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Has anyone got High resolution contact photos working?
I'm using SyncMyPix (with the "best quality" option set) but I still end up with tiny 96x96 images all blown up to pixelly horridness.
I saw this post which suggest it... well, just works.
Any ideas?
all of my contacts pictures are pixellated.
annoying.
This is what I am curious about is the high res contact pics are meant to be at 256x256, correct me if I am wrong. But did Google set up Gmail contacts sync to account for this? Meaning, if I add a contact picture on my phone that is high res, will it sync to my gmail account, be converted to low res and then sent back to my phone?
Lootes said:
This is what I am curious about is the high res contact pics are meant to be at 256x256, correct me if I am wrong. But did Google set up Gmail contacts sync to account for this? Meaning, if I add a contact picture on my phone that is high res, will it sync to my gmail account, be converted to low res and then sent back to my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that's what's happening, yeah- so you add a high res contact, then when it syncs it reduces it again.
To test, I just turned off contact syncing in accounts & sync, deleted picture cache in SyncMyPics and re-synced.
Now I have higher resolution images. Not brialliant though...
Gonna turn on sync and see if that breaks...
<wait>
Hmm, now they seem okay...
Not super high res but that may be the FB pics... some are pixelly though?
Errrr
I dunno
How do you get Facebook pics synching? Ive never worked that out since I ditched Sense on my old Desire
I swear to god, my phone picks the lowest res pic of all connected social media photos. Hah! Trollphone.
It sticks with the Google Contact photo over the others I think, so delete that and see if it switches to higher res ones from G+ etc.
I set high res pictures to the contacts via the People app on the phone and they have synced back to my Google Contacts and they remain high res.
How do yuo guys get FB to sync. I've got Twitter, G+ and LinkedIN to connect with contacts but not FB.
FB itself isn't working due to the missing menu bug, although someone patched that - I've not tried it yet.
I'm using "SyncMyPix" (free app in the market) to do it.
I also have this problem, I use syncmypix its a great apply but the only way to get high res is to turn off the crop 96px square option. This gives higher resolution pics in the people apply but means they are not square in the contact thumbnails which looks pretty shocking. I want hi-res in my people application and square thumbnails everywhere else too!
Has anyone figured out a way to get high resolution photos to display on an incoming call?
I deleted my contact photos because I couldn't stand the low resolution.
If your contact uses Google +1 you can get their profile picture from that, much clearer. However if you are relying on photos from Google contacts I would imagine you need to retake the photo again as someone has mentioned earlier, Google now allow 256x256px (still pants ) images instead of 96.
What if they don't have a Goolge + account? Can I make contact entry for them even if they don't?
ferris2375 said:
What if they don't have a Goolge + account? Can I make contact entry for them even if they don't?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can still make a Google contact instead but the image will only be 256x256px in size.
What determines the resolution of the contact photo? Say I take a high resolution photo and import it into Google, does it default to 256?
Why the hell can't I select a photo locally on my phone and opt not to have my online contact photo synced. grrr...
ferris2375 said:
... Why the hell can't I select a photo locally on my phone and opt not to have my online contact photo synced. grrr...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly! or even take space off your gmail allocation to store the high-res images... no, that's too logical so instead make them think they've got a hi-res photo when the user has just taken the photo, then sync the contact and give them a pants, degraded photo in exchange.
Are you sure?
I meant, are you really really sure?
Because, if you sync back with Google Contacts, you will get low resolution.
Thats what happen with my Nexus S running the latest 2.3.
Other users with GN can test this?
ShiroEd said:
I set high res pictures to the contacts via the People app on the phone and they have synced back to my Google Contacts and they remain high res.
How do yuo guys get FB to sync. I've got Twitter, G+ and LinkedIN to connect with contacts but not FB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gogol said:
Are you sure?
I meant, are you really really sure?
Because, if you sync back with Google Contacts, you will get low resolution.
