[Q] How to clean up my contacts? - General Questions and Answers

Hiya,
I have Google, Exchange and POP3 emails each with a version of contacts, calendar and associated data and also Facebook... Last time I tried to consolidate them I ended up wiping my everything and had to go back to a 2-month old version of contacts from my POP3/Outlook account. Active sync wiped my computer instead of updating my phone (twice)!
I am now back to having messy contacts with people with 2+ different birthday dates in my calendar...
Would anyone suggest the best way to clean up my mess... I'd be prepared to go through my 200 contacts one-by-one again to tidy them up... I just want to know that the result will be all my accounts having the cleaned set and not wiping all my hard work and needing to resort to my backup again.
Thanks for any constructive answers and Happy New Year!

I had found this cab here a long time ago. All credit goes to the developer, I just can't find the thread to post a link.

amc1274 said:
I had found this cab here a long time ago. All credit goes to the developer, I just can't find the thread to post a link.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now you gave me the cab I found the thread here!
Will give it a whirl to see if it does what I want... part of my issue was having google contacts too and then having my phone wipe the PC and not my PC reloading the phone!

Do you have a preference as to which service is the Master list for you? Some people utilize their Exchange for everything including personal while others only merge personal and business inside of Google or their personal PC with Outlook.
I began using Google as the master account holder for all things related to my services. This makes it easy to export, maintain and sync contacts. I stopped using Outlook/Exchange but that doesn't sound like an option for you.
When I was using Outlook I would simply clear out all contacts in my phone, outlook and make sure that Google had the correct info/dates. I would then go use an app called GoSync ( i think) to sync Google to Outlook/Exchange.
I guess it depends on how you are interfacing with Google on your phone and what phone it is...on my WM6.5 phone I was simply using Gmail Exchange to do all this.
Wow, I typed all that and don't know if I added one answer...did any of that make sense?

Related

Anything to automatically restore FB/Contact Links?

One of the bigger time wasters I have when I'm updating my rom to the newest version (using Cognition right now) is going through all my contacts and linking my Gmail contacts with my Facebook ones and whatnot. It's just annoying. Not a deal breaker or anything. I was just curious if there was any way to back up those links and restore them after a rom update. Anyone know?
Thanks.
I want to know that too!
Anyone know this??
Didnt realize that the links wouldn't be saved that's pretty huge for me considering the number of contacts I have and the time I spent fixing it all up... Ugh. There must be a way to save this across flashes?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I896
Usually I have my contacts synced to google, but for some reason after I restore everything the contacts are all mixed up. One person's facebook will now be linked to another person's email and to another's phone number. It is annoying and I sometimes call the wrong person.
I'm looking for an app to do this as well - either that, or an app that can automatically link your gmail contacts to their Facebook accounts if one exists. I thought about writing such an app myself but I doubt my android programming skills are good enough haha.
Haha this too bothers me :x.. Considering my 600+ friends on FB
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
It works if you are willing to pay
I use fonebook and gsync to get the profile pics into Gmail. I'm not sure it will work with the media links but it keeps the profile pics up to date without manual intervention.
Anyone?
Really? No one has a solution for this?? I've flashed about 6 roms so far and EVERY TIME i have to manually relink my FB contacts to my phonebook. It's quite useful to have them linked but no more rom flashing until I can restore these links more easily. My phone needs to work for me, not the other way around.
when you add the fb account just select the "add all friends" option. this adds all and joins 97% of my fb and google contacts.
this will, of course, add ALL your fb contacts. I enable "display only contacts with phone numbers" in the contacts settings.
If you just want pictures, SyncMyPix in the market works like a charm.
I wish
I have asked this question a few times. No replies, so all I can add is if someone does make this app I will pay for it.
To help your situation some, what I have started to do is change my contact names to start matching their facebook names and the auto sync does it's thing. kinda lame I know
allted said:
I have asked this question a few times. No replies, so all I can add is if someone does make this app I will pay for it.
To help your situation some, what I have started to do is change my contact names to start matching their facebook names and the auto sync does it's thing. kinda lame I know
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, I keep most the names the same and it auto links the accounts. For the few I have named differently it takes all of 3 min to link them.
I use Titanium backup and IIRC, when I restore my contacts with this app, the facebook linked contacts are intact. It is the one under the system data batch called contact storage.
in facebook, i use androgyny:
http://apps.facebook.com/androgyny/
You link your facebook contacts with your gmail contacts and it puts the profile pic directly into your gmail contacts, which in turn wirelessly syncs with your phone. so far its working pretty well for me.
one issue: it doesnt auto-update. So you'll have to manually update the app in order to pull in any new profile pics.

