Database Users

Do you keep your contact list on your phone or on google?

My phone's bugging out again for some reason today and I'm pretty sure I have to wipe it when I get home, currently I backup all my contacts to my outlook account on my computer at home.
My question, Is it better to use Google as the main storage for my contacts instead of resyncing each time I wipe my phone?

I use google. Main reason is because I use all of the services...like calendar, voice, gmail, and so on. Just easier for me.

Google. One of the best features for me was the integration of Google's address book, my Gmail had more complete contact information than even my last cell phone.

Google because after all it is a Google phone....

Google for sure. SO easy to flash a new ROM. All the app data is back, perfect and pristine; no worries about Outlook formatting things incorrectly, or things getting 'out of sync' when you update things online and/or on your phone.

I wipe WAY too much to leave it on the phone.. so Google it is for me..

Yup, google here. Makes things soo easy.

i use google because its very easy to restore my contacts after a wipe

Google for me as well. Remember you can chose to Sync only the groups you want sync'd. It requires some organizing in google to get your contacts into groups but is well worth the effort. This way you can leave out contacts you don't want on your phone, but can access via google should you really need to.

tyrnight said:
I wipe WAY too much to leave it on the phone.. so Google it is for me..
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+1 on this i learned the hard wat to sync to google (first time i flased i messed up and cleared all my contacts) been google ever since

I used to keep them on my Exchange server at work then switched to using Google.

Googleeee.

Google it is.

I really can't believe that any one wouldn't keep them in Googles cloud.

I also used Google for everything. With Gmail push, battery life is even better. Before I used to use stock mail and my battery loose drain faster than using gmail now. It was all trial and error to see what fix your need.

So I an not sure if I am doing something wrong but I can not get gmail to sync my contacts. It does not pull numbers from my phone. It will only add my email addresses from my gmail. Does anyone have any ideas why? Thanks

Google all the way.

Yes. To both. Also, on all of my home computers and MobileMe. Everything has the full contact list always in sync.

Definitely Google. I also export from Google to a csv file every now and then just to be on the safe side, which then gets stored in my Dropbox account.
My wife was quite impressed the night we got our Heros and I had both of our (lengthy) contact lists loaded onto our phones before we even got out of the parking lot.

I save them on google. Coz I am afriaid of losing my phone.

Best way to save everything off of vibrant?

Well due to some microphone issues and bluetooth issues, looks like i will be exchanging my vibrant shortly, I honestly dont feel like setting up all my contacts, pics, music, apks, etc again, what is the best way to save this stuff and then easily transfer it over to the new phone?

Titanum backup if youre rooted. Contacts are saved to gmail. Eveything else should be on your sd card.
Catchin' the VIBE on the XDApp

unfortunately my contacts arent in my gmail, everything is turned onto sync yet they arent in there, is there a way to get them to sync?

There are no good stock backup programs for non-rooted people?
I was kind of hoping that your Google account would keep track of what apps you've downloaded (sort of like your iTunes account does with the iPhone).
As I'm new to the Android scene, I may as well ask: what happens then, when you buy an app and wipe your phone? Where is that purchasing info stored?

Use Koush's fakeFlash recovery, create a nandroid backup and then make a copy of both the internal and external drives. Copy the internal and external drives to the new phone, re-root, re-install fakeFlash, and restore from your nandroid backup. It'll be like it never happened.

Jon C said:
There are no good stock backup programs for non-rooted people?
I was kind of hoping that your Google account would keep track of what apps you've downloaded (sort of like your iTunes account does with the iPhone).
As I'm new to the Android scene, I may as well ask: what happens then, when you buy an app and wipe your phone? Where is that purchasing info stored?
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There aren't really any good non-root backup apps that I'm aware of, search the market though, there might be something.
It does keep track of purchased apps, they link to your gmail account and will be available on the new phone. They will automatically show up in the downloads list. They didn't auto-install for me, I had to tell the phone to install them. 2.2 (Froyo) also stores free apps you have installed and will auto-install them for you. We don't have that version of the OS yet.

Does flashing a rom delete contacts?

I just order the vibrant and cant wait to root and flash a rom. If i flash rom, does it delete wipe everything on the phone? (contacts, setting, etc)

I flashed hundreds of times. Text message and phone record logs, yes. Names and numbers, no. Those are stored on the SIM card.

thank you... thats all i wanted to know

on simcard or your google account, depends where u have been creating/savimg them to

FYI anytime you save a contact i would recommend picking Google account instead of saving to the phone or the sim card. Anytime you log in with a phone that has Google support, all of your numbers should sync with it. (if you saved them to Google)

I didn't know people still saved contacts directly on the phone anymore. Why would you want to if saving them in a google account can have such info sync'ed to any phone automatically... especially on an Android handset. Even the crappy-ass iPhone has a method of doing this.
Sent from my HTC EVo

digitall321 said:
I didn't know people still saved contacts directly on the phone anymore. Why would you want to if saving them in a google account can have such info sync'ed to any phone automatically... especially on an Android handset. Even the crappy-ass iPhone has a method of doing this.
Sent from my HTC EVo
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+1, plus it makes it easier to manage your contacts from the google contacts page.

