Hi All,
Just migrated from iPhone to OnePlus 7 Pro, and am enjoying my return to Android very much.
However, I'm really puzzled by how the inbuilt contacts app is working.
I've always kept my contacts synced with my Google account, so when I moved across I simply added my Google account and there were all my contacts.
So far, so simple. My expectation was that the Contacts app on the phone would simply display my Google contacts and that any edits would be reflected in the Google account.
I've recently tried to edit a contact, and I find that it's not so simple. For the particular contact, I appear to have 3 linked contacts. One from Google, one from WhatsApp and one from the phone itself.
To make matters worse, there appear to be more phone contacts than there are contacts in the Google account. How the hell did that happen? I've not added any new contacts, or told the phone to maintain any contacts locally.
I've now told the Contacts app to only show contacts that are in the Google account, and to use the Google account as the default for new contacts.
My questions are this:
1) Why does the phone appear to be maintaining a separate sets of contacts?
2) How do I know which field to edit in a contact. Attached screenshot shows show there are three identical sets of phone numbers. Which one is for the Google account?
3) Can I stop the phone from maintaining it's own local contacts database?
4) Can I make the phone only show the Google contacts when editing?
5) Can I get a view that shows which contacts are on the phone, but not in Google? I want to work out where the extra ones have come from.
Perhaps, I'm missing the point of how Android does this. If anyone could explain, that would be great.
Thanks,
Andy.
Related
OK, so the standard contacts manager on android sucks.
Is there a separate Contact manager app for android with ability to add/edit additional fields (birthdays,anniversary etc)? I also want those fields to sync normally with gmail and show up on the calendar (Contact's birthdays and events).
Sorry if this been asked before. I have searched but, couldn't finds what I'm looking for.
Droff said:
OK, so the standard contacts manager on android sucks.
Is there a separate Contact manager app for android with ability to add/edit additional fields (birthdays,anniversary etc)? I also want those fields to sync normally with gmail and show up on the calendar (Contact's birthdays and events).
Sorry if this been asked before. I have searched but, couldn't finds what I'm looking for.
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What phone do you use? On my Captivate we have that function built into the TouchWiz Contacts app.
This would actually be a very nice addition for me as well. I have a Moto Droid and the standard Android Contacts manager does stink for not allowing you to edit these fields.
miztaken1312 said:
What phone do you use? On my Captivate we have that function built into the TouchWiz Contacts app.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, I don't have touchwiz and not very sure how it works there.
I'm very surprised that with so many apps out there nobody has done a simple app (I don't really know how simple is it) that can do contacts->calendar events sync with google. I would think all that needs to be done is ability to add 2 date fields to the contact record. Is there something (google/os?) blocking this?
What I simply want to do is enter a birthday and anniversary for the contact on the phone, and want those dates show up on that "Contacts' birthdays and events" calendar. Can do it using Gmail on PC (sadly only 1 anniversary shows up ), but phone contacts app has no such functionality. Been waiting for this thing forever.
Thought to up the topic and ask again before giving up.
There is really no android app with such functionality?
Well your phone gets all of that info from Facebook (if I'm understanding you correctly), and facebook is different then google contacts. It shows up the same on the phone, but you'll notice that on your google account, you don't have those contacts.
It's impossible, currently, to get your facebook information to gmail. They are feuding intensely about this. If you've got a yahoo or windows live account, you can import into windows live, then export to google using vcf files.
This will make all of your contacts GOOGLE contacts, and then they will be fully editable.
I personally am opting to wait a few months for this to happen on its own. Google and Facebook are battling right now, but they'll come to a truse and facebook will allow google to get contact information, rather then excluding them and letting other providers do it.
There a few facebook apps, however, that will get the names and birthdays to your google account. From there, you can edit them. But none of them will include email addresses.
irish22022 said:
Well your phone gets all of that info from Facebook (if I'm understanding you correctly), and facebook is different then google contacts. It shows up the same on the phone, but you'll notice that on your google account, you don't have those contacts.
It's impossible, currently, to get your facebook information to gmail. They are feuding intensely about this. If you've got a yahoo or windows live account, you can import into windows live, then export to google using vcf files.
This will make all of your contacts GOOGLE contacts, and then they will be fully editable.
I personally am opting to wait a few months for this to happen on its own. Google and Facebook are battling right now, but they'll come to a truse and facebook will allow google to get contact information, rather then excluding them and letting other providers do it.
There a few facebook apps, however, that will get the names and birthdays to your google account. From there, you can edit them. But none of them will include email addresses.