[Q] HTC Sync issues.

Ok, so I'm having a sync problem. I know it has nothing to do with the rom I'm using but after quite a bit of searching I can't seem to find what I'm looking for. (must not be using the right terms)
After a clean flash of Saga 1.0.1 last night I restored my contacts from a backup I made within people. This morning when I got up I had some duplicates & even triples of contacts but not all, kinda weird. I've had this happen in WM on my Tilt2 when I sync'd on multiple pc's but that's not the case here and when it happened then it would be all contacts not random ones. Another odd thing that happened is a couple of received mms's got sent back to the sender. I think it must have something to do with Gmail and/or Htcsense.com
Well when I got to work I sync'd with my pc then cleaned up everything in outlook & wiped contact storage on the phone thinking that I would just resync with the pc and all would be good. Not! When I tried to sync with HTC Sync it will not load the contacts to my phone and Gmail would not add them back either.
Also, being the moron I am, I had also deleted the backup on the sdcard because there were several linked contacts and I wanted to start from a clean slate. The only way I could find to sync back up with the pc was to do a FDR and select manual syncing in the setup. Is there a better way of going about this?
The pc is running 32bit win7 & I'm using outlook 07. Any help will be much appreciated!!
anit77 said:
Ok, so I'm having a sync problem. I know it has nothing to do with the rom I'm using but after quite a bit of searching I can't seem to find what I'm looking for. (must not be using the right terms)
After a clean flash of Saga 1.0.1 last night I restored my contacts from a backup I made within people. This morning when I got up I had some duplicates & even triples of contacts but not all, kinda weird. I've had this happen in WM on my Tilt2 when I sync'd on multiple pc's but that's not the case here and when it happened then it would be all contacts not random ones. Another odd thing that happened is a couple of received mms's got sent back to the sender. I think it must have something to do with Gmail and/or Htcsense.com
Well when I got to work I sync'd with my pc then cleaned up everything in outlook & wiped contact storage on the phone thinking that I would just resync with the pc and all would be good. Not! When I tried to sync with HTC Sync it will not load the contacts to my phone and Gmail would not add them back either.
Also, being the moron I am, I had also deleted the backup on the sdcard because there were several linked contacts and I wanted to start from a clean slate. The only way I could find to sync back up with the pc was to do a FDR and select manual syncing in the setup. Is there a better way of going about this?
The pc is running 32bit win7 & I'm using outlook 07. Any help will be much appreciated!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
okay this seems REALLY confusing. to clear some things up, what all does your phone sync to (htc, google?, outlook?), and where are your contacts stored that's kinda like your home base for contacts from which everything is synced? Outlook, or google?
also, your google account on your phone, is it the android google account? or do you have a separate exchange server set up?
and yeah, if you try a FDR, let me know what happens with this. that might just be a good way to clean up all the residual stuff...
nhshah7 said:
okay this seems REALLY confusing. to clear some things up, what all does your phone sync to (htc, google?, outlook?), and where are your contacts stored that's kinda like your home base for contacts from which everything is synced? Outlook, or google?
also, your google account on your phone, is it the android google account? or do you have a separate exchange server set up?
and yeah, if you try a FDR, let me know what happens with this. that might just be a good way to clean up all the residual stuff...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I initially got the phone I used HTC Sync to pull office 07 contacts from my work pc. Since then I've been using a vcard backup on my sdcard. I also had google setup to sync with as it also restores apps, wallpaper, etc after flashing. I thought that google would ignore existing contacts, it did for some and not others.
The google account is the gmail account I setup when I got the phone.
The FDR did work and everything is fine now but I want to be sure it doesn't happen again the next time I flash a rom.
Thanks for your help!
anit77 said:
I want to be sure it doesn't happen again the next time I flash a rom.
Thanks for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Glad I could try to lol. And maybe next time just pet Google do it so you don't introduce extra copies of contacts to your phone
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App
Where does google store the info at? When I log into my gmail account on my pc there are no contacts stored. If I'm going to let google be my "home base" I'd like to be able to edit it. At the same time how safe is the data? I have birthdays, anniversaries, addresses and so on in my contacts.
This is my first android phone. It's funny that I had no problem rooting, flashing, adding themes or side loading but the **** that's supposed to be simple is what's f'ing me up.