Thats what happen with my Nexus S running the latest 2.3.
Other users with GN can test this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They do not remain hi-res, was one of the first things I did when I got the phone as it was one of the main annoyances with android for me.
You can try jKalvins workaround. If it works, all you have to do is change a setting in Google contacts and the sync to low res pictures should stop.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google Mobile/thread?tid=4fe466bb19e3f875&hl=en&start=44
It's from an apple group so no idea if it will work, but maybe still worth a try.
That wont work anymore, I read the whole thread.
I wish there is and app that we can use to replace contact photos all at once.
First we tell the app which image for each contact.
Then, one button click to replace all.
That would be a nice workaround AFTER synched.
Please someone make this kind of app, I will pay ... Big time!
gokpog said:
You can try jKalvins workaround. If it works, all you have to do is change a setting in Google contacts and the sync to low res pictures should stop.
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google Mobile/thread?tid=4fe466bb19e3f875&hl=en&start=44
It's from an apple group so no idea if it will work, but maybe still worth a try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
gogol said:
That wont work anymore, I read the whole thread.
I wish there is and app that we can use to replace contact photos all at once.
First we tell the app which image for each contact.
Then, one button click to replace all.
That would be a nice workaround AFTER synched.
Please someone make this kind of app, I will pay ... Big time!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used to do my syncing via SyncMyPix, but recently did a sync with Friendcaster (the great Facebook app). It has a contact pic sync option and you can choose HD.
After the sync the pictures seemed significantly sharper. It's worth a try.
Hi guys, have started a thread at google mobile support forum so we can get some attention on the low res contact picture problem
join in !
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=49e2b1adea1aa11c&hl=en
I wouldn't say my contacts that use a Google+ or have a profile with Google have hideous pictures. Although I would agree that Facebook syncing looks terrible but it's not really Googles problem.
Edit: Oh and you miss-spelt bigger
haha ups.. cant change it now..
Actually it is a Google issue. The gmail contact list, where the pictures are synced to, downgrade the resolution of the pictures
The pictures I changed in my phone, most of them, have remained at the higher resolution. However, once I wiped the phone to flash a new ROM, Google sync brought them all back at the lower resolution. Definite Google problem.
Now I get what your saying. To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if Google releases that as a feature in the next few months anyway. Just sit tight
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App
A Google Employee just answered
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. The icons used in Google Contacts used to be a relatively low resolution, more of a thumbnail really. Those are the pictures that the phone pulls from first. There are a couple of ways you can bring higher resolution pictures in for your contacts.
1) Use your own high resolution photo. You can do this by opening a contact in the People app, tapping the menu, selecting Edit, then tapping on the photo icon. You'll be offered a choice to either take a photo right then, or pick a photo you've already got on your phone from the Gallery app.
2) Sync your contacts with Google+. If you and your contacts use Google+, you can launch the Google+ app on Android and set it to sync contacts from the app's settings. If your contact has a high resolution photo for their portrait in Google+ it'll get sync'd to your phone. Note that the initial contact photo sync from Google+ takes a little while to finish.
(Advanced note on #2: I was just playing with this a couple of days ago and noticed that the initial sync with Google+ prioritizes syncing a contact that you happen to be looking at. For example, if you're syncing 200 contacts but go look at your best friend immediately, it'll pull down your friend's photo right then and there before working on the rest of your contacts.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you ask me its not good enough we all want this fixed so we can have high res fb pictures...
So I guess we're stuck with these 2 options... I hope they put some kind of size difference in place. Like thumbnail size for Google Talk and high-res for phone sync.
I added my feedback there (NexusDude).
We can also open a new thread in the Official Google Contacts support forum:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/label?lid=3a63236689cf8dbd&hl=en
Anyone can write a good problem description in clear and good english language?
I am not that good in english ...
just added my comment as well. thanks for initiating the post.
I am also opening a question in StackOverflow.com for an application that we can use to replace contact photos easily using locally stored high-resolution image files.
