Database Users

[unresolved] Mass link contacts to facebook

Is there some sort of application that allows me to link contacts to facebook pages from my computer, and then somehow mass updates the contacts on the phone? The link to facebook is just some XML in the contact notes, so in principle this should be possible.

The same question has been asked here yesterday - i can't post the link as there is a restriction from doing so *rubbish* but it's topic id is 636175 and isn't too far down the forum...
Anyways, it apparently works with myphone, but I don't seem the XML that everyone else does for some reason and so my facebook links don't save

wingm4n said:
Is there some sort of application that allows me to link contacts to facebook pages from my computer, and then somehow mass updates the contacts on the phone? The link to facebook is just some XML in the contact notes, so in principle this should be possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when you sync back your contacts after a flash/hard reset, the data to link them to their facebook equivalents should already be there. However, the links won't start to work until you have reassigned your 'me' contact card to your facebook account. When you do that, you should find the facebook links are restored. (not the facenbook app)

i'm afraid that's not what i'm looking for, myphone backs up my contact facebook associations just fine, i'm just looking for a simpler way to create those associations in the first place, preferably through the computer

Sorry if I misunderstand you, but doesn't the people/facebook app pop up and say 'click here to associate your contacts' and most of them are already pre-checked?
Note I'm NOT talking about the one on an individual person's page, but the one on the 'all people' list.
In the two seconds that process takes, 80% of my contacts were covered. The other 20% being people who I have as 'Jon XYZ' but they are 'Jonathan XYZ' on FB (or vice-versa.)
Or are you one of those people who doesn't do first name/last name and is looking for a way to get around that?

that's exactly what i need! it didn't do that with me, is there a way launch that synchronization manually?

I'm... not sure. I'm sure there is but I don't know how.
Just to make sure you're not missing anything obvious:
Go to the People tab
Click All People at the bottom
You're now at the "All" tab within a new screen -- you should see your fb contact as "Me" listed as the second contact -- do you see this 'link your facebook contacts' around here? (If it exists on this screen, it'll be one of the top three contacts.)
If not, use the slider on that same screen to scroll over to 'Updates and Events'. You'll see yourself at the very top here, and I'm almost positive that it was on this screen where it had 'link your contacts.' It wasn't in a menu or anything, it was very prominently displayed as one of the top items.
When/if you can find that screen, it's basically a dumb match that looks for Contacts(First Name,Last Name) = Facebook(First Name,Last Name). I'm not sure if it pairs on email address, but AFAIK it needs the full name to be exactly the same.
HTH.
**This all assumes you entered your facebook credentials when setting up your phone (or from the data sync menu under the settings tab afterwards) - completely separate from any fb app you may have on your phone. I'm pretty sure you have done this since you mentioned the XML in the contacts but just to be absolutely positive.

I've been looking at this problem since you first posted, and the main problem I see is that I can't see a way to un associate the me contact from face book (in order to re associate so that the contact association screen comes up)
dashed annoying!

i see what you mean, i'm going to look for a way to do that

Have you tried Fonebook!
http://www.developingtrends.co.uk/Software/Facebook/Fonebook/Default.aspx
I can do all the sync with facebook and Outlook. Give a look at this!

samsamuel said:
I've been looking at this problem since you first posted, and the main problem I see is that I can't see a way to un associate the me contact from face book (in order to re associate so that the contact association screen comes up)
dashed annoying!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you could momentarily switch off the Facebook connection altogether do accomplish that. It's under "Data services" (on the settings tab).

Robrecht said:
I think you could momentarily switch off the Facebook connection altogether do accomplish that. It's under "Data services" (on the settings tab).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, thanks, that got it, however when i logged back in (through 'me' contact card) it doesnt ask about associations as when you do it the first time. Oh well.

i just found an option do associate the contacts for you! if u scroll to the contacts tab in HTC sense then scroll to updates and events (its the picture of the person with a clock next to their head) i had a button at the tob which said 'Associate contacts: XX new associations found (xx being the number of new associations)' tap this and select the contacts you want to update (by default it selects all) then tap ok. it will create the associations for any contacts that arnt associated. it will also set the default contact picture to the facebook profile. it will make your contacts lag a bit while it downloads the info but after that it runs fine
if it helps im running 1.66 official hd2 rom from HTC, with radio 2.08

mazzarin said:
Or are you one of those people who doesn't do first name/last name and is looking for a way to get around that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to reopen this thread, but I'm one of those people! I would also be interested in finding a way to add/backup my fb associations on the PC as MyPhone does not seem to sync them for me I get the fb id's in the <sn> field but not in the <facebook> ones =/