Sms backup will backup all of your text messages to gmail.

[Q] Contacts don't sync by default?

I've been on Windows Mobile for years, but my wife has been using the Aria the last few months. I just updated her phone to the latest Stock ROM (trying to keep things simple), and I'm kind of shocked that after re-syncing it with her Gmail account, none of her contact synced! I have very little Android experience, but I kind of figured that, synced all this time to a Gmail account, her phone would have saved all of her contacts there, and not just on the device's internal memory.
Before installing the ROM, I backed up call logs and some apps with Astro, but I didn't think I'd need the Contacts or her email accounts, stuff like that. Did I just wipe her address book, or are they supposed to be saved somewhere out there?

You sure they were saved to Google's servers? Syncing only saves your contacts if they are linked to your GMail account. They won't save if you saved them to Phone or SIM (although they will still be saved on the SIM, unless that was wiped too).

jeebuz said:
You sure they were saved to Google's servers?
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At this point, I'm sure they weren't saved to Google's servers. I'm so surprised that Google, who automatically adds people to your Gmail contact list if you email them a few times, and tightly integrates the phone with a Gmail account, wouldn't automatically back up all phone contacts without specifically asking you to your Gmail account. My Windows Mobile phone contacts don't ask me if I want to save them to Exchange; they just do.
Since when does Microsoft "just work"? And Google doesn't?

blognc said:
At this point, I'm sure they weren't saved to Google's servers. I'm so surprised that Google, who automatically adds people to your Gmail contact list if you email them a few times, and tightly integrates the phone with a Gmail account, wouldn't automatically back up all phone contacts without specifically asking you to your Gmail account. My Windows Mobile phone contacts don't ask me if I want to save them to Exchange; they just do.
Since when does Microsoft "just work"? And Google doesn't?
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Did you check her Google account to see if the contacts are saved there? If they are then you should still be able to sync them. If they're not then unless you did a nandroud they're gone. If you did a nandroid them you can just nandroid her current setup and restore the old nandroid, sync her contacts, and then reflash back to the current setup.
Sent from my cm7 Aria using XDA App

CallMeAria said:
Did you check her Google account to see if the contacts are saved there? If they are then you should still be able to sync them. If they're not then unless you did a nandroud they're gone. If you did a nandroid them you can just nandroid her current setup and restore the old nandroid, sync her contacts, and then reflash back to the current setup.
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Click to collapse
They're definitely not in her Google Account. And I installed the latest Stock ROM, which I'm told cannot be rolled back, unless someone's cracked that yet.

blognc said:
They're definitely not in her Google Account. And I installed the latest Stock ROM, which I'm told cannot be rolled back, unless someone's cracked that yet.
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Click to collapse
Oh yea, no you're stuck then. I misunderstood, i thought you meant stock as in Liberated.
Sent from my cm7 Aria using XDA App

[Q] How to change the initial, 'primary' account?

My son got my first HD2. What I did not know when I installed it the first time before he got it, was the fixation of the phone to the gmail-account I used at that time and only for that purpose. Intuition has its flip side too.
My son has his own gmail account, which I was not aware of, and obviously he wants to have his HD2 running his affairs on his own account (communicate with friends etc.)
Now, he has used the HD2 extensively, installed lots of apps, also some paid ones. Purging my old (installation-) account will reset the whole device to its initial state, all accounts and licences will be lost, if he understands that warning correctly.
Is there a way to change the 'ownership' with as little damage to the contents as possible, like save all contents as a backup, start with a new account identity, and restore all contents? Or will that also inevitably overwrite the new account with the old one too?
One could call the task also a migration of an android installation to a different account. BTW, it's equipped with a 16 GB card which has lots of free space left right now (looking at the backup space needs).
I am sure this has been discussed here before, but I seem to not find the right search words. Any hints, links, advice?
Would a total backup using Titanium be advisable? Or will that restore the present status including the unwanted account again?
Thanks for your help in advance. It doesn't make things simpler that my son and his HD2 are some 1.000 miles from here, studying there. but we have skype and other paths on PCs...
Cheers,
the longkeeler.

You can always use Titanium Backup to back up the apps (the paid ones, too), make a factory reset and let him set his own account and then restore the backup.
But you can never transfer the ownership of app(s) from one account to another. (For example, by using TB backup, he can use the paid apps, but he won't be able to update them, he'd need to buy them from his own account)
I'm sorry, but that is the way Android works. (which is lame)

follow-up
Clearing the primary gmail-account and thus resetting the device did not remove just that account, which kind of surprises me. Well, I don't have the HD2 in my hands, and I just hope that my son will have made the backup I advised hin to make and store it where he can reconstruct from.
Cheers,
the longkeeler.

