Hi,
I just recently switched from the iPhone to android (Galaxy S2) and there are certain things that are quite confusing, namely the accounts and sync section.
I understand how it works with gmail accounts and how it automatically updates any changes to contacts or mails. What I don't understand is how the other apps that have a sync option work. For example facebook. Now if I choose to sync facebook contacts, will my fb contacts be copied over to my gmail account that is tied to my Galaxy S2 or will it just allow my phone to access fb contacts and update them as and when I make changes to them on fb? What about app like Viber & WhatsApp, they too ask if I want to sync contacts but exactly happens if I choose to sync. Me main concern is that I don't want to mess up my gmail contacts and clutter it up with say fb or skype contacts.
I would be really grateful to anyone who could explain to me how this sync business works. I'm sorry if this is a very n00b question, but when comes to android, I am most certainly one.
Related
All,
as I'm about to make my first experiences with Android I still have a couple of questions I want to figure out by myself. But one thing seems to be too tricky for me
When I set up the facebook account my Leo starts syncing FB contacts & appointments before I'm able to set them up manually.
I do not want to have FB contacts and appointments on my device but I'm still not able to deny it's access before first sync.
Is there a way to stop syncing FB c&a after first login?
---pls move thread to right section---
there's two ways. dont sync facebook at all, which you probably dont want to do. Or, go into your People/Contacts app, hit menu-view, and uncheck facebook. For your calendar, do the same thing.
Cool, thanks,
but is there a way to set it up before it syncs all?
my wife got a new d2g and the contacts wont sync to Google. this is the second phone she got in less than a week do to other problems, and the phone before this would not sync either. and it is just the contacts, the calender and the gmail sync fine. under the google account on the phone all the options are checked to sync and it shows the arrows that its trying to sync but when i look online there are no contacts. any ideas?
I'm pretty sure that it's considered normal behaviour. If the contacts weren't added manually after setting up a Google account on the phone, they won't sync, or at least that's what I have here.
My dx sync just fine and I set it up the same way. Not sure what the deal is.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
Ok gonna take a wild guess here and say that you had the carrier transfer contacts from the old phone to the D2G and that would explian why they do not sync.
Look at the contacts (might have to go into edit mode) and see what "PROFILE" it says for each contact.
My guess is it says Phone Only.
What you need to do (and I'm going off memory since I am not running stock myself)
Edit each contact and in the menu there should be something that says NEW contact that will take the info from the one you are editing but ask you which account to make the new contact for. Select your GMail acct when asked and save it.
Then fine the gmail version of the contact you just made and select join or link and link it to the Phone only version.
This will give you one contact that has two profiles, phone only and Gmail.
What I suggest for anyone moving to Android for the first time is to get all your contacts into GMail (using above method) Import all your facebook contacts as well (You can do that through Yahoo Mail wizard and exporting to CSV then i8mporting into Gmail) and once your GMail has a complete and accurate contact list wipe the data on the phone and sync with Gmail to get all your contacts back. Be sure to make a backup of all your contacts on GMail once you are done to guard against future corruption issues and to be safe.
Cloud Contacts is not one of the best features of the phone but once you have integrated all your current contacts into GMail and joined them and Facebook into a proper list it is not a problem anymore.
As you all know the nightmare of the BIG contacts list that appears when you hit "Phone" on the home screen which is due to grabbing both, the Contacts and Facebook friends...
And it is just not so handy to disable Facebook sync at all because you want the pictures, the link between existing contacts and Facebook contacts..
And if you tried to disable the "Sync Contacts" feature from Facebook for HTC account... It works... but just till your next restart of the phone, if you switched it off and back on... Bamm!... the Tick for "Sync Contacts" is back on again and you will soon have the big long list again :S
So is there any script or something that runs on startup to force disable the "Sync Contacts" feature??
Tried to post it on the development section but I wasn't allowed because I'm a new member.. If anyone could post as a request, to develop the script if possible.. I think it will be the end of this nightmare..
sandrows said:
Tried to post it on the development section but I wasn't allowed because I'm a new member.. If anyone could post as a request, to develop the script if possible.. I think it will be the end of this nightmare..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a question and therefore should be posted here in Q&A not Development section, that's why that rule is there....(thankfully).