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Click to collapse
You didn't get me. I don't care about Facebook. All I want is an app that I can use to edit a contact to add a birthday or anniversary on a phone. Standard contact manager on the phone only allows me to add an extra field (like a note). I can put something like this "birthday: 01/01/2001" in that field, and it will sync this info with my google account. The problem is that somehow that custom note field is not formated correctly and that birthday date does not show up automatically in Google's "Contact's birthdays and anniversaries" calendar.
If I enter the birthday date through Gmail on my PC, then date does show up automatically in that calendar.
So what I want has nothing to do with facebook.
Droff said:
All I want is an app that I can use to edit a contact to add a birthday or anniversary on a phone.
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So try "Birthday Reminder GL". It works with gmail contacts in that way.
dally said:
So try "Birthday Reminder GL". It works with gmail contacts in that way.
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Click to collapse
It does what I want in paid version, but it's a bit too much money for such simple function.
Couple of other apps that I have tried before got updated and now do offer what I need (and they are free).
I'm set! Thanks
Droff said:
It does what I want in paid version, but it's a bit too much money for such simple function.
I think couple of other apps that I have tried before got updated and now do offer what I need (and they are free).
I'm set! Thanks
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Do you mind sharing what apps you're referring to? I'd like to have this functionality as well.
dboss007 said:
Do you mind sharing what apps you're referring to? I'd like to have this functionality as well.
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There is a Birthday Manager app, EboBirthday and some other one (forgot the name). Both of those sync the dates with google contacts once you put it in the app. You can also do Anniversary. And those dates do show up in the google calendar "contacts birthdays and anniversaries". That's all that I needed.
This functionality really need to be in the OS itself.
I'm with the OP - This really needs to be part of the stock Google contacts and be editable from your device. We also need higher clarity contact pictures too!
So every time you add a contact to your phone, google will sync all my contacts to my google account?
if i reformat everything, then connect google to my phone, all my contacts will be there on my phone?
yupppppppp
P00t said:
So every time you add a contact to your phone, google will sync all my contacts to my google account?
if i reformat everything, then connect google to my phone, all my contacts will be there on my phone?
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Click to collapse
Yes as long as you sign into the same Google account that have your contacts.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App
but we cant format every time we update a contact. why is the sync not working in mobile. Its showing error"sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly"
i have been seeing this message for the past one week.Is there any solution for this without formatting?
dooyoo222 said:
Yes as long as you sign into the same Google account that have your contacts.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App
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Click to collapse
I dont recommend using Google Sync. Its most most inbredly retarded system ever. Every time you sync it duplicates everything (which is not technically a sync). Right now I have anywhere from 4-7 copies of the same contact number, it creates a new copy if you change the name, or add an email address etc. Then you have to "link" them to not see the duplicates, then when you want to call or text it asks which of the 7 numbers you want to use (even through they are all the same exect effing number). Google needs to take the kid with the waterwings, helmet, and droolcup out of that position.
I also have yet to see where you can delete or edit the "database" where it syncs from. Because under my contacts in google, it only shows 1 number, 1 email address etc. Yet as soon as I "sync", bam, 7 copies of everything.
GTIVRon said:
I dont recommend using Google Sync. Its most most inbredly retarded system ever. Every time you sync it duplicates everything (which is not technically a sync). Right now I have anywhere from 4-7 copies of the same contact number, it creates a new copy if you change the name, or add an email address etc. Then you have to "link" them to not see the duplicates, then when you want to call or text it asks which of the 7 numbers you want to use (even through they are all the same exect effing number). Google needs to take the kid with the waterwings, helmet, and droolcup out of that position.
I also have yet to see where you can delete or edit the "database" where it syncs from. Because under my contacts in google, it only shows 1 number, 1 email address etc. Yet as soon as I "sync", bam, 7 copies of everything.
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I wish I could tell you what you're doing wrong. I added my contacts through GMail - Contacts about a year ago. I've deleted then synced dozens of times and I still have the exact same 300ish contacts and they never double up. I used to have issues with contacts doubling up and creating more than necessary when I was on my iPhone - but since I've gone Android I've had no issues whatsoever.
tirumal said:
but we cant format every time we update a contact. why is the sync not working in mobile. Its showing error"sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly"
i have been seeing this message for the past one week.Is there any solution for this without formatting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sounds like you restored your contacts through MyBackup or something similar?
Google contact sync works great. Been using it for the last 3 year since I had an iPhone 3G. It definitely works much better on Android though.
