With Android 11, Google seems to have taken yet another step in the "making Android increasingly painful to use" direction by disabling the ability for device-only contacts to be available via the standard Contacts Provider. Because of this, I have to use Google-stored contacts on my Android 11 device in order for these contacts to be available to my apps. Otherwise, my apps don't see any contacts.
I have a rooted Android 11 device, and I'm hoping that there is some way that I could disable the standard Contacts Provider service and that I could then install an alternate, custom Contacts Provider service which knows how to access device-only contacts, and which knows how to make these contacts available to all apps that need contacts ... and which never will try to store my contacts on any of Google's servers nor anywhere else in the cloud.
Is it possible to disable Android's standard Contacts Provider service? And does such a 3rd-party Contacts Provider service exist?
Thank you in advance for any thoughts and suggestions.
Well, I think I found a solution to the issue that I'm trying to solve. And it doesn't require any new Contacts Provider service to be installed, after all.
First of all, I made sure that contacts syncing is turned off.
Next, I installed the "True Phone" contacts and phone manager app from the play store and made it my default phone app.
Then, I used that program to make a local backup of my contacts, which is one of its capabilities.
Following that, I froze the Contacts app, but I kept the Contacts Storage app active. I checked the permissions for the Contacts Storage app, and I see now that it has no network-related permssions. So apparently, it just looks at the local contacts database, and some other piece of software is what actually syncs Google's cloud-based contacts data with the local database. And by turning off contacts sync-ing, it seems like I have indeed disabled that process.
Then, I went from my desktop computer to http://contacts.google.com with the same login credentials that are associated with my Android device. I then permanently deleted all of the contacts there.
(I rebooted my Android device between each of these steps and also after the final step.)
Now, my SMS and phone apps still see the contacts info in my local database. And I can manage the local contacts backup and restore via that True Phone app.
There are probably other phone/contacts apps which also could be used for this. But True Phone works well enough for me.
So ... it turns out that no OS surgery is needed to mess with the contacts nor to install an alternate Contacts Provider service.
PS: And I now have learned something. I was asking about a "Contacts Provider service", but I now realize that the standard Contacts Storage app itself seems to be the "Contacts Provider".
And because I found out that this app does not even have network permissions, it seems clear that this app simply gets contacts from the locally stored sqlite contacts database, and therefore, I don't need to replace this app with anything else.
And so all I needed to do was disable contacts sync-ing, because that is what would sync contacts between Google's cloud and the local contacts database.
How long were you playing with it to get to this point? Fun times...
Cloud apps can be little terrors, the only one I use is Gmail. It's never been breached by malware in over 15 years. Lol, Outlook not so much so.
blackhawk said:
How long were you playing with it to get to this point? Fun times...
Cloud apps can be little terrors, the only one I use is Gmail. It's never been breached by malware in over 15 years. Lol, Outlook not so much so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It took me around a day of on-and-off playing around sessions to figure this all out ... with some input from a few other helpful souls.
I agree about cloud-based services. I don't even use gmail. I run my own email server, so I use that to manage all my email accounts. I manage my own web servers and my own DNS servers, as well.
It's more work for me to manage those things, but I don't mind, and I actually enjoy that work, most of the time.
Related
Hi,
Im using a Samsung I9000 and when Im saving a new contact the phone always asks where it have to be saved:
Phone
Sim Card
gmail account
youtube account
Im few new to android and I tough every contact on my phone is also on my gamil account is this right?
When Im selecting phone will this contac be synced with gmail or not?
Actually, you can choose to save your contact in one of several different "places". For instance, if you use Gmail for contact management, you would save your contacts to Google contact type.
However, there are many other information management applications and sites. Many people use Outlook or another computer based PIM application, and use that to sync contacts to the phone. These would be put in the Phone contact type.
Since you are using a GSM based phone, you can also save new contacts as a SIM contact type. Note that SIM contact types have some limitations compared to the others as far as how many phone numbers, email addresses, etc. can be saved per contact.
