Develop Bugs

Google Contacts newbie

Right, this is my first smartphone, so can someone explain something to me.
I don't have a Gmail account (I use the HTC Mail thing to access my Sky email account when I want to)
What I don't understand is the whole "Google Contacts" thing?
Where do these contacts sync to?
Can I enter the contacts on my phone and then sync them to the Internet (rather than have them stored on my phone?)
Do I need a Gmail account for this?
Any help and tips would be gratefully recieved.
Thanks

Yes you need a google account,
And yes the phone will automatically sync the contacts to your google account.
Fon22

The google contacts will sync to your gmail account, and be stored on the internet.
Creating a gmail account is fast and easy and you get a rediculous amount of storage (mine is at 7447 MB right now, and I am only useing 200 some MBs and I never delete things and have had the service since 2004).

jock23 said:
What I don't understand is the whole "Google Contacts" thing?
Where do these contacts sync to?
Can I enter the contacts on my phone and then sync them to the Internet (rather than have them stored on my phone?)
Do I need a Gmail account for this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with google/gmail account you have an access to plenty of google services -- google contacts is one of them.
htc desire has it's own People program that manages contacts for you. it can store your contacts for you in three different places:
- sim card
- phone
- google account
if you choose to store your contact as google contact, your phone will automatically submit your contact to google contacts service. so that you can manage your contacts there, sync with other devices/services that can use google contacts service, etc.
contacts stored on the phone or on sim card are, simply put, local to the phone -- not easily available elsewhere (i guess that you have to use htc sync, to push them somewhere)
how it works for me? i keep all my contacts as google contacts, so that when i add contact on my phone, it's automatically available on google contacts service site. most of the time i add contacts using webpage -- as it's faster -- these contacts are synced to my phone automatically as well.
VERY IMPORTANT: do not add birth date to your google contacts on your phone -- such contacts won't sync properly -- they will just disappear from the phone \-: luckly most of my contacts are linked with their facebook accounts -- and People app gets brith date form there.

I can't sync the contacts in both ways... only from the gmail account to the pda. There is any explanation?

Maybe the contacts on your phone are set to be "Phone" contacts rather than "Google" contacts? If you did sync them from Outlook to your phone, then that's the case. To convert all of them to Google contacts, export them to the SD card, delete all and re-import them. Then it will ask whether they should be Phone- or Google-contacts.

Thanks, I will try.

[Q] Syncing contacts with Google

I have my Gmail account setup so that I can utilise the various syncing options between my Desire and Google. I use iCal successfully but am having trouble understanding how best to sync my phone contacts.
I always save a new contact to the phone but it seems that unless I also save them as a google contact on the phone, there is no way those numbers will sync to my Google contacts. Surely I don't have to save everything twice?

simon12 said:
I have my Gmail account setup so that I can utilise the various syncing options between my Desire and Google. I use iCal successfully but am having trouble understanding how best to sync my phone contacts.
I always save a new contacts to the phone but it seems that unless I also save them as a google contact on the phone, there is no way those numbers will sync to my Google contacts. Surely I don't have to save everything twice?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know the safest method of saving all your contact is to sync them with Google. I only have one set of contacts on my device and they are always in sync with Google, therefore the need for me to keep duplicate copies on my device diminished.
It is also very easy to then access your Google contacts from a PC and make any necessary changes, or indeed make the changes via your device.
Regards
Scott

So are you saying that I may as well just save them as Google contacts to begin with and not bother saving them to the phone or the sim card?

Some days ago, I also started the sync for all of my contact to google because I wanted to have them in some backup place. Now all my contacts are in google and if I create a new one I always create it as a google contact (otherwise no sync of course).
I transfered them the following way:
Contacts -> Menu -> Export to SD Card -> Select Phone or Sim (whatever you are saving on currently) : now you have all your contacts exported into one file
then
Contacts -> Menu -> Import from SD Card -> Select Google: now you should have all your contacts in your "google" phonebook
then
change the contact folder to google (will not show dupliactes)
then
sync with google
I saw that, after the sync, I had various double entries in my google account but you can merge them, works fine.
hope it helps a little with your problem, for me it was the easiest way to sync my phone contacts to google

SERIOUS PROBLEM: Google Contacts Sync generates xxx amount copy of each contact!

