Something that has been bugging me is the way Facebook and Google don't play nicely when it comes to contact syncing.
In the past it wasn't really a big issue as I only used one device and everything just sync'd in the background, now as I prefer to manage all of my contacts via the gmail contacts page, rather than via my phone I set about trying to figure out how I could get both Gmail and Facebook contacts to sync to my Google account.
I tried a few of the tools available, such as ubersync, contacts+ and haxsync, these all do a great job of mixing your Facebook contacts in with your gmail contacts on your device, but they are still treated as seperate when syncing back up to gmail.
I found a way to get around this by using Google's sync along with haxsync and a bit of dirty ol manipulation, and I thought I'd share it if others are wanting to do the same. I take no responsibility if you mess things up, so if you are not confident then make sure you make backups before you start.
Also before you start just realise you will loose any group sorting you may have done but this can be edited again via the gmail contacts pagee quite easily)
First of all, sync all the gmail contacts into your android device from google.
Install Haxsync from the Google Play store (contacts+ and ubersync may give the same results)
Goto advanced settings for haxsync and set things up the way you want (I selected to have the htcdata backup entry put into the notes field, but this is optional)
now sync with haxsync to get all the facebook details and wait for the haxsync to finish.
Now you have all the data into your device if you look at an entry you might see some of the users data is listed under the google account, and other parts are listed under the haxsync account. From here on only the google data will sync back up to google.
Now to perform some manipulation
Go to settings on your android device(s) and disable syncing for both Google and haxsync. (note I said device(s) this means disable sync on all other device you might have that also sync to Google)
Go into People on your main Android device and export your contacts to storage, this will make a vcf file on the Android device containing all of the data for each person (minus the account it's associated with)
On the android device(s) go to settings - applications - contacts storage and clear data- (remember to do this for all android device syncing to google)
load gmail in your web browser on your PC, go to contacts, select them all and delete them.
Now go back into People on the Android device and import the data you saved to your storage.
You will now see you have merged the data that was previously seperated by the gmail and haxsync accounts
Go back into settings on the Android device and re-enable sync for gmail.
Wait for this to finish.
once your device has synced with Google again go into gmail and select contacts
On the left of the page look under 'other contacts' select all of them and choose add to My Contacts.
Now go up to My Contacts and you can start sorting everyone into different groups again if you wish.
Now you have synced both gmail and Facebook information into your gmail account which will flow down to any other Android devices you have.
If you add more people on Facebook and want their data in gmail, you'd have to repeat this process again.
If you decide to re-enable Haxsync again you may need to manually join some of your contacts in your phone again, such as where friends also have Google+ and Facebook accounts under different names.
It's not perfect but if you have 100's of contacts / friends it saves a lot of manual data entry saving everything into gmail.
Good luck and have fun.
Related
Hi
I just got a hd7 and I am trying to get my contacts synced. I have successfully setup a gmail account (hosted as google apps) and am getting mail, but I can not see the contacts in people hub. I did try it with a vanilla gmail.com account and it's the same result.
I do see my hotmail contacts in the people hub.
However, I am able to search contacts in google apps and gmail accounts (from people hub). Once I save those from the edit screen on the phone they start show up in the people hub. After I save them on the phone, these contacts go into the my contacts in gmail. So, I moved a few in gmail to my contacts to see if that would help, but it does not.
I did delete and add the accounts to see if makes any difference, but it does not.
Any ideas?
Thanks for you help.
Go into Settings > e-mail and accounts
Long press on Google and choose "Sync" it should sync your contacts then, and then they'll show up in the people hub.
Thank you for your help.
I have done that 10's of times, but does not help.
isn't there a setting within gmail that is required to be on for devices to pull contacts off gmail?
Thank you for your reply.
I don't see anything at the user level. There is setting to enable mobile access at the domain level that I has been enabled all along.
Fixed!
I believe I have this resolved. I moved my contacts out of the “My contacts” group in gmail and back into “My contacts” from the browser. (I did do this yesterday as well, but it did nothing)
Factory reset my hdc7 phone.
Setup my accounts again. Forced sync from settings -> email -> sync
After that it’s all good. Thank you very much for all your help.
I am using fission 2.4.3 ROM and i like the way it looks and all but is there a way to edit the Facebook syncd contacts like the factory Global contact list settings? it says facebook contact information is no editable on this device... am i missing soemthing? before the root and rom i syncd my contacts and was able to add numbers, emails and drag them onto the home tabs for shortcuts..
Welcome to the CLOUD!
