Develop Bugs

Contact photo become blurry

HI guys. This is soooo irritating and just don't know what to do. I assigned photos to my contacts from my photo albums but every time I turn my phone on the photos become blurry n horrible!! I then hav to add them all over again but only for them to blur up again afterwards :-(
I read about blurry contact icons but that was when synced with Google or Facebook contacts, I only add from my own gallery so why is this happening and is there a way round?
Also has anyone had the same problem?
This is such a basic feature & dies work properly.
Thanks
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

This has been discussed extensively on other threads.
Check out the complaints and annoyances with workarounds.
Basically Google sync is to blame because it stores the pictures in a low format resolution.
You need to create a phone contact and add the picture to that one, then link to the "google" contact.

Do you know where is the "photo" of the "Phone contact" stored?
In the SD-CARD?

Do you know where is the "photo" of the "Phone contact" stored?
In the SD-CARD?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes its stored on my sd
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

it's the gmail-contact-sync fault.
either cap gmail from syncing your contacts or live with crappy pictures.
it sux, but I killed the sync

Don't think it's google's fault
Hello, sorry if this has been discussed, but is it not actually more of a carrier issue?
I have synced my phone on my wireless at home and had good looking icons, however, once I've spent a day on 3G only, I notice the quality has dropped.
I had put this down to the fact, in my case, T-mobile proxy all images and reduce the quality for bandwidth purposes.
The best demonstration for this is using twidroid. Twidroid has the option of using SSL, meaning that t-mobile's proxies can't tell that it's an image and modify it. The difference between using SSL and not using it is drastic.
Digital blasphemy has page on this relating to AOL; same problem, different ISP.
The page is /aol.shtml

But I transferred the contacts from my old phone, so I'm a bit confused when people say its got to do with Google. Can someone elaborate plz?
All my contacts are Vcards that wer imported from SD card and saved on phone.
Thanks
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

Hi, I've just bumped into this thread while searching for the same problem, it wasn't very clear in others I've found.
It's well known that syncing your contacts with your gmail account results in semi-blurry / pixelated photos, which look very ugly especially while dialing in HTC dialer. This can be solved in a couple of ways, one is to disable contact sync.
Now I'm on plain Froyo (Defrost 2.1) and I've noticed that if you crop a photo to make the contact picture, if the photo has a high resolution and you crop a big enough rectangle, the photo becomes very pixelated when shown in the dialer. Oddly enough, contact photos which I've chosen and cropped with HTC Photos album, while on HTC rom, and which have been restored through titanium backup, are showing ok, so I'm guessing it's an issue with Stock Gallery not properly resizing images ? Anybody else experiencing the same ?
To reproduce - this happens (to me) in NON htc roms, with google contact sync disabled:
- create a contact
- add contact picture through Stock Gallery (the 3D view one)
- select a big picture (5Mpixel) and crop a good part of it, more than half, or most of it.
- call that contact and you should see the picture very pixelated / badly resized

I will assume that if it's a google OS, they will use the same policy regarding contact pictures. Because, in the end, it will save time in their servers when a sync is made.

DoomFragger said:
I will assume that if it's a google OS, they will use the same policy regarding contact pictures. Because, in the end, it will save time in their servers when a sync is made.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uhm I don't know, while this explanation could make sense, I have the impression that in fact the image is stored in a high resolution, but then, when resizing it smaller to make it fit into the tiny square when calling a person, the algorithm used doesn't make it's work well. If I crop a small part of the picture, the scaling occurs much better.
You actually mean it happens the same on your device ?

I have maybe understood what happens, since the photo is still pixelated even when opening it in another dialer or contact viewer.
Select contact photo -> Open Gallery -> Crop to desired size ->
Here is the problem, the Stock 3D gallery resizes the cropped section to the actual size that have to be stored in contact pictures (anybody knows the size ?), but does a horrible job in scaling down, especially if the original picture is very big.
Anybody can verify this ?

andycted said:
I have maybe understood what happens, since the photo is still pixelated even when opening it in another dialer or contact viewer.
Select contact photo -> Open Gallery -> Crop to desired size ->
Here is the problem, the Stock 3D gallery resizes the cropped section to the actual size that have to be stored in contact pictures (anybody knows the size ?), but does a horrible job in scaling down, especially if the original picture is very big.
Anybody can verify this ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope i made all my contact photos within the gallery and they are just fine (sharp etc.). For me the problem was GSync which i disabled now. I know not everybody uses it here and still has the problems but for me everything is OK since disabling contact-sync.
Maybe everybody should have a look at the GoogleSync-Settings as well as the Exchange ones. In my case both accounts where enabled to sync the contacts with Google.