Exporting AND SYNCING contacts stored on phone to google

I've contacts that are stored on the 'Phone'. Is there some way to copy AND SYNC them in future with Google And Microsoft Exchange Activesync(Hotmail) ? Is there any app which does this ?
Any help guys ? Of late , xda doesn't seem to be providing me with some useful solutions :-(
And here we are , bumping once more.
Hi looks like you need help.
Well, I'd say there's not much in terms of apps that I know of that can do this all in one go (if anyone finds one, post it? If i find one, ill post it too), but I do know of a pretty simple way to do it:
1.) Using the built-in Contacts app or whatever other app that you want, export the CVS/vCard file of your current address book for your phone into your SD card.
2.) From here, upload it to your Gmail by either throwing the file into your computer and loading the file from your harddrive to their servers, or just do it through the mobile browser (if you have problems with the mobile website since I haven't tried this myself, try using Dolphin Browser HD definitely a great app)
3.) Viola! Everything should be synced and in order
It's true that this is not a one-click solution to your problem. There is one for HTC phones built into their ROM, but it has a bug which prevents syncing if you have the birthday field filled out or something like that. If you could tell me what phone it is, maybe I can help a bit more. In the meanwhile, I'll look for some apps. If you could make do with this for now, you should be good to go (though 3 clicks isn't really all that bad )
-EDIT- Forgot to mention, you can also use that CVS/vCard file and easily just dump it into Outlook. Another 2 clicks, but it ain't so bad now, is it?
-EDIT2- Well, after a few more searches, it seems that Google is supposed to auto sync contacts 2-way on all phones with their gmail accounts associated with the device. I don't know if they apply to contacts you've gotten through Facebook, but it does seem to work for the most part. As for the ActiveExchange thingy, I think this app might suffice if you're willing to shell out a small bit of money: http://www.androidtapp.com/exchange-by-touchdown/ Didn't test the app myself, so ask around first and read up on it (Google ).
If you're willing to shell out a good amount of money (hefty 25 buckaroos), here's a supposedly good app: http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-fea...-of-corporate-exchange-contacts-and-calendars
IMHO, if i were you, I would just stick to the whole 5 step process. Not sure if the ActiveExchange can accept vCards/CVS (never had to use it), but you save yourself 25 or so bucks. But, that's just my two cents on it. Your choice
~jojojohnson7410
Hey thanks for your help first off
I've a HTC Legend.
Ok , I get your point. If I sync it with GMail , will ALL the alternate contact numbers , group info , Facebook Profile pics , their birth dates be synced ?
abhishek_turbo911 said:
Hey thanks for your help first off
I've a HTC Legend.
Ok , I get your point. If I sync it with GMail , will ALL the alternate contact numbers , group info , Facebook Profile pics , their birth dates be synced ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have an HTC phone, so the contacts and stuff SHOULD be synced with your HTC account/google account too. Just in case, I'd double-check right now.
As for if it will back up ALL that stuff, the answer is yes. This is because vCards and CVS are able to handle various amount of data, so it should also be recognize by Google, at the very least (but its standard so it should also work with Outlook/whatever other program). The only thing that won't be synced is the facebook pictures only because they can change, but if you were to add your facebook account to your phone, it will automatically take care of this, so you shouldn't have to worry about it.
As usual, if you're willing to shell out a bit of cash, here's a solution to your FB photo problem. Hope everything works out for you
~jojojohnson7410
jojojohnson7410 said:
You have an HTC phone, so the contacts and stuff SHOULD be synced with your HTC account/google account too. Just in case, I'd double-check right now.
As for if it will back up ALL that stuff, the answer is yes. This is because vCards and CVS are able to handle various amount of data, so it should also be recognize by Google, at the very least (but its standard so it should also work with Outlook/whatever other program). The only thing that won't be synced is the facebook pictures only because they can change, but if you were to add your facebook account to your phone, it will automatically take care of this, so you shouldn't have to worry about it.
As usual, if you're willing to shell out a bit of cash, here's a solution to your FB photo problem. Hope everything works out for you
~jojojohnson7410
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I will not be using Outlook , firstly. No , the contacts are not synced with the GMail (Google Account). I am under the presumption that only contacts SAVED on Google Account can be synced. Since they are saved on the phone memory ... I don;t know. But please enlighten me.
abhishek_turbo911 said:
I will not be using Outlook , firstly. No , the contacts are not synced with the GMail (Google Account). I am under the presumption that only contacts SAVED on Google Account can be synced. Since they are saved on the phone memory ... I don;t know. But please enlighten me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, well, if you check it out here, you'll find the thing you might need for the corporate sync since you're not using Outlook (my bad. like i said, don't use it too much) and if this link doesn't work, you might need an update then.
