Google+ Warning. Deleting your Other Contacts deletes your circles.

Something to be careful of when in Gmail if you are a Google+ user.

I came across this over a month ago, but assumed it was a bug that needed to be fixed. So far it has not been fixed, I tried it again and the issue still stands.

If you go to your Gmail account > under “Contacts” > “Other Contacts” you will see all the people you have added to your circles. The contact looks like the one below of “50 cent”.

If you delete any of these contacts within Gmail you will delete that user from your Google+ account. This will also remove the user from any circles you might have put them in.

I have replicated this behavior multiple times. One thing to note, Gmail has an “Undo” function that appears after you delete or edit something in Gmail. Even if you use the “Undo” function, the contact will reappear under “Other Contacts”, but your circle will still be lost forever.

When you delete the user from your contacts and return to Google+, your empty circles will look like the image below.