I don't restore using backups, I restore using sync. Just for S&G's I wiped and synced again. It re-duplicated. I now have up to 8 entries for majority of my contacts.
I've read that if you go to Gmail (browser) and set up the contacts for your phone in a "My Contacts" folder, then wipe your contacts and load only "My Contacts" when syncing, that it will work. To me the dumb part is that you have to go in and set up every one of your contacts from scratch.
Instead of only giving the option to "link" all those duplicates it should give the option to merge, or delete select contacts.
Even though the contacts are "linked" when I go to People or whatever (the contacts app) so there is only 1 "entry" or listing, I feel that to be fixed by Sense. However, when I compose a new message, right off the bat in A's, it starts off with 5 entries for the same contact. An e-mail address, a 10 digit phone number, a + and then 10 digit number, and there two more for the 11 digit number (1 then number, and +1 then number)
It's really, really retarded.
GTIVRon said:
I don't restore using backups, I restore using sync. Just for S&G's I wiped and synced again. It re-duplicated. I now have up to 8 entries for majority of my contacts.
I've read that if you go to Gmail (browser) and set up the contacts for your phone in a "My Contacts" folder, then wipe your contacts and load only "My Contacts" when syncing, that it will work. To me the dumb part is that you have to go in and set up every one of your contacts from scratch.
Instead of only giving the option to "link" all those duplicates it should give the option to merge, or delete select contacts.
Even though the contacts are "linked" when I go to People or whatever (the contacts app) so there is only 1 "entry" or listing, I feel that to be fixed by Sense. However, when I compose a new message, right off the bat in A's, it starts off with 5 entries for the same contact. An e-mail address, a 10 digit phone number, a + and then 10 digit number, and there two more for the 11 digit number (1 then number, and +1 then number)
It's really, really retarded.
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Click to collapse
I'm guessing this is not what the majority of people using Google contact sync experience. Like I said, I've been using this for awhile and this has not happened to me on my Inspire, and I've flashed several ROMs and had to resync my contacts over and over. I've never had to "start from scratch". Maybe you need to go to the google help forums.
Maybe this isn't my first android phone, maybe its happened since i had my captivate, maybe it also happens on a coworkers droid x, maybe it also happens on another coworkers nexus, may it does the same thing on everybody else I know's phones.
I never said i have to start from scratch, I said that seems to be the only way to set it up to work right, is to do it from GMail on a computer. Creating those contacts in a folder you create called My Contacts.
Do me a favor. Use a stock mms app. Go to create new text, then add recipients. Unless you set all your contacts up in the My Contacts tab of google before ever syncing from a fresh phone/flash, you will see duplicates there.
It is possible to merge your contacts thru Gmail online. It does a fair job of removing duplicates but not a perfect job.
You're not the only one who can't stand the way Google handles contacts. It's a major problem coming from WM6 and Outlook to Google. I'm hoping that HTC's tool to import contacts will work and I'll be able to clear out a ton of stuff from my Google contacts that's bogus.
GTIVRon said:
Maybe this isn't my first android phone, maybe its happened since i had my captivate, maybe it also happens on a coworkers droid x, maybe it also happens on another coworkers nexus, may it does the same thing on everybody else I know's phones.
I never said i have to start from scratch, I said that seems to be the only way to set it up to work right, is to do it from GMail on a computer. Creating those contacts in a folder you create called My Contacts.
Do me a favor. Use a stock mms app. Go to create new text, then add recipients. Unless you set all your contacts up in the My Contacts tab of google before ever syncing from a fresh phone/flash, you will see duplicates there.
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Click to collapse
Looking in my gmail contacts, they are indeed in a My Contacts group.
during sync I am facing following problems:
1. My android contact nos automatically converted from xxxxxxxxxxx to xx xxx xxxxxxxxx on google.
2. Added pictures not uploaed on google.
Is there any solutions.
I have been trying to get my google contacts to jive with my htc sense facebook contacts for two damn days. I manually deleted and recreated each and every one of my google contacts. It took four hours. It was the only way to get google voice actions to work on my phone. I entered the exact same data for each google contact that was there before, but deleting and remaking the contacts fixed all of the problems. Before deleting and rebuilding my google contacts, when I said "Call John Smith", the voice actions app would search the internet for him, not call him. When I said, "Send Text to John Smith", the app would put John Smith in the body of the message instead of in the address box. There must have been hidden data imported from the phone into my gmail contacts which was obstructing the voice actions app. I tried everything, and deleting the whole contact and remaking it from scratch was the only thing that worked to correct the issues I was having with google voice actions.
