WhatsApp still shows deleted contacts I got my new Android phone.
I added my personal GMail account to the Gmail app which synced my ~100 personal contacts from Google.
I installed WhatsApp.
I installed Outlook for Android.
I added my work mail account and did not uncheck "sync contacts" before first sync.
Only after I saw the ~100k work contacts in my phone I disabled "sync contacts" for my work email and as far as I see, all work contacts were correctly removed from the Android contact list.
However, in WhatsApp some of them (presumably those with a mobile number and WhatsApp) are still visible.
I tried the "Refresh list" option in WhatsApp, but they are still visible.
Also, there are no chats with these "contacts", since the contacts only got onto my phone by accident and they don't have my mobile number.
It seems I am not the only one.


Why are they still visible in WhatsApp and how can I get rid of them?
Even I had the same problem. I removed all the contacts from my phone address book but it would still show in my Whatsapp. Finally I figured it, though the phone address too does not show the contacts, if auto sync is on, it will still show. In my Phone, I went to Phonebook &rarr; Open Account settings &rarr; and turned off Auto Sync. That worked. Hope it helps.