Purging Android 2.1 Contact Database (13.7 MB!) - Android Software/Hacking General [Developers Only]

I have a HTC Legend with Android 2.1 and Sense with around 450 Contacts, about 150 of them with photos, all stored and synced with my Gmail Contacts.
My Contact Database is the biggest single application in Android, with 13.7 MB shown, 0.00 for the application and all for data (in Settings/Application/Manage - 'Contacts Storage version 7').
Besides the point, that even with more pictures it should be much less (most of it is text anyway and the Google Pics are small low-res squares) - it seems, that there is a bug or leak somewhere.
When I add a contact with pic, syncing it to Google, it will increase the Contact Database. But after deleting the same contact and syncing again - it's not back to the original size. It's 0.1 MB more than before adding the contact.
That looks, like some garbage or overhead is stored still in the device, regardless of the number of contacts or if some are removed.
Can anyone point me in the right direction, what I could do, to erase that overhead and get my contact database size back to a reasonable size?
Thanks a million!

Am I the only one with this problem?

i have the same problem on the stock cdma hero 2.1 (.5) room, rooted.
mine is like, 30mb
think its the 900 or so facebook friends

here was my fix (or workaround, rather, since you can't sync all your stuff or use fb photos for your contacts DAMNIT)
under accounts and sync, disable google and facebook contacts sync
under contacts, export the ones you would like to keep to the sdcard
under settings, click applications, manage applications, then contacts storage
clear data
open contacts, import the rest from your sd card
if you want to keep all your fb numbers, use the fb live folder from the fb app

Hm, your problem sounds similar, but it's also different.
I didn't add any FB contacts. If I click on 'view' in the People app, I only have 446 Google contacts and nothing else.
But how big is your contact storage now, after you eliminated the FB contacts? And how many contacts you have in the phone and how many with pics?
Maybe we can get a bit closer to the root of the issue. Thanks!

i don't think i ever synced my gmail contacts, or meant to, but if i did, there's like 1000
and 900 fb contacts all with photos
now that i only have 23 contacts, all not connected to fb so no photos, im at like 225kb of storage.

Oh yeah, I have the FB Phonebook Folder, but in there are only 35 of my FB contacts, probably only those who publish their phone numbers.

i'm going to just sync my fb contacts now and see where it puts me
i have a feeling every time you delete a contact the data still stays there even if you can't see it.

skanndelus said:
i have a feeling every time you delete a contact the data still stays there even if you can't see it.
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Definitely it is like that. I tested it....about 0.1 MB remains in my device, that doesn't sound like much, but can add up pretty fast.

we can't be the only two having this issue? i wonder why no one else has chimed in... i even mentioned it in the hdma hero threads...
i'd really like to have the 1.5 contacts app back, it didn't seem to act this way... i tried to push it to my phone but it never worked properly, either did an install

I deleted the database and let it rebuild from Facebook and Google. It rebuilt back up to 10Mb!
So I guess we are stuck with it.

I'm having the same issue as well.

I have the same problem on my HTC Hero 2.1 (stock rom). My contacts database is over 12mb, even after deleting more than 100 contacts. I'm constantly having to uninstall apps I want in order to deal with the increasing size of the contacts database. This was never an issue before upgrading to 2.1.

Related

Finally figured out how to add to "groups"in contacts

I searched for an answer a few days ago, and didn't find one. I kind of figured out how to do it so I'd figure I'd share with others who didn't know.
I've read how everyone seemed to be pretty frustrated with the groups tab in our contacts and I shared the same frustration because I like to send mass text messages to my employees...
The groups tab only allowed you to add people from your phone memory, and won't let you pull from synced accounts like fb Gmail myspace corporate accts etc.
Like most people on here.... Most of your contacts were synced to your phones... Meaning... You had no contacts in the phone's memory.
so.... Fooling around with my phone tonight, I tried to find a solution...
I found one! Kind of...
When in your contacts.... Hit the menu key, and click on export contacts (to sd).
Once exported to the sd card, click on menu again and click import contacts (from sd).
Be careful not to interrupt the phone as is imports your contacts, or you'll do what I did and stop it halfway and have to do it all over again, causing duplicate phone entries (lots of clutter).
The phone automatically linked most (probably 90%) of the imported contacts with the existing ones.
Now go back to the groups tab, add a group, and add members to the group (now that all of your contacts are now in the phone's memory).
Now for the "kind of" part of my post....
When in the messaging app... When sending a new Group text mssg, Click on groups.... It takes about 8 seconds (seemed like forever, I thought my phone froze) to load the groups... Then when you select the group, you have to individually select the contacts within the group....
Talk about time consuming!
I was hoping that when I clicked on the group, that it would at least automatically select everyone within that group.
So.... Now I gotta figure out how to send a group text with not so many clicks and in a timely manner...
Hey this is great but unfortunately I had my import interrupted part way through also and not all contacts came through. What did you do to clean up after you imported a 2nd time??
You can also use Samsung Kies.i had a100 or so contacts synced with Exchange. I installed Kies. I then synced my contacts to Outlook and back to my phone (errr, something like that). Anyways, it did as you said and linked my contacts, but I went one step further. I then removed my Exchange account to clearall the duplicate contacts, and then setup my Exchange account again without syncing contacts. I hardly every add contacts via Outlook. Usually always done straight to the phone so this works for me as long as I sync every few months.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
bruins6020 said:
Hey this is great but unfortunately I had my import interrupted part way through also and not all contacts came through. What did you do to clean up after you imported a 2nd time??
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Click to collapse
i shared the same fustration...
hahaha... all i did was... do the import process all over again
thus creating about 500 duplicates! what a pain!
luckily, the phone automatically links duplicate names...
it just gets really cluttered when you have gmail, fb, myspace, corporate, and phone entries...
the worst part is... the max each person can be linked is w/ 5 accounts...
so when i imported 1 and a half times, i had a few duplicate entries because it exceeded the 5 links/contact.
what a pain... i went through one by one to clean it up... im dooing a letter a day...

