Database Users

Facebook profile photos only downloaded for certain individuals

I recently got my HTC HD2 and I tried to add all of my contacts from my old phone and sync them to facebook to get contact photos. While some of the people worked fine and I got the photos and the birthdays, for some I got no information at all.
This is annoying because it is mainly those that I would like to add to my favourites that do not recieve their profile picture or birthday or any information.
I've searched this forum for a similar problem but could only come up with problems with earlier builds. This seems to be a problem for some people running the palm pre as well.
Interestingly if I use the facebook app I also cannot get the profile pictures for these people either.
Is it a privacy settings thing, or am I doing something wrong?

This is the same on my HD2 and my HTC Hero as well.. maybe facebook need to fix something?

Anyone else having this problem?

Yes I had this problem.
Think it is more of a problem with facebook mobile to be honest.

I had this, but then found a solution (for me anyway).
Go into all people then select your contact. Then select Edit Contact. Then press where the profile picture should be. A 'Set Contact Photo' option should pop up. Next to the Facebook profile it should have a downloading icon. Once that was done i selected Facebook Profile and all was working.
Hope this helps

ahh you sniped this comment in just before i posted kanesw
yea that works for me too.

I've tried that, when i click on the download button the option just stays greyed out. (the facebook profile option) I can see it trying to find the data but it doesn't work.

I've the same problem with some contacts, you can link it to the fackbook contact but it just won't download any info about them. Works fine for most facebook contacts.

kanesw said:
I had this, but then found a solution (for me anyway).
Go into all people then select your contact. Then select Edit Contact. Then press where the profile picture should be. A 'Set Contact Photo' option should pop up. Next to the Facebook profile it should have a downloading icon. Once that was done i selected Facebook Profile and all was working.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried this but the facebook profile option is greyed out after i click the download button. I can see it trying to get the photo but it doesn't manage it.

You dont have to click the download icon, just leave it for a minute or so and see if it downloads it

I've found the above usually helps and if it doesnt I deleted the contact and remade it and linked it and then it worked.

I've tried everything and I still can't get some of them to work. I also can't get their albums to work or their birthdays, and they don't have a profile picture when using the facebook app either. Must be a problem there somehow.

I've noticed when I go to link a contact to a facebook profile the friend is missing. I have 400+ friends and it only shows me as having 235 friends when it goes to find the contact. I'm not sure if this is something to do with users having privacy settings on facebook and not showing up or what. However I too have several contacts with no link to facebook as they are not listed as facebook contacts thru the HTC facebook link app.

There is a privacy setting in facebook that allows users to stop other apps using their details. I guess its that as i have friends i know are on facebook but dont show up.

Definitely a privacy setting in some cases. I have a couple of friends whose profile pictures never show and I know from talking to them that they're all using the 'don't use my picture in external applications' option.

that sucks man, i have the same problem here. I guess the only way is to convince them to turn that privacy setting off, i absolutely LOVE the fact that our HD2 can grab the info from their facebook pages, it looks so cool

Settings > Privacy Settings > Applications > Settings...
They need to tick Profile picture there and tick anything else you want access to via the HD2.

Also is there any way to actually save the contact pics into outlook. It seems that the pics only stays on he phone and the outlook is not updated after syncing.
cheers
WPY

Yes, if you use the facebook pictures application in spb mobile shell instead of sense, then the facebook picture is saved to outlook as well! Dont know why this does not work in sense, it definately should!!

in HTC Albums I can only see a facebook album from one of my friends which works really good, but that's the only one.. also the intergated updates/events don't seem to work.. thumbnails and birthdays work fine..
I can't even see my own pictures.. while I'm almost sure I've tried every facebook privacy/sharing and aplication setting I could find..
any tips are much appriciated..

Facebook Contact Photos

Hey guys
I tried searching the forums, but found nothing on this. I'm looking to refresh all the facebook photos that are used in the sense contacts. I have done the link/unlink and sign out of facebook for sense in the past, but these get annoying because I then have to relink all the accounts. Now that I have root, is it possible to clear a cache of these photos somewhere so that they refresh? I'm really trying to avoid having to re-link so many accounts again.
Thanks

.
I was wondering the same thing, myself

Yeah, that **** doesn't update at all.
They are also pixelated as ****.

Well this kept bugging me too, but I just keep doing the sign out of facebook and resign in trick...
I don't know why this would unlink all your contacts to their facebook accounts, as whenever I sign out and sign back in, nothing changes except the contact pictures...
I also am not deleting the account then creating a new one if that helps...

