I use the web interface for Gmail regularly and recently noticed that one of my contacts (let's call him Jim Smith) has a Google+ account attached to his email address…and I cannot remove the damn thing! It might be OK if his Google+ account had the name Jim Smith, but unfortunately he has decided to give his Google+ account the quirky name Metal Raw-Star, dunno why.
The big problem now comes when I try to type an email. In the To field, none of the following find my contact:
* Jim
* Smith
* Jim Smith
Even though this is the contact name! If I type Metal or Raw then Gmail finds the contact and inserts the email address.
If you look at the image below, I've named my contact (green), but when I enter his email (pink) Google links to the Google+ profile (blue)…and I cannot email the contact by his actual name anymore!
This Google+ profile is confusing and not relevant to me. How can I unlink it from my contact? I have tried creating a new contact, but the instant I type in his email, the Google+ profile gets reconnected to the contact. This might all just be an annoyance if Gmail would just let me find my contact by the name I have assigned to him. I do not have control over what he decides to name his Google+ profile.
Best Answer
This post helped me with the same problem: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/gmail/guDL_NmcTk4
Basically, I used the old Contacts UI to change contact name.