You say you are new to Android, but is this your first smart phone? In other words, how did you get your contacts on the phone in the first place, or are you just adding them now?
If this is your first smart phone and you are just adding the contacts, as long as you are ok with Google having all that information, then save them as a Google contact type. The point of that is so if you loose your phone, or it is damaged or otherwise, you still have the data backed up and can get it to another phone. In fact, if you are using Gmail to manage your contacts, just log into Gmail on a computer and enter all the contacts that way. It will be easier and faster and they will sync to your phone automatically.
Hi,
thank you very very much you helped me a lot!!!
This isnt my fist smart phon, before I had many many WM Phones and synced with outlook which I would prefer but as I bought my i9000 they told me it wont work and I ve to transfer my contacts to google to get them synced...
I think Ill switch back from that because I dont like to hafe google my contacs and if it works with outlook its much easier for me!
Thanks a lot
I am well aware that none of my apps will be portable unless somebody made an Android version that I can re-download, and that I obviously cannot carry over any of my settings either.... but does anyone have any suggestions on what would be the best way to port over contacts, documents (and convert them into whatever Android uses for it's equivalent of Office, if necessary) and other such data if one wants to make the switch from Windows Mobile to android? Either re-flashing their phone to run Android or just buying a new Android phone?
Embracing the Google account is the best thing. Adding everything to the 'cloud' gives you a permanent storage solution with the benefit of being able to sync it all to your device when you need it.
Contacts to Gmail Contacts
Pictures to Picasa
Documents and random files to Google Docs
Calender to Google Calender
..and so on.
What apps are you looking for Android versions of?
Sorry for taking a while to reply.
So then how would I go the Google route? Its a shame I will lose my call and IM logs but its not like I would expect such data to work between different operating systems.
Photos aren't an issue since I store those on MicroSDHC, I mostly cared about all my contact information and switching my MS Office Mobile formatted documents to whatever Android uses in it's place, even though those are on MicroSD too. The only real data I keep on the phone itself is installed apps and contacts.
And don't worry about my apps, at this point there really isn't any Windows Mobile app I care about anymore.
Just create a Google account and sign into that account on your Android phone. If you've added your contacts through the contacts section in Gmail they will automatically be synced to your phone.
Any settings, browser bookmarks etc, on your phone will sync and be backed up to your Google account.
The contacts were all added through my phone or though backups apps, none were added through Google, will it still back them all up?
I cannot find any mention of this problem on XDA developers (although I saw it unanswered on another forum), so I thought it might be helpful to share my experiences.
After the ICS upgrade to my Atrix 2, I noticed that, when I tried to edit a contact, I got the message, "Not editable from this app."
All of my contacts are listed as "Motorola Services contact." I presume that this means that they are stored locally on the phone. I have synchronization with Google's cloud servers turned off (due to lack of privacy and security), and I sync with Outlook locally on the desktop via the PC app "My Phone Explorer."
Why I was able to edit locally-stored contacts in previous versions of Android, but Google deleted the capability in ICS, I can only speculate ... maybe to 'encourage' us to share more of our data.
Regardless, the solution I found was to use a third-party application. With "Go Contacts" (and I am sure that there are others), I am able to edit my locally-stored contacts in the original Android database (so that I can go back to "People" or "Dialer" and see the revisions).
Personally I think the contacts provider (and other providers)in Android is a huge security risk. Every app and it's brother wants full access to your contacts so they can mine them for usable information. This can be just to add easy links to friends or to spam them with advertisements or offers to identity theft.
I've started using a pim manager that does not access Androids contact provider, calendar provider , tasks or other providers in it's operations.(And I really wish it was open source)
I have already removed the Google sync apks from my device and have removed contacts, calendar in the past. But not the providers.
It might cause some badly written apps to crash.
But I can't forsee any other serious problems.
Ideas? Thoughts?
Honestly sounds like a good idea..
Myself I decided to go for a while without any gapps and any other "store" installed on my phone.
My contacts are imported from a .vcf file which i update manually when needed.