If you only sync Facebook contacts where they exist in actual contacts...you don't such a big list to start with.
Or setup a favorite contacts group within your main contacts they will then appear first, along with the recently contacted people, so shouldn't be a problem. (ah I've just realised that this could well be a Sense 3.5 only feature....in which case time to unlock, root and flash some Sense 3.5 ROMS).
Plus the Phone is enabled for Smart dialing which permits you to whittle the contact list down in no time.
The thing with flashing other roms is the arabic support, I read it is not fully supported. I still can't understand why. I bought my phone from egypt and it has excellent arabic support..
Can't they just extract whatever from it and integrate it to their roms!
Anyway, About syncing only with existing contacts... When I updated the Facebook app, I was left with two accounts in the "Accounts & Sync"
1. Facebook for HTC (Old): Sync contacts, Sync live feeds
2. Facebook (New): Sync contacts, (Sync live feeds is missing from this account so the old account is necessary for any widget with a Facebook stream)
The Facebook for HTC has the whole problem, It loses its settings on every startup. I tell it to Not sync contacts and use the other account to sync contacts because I can set it to sync only existing contacts. But nothing, everything is lost with the restart.
sandrows said:
The thing with flashing other roms is the arabic support, I read it is not fully supported. I still can't understand why. I bought my phone from egypt and it has excellent arabic support..
Can't they just extract whatever from it and integrate it to their roms!
Anyway, About syncing only with existing contacts... When I updated the Facebook app, I was left with two accounts in the "Accounts & Sync"
1. Facebook for HTC (Old): Sync contacts, Sync live feeds
2. Facebook (New): Sync contacts, (Sync live feeds is missing from this account so the old account is necessary for any widget with a Facebook stream)
The Facebook for HTC has the whole problem, It loses its settings on every startup. I tell it to Not sync contacts and use the other account to sync contacts because I can set it to sync only existing contacts. But nothing, everything is lost with the restart.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't comment on Arabic support as I don't use it myself, it might be worth inquiring within the custom ROM thread that you consider using to see what the current users say, some might be using Arabic support.
When I was on Sense 2/3 (ie not 3.5) I only ever used the account type Facebook for HTC Sense and I avoided the un-secure HTTP facebook application, I used the secure HTTPS m.facebook.com website to access facebook.
In sense 3.5 there is only one Facebook account type and all is easier.
when you sync your facebook what does it exactly do.
Does it just copy all your facebook contacts and put them in your phone contacts?
I know email sync does that because I did it and that and my gmail is unorganized so it made a mess on my phone contacts.
also does email sync delete your emails on your computer as well?
Because right now when I delete an email on the phone it is still on gmail.com
anything else I need to know? I have facebook and email sync OFF.
What OS?
/10char
android 2.2.2
bumper car
When you first run the Facebook app it gives you the option to sync all, sync existing or don't sync. You can change this when you want by opening Facebook and going to settings, sync contacts.
Incidentally, you can also filter your contacts to only show if they have a phone number. This may help if things have got a bit messed up.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
so syncing is just copying contacts, nothing else?
It doesn't delete my emails or do anything else?
Facebook only syncs contacts - nothing else.
thanks syncing seems totally useless then.
Some of my newer contacts are not synching with either my Google Contacts or my Outlook.com contacts. I'm on a Nexus 5 running Android 5.1.
I use Outlok.com for my primary repository for contacts and calendars, however I use GSyncit add-on for MS Outlook (desktop) to sync my desktop Outlook contacts and calendars to Google. This way I can use Outlook.com or Google Calendar / GMail to access/share my calendar and access contacts depending on the situation.
Everything is working fine on the desktop end so that is irrelevant to this problem (so probably shouldn't even have wrote the above paragraph - but just in case.)
I see there is a new Google Contacts app on the phone and on the web. I noticed this when I clicked on the People app and it said the app was missing. When I go to the web version of Google Contacts via my Google account, there are no contacts there! All my contacts are still in Gmail though of course.
