Viber (and WhatsApp) are THE APPS of modern day technology to communicate with your friends, colleagues and family. However, they are still far from perfect. Occasionally, in Viber, you may find a strange problem that some of your contacts that you are 100% positive and sure they’re on Viber, do not show up in your Contacts list with a Viber icon. Instead of Free Call / Free Message, you only see Viber Out Call and Invite To Viber buttons. How can we solve this problem?
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VIBER – HOW TO FIX CONTACTS SYNC ISSUE?
In official Viber FAQ you will find a suggestion to edit your particular Contact’s number format and instead of short format, replace them with a full country prefix version (for example: instead of 001 1234567 use + 00 001 1234567), then wait around 10 minutes, reboot phone and similar nonsense magic.
This is rarely gonna fix your problem and, as a final and most extreme measure, they are suggesting to completely uninstall and install Viber again.
IS THERE A FASTER WAY TO FIX THIS?
Yes! Instead of full uninstall/install cycle, all you have to do is:
- Go to your Settings > Apps > Downloaded Apps* > Viber
- Click Force stop button
- Click on Clear data button (not Clear cache, that is not enough!)
- Go back to your Desktop (or wherever you placed your Viber icon) and click on it to restart Viber again
- You will have to activate your account again, enter phone number and wait for automated verification process to complete, set your options (privacy settings, chat background, sounds…)
DONE!
* in older Android OS versions (such as 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and below) there is no application grouping
* in newer Android OS versions (such as 4.3 Jelly Bean and up) apps are organised by type (Downloaded, Built-In/Factory/Running/All…)
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Viber App – How To Send Self Deleting Photo or Video message
EXTRA TIP
You can also use the above method to fix any other related Contacts Sync issues between Viber and your Phone. For example, say, your friend has added another (new) number and you have deleted the old one from the Contacts list, but in Viber you still see both the new and the old number, without any possibility to delete it!
THE GOOD
Obviously, no waiting for download (and if you are on a metered plan, no additional cost!). Your contacts that were not synced will be now properly displayed with Viber icon and with all contact methods available. Additionally, all your Groups that you were participating in will be fully preserved, too! Another bonus is that you do not have to uninstall current version of Viber (for example, if you do not wish to upgrade to the latest version for some reason).
THE BAD
You will have to activate and re-configure Viber again. Also, you will lose all your conversations/messages and possibly media files (you should backup your /viber/ folder to a new location if you care). Also, new Viber versions offer Cloud backup feature, so you can backup your messages to the Viber’s Cloud service (it will backup only text! not audio/video/image media files!).