Database Info

Best way to backup contacts?

First, I did use the search feature, but couldn't find anything specific to the Inspire. If this already exists, please feel free to link to it/close this thread. Thanks!
So, I can't seem to effectively back up my contacts. Titanium Backup doesn't do it, and I thought they were synced via Google. Not to mention I've had the same SIM card for YEARS and all my contacts have always been on there. Now, since I rooted my phone and started flashing custom ROMS, they have disappeared. Now I am without my 400+ contacts database, which I need.. So my question is, what is the best way to back up contacts, and is there any way to recover the ones I had?
Thanks in advance!

As long as you didn't choose not to sync with Google before you flashed, they are backed up. Most likely the problem you are having is getting them to import. Try going to Settings>Accounts and Sync> and manually sync your Google account.

stonewallmike said:
As long as you didn't choose not to sync with Google before you flashed, they are backed up. Most likely the problem you are having is getting them to import. Try going to Settings>Accounts and Sync> and manually sync your Google account.
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I rip my employer a little I guess and store ALL my contacts to MS Exchange for several years now with nary a hiccup...that said since I've been on Android, Google does a fine job too. ... I think my free Sugar Sync account probably has them too...with this phone I have given up storing any contacts at all on the SIM card...because I have gone through what you are when simply switching phones or have phones stolen/lost in the past...but yeah make sure at least Google is backing them up...

It all depends on where you have chosen to save your contacts. If to phone then they may be lost forever. If to sim then simply import them back to your phone. If to Google account then as said above just re-sync.
When thinking about flashing rom's the first thing that you should do is make sure all contacts are backed up. Best choice is with Google. That way everytime you wipe data you can boot up your phone sync with Google and BOOM! They are there. Works a treat. Cheers.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Thanks guys. I've had them backed up to Google before, and even restored them before, but it doesn't seem to be working. I just flashed the VU ROM after having been using the RCMix3D ROM for my Inspire, so I'll post the question on their page and see if it's a known issue with the ROM or anything.

Good luck.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

elijahpr said:
Thanks guys. I've had them backed up to Google before, and even restored them before, but it doesn't seem to be working. I just flashed the VU ROM after having been using the RCMix3D ROM for my Inspire, so I'll post the question on their page and see if it's a known issue with the ROM or anything.
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I have been on a captivate and now the inspire. Flashed upteen different roms and never had an issue with google restoring my contacts. Everytime I put the gmail addy in it pulls it all over.
Doesn't the htc sync account do that as well? Try doing that. If all else fails and you have them in say outlook or still on google then you can export them as a comma separated value (CSV) file and then put that on your sd card then import them via the people app. You can then save to sim via the people app.
I am on VU now and it restored flawlessly from gmail.
This is one app on the market that you can look at.
https://market.android.com/details?id=no.uia.android.backupcontacts&feature=search_result

I would recommend using my backup pro from the android market

market wont attach to same gmail?

Hey, I have three gmail accounts synced to my phone. My main one has contacts, apps etc.. but occasionally (on reboots) it changes my market to my other account (always the same one) and I have to change it back manually.. Any idea why its doing this and how I can prevent it? It's been doing it on every rom i've been on.

Which one is your credit card attached to? That is mostly likey the one it will sync to.
If I helped you in any way please use the thank you button.

I've seen this happen with me, I had two gmail accounts synced and I noticed that whatever gmail account I was viewing is what the market would see. Not sure if this is what is happening in your case.

Hmm, I only have my cc linked to one of them. Ill see if when I view it if it changes
Sent from my HTC ThunderBolt using XDA App

I have two Gmail accounts syncing and since the newer Market updates came out (3.x I think), its occasionally switching over to my secondary Gmail account. CC is only tied to my primary account, so no idea why its changes the account settings.

I've been getting this too! Usually after a reboot as well ... Very strange
Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk

How do you manage your contacts? Opinions please...

Looking to see what most of you are using to manage your contacts. If you are using google, how reliable is it?
I use exchange from work and use Touchdown app to manage my work exchange email and all of my contacts. Problem is all the nice contact apps do not support exchange.
What do you do and if you use exchange, what is your set-up?
Thanks

No exchange here, but i really like exDialer.

i use google... found it does the job right

+1 for Google

I never really trusted Google with my personal data, and I especially don't trust them now after they changed their privacy policy.
I'm using Outlook with HTC Sync or Mobileaction's Android Sync Manager.

I use Rocket Dialer. I haven't found any problems with it and it has nice features. But I haven't seen anything about Exchange though.