As for the Google sync problem, I did a bit of researching. Apparently, its 2-way syncing, but like you probably noticed, it's not doing so hot. After fooling around for a bit, I finally got it to work pretty well. Apparently, you need a couple of conditions set in place in order for it to work nicely:
1.) Have the GMail app and set it to use your default email
2.) Make sure that under Accounts > [email protected] settings, you check sync next to Contacts (and if it still doesn't work, then try also syncing GMail.)
3.) If your phone has a Battery Manager (mine does) make sure that the setting you choose does not put restrictions on sync! (if it does, then you'll see a lag between syncs. For me, it was 15 minutes)
Thanks to Darth_Penguin for the first two tips.
Last but not least, the strangest thing I've encountered yet: Export your phone contact's list and import it into Gmail at LEAST once. Here's the reason why:
It seems that Google is syncing your contacts that you make. It works very well and doesn't seem to have a hitch pulling stuff that you have on your contacts book. However, there's a flaw: it doesn't play so nicely with Facebook. Most of us have Facebook synced onto our devices and we forget about that. It's true most of our contacts aren't in our gmail, but that's because we never had all of those FB friends names in our gmail either. That's why it seems it's not syncing right. if you want it to, I would suggest this: Import your entire contacts into your SD card through the menu button in your Contacts program, then export it out. Sync that file with Gmail, and you should be good to go. Sometimes, we sync it to Facebook, but it doesn't mean it'll sync to Gmail. Haven't tested out whether or not you'll end up with doubles, but i'll update if i get a chance (planning out beach day!) =D let me know how it goes for you (but that should work. In the odd chance it doesn't, at least we've tried something)
Good luck!
~jojojohnson7410
jojojohnson7410 said:
Okay, well, if you check it out here, you'll find the thing you might need for the corporate sync since you're not using Outlook (my bad. like i said, don't use it too much) and if this link doesn't work, you might need an update then.
As for the Google sync problem, I did a bit of researching. Apparently, its 2-way syncing, but like you probably noticed, it's not doing so hot. After fooling around for a bit, I finally got it to work pretty well. Apparently, you need a couple of conditions set in place in order for it to work nicely:
1.) Have the GMail app and set it to use your default email
2.) Make sure that under Accounts > [email protected] settings, you check sync next to Contacts (and if it still doesn't work, then try also syncing GMail.)
3.) If your phone has a Battery Manager (mine does) make sure that the setting you choose does not put restrictions on sync! (if it does, then you'll see a lag between syncs. For me, it was 15 minutes)
Thanks to Darth_Penguin for the first two tips.
Last but not least, the strangest thing I've encountered yet: Export your phone contact's list and import it into Gmail at LEAST once. Here's the reason why:
It seems that Google is syncing your contacts that you make. It works very well and doesn't seem to have a hitch pulling stuff that you have on your contacts book. However, there's a flaw: it doesn't play so nicely with Facebook. Most of us have Facebook synced onto our devices and we forget about that. It's true most of our contacts aren't in our gmail, but that's because we never had all of those FB friends names in our gmail either. That's why it seems it's not syncing right. if you want it to, I would suggest this: Import your entire contacts into your SD card through the menu button in your Contacts program, then export it out. Sync that file with Gmail, and you should be good to go. Sometimes, we sync it to Facebook, but it doesn't mean it'll sync to Gmail. Haven't tested out whether or not you'll end up with doubles, but i'll update if i get a chance (planning out beach day!) =D let me know how it goes for you (but that should work. In the odd chance it doesn't, at least we've tried something)
Good luck!
~jojojohnson7410
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, the top most segment does not work. I have tried the last para. Here's what I did,
1. I imported the contacts to my gmail account by the vcf file.
2. All my contacts have come up but not their profile pic
3. Now what ? I did'nt understand this segment.
" Sync that file with Gmail, and you should be good to go. Sometimes, we sync it to Facebook, but it doesn't mean it'll sync to Gmail. Haven't tested out whether or not you'll end up with doubles, but i'll update if i get a chance (planning out beach day!) =D let me know how it goes for you (but that should work. In the odd chance it doesn't, at least we've tried something)"
ALSO, now if I want to 'sync' do I always have to do this way of exporting the vcf file ?
Okay the reason why you don't have the profile pics are because those don't get saved into the vcf files. Only textual data. The pictures came from facebook and unless you use an app or program or service, you can only get the pictures synced to your contacts by syncing with facebook. And as for the loading the vcf, you only need to do this once to sync all contacts from across all your services (facebook, gmail, etc.). So long as you only add contacts through your contacts app, you should have no problems with your gmail.
however, do note that if another third party app/service syncs in a new contact for you (e.g. Facebook), it will NOT sync with gmail as they don't support third party companies. If it's a problem, either sync your device with your third party company (e.g. Facebook) our just do the vcf trick I taught you every once in a while to synchronize all your services/contacts
~ jojojohnson7410
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App