I see that when I attempt to edit an older contact on the phone, it first prompts me with which Google account I want to sync with. I don't need to sync my phone contacts directly with Google, I just want to sync with Outlook.com -> Outlook -> Google (via GSyncit) but I suppose it wouldn't cause a problem if I just had the phone sync to both accounts (probably will then need to disable GSyncit contact sync between Outlook desktop and Google).
What is weird is that it is like Google made the mistake of launching this new contacts app, but there's no notice or migration instructions on the changes with the new app. I just happend to discover something was "unhooked" by trying to edit a contact! I just discovered the new Contacts app on the web by Googling, Google Contacts. I'm technically saavy and somewhat of an Android Wonk, and am surprised this is all a surprise!
Do I have to go try to edit every single contact on the mobile Contacts app now to select which Google account it syncs with? I HOPE NOT!
At the risk of appearing dumb I'm leaving my original post for background. It appears this is (not surprisingly) all a Microsoft issue. When I went into the Outlook.com app on my phone, when you click on the Contacts and Calendars Sync setting, nothing happens! Come to find out this app is no longer on the play store. It appears to have been replaced earlier this year by the Microsoft Outlook Preview. Installed that app, and it doesn't and an account type to the phone! So it appears, unlike the Outlook.com app, it won't sync calendars and contacts with the native Android calendar and contacts app. It's as if Microsoft is trying to make you use their new app instead of the stock Android apps that just sync with the Outlook.com account? Please say this isn't so!
jazee said:
Some of my newer contacts are not synching with either my Google Contacts or my Outlook.com contacts. I'm on a Nexus 5 running Android 5.1.
I use Outlok.com for my primary repository for contacts and calendars, however I use GSyncit add-on for MS Outlook (desktop) to sync my desktop Outlook contacts and calendars to Google. This way I can use Outlook.com or Google Calendar / GMail to access/share my calendar and access contacts depending on the situation.
Everything is working fine on the desktop end so that is irrelevant to this problem (so probably shouldn't even have wrote the above paragraph - but just in case.)
I see there is a new Google Contacts app on the phone and on the web. I noticed this when I clicked on the People app and it said the app was missing. When I go to the web version of Google Contacts via my Google account, there are no contacts there! All my contacts are still in Gmail though of course.
I see that when I attempt to edit an older contact on the phone, it first prompts me with which Google account I want to sync with. I don't need to sync my phone contacts directly with Google, I just want to sync with Outlook.com -> Outlook -> Google (via GSyncit) but I suppose it wouldn't cause a problem if I just had the phone sync to both accounts (probably will then need to disable GSyncit contact sync between Outlook desktop and Google).
What is weird is that it is like Google made the mistake of launching this new contacts app, but there's no notice or migration instructions on the changes with the new app. I just happend to discover something was "unhooked" by trying to edit a contact! I just discovered the new Contacts app on the web by Googling, Google Contacts. I'm technically saavy and somewhat of an Android Wonk, and am surprised this is all a surprise!
Do I have to go try to edit every single contact on the mobile Contacts app now to select which Google account it syncs with? I HOPE NOT!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Microsoft confirmed.
Your question on Microsoft Community has received a reply from Tushar Tiwari.
Title: How To Sync Contacts & Calendars with Native Android Phone Apps?
Reply
Hi,
Unfortunately , by design, it is not yet possible to sync your Android phone contacts to your Outlook.com account.
Note: At the moment, you can only sync Outlook.com contacts to your android phone.
Please provide your suggestions/opinion as a feedback to the development team. To do this, click on the gear icon on the top right corner of Outlook.com homepage and select 'feedback' from the dropdown menu.
Hope this information is helpful.
******
However, this isn't that big of a deal as I come to find out, even though there is no longer an Outlook.com account type on the phone any more, you can use the Exchange account type and use server address: s.outlook.com and then you can sync everything. Why the MS Tech didn't point this out it baffling.
(big middle finger for you Microsoft)