elburna said:
Nope i made all my contact photos within the gallery and they are just fine (sharp etc.). For me the problem was GSync which i disabled now. I know not everybody uses it here and still has the problems but for me everything is OK since disabling contact-sync.
Maybe everybody should have a look at the GoogleSync-Settings as well as the Exchange ones. In my case both accounts where enabled to sync the contacts with Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lucky you, I have every sync disabled but can confirm that it's just the gallery that crops and resizes with bad quality scaling.
I have tried using astro to select the picture and while it doesn't allow you to select the cropping area, it doesn't scale badly.
Did you actually try to use a very big picture and crop a good part of it?
Also, are you on froyo or eclair?

andycted said:
Lucky you, I have every sync disabled but can confirm that it's just the gallery that crops and resizes with bad quality scaling.
I have tried using astro to select the picture and while it doesn't allow you to select the cropping area, it doesn't scale badly.
Did you actually try to use a very big picture and crop a good part of it?
Also, are you on froyo or eclair?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use the standard eclaire ROM (1.21.405). The photos i used were taken with the 5 MP Camera of my former HTC HD2 so i guess they are big enough? Havent tried it with Astro so far. Hmm it seems hard to figure out, what could be wrong/different between our Desire-Contact-Manager-Photo-Thingy...

That is weird, since it's not mentioned anywhere else or probably mixed up with the sync-contact issue. At this point I would think that it could be an issue with the froyo gallery or with this particular rom. I might try a nandroid backup and then install stock eclair to try it out.
Just to be sure, let me ask you one question: if you select the entire photo (or rather the square part that fits the rectangular picture) for one contact, then on calling it, does the photo look blurry or rather pixelated ? on mine it's very visible in curves, which become jagged. I'm just asking because probably most people crop to a smallish part of the picture, like the face, while I'm trying to include the whole photo
Thanks.
[EDIT] erm, you mean stock rom with HTC Sense ? Because my problem is with stock android froyo, without HTC Sense Gallery, but using stock android 3D gallery (the one by cooliris)

I've just tried to install a eclair cyanogen (ERE27) and even without restoring anything I have been able to repicate the same exact issue.
At this point I think most people don't notice this because you mainly crop pictures in order to take the face and not the whole picture itself.
Just to make this clear once more, this has nothing to do with blurry contact sync issue and it happens in HTC Sense-free roms (i.e. DeFrost, cyanogen)
If anybody can come up with a better alternative than using astro or resizing images in separate applications, please post it here.

andycted said:
I've just tried to install a eclair cyanogen (ERE27) and even without restoring anything I have been able to repicate the same exact issue.
At this point I think most people don't notice this because you mainly crop pictures in order to take the face and not the whole picture itself.
Just to make this clear once more, this has nothing to do with blurry contact sync issue and it happens in HTC Sense-free roms (i.e. DeFrost, cyanogen)
If anybody can come up with a better alternative than using astro or resizing images in separate applications, please post it here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to give you an idea i have attached an original pic and a screenshot with the caller-screen. It might seem (when you zoom in the caller-screen) that it looks a bit blurry but on the small screen of the desire it looks absolutely sharp. As said, i made this with the standard album and chose a quite big area of the original photo.
Cheers

Thank you, I see that you in fact have a HTC Rom, and I guess that's the difference, I use stock froyo, non sense Rom, so I don't have the nice HTC picture gallery which does a fine job.
for standard album I meany the 3d gallery, developed by cooliris which is stock in non HTC roms.
Thank you anyway for your effort

andycted said:
Thank you, I see that you in fact have a HTC Rom, and I guess that's the difference, I use stock froyo, non sense Rom, so I don't have the nice HTC picture gallery which does a fine job.
for standard album I meany the 3d gallery, developed by cooliris which is stock in non HTC roms.
Thank you anyway for your effort
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep and thank you for stating it clearly Didnt get it before, that HTC Sense is the cause. Didnt know, that Sense is integrated so deeply into the system that there are differences when setting up contact pictures just because of different album-applications.
Greets

The gallery and possibly the dialer are the only reason why I would return to a HTC Rom, along with very few other things.
Still I can't understand how they can overlook such things...

[Q] Why Google Contacts doesn't support Hi Resolution pictures?