Hi all.
My set-up: LG G4, Lollipop 5.1, not rooted.
Google Account, Outlook.com, LinkedIn, Skype etc.
The proplem is that during my night-time, Google Contacts Sync starts syncing my contacts (to somewhere; the are NOT visible in my Google account) generating xxx copies of each contact. I have no exact timeline when this has started to realize, but by using Simpler Contacts 5.0.2 (paid version) I was able to clean that horrible mess (took overall ~5 hours with 55.000+ contacts).
Currently I have disabled all contacts syncing.
So should I:
1) Copy all my contacts to Google (already exported cleaned .vcf to my SD card) and import that to Google account?
2) Do something else, what?
What an earth is causing that!?!?
Much appreciated.
BR,
Timo

Any hints / thoughts on this?
Anyhow I will wait for overnight now to see if it still happens even that now Google contacts sync of OFF.
Additional wonder: I can not find those contacts synced to either my Google.com or live.com (Outlook.com) accounts, so it seems they to replicate locally on my phone... Which makes this even more weird.

tjsuominen said:
Any hints / thoughts on this?
Anyhow I will wait for overnight now to see if it still happens even that now Google contacts sync of OFF.
Additional wonder: I can not find those contacts synced to either my Google.com or live.com (Outlook.com) accounts, so it seems they to replicate locally on my phone... Which makes this even more weird.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In your gmail, try look in contacts tab..Its happened since kitkat, must be something with google services.

faizalotai said:
In your gmail, try look in contacts tab..Its happened since kitkat, must be something with google services.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just looked, there's (on Gmail contacts tab) basically only my Google+ contacts and some random e-mail contacts...
Any further tips?
//timo

tjsuominen said:
Just looked, there's (on Gmail contacts tab) basically only my Google+ contacts and some random e-mail contacts...
Any further tips?
//timo
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try delete all contacts from your gmail then syncing once with phone, disabled auto sync, if you have update your contacts, just sync via account and sync in settings--->google>your email>contacts

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.accaci
Sent from my LG-H815 using Tapatalk

OK, still definitelly NOT working. What I did:
SCENARIO 1:
0) Ensured that all contacts syncs from my Phone were off
1) Cleared (= deleted) all contacts from my Google.com account
2) Started my [email protected] Contacts syncing from my phone
SCENARIO 2:
0) Ensured that all contacts syncs from my Phone were off
1) Cleared (= deleted) all contacts from my Google.com account
2) Imported the exported .csv file into my Google.com account
3) Started my [email protected] Contacts syncing from my phone
-->>
RESULT on BOTH sync scenarios:
NOTHING seems to sync to my Google.com account BUT on my phone contacts start to copy themselves... Generating duplicates, triplicates...
Syncing is working OK for other parts: various E-mail accounts, Calendar etc.
My analysis: my Phone's google.com CONTACTS account is NOT somehow connected to my account on google.com - weird...
I did NOT yet do this (advise from https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=42641):
Clearing out the Contacts Storage. Settings > Application Manager > All, went into "Contacts Storage", force stopped it, and cleared the data. When I went to re-sync, Google Contacts started syncing again.
I am afraid deleting the contacts data (although the CSV file has been exported successfully).
So any further help appreciated.
//timo

tjsuominen said:
Hi all.
The proplem is that during my night-time, Google Contacts Sync starts syncing my contacts (to somewhere; the are NOT visible in my Google account) generating xxx copies of each contact. I have no exact timeline when this has started to realize, but by using Simpler Contacts 5.0.2 (paid version) I was able to clean that horrible mess (took overall ~5 hours with 55.000+ contacts).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried a Factory data reset ? I know it's a bit full-on and will mean you have work to do, but might help ?

pcoulson said:
Have you tried a Factory data reset ? I know it's a bit full-on and will mean you have work to do, but might help ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, not yet.
Let's see if something else can be done to fix this prior doing that.
I might even wait as long as 6.0 update.
Frustrated, yes.

tjsuominen said:
Nope, not yet.
Let's see if something else can be done to fix this prior doing that.
I might even wait as long as 6.0 update.
Frustrated, yes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any further possible fixes for this?
Next: Should I try importing the exported .CSV to my Google.com account using the phone functionality (use file manager and select the created .CSV file -> import to my Google account?)
//timo