Android issues with unknown number, calendar recurrence, contact sync

I just graduated from a Blackberry to the HTC Incredible. After a few days of use and way too much forum browsing, I still have a few issues that I cannot resolve. Please help if you know of any solutions!
1. PHONE: If I dial one of my local contacts and do not include the area code, the call log labels the call as UNKNOWN. This is somewhat frustrating as every phone that I've ever owned was sophisticated enough to known that I'm dialing a known contact even if the area code is not included.
2. CONTACT SYNC: I synced my Blackberry with Outlook. I had no problem getting all of my contacts into the Incredible, but now I want to sync them with Google Contacts and ditch Outlook. I cannot change the PC Sync label on each contact in my phone though, and I'm not even sure if it has anything to do with it.
3. CALENDAR RECURRENCE: I often need to enter meetings to repeat on multiple days of the week. For instance, I may have a review meeting every Tuesday and Thursday. Is there a calendar app that has the capability of recurrence in this manner? I know this is a popular problem, but I have been unsuccessful in finding a solution. It seems insane to have to enter these types of recurrences through Google Calendar to have them sync with the phone properly.
4. MAIL: If I setup my "native" or default google account in the HTC mail app, it syncs with IMAP to get all of the existing mail. HOWEVER, it will not show any new mail that comes in. I have unchecked the sync with the Gmail App ( I cannot remove the account from the Gmail App), but no matter what I do, I cannot get new mail in HTC Mail. Each time I try removing the account from HTC and setting it up again, the new mail shows up, but nothing new from then on.
5. POPUP NOTIFICATIONS: I love the notifications that I get in the status bar for new mail or text messages. Is there anything that I can use to have these notifications popup in a new window on my screen?
Please help! This is an awesome phone, but it just seems that some of the "basics" are missing.

Not sure about the rest but you can use Handcent for SMS Pop-ups. Just disable the regular notifications in the stock SMS app or else you'll get multiple notifications.

Like he said, handcent will give you a popup window, but dont confuse it for a window in the traditional Windows sense, you have to dismiss it to be able to do anything else after the sms arrives, you cant move it around or anything like that. If youre looking for like a widget to automatically view it, the stock widget seems to work fine.
The contacts issue drives me slightly insane as well, but it is a purely htc problem. All my contacts were formatted as 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx due to occasionally issues with needing 1 before the number, different area codes, etc. They worked just fine on the droid and synced right up to my google account. After pulling them to the incredible from my account they stay formatted like that, but apparently thats not good enough for htc. Its pretty tough to figure out how they want a number formatted, when a call is incoming it shows xxxxxxxxxx, in the contacts list it still shows it as 1-xxx-xxx-xxxx, and depending on the day, time, or weather it seems, the phone may or may not show the contacts name, or just unknown. Its pretty frustrating, to say the least, and I wish there was at least a easy to find guideline on how the contact list works so if i felt like going through and changing contacts, I could.
If you uncheck mail sync with the google account it wont automatically update your mail. Have you tried opening the gmail app, menu then refresh?
Anyway most of your problems stem from the Sense UI, which, although nice in some respects, falls well short of the mark in others. Unfortunately at this time there is no way to remove it until someone succeeds in rooting the phone and unlocking all the partitions. Given the problems devs had with the eris and the level of protection HTC built into the incredible, It may be quite a while until we can get a different rom on the phone.