Hi,
This question had already been posted in 'Android Q&A' section few days back, but didn't get any reply. Hope someone can help me with this problem here.
The new ICS 'People' app allows us to use higher resolution images for contacts. And it looks great on big screens. So I spent a lot of time, updating the contacts with high resolution photos. Also I made sure that I 'Sync' ed the contacts after it is done. But now, after doing a factory reset, when I tried to sync back the contacts, it is loading only the low resolution photos of the new updated pictures and not the high resolution of those pics. I checked in GMAIL->Contacts and found they have the same low resolution ones.
Isn't there a way to sync high resolution pictures in Google Contacts?

I'd also be interested in this. Its the Google account that saves the pictures in a tiny resolution. It looks horrible when synced to ICS.

there are three ways to get high resolution pictures.
First, and the only real correct way, is to use Google+. downside is that unless your contacts are on G+ they won't get a high res picture.
Secondly, use haxsync to sync facebook with your phone.
third, manually set high res pictures for every single contact. But yes everytime you wipe your phone you'll have to redo this. However, on normal useage it seems to keep them. i know my phone has synced a few times yet i still have the high resolution pictures on my phone for 3 contacts that are not on G+ and i've rebooted or shut down the phone at least a dozen times, even flashed rom updates and they kept the pictures.

This issue has been discussed here many times.
Short, every time you sync a google contact with a picture from google to your phone it will have the ugly 96*96 resolution. There is no way around it until the contacts team changes this restriction. They are aware of the issue but no word if or when a change is coming: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=49e2b1adea1aa11c&hl=en

So wouldn't syncing your Facebook pics also be temporary since it probably saves the pics locally?
Here's to hoping Google ups the resolution of Google contacts for those who have lots if contacts that aren't on Google+ and wipe their phones often...

Lithoss said:
So wouldn't syncing your Facebook pics also be temporary since it probably saves the pics locally?
Here's to hoping Google ups the resolution of Google contacts for those who have lots if contacts that aren't on Google+ and wipe their phones often...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, if you use Google+ or Facebook Sync the pictures are high resolution. thats because it saves that picture to your phone in addition to the google contact picture, but uses the high res G+ or FB picture.

gokpog said:
This issue has been discussed here many times.
Short, every time you sync a google contact with a picture from google to your phone it will have the ugly 96*96 resolution. There is no way around it until the contacts team changes this restriction. They are aware of the issue but no word if or when a change is coming: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=49e2b1adea1aa11c&hl=en
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's too bad! What the f does G+ has anything to do with contacts photo sync. If I want to have a high res photos of my granpa and granny, should I ask them to be on G+? (One can even imagine them being on FB, but G+????)
Also now, too many devices are going to get the 4.0 update and this issue's gonna look terrible!

Even if you manually add pictures to each contact (which I did), the pictures still aren't very high resolution. ICS still resizes the images, leaving them much less sharp than the pictures I originally chose.

If we report these issues to GSMArena or other such websites, will they publish it? So that Google might consider it seriously... Like filling in a petition

I actually though about just this too.
It's apalling that Google doesn't listen to thousands of frustrated users, but hopefully they will listen to big and influential websites like GSMarena.
So we would need people with good contact to the authors of these pages.
Anybody around here knowing one or more authors?

Its already being fixed.

RogerPodacter said:
Its already being fixed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would like to see a link or something to that.
It's not that I don't believe you but I've seen this problem reported for a loooong time and it's yet to be fixed. I can't say for sure since I'm not a dev for Google but this "fix" should take maybe a week max.

RogerPodacter said:
Its already being fixed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
for the past one year? They should've fixed it before releasing galaxy nexus. as of now haxsync is the only lifesaver. Not only for High Resolution picture, but also for Facebook sync

Is it fixed?

Hah. Google forum thread:
http://groups.google.com/a/googleproductforums.com/forum/#!category-topic/gmail/android/MIt6-tdZZPk
Android bugtracker:
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3870
Google+ comment stream:
https://plus.google.com/109941711245243963357/posts/YBMTuysqm3B
Months of people shouting the same complaint and google employees chiming in with varying degrees of "working on it" and no progress.
Seems like for whatever reason, someone somewhere thinks it's better to say nothing than to tell people that it'll be a while. That or someone at google is just really bad at their job.

emmarbee said:
for the past one year? They should've fixed it before releasing galaxy nexus. as of now haxsync is the only lifesaver. Not only for High Resolution picture, but also for Facebook sync
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Facebook sync is Facebook's fault. The API is there, they are just lazy.

I'm very disappointed, this bug is very annoying.