Amazon Fire Phone Syncing Contacts Problem

I have an Amazon Fire Phone bought from the USA and unlocked to any network but using in the UK on 3 network.
I've rooted the phone and using a different launcher + added Google Play, so for the most part it act's like most Android phones.
However one major problem I have is the device seems to keep losing the names and phone numbers of everyone I have on Gmail. It seems to retain the names and numbers of people on Facebook who have shared their phone number but the majority of my numbers (over 800 people) are stored on Gmail.
The only work around I've found is to go into gmail on my PC and export all my contacts to a VCF file (vCard format) and if the phone loses the contacts I can import them back again from the VCF file but this of course misses out any new people I've added since the last export.
Is there a 3rd party app that will manually let me resync my gmail contacts over the internet at will?
my phone is firmware: Fire OS 4.6.3 (463001620)
I'm using both the original Firephone Contacts Manager and Email software to help keep the contacts in sync with GMAIL
One of the main reasons I also like to use GMAIL to handle my contacts is I like to add photos of people to their details

I had a similar problem but it was because I froze a background system service that was involved with syncing gmail contacts. As soon as I unfroze it problem solved. So make sure you didn't freeze any system services. Sorry I forget exactly which system service it was. You could also go into account settings, delete gmail and re add it. Give it some time and it should sync your contacts.
One other problem I had in the past was that for some reason I had a couple hundred duplicates of one contact (not sure how this happened) and it broke the syncing and the phone just refused to sync contacts giving me a fail message. I went into my gmail contacts and deleted all duplicates. Problem solved.
Also could be a bad contact with a unique field or bad code or just weird symbols. Try making a new gmail account. Add a couple contacts and add that gmail account to your phone. Does it sync fine with the new gmail account?
Sent from my SD4930UR using XDA Free mobile app

The built in contacts app is seriously stupid and its driving me crazy.
it shows several contacts sources and I can't disable the sync of any of them rather than changing the view to Gmail only or so...therefore I ended up with many repeated contacts on my phone from 4 sources (Gmail Contacts , Whatsapp Contacts?!?, Facebook and Linkedin)
I stopped the sync with Linkedin , but every single number that was synced previously is saved in my Whatsapp contacts and everytime I try to delete it says that I can't delete and it will be hidden...I openend a case with Whatsapp and I am pending them to get back to me.
When I use the (join) option to merge the contacts I end up with a very long repeated list of numbers or old numbers that I can't delete....very frustrating.
I tried using third party contacts apps and ended up with too many duplications.
I did send a feedback to amazon about this, advised them to take a look at the HTC contacts app for inspiration as it really outstanding...if by the end of this year they dont fix this phone I am ditching it and getting either iPhone 6s, Samsung S6 Edge or HTC

Question Phone deleating/not reading my contacts

My aliexpress motorola x30 keeps deleating my contacts on the phone "contacts" app. Keep changing the order in the names. Also keeps deleating the "+" in the whats app saved contacts.
Keeps "forgeting" the contacts (in the app) i imported through .csv file to google contacts or the phone's memory. (I did it both ways many times)
please help.

I'm facing this same issue. I already tried these things:
- Deleated all contacts and imported again;
- Downloaded google contacts apps and imported them to a google account;
- Tried others google account;
Maybe it's a rom problem... I can't figure it out! =/

LêxJok3r said:
I'm facing this same issue. I already tried these things:
- Deleated all contacts and imported again;
- Downloaded google contacts apps and imported them to a google account;
- Tried others google account;
Maybe it's a rom problem... I can't figure it out! =/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi.
My contacts were a mess, so in the .csv format i edit them in microsoft excel, fist. ( the mess was that i export them from many phones so the +52 1 were add and the phone/whatsapp couldnt read them in that format).
So after i edit them, i save them in .csv format from excel and import then in google account linked with the phone... Same tragedy ... (I use google contacts app). So i try to import them to the google contacts app but i couldnt from the phone (google contact app), you only have the option in the gmail app, account manager - people & sharing, contacts - import).
So i open the phone's original contacts app, and then try to import the .csv contacts but it only could read .vcf files. so i imported the contacts to gmail again and exported them in "vcards (ios only)" format which is a .vcf file.
Then i downloaded the new .vcf file and imported them in the phone's original contacts app. Since 8am and until now. No contact have been erease or "forgoten" from the phone. (I imported this file to the "phones" memory and turn off the auto sync with the gmail account).
Hope it works for you too!

I'm experiencing the same issues and I didn't find solution ,
also there is anther problem that some of my contacts their name not show when they call , some of them not all.
Hope some one find how to fix this annoying issues.