I retired 7 years ago. Kept a few for a couple of year but deleted them last year. Also deleted numbers related to my Mom after she died.

I did the same when I retired at the end of 2022. I deleted most of my business contacts but kept a few who I was close to and still work there. I told them they could call or text if they had any problems or needed any advice.

 

[wenrob]

I've cleaned them out many times, but they keep coming back every time I get a new phone they get restored.

They’re either in your cloud service or something like your Google account. It took me a bit to realize that if I had someone’s Google info linked in their contact, Google will replace it no matter how many times you delete it. For cloud services you have to go those and delete there.

 

[ronandannette]

I just retired and I’m in the process of deleting former coworkers’ numbers. Some haven’t worked for the company in years.

This is so annoying at our workplace. We are all issued company phones during our tenure and when somebody leaves, their phone number is assigned to a new employee. I don't understand the tech or why it can't be fixed, but in our our contacts, we can't change the name on that number to the new person. Calls still display it as "John Smith" even though it's been re-assigned twice in the 12 years since he left and now "Mary Jones" has that number. Grrrr... Yes, we've all tried deleting the old contact and putting in the new one - our IT department says it has to do with the sim cards.

 

[tony67]

They’re either in your cloud service or something like your Google account. It took me a bit to realize that if I had someone’s Google info linked in their contact, Google will replace it no matter how many times you delete it. For cloud services you have to go those and delete there.

Yeah - Im just to lazy to fix it.

 

[barkley]

My sister makes fun of my syste, all restaurants and carry outs have first name of “food”

all my doctors have the first name of 'doctor' with the last name of whatever speciality they are-

doctor heart
doctor ortho
doctor ent...

it's easier for me to remember who is who and in case of an emergency and dh had to contact one of my providers it would be easier for him to figure out.

 

[NYCgrrl]

I delete phone contacts as often as I delete emails…
Wait, that not true!
I delete emails more often than phone contacts which is pretty sad since they don’t multiply like emails

 

[RangerPooh]

Rarely do I take the time to deleted old contacts. Last year I deleted both sets of grandparents phone numbers. They passed in 2012 and 2029. It was depressing.

 

[aprilgail]

I have a number of a friend that died a couple years ago and I just can't delete is number. Just seems wrong for some reason. I am sure I will eventually.

I have phone numbers in my phone of dead people too I can't bring myself to delete- 3 friends/coworkers, my birth mom and my mom- plus I have all the texts that we sent each other saved in my texts too,

 

[CdnCarrie]

Why do so many of you have work contacts in your personal phone?

 

[PollyannaMom]

I've gone through them, but not in a while. I probably have a lot of unnecessary ones.

A long time ago (before I had cloud backup) I went through and hand-wrote a list of numbers in case I ever lost my phone.

 

[soccerdad72]

Why do so many of you have work contacts in your personal phone?

My phone gets used for work purposes as well and personal.

For what it's worth, my work also subsidizes my phone costs because of this.

 

[AlohaNow]

This reminds me of Dane Cook’s bit about going in to delete his deceased parent’s phone numbers. No matter what you think of Dane Cook, it is really sweet and might be worth Googling up.

 

[_19disnA]

I use a company provided cell phone for work and have my own private phone for all other uses. Probably about once a year or so I go through my personal phone and delete contacts I no longer need. Could be things like repair/maintenance people or the realtor in a different state where I used to live since clearly I won't be using them at my new location. Work related I delete those whom I no longer interact with or perhaps they have retired or left the company to work elsewhere. The touch screen on most phones is SO sensitive you can easily dial someone in error, so keeping the contact list current avoids any awkward situations associated with dialing someone you no longer interact with.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I have a number of a friend that died a couple years ago and I just can't delete is number. Just seems wrong for some reason. I am sure I will eventually.

I have the exact situation. I have my contacts sorted alphabetically by first name. I had a friend named Aaron who died at least 7 or 8 years ago from a drug overdose. It was just heartbreaking. His name is the first one in my contacts and I just can't bear to delete it.

 

[wenrob]

Why do so many of you have work contacts in your personal phone?

My DH refuses a work phone because if he carries it he’s obligated to answer it. 24/7 availability tends to get abused and has little benefit. On the flip, they have to stop and think about calling his personal number because if he solves a work related problem even over the phone they have to pay him for it. That said, he generally answers because if he gets called in that’s double time. For him it’s mostly about work/life balance.

 

[tvguy]

My phone gets used for work purposes as well and personal.

For what it's worth, my work also subsidizes my phone costs because of this.

My old employer did have company phones for some employees, and I was not one of them and they did not compensate for use of a personal phone for business. We did have one cell phone that stayed at our desk and was shared by the 5 of us. But right before they retired they switched to a VoIP phone system that let you text from your desk phone extension without need for a cell phone.

 

[Moliphino]

My phone gets used for work purposes as well and personal.

For what it's worth, my work also subsidizes my phone costs because of this.

Same for me. Work didn't want to manage that many cell phones, so they pay us to use our personal ones for work.