What I don't understand now is why all of my contacts who put their phone numbers on facebook have multiple numbers on their contact cards. Even though the person only has one phone number, the number is duplicated on the contact card, one from google and one from htc facebook. It's playing hell with my 2011 VW Jetta's Bluetooth sysem. My Tilt2 worked perfectly. I tried editing the google contacts to make them look exactly like the facebook numbers, but I still get duplicated numbers for each contact, such that only people who don't put their phone numbers on facebook will work with my car's bluetooth system.
Any suggestions?
On the FB Sync tab, only sync w/ existing contacts not Sync all. See if that works.
I'm not using the facebook app. I'm using the HTC Sense facebook app.
I'm not sure that it has that option. When I synced facebook too, it duplicated everybody's status update. The facebook app is not synced, just the HTC facebook app, which appears built in because I don't think you can access it directly.
Tx Redneck said:
On the FB Sync tab, only sync w/ existing contacts not Sync all. See if that works.
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Hi, Just got my charge today and synced up my contacts from my gmail (primary contacts list), facebook and twitter. But my contacts seem to be a mess. Many of them were automagically linked together but many others just show repeats of each other and when I link them manually, it seems as if I am loosing some information. Also, many of my google contacts show up multiple times with repeated info, when I link them it just ends up doubling up on everything. Moving from an old HTC windows mobile phone, I am stuck with these ridiculous notes in contacts that HTC used for its sync.
An example, My friend Becky has two contact entries, both from google (despite only one entry in my google contacts). One contains most of the info and the other just an email address, when I join them I loose the number and name and just end up with her email address as the contact. What gives? My question:
Is there a decent contact manager recommended that will join contacts as one contact (not multiple) and remove redundant information?
Is there any logic to joining contacts that will prevent me from loosing information like that or am I doing something wrong?
How do I add my google contacts "into my phone" so that I can use it to create groups and the such? I believe I can just export a contacts file and import it but I am afraid I would run into the same problem of multiple contacts with the same information in them.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
ok heres what i would do, remove all the accounts with contacts from the phone and then reboot. now add your google account back and check it. if every thing is good. move on with Facebook and such.. i dont let Facebook sync with my phone after what happened to me. anyways check it again.
this fixed my problem with google and hotmail, and other accounts. hopefully it will work for you.
Or you can open up contacts, hit menu and set the privcey filters..like don't show Facebook contacts etc
I dont think so
If you download the Facebook app from the market it gives you different options to sync. I sync only with exsiting contacts that are in my phonebook. That way I don't have a million people in my contacts list.
I followed your advice and got it the way I like. I had to sync twitter and facebook through the phone and manually combine contacts. At least now when I user the message app, I don't have four or five of the same people. Out was word when I first noticed the facebook and twitter apps both have an additional sync option. This is my first android smartphone too. Thanks for the advice.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA Premium App
I flash a lot of ROMs and every time I lose a couple of contacts because they aren't synced to my account. Is there any way to change a setting so that every contact created on my HOX is a Google contact?
bigeee said:
I flash a lot of ROMs and every time I lose a couple of contacts because they aren't synced to my account. Is there any way to change a setting so that every contact created on my HOX is a Google contact?
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Click to collapse
It should be as simple as when you flash your rom, and then when you add your Google account to your phone, simply say yes to syncing your Contacts along with any other settings you want to sync.
If you want to check to see if the rom you are currently running has that already set or not just go to Settings, Accounts and Sync, then select your Google account in the list.
I think the original question was misunderstood.
The original question is: How do you change the default New Contact creation from being a local Phone contact and instead make it so that the default is a Google contact.
I just looked and I had two contacts that were local Phone contacts which I missed when creating them to be a new Google contact.
Sent from my HTC PG09410 using xda premium
I'd like to know, also. I've had the same thing happen to me the last couple of times.
galfert said:
I think the original question was misunderstood.
The original question is: How do you change the default New Contact creation from being a local Phone contact and instead make it so that the default is a Google contact.
I just looked and I had two contacts that were local Phone contacts which I missed when creating them to be a new Google contact.
Sent from my HTC PG09410 using xda premium
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Good luck. I searched for a week for an answer to this question, and it doesn't exist. You just have to be vigilant and every once in a while inventory / audit your contacts to make sure they're set up correctly, and if not, do a one-way copy. I just always make sure my "phone" contacts is ZERO.
I had to go to manage contacts and then copy all new contacts to my Google account
Somehow the contacts are stored in separate accounts ae Google and phone
I just copied all phone contacts to the Google contacts