I've been using Google and it's working very well for me. I change my ROMs a lot, so it makes it a easy to restore.

I use Google have had no problems backing up or restoring them.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium

Google is where its at if you are switching roms all the time.

Google has yet to fail me. No need for anything else.
*signed

I'm in agreement with the rest of you. I have used Google for all of my contacts since I got my phone last year. It makes it incredibly easy, especially since with my Voice account. In fact, I dropped my texting package with AT&T in favor of Google Voice.

Google. I access my work email,contacts and calendar with our Exchange server, and haven't had any issues yet with the merged data.
I also like that it's available on my phone or through Gmail on my PC.
Sent from my HTC Inspire 4G using XDA

Definitely use Google for everything. I use Google Voice as well as GMail so it makes sense that Google has all my contacts already...plus it's nice to not have to do anything to make sure when I switch ROMs (which I do almost daily) I have all my contacts.

I use google for my contacts as well. The only issue is the contact photos are low rez and blurry. This has been true since Android was out. Seems to be an Android bug they are not willing to fix. I'm not sure if ICS fixes this.

Google as well, interweave with Gmail is sweet.

when I used stock rom, i used Dialer EX. pretty useful app.
but since I became rom freak, google is the only choice

google
google is very reliable in my experience. i have changed roms three to four times in a day before, and my contacts restore completely every time, and fast, too. i would say stick with google as it is the easiest and requires no third party apps or services to be installed. simply sign in, and BOOM

Retreiving lost contacts on CM7.2

I recently followed all of the steps to flash cm7.2 from dragonzkiller and am having trouble restoring my contacts and basically any verizon services and/or apps. Also the only account that I can add is my Google account. I love the look and feel of this mod, however it's useless to me without being able to add all of my accounts and restore my contacts.
Sent from my DROID X2 using xda app-developers app

[Q] Missing Contacts After Changing to CM

Did some searching about this beforehand but couldn't come up with a solid answer. Really hoping someone can help me out.
I very recently changed my friend's MT4GS from the latest stock ROM to CM 10.1. The ROM works fine for the most part. The issue is that she seems to be missing the vast majority of her contacts which is extremely upsetting to her as I'm sure you can understand. The few that were retained were the only ones she had synced to her Google account. The really odd thing is that she has had this phone replaced on four different occasions (same model) and her contacts would always sync effortlessly going from one to the next (all of them being on the stock ROM until now).
I've tried enabling sync in the People app through Gmail, Facebook, and even adding her Hotmail account to the AOSP email app and syncing that as well. The latter did add plenty of contacts but not the ones she was used to seeing, just email contacts exclusive to that account, no phone numbers as such.
So basically there are a few questions that arise from all of this:
1: Is there a simple way to get the contacts back while still on AOSP?
2: If we were to revert back to the stock ROM would the contacts come back as they have in the past?
3: Why would the contacts sync on the stock ROM but not AOSP?
Any and all help is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.

She was probably syncing contacts with T-Mobile and not Google, go back to at least a stock based ROM, sync contacts, then transfer them to gmail, then you can flash any ROM you want as they will be tied to gmail
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demkantor said:
She was probably syncing contacts with T-Mobile and not Google, go back to at least a stock based ROM, sync contacts, then transfer them to gmail, then you can flash any ROM you want as they will be tied to gmail
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
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Thanks for the info and the tip. I'll give a shot and report back.

Its the most annoying thing for me with AOSP ROMs
The contacts she has "lost" are on her SIM card only right? Yet for some reason all AOSP and CM and AOKP
ROMs can't read those contacts...just the ones on the Google account
So best way is, return to stock as said above...i am sure all contacts are now available again, then sync them all to Google by just copying to Google account and flash back to your AOSP ROM and you are done
Was shocked the first time I rooted my desire z and missing some contacts too...but with time I got it why they where missing xD (still don't know why AOSP can't read SIM card contacts though)
Greets Vauvenal7
Sent from my SGS i9000

If you login to my-tmobile (assuming she was backing up to t-mo) go to mobile life-> contacts, then you can do an export of all the contacts that are there to something like VCF and then import to the phone. If they're out there, they're certainly not lost!

Success! Thanks everyone for the information and advice. You were all very helpful.
What I ended up doing was reverting back to a stock ROM, had T-Mobile automatically restore the contacts and exported them. Then simply imported them once back on AOSP. No biggy. :]
Thanks again! You can consider this thread solved!