The bigger a company is, the slower they become. Instead of having one guy do the work and fix it, you need to pass through several layers of approval and people "management" which get in the way. Not only is the request lost several times in between but even if someone at the company wants to fix it, they're told to do something else or fear the risk of being fired.
This is why progress is often achieved by small groups or individuals.

emmarbee said:
If we report these issues to GSMArena or other such websites, will they publish it? So that Google might consider it seriously... Like filling in a petition
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This really sounds like it could work. It's unfortunate but there's generally little incentive to change something unless a fuss is made. Look at what happened with Siri and the "best phone ever" question (Lumiagate). This stuff happens in politics all the time. Nothing gets changed until the press has a field day with it.
zapek666 said:
This is why progress is often achieved by small groups or individuals.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a good way of putting it. I wish this was fixed because I love seeing high-res pictures in my caller id. Unfortunately, none of my friends use Google+ and I don't use Facebook. Currently I just update the pictures of people who I've starred and, every now and then, I'll update the pictures of people I happen to have on my phone at the moment. I hope it gets fixed by the time JB is dropped.

Maybe it's cause of bandwitch or older phones that will use 96 x 96. That's why they are thinking how to get around this... Let's hope that they will soon fix this issue.

[Q] Low-res caller ID pics fix?

Is there a way to get higher-res pictures for caller id screens? Currently, the picture that comes up when someone calls you (and in their contact info), even if you have taken it at a higher resolution, looks like its probably lower than vga quality. I've poked around in the options and cant seem to find a setting so I am guessing its the standard.
Im not saying I need a super-hi res photo just to see who is calling me, but whats the point of even including this feature if what comes up looks more like a lego than a person.

few options:
1) manually apply a high res pic to each your contacts
2) if they are on Google+, the app will sync their pics, and will be high res, IF they uploaded one
3) Get HaxSync, it syncs High resolution pictures from Facebook, costs money, but works well

I have no problem with resolution on pictures through Haxsync or pictures that I have applied myself.. maybe try removing contacts sync with Google.

Negative, even the pictures I manually add turn into Low Res Pics later on. Hopefully this gets fixed soon...

+1 on this, it really sucks.
refthemc said:
Negative, even the pictures I manually add turn into Low Res Pics later on. Hopefully this gets fixed soon...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

And it's something so easy for Google to solve. Just allow Google Contacts to have images larger than 96x96. Such a low resolution doesn't even have any logic to be used, these days, for contact pictures.

That's weird.. pics I add manually don't resize..
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

what I did was using the FB app was browse frequently used contacts photos, find one I liked, hit the 3 dots for Menu > Set As then went through and added as a contact photo. Worked well and I get clean Hi-Res images when peeps are calling

No higher resolution contact pics from google until the "contacts" team finally realises it's not the year 2000 anymore:
Paul
Google Employee
12/16/11
Higher resolution pictures in *google.com/contacts* is something that the Contacts Team is considering, and I double-checked that they're aware of this feedback from the public -- they are. Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=49e2b1adea1aa11c&hl=en
Like it has been said already, the only way to easily get high res pics is to sync your contact pics with a social network site.

This is definitely something Google must fix. Every time a flash a new ROM and sync my contacts they are low-res again and I have to change them to high-res manually. That really sucs. It´s like GreenTuxer says, all they have to do is to update Google Contacts.
Star this issue and maybe Google will notice our frustation: Issue 3870: Poor quality of contact images

FriendCaster synchronizes the pictures but they still come up very low res. Sads
- Tapatalk (Galaxy Nexus)

Like some have said, the pics are fine when you apply a pic for your contacts manually in the People app. However, when you change ROMs, they become pixelated and would require to re-apply the pics again in the People's app.
All pics that sync from Gmail/Google+/Gtalk etc. are all low quality.
This is at least from my experience.

I went ahead and added them manually (thanks for the advice), but as someone previously said, for anyone that loads up roms (loaded up revolution HD yesterday) this is gonna be a pain.

Enhanced said:
Like some have said, the pics are fine when you apply a pic for your contacts manually in the People app. However, when you change ROMs, they become pixelated and would require to re-apply the pics again in the People's app.
All pics that sync from Gmail/Google+/Gtalk etc. are all low quality.
This is at least from my experience.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is, even if you apply a high resolution image, it is STILL downsampled to something like 256x256. Which is higher than 96x96, and looks good in the People app, but for the calling screen it still is not sufficient.
That size, unfortunately, seems pretty hard-coded into the application, and I honestly don't have the time to try downloading the source code and rebuilding a custom version. All my contact pictures are 720x720 minimum, but they still get downsized.

[Q] JB Low Resolution Contact Pics Solved?

HI,
Can anyone confirm that the Low Resolution Contact Pics,after synchronized with Google contacts solved with JB 4.1?