Contact edits in phone do not update back to web

Hey,
I'm using Sergio's CoreDroid 1.5 on my HD2 and I've had this problem in all of the previous Android ROMs that I have used, but there are a good number of ppl who have had no problem with the same builds. Searching Google also does not turn up any suitable answer.
All the contacts in my phone are saved under Google, so whenever I make any updates to my Google Contacts on the web it is sync'd fine to my Phone. On the other hand if I edit any of my contacts on the phone (like adding an extra number or email address or change the name) they are never Sync'd back to Google Contacts on the web... instead it ends up deleting the new info from my phone when it syncs from the web!! Same is the case if I change the primary number for a contact (in case the person has two numbers in his contact) it reverts back to the original choice!
Making new contacts has a mind of its own.. Mostly it does sync back the new contact info to Google contacts, but sometimes it does not.. and the new contact is deleted because no such info exists under Google Contacts. I don't have any proof but I think it only syncs info back to Google if I choose specific groups for the newly created contact.
I have checked every setting in my phone but did not find anything which shows that my phone does not have privileges to edit contacts on my phone and reflect changes back to the web. Neither is there any setting in my Google Contacts which does not let me edit changes to Contacts from my phone.
Does any one else have this problem? My problem does not lie in a bad flash or anything.. as I have already made a lot of fresh flashes but nothing seems to work!
UPDATE: I backed up all my contacts in Gmail to a csv file, and then deleted all the contacts. I then imported all the contacts back to my Gmail contacts. Up till now all the contacts that I edit remain that way, and also reflect the changes back to Gmail contacts. I guess it was a problem with Google or something, cuz when I made all my contact lists last year they were made on Gmail and after that none would update when I changed anything on my phone, as I have already pointed out. But now all work as they are supposed to. You can also backup contacts on your phone and delete from the phone but it is not recommended as the phone backup does not remember the group divisions. So your best bet is to use Gmail as it will preserve the groupings. Also after backing up remember to delete the contacts from Gmail and also from your phone and then import back into Gmail, otherwise it will make a mess of making double contacts. Do let me know if this worked for you.

Edit Contacts Nightmare

Somehow my new Inspire synced with facebook, google, outlook (I guess) I have five or six entries for everyone. I linked some of them, but is there an easier way to get rid of the duplicates?
volumnus said:
Somehow my new Inspire synced with facebook, google, outlook (I guess) I have five or six entries for everyone. I linked some of them, but is there an easier way to get rid of the duplicates?
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Click to collapse
Faced with the same issue, I deleted all my phone contacts, removed the contacts sync on all my accounts, and then restored my previously exported up phone contacts backup.
And since the google contacts where all synced earlier, when I compose any email, it still prompts for emails from the previously synced contacts.
Best for u could be to take off the linking. Linking contacts messed up big time for me changing the display names, and not reverting to the one already on phone.
Go into your People app and touch Menu, choose View. Now remove checks from any account which you don't want your contacts displayed. I only have my Google contacts displayed (and have Facebook for HTC Sense only syncing with contacts in my address book for contact pictures). All other accounts (2 exchange, phone, sim, ect) are unchecked so i don't see these duplicates
I spent about two hours linking them all.
Now they only show up as one contact. It seems to be working ok so far. Will this slow down the phone, having so many duplicate, linked contacts?
I had exact same problem as you. What I did:
1. Made every contact show up (google sync, facebook, etc.)
2. Deleted ALL duplicates.
3. Saved to SD Card.
I never had a problem afterwards. I use google as a backup just in case though
I also believe that the duplicates are unnecessary, so I delete them, because I had like 4-5 duplicates for each contact.
Get GO contacts from market. Good app to manage contacts. I had 3000 "contacts" ... Came down to actual value of 200 using the app.
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[Q] Contacts Management & Duplicates