Please, if you are Android developer, this kind of app will be very useful!
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...otos-using-local-image-files-programmatically
Think about it, your app will solve this on-going years of issue that will probably never be solved by Google.
Also put a request in the Android Software Development forum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1391253
This may be a bit off topic, but does Kies sync Outlook 2010 (not exchange, but a local copy) to the phone?
I am coming from an HTC Desire and i hate the google contact sync.. i need my Outlock Sync back..
How this is still an issue with all the changes they made to contacts is just retarded.
gogol said:
I am also opening a question in StackOverflow.com for an application that we can use to replace contact photos easily using locally stored high-resolution image files.
Please, if you are Android developer, this kind of app will be very useful!
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...otos-using-local-image-files-programmatically
Think about it, your app will solve this on-going years of issue that will probably never be solved by Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sure it will be updated eventually. Personally, I find it easier to just manually go update my contacts; I'm utterly anal about perfect organization of data, though. I posted a reply to your SO post as follows:
It's certainly possible, and wouldn't need root access. The problem is going to be that the user would need to properly name all the images first, consistently, accurately, and in a unique manner. For example, if you had three contacts named John Rodeo, then the naming convention of JohnRodeo.png or Rodeo_John.png would not work, as you could not have three images with the same name. Even if there was no duplication of data, you would need to make sure all names followed a consistent naming scheme (lastname_firstname.png for example). Of course, you could also add an algorithm to search filenames for likely variations and not have to worry about exact consistency.
It's certainly a feasible idea, but it would be much easier if Facebook would kiss and make up with Google already, and just play nice with the Contacts API. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your feedback,
Looking into the history of this issue, I don't think it will ever get updated. Come on, it has not been fixed since 2008 ... 3 years.
And if you read the answer from Google employee in that Google Mobile support forum? They won't listen. They want to push people to use Google+. Forcing the solution by syncing with Google+.
That is sad ... same with syncing Facebook, not all contacts are on Facebook / Google+.
Obviously, Google should know this issue, otherwise they don't test their software properly. They should be aware how ugly is the low resolution contact photos, especially when user receives a phone call.
I cannot think any reason, that design master, Matias Duarte would allow this to happen!
About your feedback on my question in StackOverflow:
Naming the file is not really a problem. User needs only to do it once. And for multiple contact with same names, well, you can add phone number into it as additional option. Oh by the way, this is not about Facebook contact sync, especially because not all contacts are on Facebook. This is mainly to workaround the low resolution contact photos after synced with GMail Contacts
=======
Too bad, even though I am a developer (PC software), I don't have experience with Android software development. I don't know, probably this would push me to learn it.
Solution that I could think of, that I am capable of doing it:
- Root the device
- Download the contacts database (I read this is just SQLite3 db)
- Create PC application to manipulate the blob photo data inside the contacts db
- Push back the contacts db to the device
Yeah, it would be much better if we can have this Android app.
And I am begging to any dev around this XDA ... please, make this app for us!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1391253
copkay said:
I'm sure it will be updated eventually. Personally, I find it easier to just manually go update my contacts; I'm utterly anal about perfect organization of data, though. I posted a reply to your SO post as follows:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't see how this is a Google problem when its simply grabbing the tiny photo off facebook.
Obviously the contact image supports high resolutions because I've added plenty of contact pictures myself from the camera. It saves them properly.
The problem is the SOURCE. If facebook has a bunch of 32x32 images for contacts, Google can't magically make them HD. Sure you can go in to a specific contacts photo album, download the picture, and add it manually... but there is no way to do this automatically.
Sync your contacts with a source which contains higher resolution images and your problem will be solved.
Facebook won't do it because Facebook uses the images all over the place. Images need to be small. Can you imagine trying to load a Facebook page with 500 HD pictures? It's facebook sync, not magic.