Well contact pics are getting a higher resolution image (max 720x720) according to this quoted from the Android developers site.
Higher-resolution contact photos
With Android 4.1, you can store contact photos that are as large as 720 x 720, making contacts even richer and more personal. Apps can store and retrieve contact photos at that size or use any other size needed. The maximum photo size supported on specific devices may vary, so apps should query the built-in contacts provider at run time to obtain the max size for the current device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Maybe this has already been addressed but what is the reason this hasn't been solved years ago? I mean, every stock build brings in ugly pixelated facebook pictures. Why? You can grab just about any app on the market and it'll bring in nice HD images but I don't understand why this isn't stock.
Is there some sort of legal reason android doesn't grab the HQ profile pictures?

Nope. Still has the pixelated avatars.

cartisdm said:
Maybe this has already been addressed but what is the reason this hasn't been solved years ago? I mean, every stock build brings in ugly pixelated facebook pictures. Why? You can grab just about any app on the market and it'll bring in nice HD images but I don't understand why this isn't stock.
Is there some sort of legal reason android doesn't grab the HQ profile pictures?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most ppl are saying the fault is due to GMail contact images.
They are saved at a 96x96px resolution.
Therefore when our devices download the images and blow them up, they look like crap.
Stephen Diniz is trying to get #AndroidLowResContactPics trending on Google+, to put pressure on Google to sort their mess out.
Can we get a +1 and a reshare?
https://plus.google.com/109941711245243963357/posts/PwRx3SHNbjR

Anyone having problems just needs to reupload a contact image via jelly bean and it'll be high res (at least on jelly bean devices)
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

Yeah once you upgrade to jelly bean, redo all your pics and they should stay high quality.

RogerPodacter said:
Yeah once you upgrade to jelly bean, redo all your pics and they should stay high quality.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does this mean that you HAVE to use your phone to set the Contact Image?
Does it also mean you have to keep the image on your device at all times? (eg. will it the Contact Image disappear if you accidently delete the photo)?
Thanks!

mobydeek said:
Does this mean that you HAVE to use your phone to set the Contact Image?
Does it also mean you have to keep the image on your device at all times? (eg. will it the Contact Image disappear if you accidently delete the photo)?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you need to use your phone to set the image ( or at least not use GMail to do it, using Google+ should be fine ).
You can delete an image on your phone after assigning it to a contact without the image being removed from the contact. It makes a seperate copy in a database for each contact.

mobydeek said:
Does this mean that you HAVE to use your phone to set the Contact Image?
Does it also mean you have to keep the image on your device at all times? (eg. will it the Contact Image disappear if you accidently delete the photo)?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess you have to set them from your phone, that's how I did it. You don't need to keep he pics, the high res stays in the server forever once you do it. This issue has been fixed, you just have to redo them once and your set.
I don't know what everyone thought their original pics would turn high res, Google lost that data years ago with this bug.

Make messenger app load MMS in image viewer instead of stupid playback preview?

Ok, I honestly cannot stand this one simple issue. Whenever I get an MMS in the default messenger app, instead of opening it in the image viewer, it loads in this retarded playback preview window with no ability to zoom or pan the image at all! Is there any way around this without going to a 3rd party messaging app?
I will however consider going to a ported version of s3 or s4's default messenger if it fixes this issue.
Sent from my SGH-T989

demoncamber said:
Ok, I honestly cannot stand this one simple issue. Whenever I get an MMS in the default messenger app, instead of opening it in the image viewer, it loads in this retarded playback preview window with no ability to zoom or pan the image at all! Is there any way around this without going to a 3rd party messaging app?
I will however consider going to a ported version of s3 or s4's default messenger if it fixes this issue.
Sent from my SGH-T989
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its based on the person that sends you the pictures, if he or her sends you multiple picture then its gonna come out like that. ask if others can send you pictures to see whats up?

PopperJuan said:
Its based on the person that sends you the pictures, if he or her sends you multiple picture then its gonna come out like that. ask if others can send you pictures to see whats up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I figured too, but it's also on just single pictures as well! I have no idea why it does this. And I've gotten other people sending me pics as well and it does the same thing.

demoncamber said:
That's what I figured too, but it's also on just single pictures as well! I have no idea why it does this. And I've gotten other people sending me pics as well and it does the same thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just save the pic and view it in your gallery.
Sent from my cellular telephone

Thats also what ill reccomend on it

kj2112 said:
Just save the pic and view it in your gallery.
Sent from my cellular telephone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the only way around it, and the part that annoys me about it! lol