Doesn't seem like such a great idea now does it? LOL
Here is what you do, it will require having or making a Yahoo Mail account but it will solve your problem.
If you use Outlook (like I do) it will be way more complicated but only because you probably want to use Outlook as your master list.
Step One - Go to Yahoo mail and import your facebook contacts into your yahoo mail contacts. (they have a wizard that does this for you) Then export Yahoo Mail Contacts to a CSV file. (This will work for myspace and linkedIn as well!)
Step Two (Google) - Import that CSV file into Google contacts and have your phone sync if it doesn't automatically (sometimes it takes awhile to sync)
Step Three - Look in your phone contacts you will now see dupliacte contacts of all your facebook friends. One will be from Google and the other will be from facebook. Select the facebook contact and JOIN or LINK (depends on your rom) it to the other duplicate.
You will now be able to edit all the fields not filled in by Facebook and a have a single contact for that person. (If you look you will see in the contact which profiles are linked together. You will have one profile for each contact source that has been linked. (one for Google and one for Facebook)
If you have Fission running you need to go into EDIT contact before you will get the JOIN button in the menu.
I have found that it is best to do most of your editing in Google Mail and then syncing anything else (such as outlook) to that (I use Companion Link).
And while it is ok to add contacts into outlook and sync with Gmail it is better to check those contacts for correctness in Gmail.
If they are correct in Gmail they are correct on the phone. And should you ever have to factory wipe data you will be sure to get all your contacts back when you resign into GMail on your phone.
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.
I need some help here...............
I am running stock mango. Phone wont sync all my contacts with any 1 client. Some are on Google, some on Facebook, and some yet on Live/Hotmail.
How do I push all of my contacts to one place for off phone storage?
Is there anyway to get all of my contacts to sync somewhere away from the phone in the event I lose my phone or all data is lost?
There must be something somewhere????
Btw, syncing contacts to Windows Live is a nightmare.
Now since you mentioned Google, I suggest you sync/backup your contacts there.
Settings, (system tab) e-mail+accounts, Google, check the box for Contacts
If you have others, uncheck Contacts in all other accounts.
Now go to Settings (applications tab) people, filter my contact list and choose whatever you like but make sure you uncheck "Windows Live".
Sync, and all your contacts should be backed in Gmail (check Contacts there from a PC).
Alternatively, if you can save your contact list as a .CSV file and import directly in Gmail (in your desktop's browser).
Thanks for the help!!
The only account that I have a checkbox for contacts in is Google, even windows live doesnt have a checkbox.
I went into setting>application>people>filter and unchecked windows live from sync and tried again, still wont load.
I have some of my contacts stored in Google, but not ALL of them!
How do I create a .csv file on my phone and export into google?
It's normal to see the checkbox only in Gmail.
Make sure on PC you check properly your Gmail account in Contacts, you should see "My Contacts" and "Imported MM/DD/YY" if you import them via CSV. Also, You might want to make sure the contacts from your SIM are on the phone (might be why you're missing some contacts).
Alternatively, you can edit your contacts yourself in Gmail.
This guide might prove very useful to you for transferring, importing, exporting contacts.
Still no dice. Cant find how to access my contacts via SIM since doing the Mango update.
This is getting frustrating. No one is having the same problem with the Arrive?
Import or Export ?
I am sorry but I am bit lost in the conversation.
What is that you want to do ?
Import Contacts in the Phone or Export Contacts from the Phone to somewhere else ?
I want my contacts exported somewhere, that way if my phone crashes or is lost I have all of my contacts stored offline somewhere safe.
WP7 says this is done automatically through Windows Live and Google......its not happening on my phone, only SOME contacts are stored in each
EnderPsp said:
Btw, syncing contacts to Windows Live is a nightmare.
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Click to collapse
I've historically had the opposite experience. I think Gmail contacts & calendars are both pretty inconsistent, and my Live account has been 100x better to sync with. I even had issues on Android with Gmail contacts/calendar.
Still cant sync contacts or calendar with Gmail........any suggestions? I cant be the only one with this issue, can I?
Is there an App for Google yet on Mango?
I posted this elsewhere on the forums a moment ago and it relates to getting google contacts to sync with my Nokia Lumia 800.
I set it all up nicely and then found that none of my google phone numbers were synced. I had a similar experience with my old android phone (well the opposite problem actually)
I fixed this by highlighting all my contacts in google on a PC and making sure they were all in the "my contacts" group as that seems to be the only group that the phone will sync. Once done, all of my contacts were there.
Don't sync the google calendar so cant comment
enjoy!
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)