My Guide to Clean Your Contacts *Updated 8/24/10*

Edited 8/24: The new gmail changed this guide and I have attempted to update it. Since my contacts were so clean from when I first wrote this guide, I can't say it's 100% perfect, like it was . I would really like it if people could chime in suggestions for the community!
Please note, this was in the Sticky. In an effort to save a LOT of needed space in the sticky AND to allow new
suggestions I am making this thread. Please let me know if this helps, and if there are other ways to clean up the contacts. Apologies, but I absolutely hate Facebook so others will need to chime in on how to incorporate that, if needed. Alright, on with my guide:
EDIT YOUR CONTACTS (ON YOUR PC FIRST)
If you are new to Android, the first time you logged in it was probably amazing (and frustrating) when you saw ALL of your google contacts sync with your phone.
First things you need to know, google does not allow you to stop the auto-adding of the random people you email to your contacts. Of course, those randoms are now likely showing up in your contact list (hence the frustrating part). Here is how I fixed it:
*please note, if you hide all contacts who do not have a phone number (see below) you can likely skip this, but I included for those who REALLY want to clean up their contacts*
1 - Login to gmail on your PC. Click on "Contacts" on the left border.
2 - Notice you have "My Contacts" (the good) and you have "All Contacts" below that (the bad).
*EDIT* There is no longer a "All Contacts." Google has improved this to now have "Other Contacts." This makes weeding out the people you may not want in your contacts a LOT easier. The next few steps was a workaround that is no longer needed. Simply review these "Other Contacts" and delete those you do not want, and add the ones you do to "My Contacts."
3 - go to the "search contacts" search bar and just enter one SPACE and then press enter.
4 - The middle column will now have your contacts sorted by THE GOOD (My contacts) on top and then THE BAD (All Contacts) below that. You may have more tiers, but I am keeping it simple for illustration.
5 - Scroll all the way down to the bad list. Review the names. Some may be legit people you just have not added to your My Contacts list yet.
6 - If you have a hard time recalling who someone is, you can click on their name and then click on the link "view recent conversations." This shows any previous email exchanges so you can decide to either delete or add them.
7 - Work through this list. I would suggest deleting them as you go, but not adding them to your My Contacts list until the very end (to prevent from having to do step 3 over and over). To add a contact to your "My Contacts" I just click on their name, edit their info and it showed up automatically. I did not need to click anything like "Add to...." etc.
8 - Okay, great. Lets assume you got rid of all the clutter. NOW, go to your My Contacts.... click on the "More Actions" button and then "Find & Merge Duplicates". If you have any, fix them... no reason to have several entries for the same person.
9 - Now just review the My Contacts list and make any edits or format changes. I am Type A, so you could only imagine how clean your Android Contact list is about to appear.
Great, enough with the PC. Go to your Vibrant.
Chances are it is already synching up with the changes you made.
The phone came with a bunch of #s stored on the Phone and SIM stock, I could care less about these. If you agree:
1 - Open Contacts. Press menu, go to "Display Options"
2 - Uncheck Phone and SIM (others may not agree, I just dont see the point), leaving Google as the only one checked.
*Also* You can also Delete these by long-pressing on them (wish I believe I did, and then unchecked them to now show... of course, they were deleted, so....)
Alright, almost there now. As it is, you have removed a LOT of clutter, but you may still have a ton of contacts. That is because, by default the Contacts app shows All contacts, even if they do not have a phone number. Now again, this is a personal choice.... but if I need to call someone, I would rather not have to deal with people listed who I do not have a phone number for. Also, if I am emailing them, I am using gmail, not Contacts (so again, not needed). IF you agree:
1 - Open Contacts, Press Menu and go to "Display Options."
2 - The top will say something to the affect of, check here if you only want to show contacts with phones.... Click it. Then click Done.
3 - Bam, your Contacts may not be perfect (like mine), but I bet they look a ton better. I tried to point out there is a lot of personal preferences, so please take this with a grain of salt. I like things clean.
Please read the sticky for other tips/tricks for contacts AND many other topics. Thanks for everyone helping!

You're the best. Thanks.

Great, thanks for this!
If only I'd seen it before muddling through the new contacts screens for hours getting it to work it would have saved me a lot of time.
Only comment is that step 3:
"go to the "search contacts" search bar and just enter one SPACE and then press enter."
Doesn't seem to work on the new gmail contacts screen, when I do this search it just takes me to the my contacts page. I had to click 'older contact manager' link at the bottom of the screen and then do the blank search. Also step 4, with the new interface you don't get the middle columns. Any ideas on how you'd sort the contacts with the new interface? I'm not sure how long the link to the old contacts manager will be around for...
Thanks for taking the time to draw this up.

Another great "clean up" tool is Merge contacts. After updating my Treo contacts into gMail, Find dups was not enough.
Merge is more of a manual action, but it is great to look at the entire list to see whats going on.
At the same time, "groups" is another manual action that can help organize "YOUR" (good list) contacts. At times, I had contacts lists from other peoples PDAs and phones on my treo (mine was reliable, theirs', not so much, so when they crashed and lost their contacts, i could beam their list to them).
Hope I helped someone

Anyone know how to get facebook pics to show up for contacts? When I first got this phone all my contacts who are on my facebook had their pics synced up. Not anymore though, and idk why. Fb still syncs in the updates column but not their pics.
Anyway, thanks for the guide.

The way I found that works is to follow the above instuctions (other than that I kept both the gmail friends as well as all my facebook friends and then chose to display only those with a phone.) You can then go through each contact without a photo and click on it (the one without a photo). This is the gmail contact, choose "link contact" and the Facebook contact comes up (note that this method assumes that your favorite contacts are also on facebook with a photo, if not you will need to get your own picture with your phone or camera). Again, this is assuming you have your contact as a facebook friend AND a gmail email friend.
I hope this makes sense. Good Luck

Hey, thanks for the comments. Yeah... The new gmail changed this guide and I need to update it. Will try and work on it soon. If you guys can keep making recommendations that would be awesome.