If you have the contacts backed up to Google remove the face book account then clear contact storage under manage applications then re-sync Google then re add Facebook. Hope that helps.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

It has something to do with Friend Stream and the way things are linked with it.
I know I have done it before and when I choose refresh it does go out and update their Contact photo's to their latest Facebook photo.
I just sat here playing with it and I can get them to update as long as they are linked. However if you have a photo saved into an Outlook contact, it will not update, it will force to what Outlook has set. (I know this is true for Exchange, but not sure if it is same for a Desktop Sync)
Hope this helps !

From Android Central.... (I cant post links)
If your facebook contact has changed their picture and you want to update it on your phone, go to
People > Online Directory > Facebook > Click refresh.

siverson said:
From Android Central.... (I cant post links)
If your facebook contact has changed their picture and you want to update it on your phone, go to
People > Online Directory > Facebook > Click refresh.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Damn they make it so difficult.
Thanks.

Syncmypix app...works great even with froyo and non sense roms
Sent from my Incredible using Tapatalk

ncwildcat said:
Syncmypix app...works great even with froyo and non sense roms
Sent from my Incredible using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this... What is really weird is my wife doesn't have this problem, all of her contacts sync perfectly, it definitely frustrates me lol.

Refreshing them through the facebook directory only refreshed them in that screen, not in my normal contact list. The app was a great suggestion though, thanks!

Akuehner said:
Refreshing them through the facebook directory only refreshed them in that screen, not in my normal contact list. The app was a great suggestion though, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I found is that once you scroll over a contact it will add them to the 'to update' list. So if you scroll through your contacts when refreshing then it will update them all ----very slowly though.

Facebook sync not working - cal syncs, but not contacts

Since a couple of days I have been unable to sync the contacts with the internal facebook app.
It always says that it is currently experiencing problems and is highly annoying!
Calendar sync works though.
Anyone got the same problem? A solution?
I am running the jp3 firmware, but also reflashing to jm5 produced the same problem.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Mycorrhiza said:
Since a couple of days I have been unable to sync the contacts with the internal facebook app.
It always says that it is currently experiencing problems and is highly annoying!
Calendar sync works though.
Anyone got the same problem? A solution?
I am running the jp3 firmware, but also reflashing to jm5 produced the same problem.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same problem here. Been like that for a week or so now.
I switched to Phonebook 2.0 from market. Think its better than the stock app and FB sync works.
But hope they fix that FB sync thing soon. It´s getting pretty annoying.

Maybe you should use Phonebook 2.0 to find a defect friend's name. When you link your Gmail contacts to Facebook contacts in Phonebook 2.0, you may find someone who have some strange things. For me, I have some friends who have their last-name 'null' instead of the real one. So, I decide to delete these friends and then I can sync agian.

Found this at androidforums earlier in the week when I was having this problem, and it worked for me. I can't post links, apparently, but to give credit, it's from airmanjerm over there (androidforums dot com slash samsung-captivate slash 127442-link-facebook-friend-photo-contact dot html).
1. Start the CONTACTS app.
2. Click on "Contacts" at the very top.
3. Pick a person in your contacts list who is also in your Facebook friends. Select their name and it opens their entry in your phone's contacts list. For this, we'll select "John Smith." (How original!)
4. Touch the MENU button in the very bottom left of the phone.
5. Select "Link Contact"
6. At the top, select "Get Friends"
7. Select your Facebook account. (If you don't see it, you'll have to be sure your phone is logged into your Facebook account.)
8. Your phone will pull up all your friends from your FB friends list. Although you're technically only trying to link John Smith, go ahead and select all the friends you want to import to your phone altogether. (Or just select all at the top.) This will save you a couple steps later.
9. Click "Save" at the bottom.
10. After a few seconds or a minute's worth of "importing," the phone will go back a screen. Here you will see all your imported Facebook friends that you just imported. Scroll down to "John Smith" and select that Facebook profile to link it to your phonebook entry.
11. An AMAZING feature here is that when the phone imports all your friends from Facebook, it automatically links your phone contacts with their Facebook profile IF they have either the same exact name, or the same phone number or other similar contact info.
12. For those that don't automatically link, repeat steps 1-10, omitting steps 6-9 since you've already imported them from Facebook.