Blame it on the 4.63 HD resolution screen you have. On a tiny low res screen, the images don't look as stretched... but on a HD screen there will be lots of nasties.
So again, for HD pictures you'll need to find a source with HD images to sync with or add them manually. Have at it.
player911 said:
I don't see how this is a Google problem when its simply grabbing the tiny photo off facebook.
Obviously the contact image supports high resolutions because I've added plenty of contact pictures myself from the camera. It saves them properly.
The problem is the SOURCE. If facebook has a bunch of 32x32 images for contacts, Google can't magically make them HD. Sure you can go in to a specific contacts photo album, download the picture, and add it manually... but there is no way to do this automatically.
Sync your contacts with a source which contains higher resolution images and your problem will be solved.
Facebook won't do it because Facebook uses the images all over the place. Images need to be small. Can you imagine trying to load a Facebook page with 500 HD pictures? It's facebook sync, not magic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's syncing the PROFILE pictures. Facebook profile pictures are not 32x32! Mine is 728x688, for example. Facebook obviously has smaller versions to use for thumbnails on its own site. The problem is clearly not at Facebook's end.
player911 said:
I don't see how this is a Google problem when its simply grabbing the tiny photo off facebook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well it IS a google problem imho. Maybe Im just alone with this since I dont use fb, but I added pictures to my google contacts manually. (And I used the computer for it - not the phone )
I added a High Res photo to each contact, but the google contacts changed em to a crappy resolution. On my old phone (milestone) I had no problem with it ... but now? It just looks hideous :/
And since I still dislike the use of facebook I would have to search a good picture for each damn contact again :/
player911 said:
I don't see how this is a Google problem when its simply grabbing the tiny photo off facebook.
Obviously the contact image supports high resolutions because I've added plenty of contact pictures myself from the camera. It saves them properly.
The problem is the SOURCE. If facebook has a bunch of 32x32 images for contacts, Google can't magically make them HD. Sure you can go in to a specific contacts photo album, download the picture, and add it manually... but there is no way to do this automatically.
Sync your contacts with a source which contains higher resolution images and your problem will be solved.
Facebook won't do it because Facebook uses the images all over the place. Images need to be small. Can you imagine trying to load a Facebook page with 500 HD pictures? It's facebook sync, not magic.
Blame it on the 4.63 HD resolution screen you have. On a tiny low res screen, the images don't look as stretched... but on a HD screen there will be lots of nasties.
So again, for HD pictures you'll need to find a source with HD images to sync with or add them manually. Have at it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have been seeing this for 3 years now, it is not the source!!! you could manually stick a 24526246HD res picture the...............it's what happens to the original picture after it syncs with Google servers.
See my comment:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=27930642&postcount=10
It's about an app I made that syncs the high resolution photos with picasaweb. Hope it helps.
So we all know about how Google's contact photo syncing results in a distorted image .....
question is, anyone hear of any updates on Google's front?
Even more curiously.... what are you guys doing to get around this? Or have you just learned to live with it? Ignore it?
Looking forward to your replies.
Just learned to live with it. It does suck, and needs to be improved, by el Goog.
-bZj
This will never get solved as long as we are quite, as google has been giving us the silent treatment since the G1 shipped. We have to bombard tech blogs about this till it's major news so google would move their asses and fix it.
I'm all for it... but how do we start?
The problem is on googles end with the way gmail and google contacts downgrades the image size. There is an open help topicon googles site where they state that their contacts team is looking into it. Contacts with G+ accounts come in high rez. Other than that there is nothing you can do outside of manually changing the pics. And then not making any changes to the contacs whos images you changed. Otherwise it will be resynced and the image will get downgraded again.
pyro6128 said:
The problem is on googles end with the way gmail and google contacts downgrades the image size. There is an open help topicon googles site where they state that their contacts team is looking into it. Contacts with G+ accounts come in high rez. Other than that there is nothing you can do outside of manually changing the pics. And then not making any changes to the contacs whos images you changed. Otherwise it will be resynced and the image will get downgraded again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the OS part was fixed in Android 4.x since they have a larger contact image size than before. However if you sync with Google, on their side they still have the (Google mail contacts) old small size.