Do you know of a way to *remove* all SIM contacts on the phone? When transferring from my old phone I dumped to SIM and then loaded onto the Android device, then I dumped that to a CSV and merged it with gmail. That got things sorted out on the gmail end, however I now have a bunch of redundant SIM contacts.
Even if you uncheck SIM contact visibilityin the contact app, they do still exist, and they show up elsewhere. So far I've seen no way to actually get rid of all of them easily, short of manually removing them one at a time

I also like using the app "Contacts clean-up" to auto format all the numbers up be consistent. ;-)
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant

Jeremy, did you see if there were duplicates on the pc within gmail?
Sent from my Vibrant

Okay, I made an attempt to correct my guide for the new Gmail. I really did not have much to play with this time, so please let me know if there needs to be any changes or improvements made.
Thank you guys!

Remember the days?
Did anyone else make a complete different Phone list within google contacts, and only use this list as the list for your phone? This was on my G1.
I'm trying to figure out why we can't do that anymore. Kinda sucks

s15274n said:
Jeremy, did you see if there were duplicates on the pc within gmail?
Sent from my Vibrant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No dupes in gmail itself, just the dupe sim contacts. Gmail did a good job handling the dupes that I had in my gmail account.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Phonebook

i love the Droid X, but freaking hate the phonebook. it truley is the worse contact list i've used. is there anyway to flash the stock android phonebook onto the phone?
if not, does anyone know how to limit what contacts are displayed? i dont want everyone ive ever emailed to show up in my contacts list. i've tried changing the displayed contacts to my phone contacts, or gmail contacts, but whenever i leave it for a bit it just resets and shows me hundreds of stupid emails.

I had a similar issue, have had my DX about 6 weeks and found some useful articles on the subject. I think (and only my recollection, could be wrong on this) what I ended up doing was un-syncing EVERYTHING in terms of email accounts and contacts (via My Accounts) and ended up ONLY syncing my gmail contacts.
This was done after finding a nifty Facebook Profile Pic sync to Gmail thing-uh-majig. If you sync contacts, preferrably you limit what you sync because as you said, it goes WAY overboard. It sounds like you sync'd corporate (work) email and contact which is a BIG no-no.

Once I started using roms all my contacts issues went away. Almost all the roms have the normal stock android contacts app. Some can even use WyContacts (the CM contacts app).
Edit: @DNak206, hey I'm from seattle too! My droid X is the one verizon gave away during their @droidlanding promotion thing in Seattle.

Yup dc seem to mic all the contacts but if you hate to look because everything seems mixed up ( facebook contact, phone contact and so on ) you can alway preds menu and select a display group.
The way I manage my contact is I have fixed and organize every thing on my gmail thnen I sync my droid.
The eay I use my contact is I dont go yo the contacts shortcut. I always go to the phone shortcut the select favorites since the droid is keeping a record of all of the contact that iI usually use and it has pwen put in order. I also use the defaul universal inbox to send email. I hit compost and start typing names and email and the droid gives a suggestion and I just select one from there.
Sent from my DROIDX

NICE! I have lived in Seattle awhile, I guess you could say I'm immune to the weather.
While we're on the topic of contacts though, has anyone noticed the default text messaging/SMS will populate ALL the phone numbers for contacts as opposed to identifying the "mobile" listed # for a contact?
For example, if I'm trying to send a text to Jon Smith. I'll compose new message, start typing "smi" in the :TO line and Jon will pop up in the selectable options (or scrollable rather?). The problem is, I have to swipe or scroll through his work, home, and then finally select his mobile number.
Maybe Windows had one thing over Android because neither my TP1 or TP2 would ever list a work or home # when composing a new text, it was actually smart enough to recognize the mobile # in terms of priority. Anyone else found a fix for this, maybe a text app (like handscent or whatever) will resolve?

Handcent or chompSMS might do the trick. When calling someone I know theres an option to remember the number you dialed, not sure about when texting..

If you always send msg or call john he will be under your favorites list. I always go thru the favoritw list and click the call icon on the side of the name to make a call or i click the name then clic the mail icon to send sms.
Sent from my DROIDX

[Q] Birthday to contact, bluetooth and send/recieve vCard

I am a CyanogenMod 7 user, and I manage well all along.
I cannot find sleek solutions to few problems, so decided to ask -
EDIT: it seems send via bluetooth is inactive for some files in File Expert, my mistake.
2) A contacts app that allows me to add birthday to contact - I dont want a reminder or something, I got my phone synced with birthday cal already. Most apps will open the default edit contact dialog when it comes to that. The less FB and twitter integration, the better - I'd gladly take the HTC contact app or something similar if there is any chance
Contact Editor adds it, free on the market.
3) Send/receive vCard added option - I use go sms. Handycent sms has it embedded , but it does not support well Cyrillic contacts and most of mine are Cyrillic, so it is a must.
I know I can get all three if I go with Sense ROM, but this will eat a lot of space, so this is las resort.
Thank you