Noob concerned about privacy

I logged into my google account on the web I use for my phone and I was shocked to see the information Google collected about my use of the device. It collected phone numbers from my contacts, even the pictures I asigned to them, calendar appointments...I can understand there are Market applications I downloaded, but come on, contacts and appointments? Is this phone not mine? Which applications do this and how can I prevent it from happening? I thought I don't have sync on....
xperiaforme said:
I logged into my google account on the web I use for my phone and I was shocked to see the information Google collected about my use of the device. It collected phone numbers from my contacts, even the pictures I asigned to them, calendar appointments...I can understand there are Market applications I downloaded, but come on, contacts and appointments? Is this phone not mine? Which applications do this and how can I prevent it from happening? I thought I don't have sync on....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi,
What ROM are you using?
On mike1986 's latest,he has removed the HTC LOGGERS and various other Spyware apps which HTC have installed.
Worth checking out.
See my sig
Also ROM CLEANER
This will remove the spyware from any ROM when you install it.
I did not put any other rom on the phone because I don't know how. I'm afraid that rom cleaner may be a little bit out of my abilities. I don't quite understand what is going on with this whole data collection even...
That's the Google backup, it syncs everything to you account
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium
EddyOS said:
That's the Google backup, it syncs everything to you account
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I see! I found it in apps. Google Backup Transport. There is also Google Clanedar Sync and Google Contacts sync. Darn! I guess it's not safe to remove these applications with root uninstaller?
Just untick the sync options in Settings if you're that bothered. I actually like having it so all my contacts can be moved between Android devices that I sync to my account
EddyOS said:
Just untick the sync options in Settings if you're that bothered. I actually like having it so all my contacts can be moved between Android devices that I sync to my account
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But I do have them unticked and it STILL happens.
xperiaforme said:
But I do have them unticked and it STILL happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anything that was already sync'd before you unchecked the box will remain there...you can safely delete them from your online Google account. Have you never read or heard that this is one of the advantages/core features of android?
But don't call tech support or cry when you have to either replace or master reset your phone and lose all your stuff.
I have a whole closet full of android devices and I love the fact that I can grab my 2-1/2 year old G1 and log into it and instantly be reminded of my appointment that afternoon without having to worry about anything.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium
I had sync OFF since I bought the device about a month ago, and it STILL happens, I know this becuase it also synced my NEWEST contatcs (two that I added just this week) and appoinments, so this is not me being that dumb lol. I have all my contacts on my sim card, that is where I want them and I don't need google to collect them for me.
Try altering the settings from your google account online. Like go into google calendar from a computer, and don't let it sync to anything. Likewise with contacts.
Sent from my HTC Sensation
Not to be rude, but it strikes me how many people are like this, just because some random fool found out how to read out location data from a iPhail they fear every possible logging feature, unless your a cd printing piratebay connected child molester, nobody will look at your logs, calm down.
And its google, you can just configure you dont want it, either in initial setup (first boot) or in the settings as mentioned above.
Thing is, though, as soon as you sign into your Gmail account when setting up the phone it's automatically syncs the contacts. You could turn off sync, delete them from the phone and online and then it shouldn't sync up again but if that doesn't work I don't think you can get around it. How you can still have numbers on a SIM is beyond me - I prefer all contact details under 1 entry personally
lol so using google for sensitive-info emails is ok, but some contacts and calender items are taboo?