I also have installed AFWall+ and i blocked the internet access to pretty much all the other apps including the system ones.. (everything i could get away with basically )
This could be a solution as well but it's rudimentary one at the moment.
nutpants said:
Personally I think the contacts provider (and other providers)in Android is a huge security risk. Every app and it's brother wants full access to your contacts so they can mine them for usable information. This can be just to add easy links to friends or to spam them with advertisements or offers to identity theft.
I've started using a pim manager that does not access Androids contact provider, calendar provider , tasks or other providers in it's operations.(And I really wish it was open source)
I have already removed the Google sync apks from my device and have removed contacts, calendar in the past. But not the providers.
It might cause some badly written apps to crash.
But I can't forsee any other serious problems.
Ideas? Thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already don't have Google apps on my device.
Everything blocked with afwall+ using profiles so things only get net when I'm using them on the net.
Fdroid is where I get 90% of my software and from the internet for much of the other 10%
I have a old phone with nothing on it personal at all. Which has play store for the 3 or 4 paid apps I need, it does updates for them and a few free ones. I copy the apks over to my daily driver.
I constantly hound developers on play store to support offline devices and not to implement features that break the app when there is no internet. Even app I don't use lol.
(I have 2 tablets and far too many old phones.only two devices are online(some are local lan only))
Someone should start a offline foundation. But being online it might be ridiculous..
I too removed contacts by using /system/app mover from f-droid. It was unintended as I wanted them as a user application but they wouldn't work like this and the icon vanished, that was fine with me for a long time. The other day I wanted contacts for signal (and telegram also won't work without them). I restored the application files from a backup,
For reference in /system/app/ the missing files were
SecContacts.apk
SecContactsProvider.apk
Other contacts programs like Simple Contacts can't run without a system permission called com.android.contacts and without those files in /system/app the permission doesn't get created at boot. The result being that no contact creation is possible.
What I would really like is a modified version of the system app that passes contacts data to the calling program depending on individual contact entry permissions with regard to each calling app; one list for telegram, another for signal etc. I gather that recent android versions above 6.0.0 have functionality to check calling application certificates so something along these lines should be possible. For earlier versions it might be necessary to switch between multiple contacts databases before starting the messaging app and also removing it from the autoboot list.
https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/permissions/defining
Since almost everything I do is on a tablet or desktop I had no idea when I was asked this question recently. So I started looking and found nothing that did not hook into Android contracts which sync online or the database is not protected from any app searching it.
So I'm asking the community. What is the best dialer and contacts app for Android.
Something that does not..
Connect to the internet for number lookup or sync
Does not use the Android contacts database or at least encrypts anything it saves there
Zero internet access preferred.
nutpants said:
Since almost everything I do is on a tablet or desktop I had no idea when I was asked this question recently. So I started looking and found nothing that did not hook into Android contracts which sync online or the database is not protected from any app searching it.
So I'm asking the community. What is the best dialer and contacts app for Android.
Something that does not..
Connect to the internet for number lookup or sync
Does not use the Android contacts database or at least encrypts anything it saves there
Zero internet access preferred.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it's not exactly what you were looking for but I used to use Flock Sync (from Open Whisper Sys) on my private phone, unfortunately they have stopped development but as it was open source you should be able to find the apk and as you can set up your own server it should still work, though don't know about new nougat ROM's.
Original press release
https://whispersystems.org/blog/flock/
There is also at least one alternative called Cucumber Sync or maybe consider Owncloud or similar?
However apps like Flock are not much use if you are trying to keep all your contacts private from the likes of Google or the state as most of your friends will just sync YOUR details to Google/Apple/etc, furthermore the likes of Google could quickly make a fairly accurate assumption that you would know some other contacts that did also use apps like Flock as they would be able to easily build a network of each of those Flock users contacts 99% of which did sync, pick out common contacts with you and make an assumption you probably know the other Flock user. And of course as soon as you make a phone call or send a msg, email etc your network provider and others would be able to tell you are in contact, so not much use if you are trying to hid from the big boys! That said it does offer another layer of security/privacy in normal scenarios ......