Combine iPhone created contact lists into one

Thank you for your reply. I did not knowingly create the contact lists that are on my iPhone. I have one contact list in my Gmail account, which I have had for many years. When I get new contact information from someone when I'm nowhere near my personal PC which is at home, I enter it on my iPhone. At other times I write it on paper and type it into Gmail when I'm home and on my PC.

After the latest update to iOS 17.0.3 a couple of days ago, I now have Lists on the phone named All Contacts (367), a list named after my Gmail address (152), and 3 lists in a section called iPhone: one called iPhone (288), another called Contacts (8), and a third called Contacts (from Handheld Synchronization | Archives) (2). I did not knowingly create or populate them, and the only one with a source name that makes sense to me is the one with my Gmail address as its header.

In the past when I am sitting at my computer and type a contact name into the TO: line on a new Gmail, the person's email address appears, and I send them an email. Today sitting at my PC I typed into a new Gmail message on the TO: line the name of a person who has been in my Gmail contacts list for more than 10 years and with whom I regularly exchange 2-4 emails a week both from my PC (with attachments) and from my Gmail on my phone (without attachments because they're from my PC). Her email address had disappeared from Gmail. I manually typed it in the TO: line and sent her the email and attachment. Later I looked at my phone and saw the lists there which had not been there before to my knowledge. I looked at all the lists on my iPhone and found my friend to be in All Contacts and All iPhone but not in All myemailaddress list of 152 contacts or the other two tiny contact lists. Then on my PC, I looked for my client's email address in my Gmail account (the one accessible from the PC also with 152 entries). Her address IS NOT there. Lucky me, both the Gmail lists (iPhone and PC) match. Unlucky me, I never deleted her from my Gmail contacts.

I don't know where the lists came from on my iPhone, except the one that has my Gmail account login as its header and notes that there are 152 contacts is undoubtedly something Gmail somehow put there. I'm completely surprised that someone I sent an email to yesterday is no longer in my Gmail contacts. I don't know how to remedy the situation, but to be sure I don't "lose" contact information, I guess I'll screen shot every List that's on my phone, then print the photos, and manually type all contacts into my Gmail account. I honestly thought they were there.

Don't feel obligated to reply with a solution. It would be nice, though, if you were to acknowledge that maybe I myself did not create the Lists. I know I didn't want or need them, and I think I would have remembered creating them. The weirdness today convinces me that I surely don't want them any more.

A big problem for me is not knowing how to make sure I have only one contact list I can access on my PC or from any other PC if I sign into Google on it and which also appears in my iPhone without changing or eliminating any of my contacts' information or moving it around. Maybe you could reply, after all, and tell me the kind of tech person I should find and call who might help me get this straight. I don't know if I have an iPhone problem or a Gmail problem. Telephoning someone who might be able to help me and even explain what I'm doing that made this happen would be much better from my perspective than writing and writing and writing. If you can't recommend the kind of tech I should be looking for, okay.

Peace,

~ Carole