iNap said:
Found this at androidforums earlier in the week when I was having this problem, and it worked for me. I can't post links, apparently, but to give credit, it's from airmanjerm over there (androidforums dot com slash samsung-captivate slash 127442-link-facebook-friend-photo-contact dot html).
1. Start the CONTACTS app.
2. Click on "Contacts" at the very top.
3. Pick a person in your contacts list who is also in your Facebook friends. Select their name and it opens their entry in your phone's contacts list. For this, we'll select "John Smith." (How original!)
4. Touch the MENU button in the very bottom left of the phone.
5. Select "Link Contact"
6. At the top, select "Get Friends"
7. Select your Facebook account. (If you don't see it, you'll have to be sure your phone is logged into your Facebook account.)
8. Your phone will pull up all your friends from your FB friends list. Although you're technically only trying to link John Smith, go ahead and select all the friends you want to import to your phone altogether. (Or just select all at the top.) This will save you a couple steps later.
9. Click "Save" at the bottom.
10. After a few seconds or a minute's worth of "importing," the phone will go back a screen. Here you will see all your imported Facebook friends that you just imported. Scroll down to "John Smith" and select that Facebook profile to link it to your phonebook entry.
11. An AMAZING feature here is that when the phone imports all your friends from Facebook, it automatically links your phone contacts with their Facebook profile IF they have either the same exact name, or the same phone number or other similar contact info.
12. For those that don't automatically link, repeat steps 1-10, omitting steps 6-9 since you've already imported them from Facebook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just tried it.
Can't even do that. When the sync error appears FB is grayed out in get friends.

You can also try syncmypix from the market... With this its possible to link contacts pictures from facebook to your phonebook contacts.
We'll have to wait until facebook fixes this failure.
Greetz, DN

Kolemar said:
Just tried it.
Can't even do that. When the sync error appears FB is grayed out in get friends.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have the same issue. can't click on get friends since facebook is greyed out in contacts.

It started working for me.

found this while searching around, well I messed up and linked some stuff wrong, and just removed the facebook account...
Well story is I just got this phone,
added facebook account for the widget that came on phone, no contact sync
later installed facebook from market
then today tried to sync contacts with failure
After I deleted the facebook account, I went to add back and noticed two options for adding facebook accounts, one that says "Intergrated contact accounts" and one under "more accounts" I tried the one under intergrated and it seems to be working without having to do any work arounds...
If anyone is getting gray facebook when doing "get friends" make sure in Settings->Accounts & Sync->Facebook that contact sync is enabled.
maybe this will help
(welcome my first post in the array of Galaxy S forums, been using androind on my old ATT Tilt and finally upgraded)

Joe1981AL said:
If anyone is getting gray facebook when doing "get friends" make sure in Settings->Accounts & Sync->Facebook that contact sync is enabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow that did it for me... Thanks for the tip buddy.

merging facebook accounts to phone number contacts

In sense I was used to have all my contacts shown with their facebook information within their phone numbers (I just need to pair them first on winmo).
I tried some sense Android build and I still have all the number connected to my facebook account, now I put on a senseless build that is 10 time faster so I'd like not go back to sense, but I miss that function, to have facebook pictures of friend, and birthday and their updates all bound to phone numbers..
All I have now is a contact list with my own names (they are not listed with name/surname) with phone numbers and all real names from facebook without numbers and only the email.
Is it possible to merge them again like in the sense contact list? someone knows how to do that?
thanks for reading

Please help someone.... i need an answer too....

Short answer: no
Long answer: In pursuit of same solution, the best i came up was to merge facebook with gmail, leaving out facebook in the phone alone. There's few ways to do it, but the easiest and most reliable I found, was to get yourself yahoo.com mail, pull facebook contacts into it using the integrated tool that they have (gmail should make one too :/) and then merge it back into gmail using gmail tools. This method however leaves out pictures. So to rectify that, get yourself a free app on market called "SyncMyPix". It will match your (now updated) contacts to facebook and get pictures. It's not perfect - resolution is smaller and you get F in the corner (Facebook F), but it works.
GL.

Edit Contact -> Join/Merge (Cant remember)... I join/merge my saved contacts with facebook contacts always. Using senseless build.

theredundant said:
Edit Contact -> Join/Merge (Cant remember)... I join/merge my saved contacts with facebook contacts always. Using senseless build.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that was a suprice find, thanks Edit contact->Windows hardware button->Join is the actual path.