We shouldn't give a damn about behind the scenes stuff however and complain till they fix this crap.
I don't care if Facebook or Google+ contacts get proper pictures because i don't use any of those 2 services. I want the plain GMail contacts' images to be larger than 96x96 pixels dammit !!!
This **** limitation is around since Cupcake! (Android 1.5)!!
=================
Comment 229 by project member [email protected], Oct 25, 2011
Per the previous comments, contact photos have been dramatically improved in Android 4.0 - see http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0.html. The max size is now 256x256, which looks much much nicer on incoming calls, contact details, and quick contacts. Large photos can be supplied by manually associating them with contacts, or by syncing them down from social networks. So, I'm going to close this issue out. Related requests should be tracked in new issues.
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This however applies only to every other possible contact DB (Facebook, G+,etc) except GMail (((
In Gmail you can only use 96x96 size.
LOL even iPhone users get shafted if they sync with GMail.....take that retina display....96x96 PIXELS is the best you'll get
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=49e2b1adea1aa11c&hl=en
12/15/11:
The contacts team is "aware of the issue and considers higher resolution pictures". Just hope the come to their senses soon.
zerozoneice said:
the OS part was fixed in Android 4.x since they have a larger contact image size than before. However if you sync with Google, on their side they still have the (Google mail contacts) old small size.
We shouldn't give a damn about behind the scenes stuff however and complain till they fix this crap.
I don't care if Facebook or Google+ contacts get proper pictures because i don't use any of those 2 services. I want the plain GMail contacts' images to be larger than 96x96 pixels dammit !!!
This **** limitation is around since Cupcake! (Android 1.5)!!
=================
Comment 229 by project member [email protected], Oct 25, 2011
Per the previous comments, contact photos have been dramatically improved in Android 4.0 - see http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-4.0.html. The max size is now 256x256, which looks much much nicer on incoming calls, contact details, and quick contacts. Large photos can be supplied by manually associating them with contacts, or by syncing them down from social networks. So, I'm going to close this issue out. Related requests should be tracked in new issues.
=================
This however applies only to every other possible contact DB (Facebook, G+,etc) except GMail (((
In Gmail you can only use 96x96 size.
LOL even iPhone users get shafted if they sync with GMail.....take that retina display....96x96 PIXELS is the best you'll get
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have ics, your Google + contacts will have hi-res photos, this is the only way to get hi Res on Android
Sent from my Verizon Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
here is the answer to what you want its .99 but works wonderfully
https://market.android.com/details?...?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsIm9yZy5tb3RzLmhheHN5bmMiXQ..
no it doesn't as its a Facebook sync...
Anyone know a good way to backup and restore my manual contacts with pics since I've turned off google contacts sync?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Is there a way to just turn contact pictures off? When I go into Phone then select Contacts, the images on my favorite contacts are enormous and obnoxious. But the images next to all my other contacts are small and look fine.
p-slim said:
If you have ics, your Google + contacts will have hi-res photos, this is the only way to get hi Res on Android
Sent from my Verizon Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
f4ck google+, don't need it.
this moronic race to increase the G+ user base by any means sounds quite Microsoft-ish to me...
---------- Post added at 12:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:09 AM ----------
sn0warmy said:
Is there a way to just turn contact pictures off? When I go into Phone then select Contacts, the images on my favorite contacts are enormous and obnoxious. But the images next to all my other contacts are small and look fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No.
enjoy your multihundred dollar phone
The solution is this - and it works excellent.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1621031
Hi.
Coming from a different phone.... contacts on ICS are low res... it's ugly on People App and when making a call to one of my pictured-contacts.
Anyway to fix this?