I have moved contacts from SIM to phone, added contacts over time, and before changing phones, moved all contacts to the SIM creating duplicates. Some I think are from facebook and have no numbers. Some I have up to 5 duplicates.
In display options I have "Only contacts with phone numbers" unchecked with everything below also checked. A particular contact has 6 entries. A couple have numbers, most are empty and one facebook. When I select show only contacts with numbers I get 2. When I go to SIM management to export to SIM I see 6 again. There is no way to distinguish which has a number or any way to filter. All there is, is a checkbox and a name 6 times. I even merged the 5 of them and when I went to export to SIM I saw all of them separately again.
I can't write all 800+ to the SIM so how can I only transfer the ones with numbers attached??? The only way I can delete the contacts without numbers is to open the contact, see if it has a number and delete. I seriously don't want to do that 500 times.
Is there a smart way to write only the contacts with numbers to the SIM? I surely would appreciate the help!
Running 2.3.6
Why are you saving to sim card? Just manage them in contacts app and they sync with Google account between devices. There's an option in Google desktop contacts to merge duplicates.
BTW, sim contacts are stored as one contact per number. So a phone contact with 2 numbers will actually create 2 separate entries when exported to sim card.
I'm looking up Google Contacts and it has been discontinued. I found Google Desktop, but then started running across all these plug-in and fixes for different problems of mismatched databases...
I write them to the SIM so I can switch it another phone and have them all. It's just how I've been doing it since before any back-up capabilities. I suppose I need to open a new email account that doesn't have a couple of hundred email addresses to deal with and no phone numbers. Facebook contacts got copied as a name only because they were an entry I guess. No email address or anything.
I do need to find some way of merging all the duplicates. Do you have another suggestion that's not going to require me to read and dig up a discontinued program that I can continue to use? lol
I'm referring to the contacts in your Google (i.e. Gmail) account, certainly no discontinued and no plugin required, just log into it from a browser and go to the contacts tab. All of your contacts should be synced from your phone and you can find duplicates and merge there, which will then sync back to your phone.
Guess I'm making the assumption that you have a Gmail or Google apps account, which is almost a necessity with an Android device.
^ what he said. Its much easier to manage contacts in Gmail and have it sync over. If you change number or lost your phone no need to ask people for their number ever.
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I agree that it's easier to maintain it how you say.
That was nuts! I thought they were already synchronized with gmail, but I guess not. I went through and deleted what I wanted in gmail, then everything in my phone. I went to sync bac and it said it couldn't becuase of too many deleted contacts. I thought, yes, just delete them. Then I watched all my contacts disappear from my gmail account on my PC. Gmail has a cool feature to resore contacts as they were minute by minute. Eventually I got the whole list back and on my phone.
Thanks for the help! Saving them to the SIM is old school now...
I rooted my phone last night and thinking about installing ICS, the second leaked version UCLD2 because I'm not liking the lock screen on 2.3.6. I want to find a setup for my Skyrocket that people are liking, but that's kind of hard.... Hey, here's a great ROM. Camera is broken, WiFi has issues, screen gets stuck in wrong orientation... but it's great! Does't seem to be much out there for the Skyrocket. I was looking in the forum here under my correct phone type. Suggestions? I know, wrong thread, just asking a BTW...
ROM
check out skyrocket Android development for Listing of Roms. I'm using SKYICS
I think that's where I got the UCLD2. I don't like it at all. I don't know if apps don't work because they're not ready, of if it's this version of ICS. People say it sucks for the battery and it's because messaging sits there and uses 90 of the cpu even in my pocket and the phone gets hot for no reason. I'll look up yours. Thanks Raven
Just click menu and merge with google
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I777 using XDA

[Q] Let's handle (or at least clarify) the editing facebook contacts problem.

Greetings
I have had it just about enough of this Facebook virus and the contact importing in Android in general. What is the point of importing something if we have absolutely no control over deleting any of it?
The basic question is: How can I delete -some- contacts out of the imported Facebook contacts? Not how to delete all of them, not how to only show the ones with phone numbers, not how to merge them with other contacts.
Furthermore, please don't just answer "You can't.". At least not without explaining why exactly it is not humanly possible.
I have a rooted (xperia mini pro) phone, and I would like to reasearch just where and how are these uneditable contacts stored, and how to strike down on them with great vengeance and furious anger.
__________
What I suspect happens is, for instance, Skype downloads its own contacts and stores them for itself (because it needs them), and then Andorid reads these contacts and just displays them in the phonebook. So if we would want extra filtering functionality for skype contacts in the phonebook, we'd have to write our own phonebook app.
However, in Facebook's case, it does not need those stored contacts for anything other than this syncing functionality. Which means, what we could do is, access wherever this offline fb contact database is, and manually delete what we don't want to have. Right? then, when the phonebook app reads the fb contacts, it will just find the ones we care about.
Is that right?
+1 for any educated answers.

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