Always thought XDA was the best!
Thanks guys

kardas666 said:
Short answer: no
Long answer: In pursuit of same solution, the best i came up was to merge facebook with gmail, leaving out facebook in the phone alone. There's few ways to do it, but the easiest and most reliable I found, was to get yourself yahoo.com mail, pull facebook contacts into it using the integrated tool that they have (gmail should make one too :/) and then merge it back into gmail using gmail tools. This method however leaves out pictures. So to rectify that, get yourself a free app on market called "SyncMyPix". It will match your (now updated) contacts to facebook and get pictures. It's not perfect - resolution is smaller and you get F in the corner (Facebook F), but it works.
GL.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That about sums up what i did. The pictures dont matter. Once you put the combined contact info together then import in gmail, open the facebook app and sync all, the pics then show up on the phone in contacts.

theredundant said:
Edit Contact -> Join/Merge (Cant remember)... I join/merge my saved contacts with facebook contacts always. Using senseless build.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kardas666 said:
Well, that was a suprice find, thanks Edit contact->Windows hardware button->Join is the actual path.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice find, guys! I've been looking for this for a loooong time.

Cyanogen = no contact sync

Hello! I put the cyanogen rom a few days ago. I really don't like the contacts management....the list is ok, but the sync of the photos just doesn't work. Only some contacts are being sync-ed with facebook showing the right photos.
And the problem is that if I use a contact widget (for example photo contact widget or animated contact widget), the contacts won't have the facebook photo....but if I go in the contact list, those contacts correctly display the facebook photo, although of course if I go into the contact description, the contact itself has no photo, but it has only the '[email protected]' of facebook, synced to it.
Is there a way to make a proper sync? I don't want to use a photo for every contact...it would be just so easy to have everything working again like it was with HTC sense (everything automatic and synced).
Is that because the HTC facebook for sense is missing with cyanogen?
And also, do you have another ROM to advice? I am not sure i really prefer this cyanogen to the stock htc sense one....

i have the same problem with Cyanogen roms... is there a solution for this?

i have no idea...the way cyanogen manages the contacts looks really not that good...htc sense was way better.
anyway, the really weird thing is that now, among my contacts, everyone has the facebook photo but 3. 3 contacts seem they cannot sync the photo from facebook...i did it 3 times, i also reset the sync with facebook and then synced again....those 3 contacts just don't sync. i checked the names: 100% correct.
it is a bit annoying...sure not so important, but it is anyway annoying.

rogermorse said:
i have no idea...the way cyanogen manages the contacts looks really not that good...htc sense was way better.
anyway, the really weird thing is that now, among my contacts, everyone has the facebook photo but 3. 3 contacts seem they cannot sync the photo from facebook...i did it 3 times, i also reset the sync with facebook and then synced again....those 3 contacts just don't sync. i checked the names: 100% correct.
it is a bit annoying...sure not so important, but it is anyway annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the picture doesn't sync, try going to the facebook app and going to the person's facebook page. When the picture loads there, I noticed it also loads in my contact list.

As far as know, Facebook for HTC sense lets you sync contact photos, and remembers the link (in the comments). Facebook app only sync contacts that have their number shared in their profile, and you cannot manually create a link.
Cyanogen and Htc sense don't go together, so unfortunately you wouldn't be able to sync it the way you did with htc sense.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

It will sync automatic as long as the name is the same. Thats why some are done and some are not.
Also if you edit a contact and then press menu then join if the name is similar it will show there facebook profile and you can join them.

rogermorse said:
i have no idea...the way cyanogen manages the contacts looks really not that good...htc sense was way better.
anyway, the really weird thing is that now, among my contacts, everyone has the facebook photo but 3. 3 contacts seem they cannot sync the photo from facebook...i did it 3 times, i also reset the sync with facebook and then synced again....those 3 contacts just don't sync. i checked the names: 100% correct.
it is a bit annoying...sure not so important, but it is anyway annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had a similar issue, and it seemed the problem was certain contacts who I'd previously (before I had the phone) assigned contact photos in Google Contacts. They were correctly linked to their Facebook accounts, but still showed the other photo. Solved it for each one by selecting 'edit contact' then scrolling right down to the end where it shows their facebook details, tap the photo there and select 'use this photo.' If the photo doesn't even show up in the 'edit' dialogue then I don't know.
//Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

have to restart and delete cache

@rogermorse
Would you mind amending your original thread subject to reflect the fact this is about Facebook please? Many thanks in advance.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App