Twitter account link removed but Twitter contacts remain in People app

Question

When I first installed Windows 8 I linked my account to my Twitter and Facebook accounts.

My Facebook friends and everyone I follow on Twitter then appeared as contacts in my People app

I have since removed the link to both accounts.

All my Facebook friends have been removed but the Twitter contacts still appear in People.

There is no Delete option. How do I remove them?

This is Windows 8 Pro RTM (from MSDN), not any of the previews.

Answer 1

I have managed to remove the orphaned contacts.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the People app (along with Mail, Calendar and Messaging apps, they are all in a single app)

1. Right-Click on People tile
2. Click Uninstall at the bottom of the screen
3. Click Uninstall to confirm removing Mail, Calendar, People and Messaging
4. Delete/Rename the folder C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_IDENTIFIER
5. Reboot (possibly not required, but I did it anyway)
6. Open the Store app
7. Hover in the bottom right corner and select Search from the menu which appears
8. Enter Mail, Calendar, People and Messaging in the search box
9. Select it from the Recommendations list
10. Click the Install button

I now have an empty People app!

Answer 2

Please look for the appdata folder of the people app, clearing it will remove the twitter contacts.

Answer 3

Removing an account from People doesn’t delete any contacts from that account, as you found out.

As an unfortunate addition, the Delete button appears only for contacts you’ve added by hand. If they’ve been added through Facebook or another online social media site, you have to delete them by removing them from your contacts on that site, by Unfriend on Facebook or unfollow on Twitter, for example, to remove them from the People app.

The only hope I have found is in the Microsoft article People: FAQ, that says that removing your Microsoft account (the account you use to sign in to Windows) will remove all of your accounts from People, Mail, Calendar, and Messaging.

I don't have Windows 8 to play around with and test this idea, but that may possibly be the only solution to start afresh. But better first take backups of your People, Mail, Calendar, and Messaging.

Answer 4

I had the same problem; not with Twitter contacts but rather with Google contacts.

1. Exported my Google contacts to a file on the Google Contacts website.
2. Deleted all my contacts from Google.
3. Relinked the Google account with Windows 8. This caused the People App to refresh and remove all previously Google-linked contacts
4. Delinked the Google account from Windows 8.
5. Reimported all my contacts on Google from that export file created in Step 1.

Took about 5 minutes in all.