Common Problems with Google Contacts

Written by Owner

Updated at August 20th, 2025

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Table of Contents

Referenced group does not belong to the same user Zapier didn't transfer all my contacts! My Zap is triggering from contacts that I have not updated recently Deleting contacts is not triggering my Zap! New or Updated Contact is triggering on all contacts and updates, how do I trigger my Zap on new contacts only? How to add multiple email addresses, phone numbers, etc. to a Contact?

Referenced group does not belong to the same user

This error occurs when trying to manipulate contacts in a group you don't have ownership of. To change ownership, you'll need to do the following:

Delegation Settings

Once in the delegation settings, you'll need to make sure you're the owner there.

Group Owner

Zapier didn't transfer all my contacts!

Google Contacts will only return 50 items to Zapier at a time. That means that if you add more than 50 new contacts in between the zap running, they won't all trigger the zap.

My Zap is triggering from contacts that I have not updated recently

Other apps connected to Google contacts can update the contact in the background without you knowing. Try disabling any apps connected to Google Contacts. To figure out what apps have access to Google Contacts, go here: https://myaccount.google.com/security and click on "Connected apps & sites." Then click on "Manage Apps" and you should see a list that looks like this:

You will want to disable any apps that connect to Google Contacts. You can do so one at a time and see if the problem persists.

Deleting contacts is not triggering my Zap!

Unfortunately, our Google Contacts app does not have a method of reporting when a contact is deleted from your account presently.

New or Updated Contact is triggering on all contacts and updates, how do I trigger my Zap on new contacts only?

Google Contacts doesn't let us trigger on just new contacts yet but there is a workaround:
1. When creating a new contact, manually add some value to an unused field in the contact
2. Set up a filter to only allow contacts with this value to pass
3. Add an Update Contact step later in the Zap to remove/alter this value
With this setup, further updates to that contact won't pass the filter.

How to add multiple email addresses, phone numbers, etc. to a Contact?

Let's say you want to create a Contact with multiple phone numbers:
1. First, use a Create Contact step to define the first phone number.
2. Then, for each additional phone number you want to define, add an Update Contact step.
So if you want to create a Contact with 3 phone numbers, it requires 1 Create Contact step and 2 Update Contact steps.