Contact Management?

Is it even possible now with the update to 4.0.4?
In the last release, I was able to only store contacts that were hosted on my exchange accounts or on the phone itself. Now with the latest updates, I'm stuck dealing with several hundred people I follow on Google+. Is there anyway to remove these contacts without disconnecting my gmail account from my phone?
Seriously, one of the most basic functions and it's completely jacked up.
VillainousVivi said:
Is it even possible now with the update to 4.0.4?
In the last release, I was able to only store contacts that were hosted on my exchange accounts or on the phone itself. Now with the latest updates, I'm stuck dealing with several hundred people I follow on Google+. Is there anyway to remove these contacts without disconnecting my gmail account from my phone?
Seriously, one of the most basic functions and it's completely jacked up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
open contacts -> menu button -. settings - accounts and there check witch one account want to be sync with...
BTW. i don't think you are undestend how android is working. My suggestion after i read some of your post is : " get back to iPhone".
VillainousVivi said:
Is it even possible now with the update to 4.0.4?
In the last release, I was able to only store contacts that were hosted on my exchange accounts or on the phone itself. Now with the latest updates, I'm stuck dealing with several hundred people I follow on Google+. Is there anyway to remove these contacts without disconnecting my gmail account from my phone?
Seriously, one of the most basic functions and it's completely jacked up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In /system/app directory (assuming u have root) delete the apk named GoogleContactsSyncadapter.apk
Sent from my SGH-I727 using xda premium
VillainousVivi said:
Is it even possible now with the update to 4.0.4?
In the last release, I was able to only store contacts that were hosted on my exchange accounts or on the phone itself. Now with the latest updates, I'm stuck dealing with several hundred people I follow on Google+. Is there anyway to remove these contacts without disconnecting my gmail account from my phone?
Seriously, one of the most basic functions and it's completely jacked up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Open Google + hit menu>settings and disable add contacts from Google+
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk 2
Yeah, I figured out where the problem was. I had turned off Google+ contacts, but the contacts stayed there. I had to flush the contacts and contact storage in order to remove them. Also, with FB and Twitter, it synchronized contacts from there, which meant going into each app, disabling it, then re-flushing the contacts.
I also had to disable the Synchronize app for AT&T because I don't use their phonebook service and it was causing my contact list to take up to 15 minutes to begin showing because it couldn't access my subscriber information.
My issue was mainly out of frustration and because it is new enough there were no real results from Google that had helped. Now that all my apps are not synchronizing their contacts with the main address book, which was slowing it down, and I was able to get rid of the AT&T phonebook issues, it's better.

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