But at least, he would have back what was there before. The nature of the paid apps is static, there are no backups to be expected. And it was not an amount of money that would kill anyone - just throwing it away should be avoided. Now, as posted a few minutes before, he was not successful to remove the undesired account. Are there any protections built in, that follow the great old MS tradition , it's not a bug, it's a feature, if not even industry standard?

it is however possible - to some extent - to "merge" google accounts.
if you do not use your gmail acc (as i understood from your first post) you can transfer quite a bit of contacts/features and stuff to your sons account and the other way round. this way he might be able to keep the paid apps (and updates) and also communicate with his friend on the dame account.
if thats any help...

Is the phone running froyo or gingerbread? If it is on Ginger then try deleting the account from sync and accounts... that's all for froyo u will need root explorer to delete a file located in the data folder.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App

From accounts and sync remove the account.. I believe this only works for Ginger ..
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You can also do it by deleting this file With root explorer . Hope this helped.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App

Just use your sons email and then go to accounts and sync.turn sync off. That's basically your only hope.
Sent from my HD2 using xda premium

First: Thanks to all for your replies!
Afaik, it's the gingerbread flavor.
I have the same type of HD2 here for myself but don't want to mess that up too much - I just saw under acc and synch that my account appears there once under mail and then under google.
If I remove either of those - does it only purge the link from my device to gmail resp. all other google-accounts, or does it remove the account as a whole from google's servers? (if so, probably only from the visible surface, but that's a different story...)
I am not sure if my son sees the same image and what he did there.
So again: Does "removing" the account on the smartphone just "divorce" it from google, or does it kill it?
Thanks again for your help!
Cheers,
The Longkeeler

Nieve, thank you so much. I am not sure yet if it will work but it sounds plausible. surprising how close to the surface such an essential database is located - like the rock that merged with the Costa Concordia... So, everybody just can hope that it will become easier in future to change the primary account rights.
A different side-question: What tool did you use to add the hints to the screen shots?

Extended thought, not necessarily useful for my son's problem, but: Would it be possible to cultivate different versions of the accounts.db, renaming them according to the desired application spectrum (like, say, change the "personality" of the phone from business to leisure)?

Reset device completely
With a clean device when the touch android screen comes up...
he signs in with his account. Establishes his acct as primary
then logs in with your acct secondly or later on in order to get access to the paid apps on your account
Only way to xhange primary is a wipe of data. The primary is simply the very first acccount entered after a device reset.
Your a great mom!
Sent from my Kindle Fire using xda premium

nieves53 said:
You can also do it by deleting this file With root explorer
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Click to collapse
Nieve, thanks. After getting root explorer 2.15 I can see into the innards now too - on my phone here, there is the accounts.db of course, and two more entries, one called accounts.db-wal and the other accounts.db-shm. Look more like folders. What about those?

androidcues said:
Your a great mom!
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Click to collapse
Always try to do my best, and I'll ask my wife for her opinion on this . Well, I'm just only the dad...
But your proposal sounds very reasonable and based on practice. If nieve's and your advice can be combined (purging the data base, tnen installing accs from scratch), it would be great.

accounts removed now, but no re-installation yet.
nieves53 said:
You can also do it by deleting this file
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(\data\system\accounts.db) deleted - et voilà, after rebooting, no more accounts. So, step one done successfully. So, again, thanks for that!
Now came the next one, re-installing his own gmail account as a primary one. He could open the dialogue - but his entry was refused, 'sorry, username and pw don't match.' Bummer. He tried it several times, took care that the account was not opened anywhere else - no avail so far. The error message could well be misleading.
There must be a missing resp. hidden link.
Update: re-installing the prior "false" primary account worked immediately. So, the error message IS misleading. I guess there will be no other way than to completely re-initiate the whole system and then start with the other identiy. Unfortunately, the HD2 has to travel 2.000 miles for that, but it is the safest way then. My son has neither the experience nor the tools to do that himself there.
If somebody has yet another idea - please don't hesitate to let us know!

The application is call picsin, you can find it in the android market...about his account ask him to make sure his email and password are correct. I have change my accounts many times doing that process. He can maybe try login to his account thru the browser, just to make sure the email and password are right.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App

SOLVED
longkeeler said:
Update: re-installing the prior "false" primary account worked immediately. So, the error message IS misleading.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some times, the solution comes as a surprise. Just before my son had started his trial to rearrange the accounts yesterday, he had applied for a new login scheme with google - some double-password story. This, he had not mentioned until today, an hour ago, when he received a mail from google, giving him directions on how to handle logins in a transitional phase.
You guess it: All is well now, he has his own account as the primary one, and sounds much more relaxed than before.
Oh well...
But nevertheless: Your help was absolutely substantial in achieving this, and I hope that the bitdust will settle soon... So thanks again, I can recommend you
Cheers, and a happy rest of this weekend!
The Longkeeler, now also a bit more in weekend mood/mode.

That's good to hear! And a pleasure to help.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App