Fixing Out Of Date Contact Information Appearing In Google Directory Search

When someone changes their name or other account information, those who have previously contacted that individual may see out of date information when interacting with that person within Google Workspace.  For example, if a contact changes their preferred name, others on campus may not see the updated name if they have previously emailed that person.

This happens because Google stores a contact's name in your account the first time you interact with them. Since you can edit a contact's information on this entry in your personal contacts list, Google does not update your contacts when that person changes their name. For example if you change a contact's first name to "Lindsey (from Math class)" for your own convenience, Google will not overwrite that change if Lindsey changes their preferred name.

You can update a contact's information within your own account.

ITS cannot globally update your preferred name in everyone else's contact list, since we do not want to overwrite any customizations you may have in place.

Steps

1. Go to https://contacts.google.com/directory 
2. Search for the user that you are seeing incorrect information for, then click on the incorrect entry when it appears under the search box as you type.
3. On the details that appear, click on the 3 vertical dots in the upper right corner of that details pop up.
4. Click on “Delete”
5. Click on “Delete” again when prompted to “Delete this contact?”
6. You may receive a message stating that the “item cannot be deleted”.  Refresh the page and the entry should be gone.
7. It is possible to have more than one entry conflicting with the directory so if needed repeat the procedure again to delete any additional entries.