Thank you
I've been searching google and XDA for the answer too. Only thing I can find is for Facebook users. App called Haxsync. But I don't use fb or g+ all too much.
Is there a rom or app that allows the native use of hi-res images for contacts?
Or is it time to drink the kool-aid and put on some nikes?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
It is my understanding, after messing around with contacts for a while, that haxsync and google+ are the only programs that are currently working which make use of the 256x256 upgrade. Everything else, including google contact sync, still uses the old 96x96 size.
Haxsync is a very well written program and is still being actively developed, but it only works with Facebook.
Google+ apparently works pretty flawlessly but... you're probably in the minority if a high percentage of your phone contacts use it as well.
There is always the option of manually loading photos in your phone yourself, if you're up for the task. But I don't think that the google contacts system itself actually supports anything higher than 96x96, so I imagine that if you ever wipe your phone and restore it from the sync, it will give you all lower res pictures than what you set manually. Unless they store the original one and just downsize what gets displayed, but I can't speak to how that works.
If neither facebook (via haxsync) nor google+ are part of your solution, you're basically left waiting for google to get their act together and raise the limits on picture size through google contacts, or whichever sync program you use to update to use 256x256.
I don't think any roms currently have anything baked in to raise the 256x256 limit, but I imagine that'll probably happen before google actually changes anything on their end.
JoeSyr said:
It is my understanding, after messing around with contacts for a while, that haxsync and google+ are the only programs that are currently working which make use of the 256x256 upgrade. Everything else, including google contact sync, still uses the old 96x96 size.
Haxsync is a very well written program and is still being actively developed, but it only works with Facebook.
Google+ apparently works pretty flawlessly but... you're probably in the minority if a high percentage of your phone contacts use it as well.
There is always the option of manually loading photos in your phone yourself, if you're up for the task. But I don't think that the google contacts system itself actually supports anything higher than 96x96, so I imagine that if you ever wipe your phone and restore it from the sync, it will give you all lower res pictures than what you set manually. Unless they store the original one and just downsize what gets displayed, but I can't speak to how that works.
If neither facebook (via haxsync) nor google+ are part of your solution, you're basically left waiting for google to get their act together and raise the limits on picture size through google contacts, or whichever sync program you use to update to use 256x256.
I don't think any roms currently have anything baked in to raise the 256x256 limit, but I imagine that'll probably happen before google actually changes anything on their end.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I really appreciate this very-informative response! Thanks
Can I please get a definite statement, if HD Contact Pics are syncing back to Google Contacts in JB?
I searched far and wide, but there are conflicting reports. It should be in there, as mentioned on those Google I/O slides, that now 720x720 are possible. But does it work also in a way that those are stored also in Google Contacts? Coz before I always had the problem, when flashing a new ROM and restoring my contacts from Google Contacts afterwards, that the pics come back pixelated.
I'm not interested in an on-phone solution, like those that are available in the market. Just wanna know, if this year-long problem is finally fixed in Android. Thanks!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
Nope, not from Gmail contact pictures.
If the person has a G+ account then it'll be higher res, but gmail contact picture sync still sucks.
will google ever fix this crap? people have been complaining since 2008
nxt said:
Nope, not from Gmail contact pictures.
If the person has a G+ account then it'll be higher res, but gmail contact picture sync still sucks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I'm seeing too.
But I'm seeing that once I add a picture while on JB, the photo is high res.
The new high res congtact pictures are useful only with contacts who habe google+ , the rest of the contatcs looks like crap, im gonna ask some friends to change their gmail picture now to see if from the moment of the announcement the new pictures are stored in good quality
It seems to be working for me if you add the pictures to the contacts ON YOUR PHONE (i.e. in Contacts in Jelly Bean) instead of through Gmail on the web. If I attached pictures through Gmail on the web, the pictures were resized.
JellyBean is still not officially released yet, so we shouldn't be surprised that not everything is "perfect" yet.
Eckless