Top 5 Ways to Fix Contacts Search Not Working on Android 2025

The search feature in the Contacts app can come in handy when you want to quickly pull up the contact information of a friend, family member or colleague on your Android. It's one of those basic features that you don't really care about until it stops working as expected. Fortunately, there's no need to manually scroll through your contact list, as the problem can be fixed.

Temporary app issues, sync issues, and corrupted cache data are some of the reasons why you might have trouble searching contacts on your Android. This guide will walk you through all the possible solutions to fix the problem. So, let's take a look.

Top 5 Ways to Fix Contacts Search Not Working on Android 2023

1. Restart your phone

The Contacts app may sometimes experience temporary issues due to which the in-app search function stops working on your Android. Restarting your phone should take care of such issues and other minor OS-related problems.

Press and hold the Power button and tap on Restart. Once your phone reboots, try searching your contacts again

2. Allow the required permissions

Like any other app, the Contacts app on your phone needs a few permissions to function smoothly. If you have inadvertently denied the permissions of this app, you may run into problems Here's what you can do to fix it.

Step 1: Long press the Contacts app icon and tap on the 'i' icon from the menu that opens. On the app's info page, go to Permissions.

Step 2: Go through each permission one by one and allow it.

3. Re-sync your contacts

Sync issues with the Contacts app can also lead to such inconsistencies. If you can't find some of your contacts, try re-syncing the contacts from your Google account and see if that helps.

Step 1: Open the Contacts app on your phone. Switch to the Fix & Manage tab in the bottom-right corner and tap Settings.

Step 2: Tap on 'Google Contacts Sync Settings' and select your Google Account.

Step 3: Tap on the arrow next to Status. Then, tap the refresh icon to sync your contacts

After that, try searching your contacts again and check if the problem still exists

4. Remove your GOOGLE ACCOUNT and add it again

If resyncing your contacts proves ineffective, your next best option is to remove your Google account and add it again. Several users on the Google Forums have reported success solving search problems with the Contacts app using this trick. You can give it a shot.

Step 1: Open the Contacts app, tap on your profile icon at the top right and select 'Manage accounts on this device'.

Step 2: Select the problematic Google account from the list.

Step 3: Tap on Remove Account and select Remove Account again to confirm.

Step 4: Open the Contacts app again, tap the profile icon in the top-right corner and select Add another account.

5. Clear the contacts app cache

Clearing the cache for the Contacts app will remove any old or corrupt temporary files, forcing the app to be rebuilt from scratch. If the search feature is not working due to a corrupted app cache, clearing it will solve your problem. Since this process does not affect your contact data, there is no harm in trying it.

To clear the Contacts app cache on your Android, use these steps:

Step 1: Long press on the Contacts app icon and tap on Info icon from the menu that appears.

Step 2: Go to Storage and tap on Clear Cache option at the bottom.