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.

Phonebook Contacts keep disappearing

Hi guys, this is my first post but ive been lurking here for a while trying to learn more about my phone.
This is a bit long winded so please bare with me..
I bought this phone about a week ago from rogers wireless. It's locked to rogers and i updated the phone with the SE updater to the latest version they have. I bought the phone under my contract and then gave it to my wife (her old phone broke so i thought it would be nice to give her a new one)
She's now using her old simcard in the phone and other than the phonebook contacts keep disappearing, everything else works fine and all the txt msgs are intact.
1) whenever i switch sims from her's back to mine, the phonebook will be cleared.
2) today she told me that the phonebook cleared even though she didnt touch the simcard.
any idea as to why this is happening? she thinks the phone is defective i think its just something software. Im going to try and do a factory reset on the phone and setup the entire phone w/ her sim instead of mine (which is what i originally done) and then update again on SE updates.

Gmail sync
Hi
I've had the problem too. It turned out that the synchronization with Gmail was the culprit. The phone saw that a given contact was not in the contact list in Gmail and therefore deleted it from the phone instead of adding it to the Gmail contact list. The same goes for changes to contacts - if I change something on the phone, it disappears when the phone syncs. If I want to keep the changes, I have to make them in the Gmail list. I don't know how to change that behaviour.
- Martin

Martin5000 said:
Hi
I've had the problem too. It turned out that the synchronization with Gmail was the culprit. The phone saw that a given contact was not in the contact list in Gmail and therefore deleted it from the phone instead of adding it to the Gmail contact list. The same goes for changes to contacts - if I change something on the phone, it disappears when the phone syncs. If I want to keep the changes, I have to make them in the Gmail list. I don't know how to change that behaviour.
- Martin
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Yeah that's just BS. I didn't sync with Gmail right at the start, so when I finally did it last weekend, I lost all of my 249 contacts. Luckily, I had them backed up on my old sim card, so I restored them, but all the contact pictures, facebook links etc were lost
Gmail sync fail

wow! thanks for solving the mystery Martin!
Any idea how i can either import all those contacts to gmail's contacts (other than manually inserting them.. )
Man it's so friggin annoying to have to restore my contact book every time the damn google sync does a check.

badhobz said:
wow! thanks for solving the mystery Martin!
Any idea how i can either import all those contacts to gmail's contacts (other than manually inserting them.. )
Man it's so friggin annoying to have to restore my contact book every time the damn google sync does a check.
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You could just turn off google sync

well it seems like ive turned off google sync and yet it still has this problem. I figure it might be attributed to her having to log into google accounts??? there is a message on the notification bar sometimes that asks her to log into her google account. Could that be it?
Every time it doesn't detect a password/or has the user logged in, will it purge all the contacts? Is there even a safe way of backing up the contacts on SD card and then transferring that file to my HD so i can reformat the phone for her?

[Q] Duplicating contacts

Hi guys,
I have to say, since I bought the Wildfire I'm amazingly unhappy.
This phone is seriously ****.
It's slow, it freezes, it crashes, it reboots by itself.
Today I tried to do a factory reset.
I used MyBackup to do a backup of everything.
Obviously it was a failure: it didn't save the apps, so now I have to reinstall everything by myself. It didn't save the data of the apps. I lost nothing important, only the data of some stupid game, but I lost it. It saved apparently all my data and settings.
I restored the contacts and now I have another problem.
They are duplicated. I delete from my gmail accounts the duplicates, but they are still there on the phone. And the ****ing phone synchronizes again all the contacts to my gmail account. And over and over and over.
Is there any solution to this problem beside removing manually on my phone? There are more than 300 duplicates!

Turn auto sync off... Is that so hard? As for the slowness, nothing wrong about mine or most other peoples phones.
When youre restoring your contacts make sure you only list to display one of your accounts e.g your gmail acc
This is obviously a user end problem and not the phone.

Turning off Auto sync doesn't fix the problem. It just avoids the problem. I already did it!!!
In this way, I will not able to sync anymore my contacts to Gmail since as soon as I started autosync again it starts again to sync in only one direction!
Yes sure, an end user problem caused by the lack of functions of the phone.
And for the slowness....probably you missed all the comments about people overclocking and complaining about it.

The overclocking complaints aren't about the phone being slow, its just not working on some sense roms. And imo the phone has all the necessary functions. Perhaps you should get it fixed.

Whenever i feel my wildfire is sluggish, i back up the phone, do a full factory reset and flush a new rom. Makes a huge difference. Sadly i still havent figured how to solve the duplicated..... no quadriplicated contacts that appear.

i think you guys should do a factory reset, add all your contacts once, back them up to sd card, and then when you install a rom, don't sync your contacts, just import them from the sd card file.
although i haven't had any issues with duplicates with syncing my contacts anyway. :S

Must admit the phonebook setup is a bit pish on the Android system, it tries to link everything together when all you want is just a simple phonebook with peoples numbers and emails.
So i've spent ages deleting all duplicates and unlinking ****. Finally after a number of hours it resembles a simple phonebook with people linked only to there facebook accounts and nothing else. Sometimes the software just tries too hard!

Did you sync facebook contacts ? I would recommend you to not do so. Facebook gave me quite a problem with contacts when i just got the phone.
Other than that, google contacts sync works just fine for me.

Finally the continuous synchronization stopped. I was able to remove duplicates from my gmail account. But....surprisingly several contacts disappeared. I used the "merge duplicates" function on Gmail.
Now I installed again the backup I did. My phone book is not synchronizing at all with gmail. Moreover, something else happened. It is not synchronizing with Facebook. When I go to view it says Facebook for HTC sense 0 contacts. But if you go do Online directory, they are there! But I cannot see to link in the contacts.
Oh yeah, obviously I still have 4 contacts per person.

Question on the How To's of changing phones

I got my first Android phone last year, and I've loved it. Obviously, hanging out in here, I'm looking at getting the Atrix. OK, I'm committed to it, damnit.
Anyway, question is this: When I pick up the Atrix...how do I get all my crap from my N1 to it? Apps, texts that I want to keep, game data, etc. Is this where we just run something like Titanium (which I *think* requires root) and just restore from that? I'm sure this is really simple and basic...but I've never had to change Android phones before.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
ETA: Are there options that don't require root? Assuming it could take a week or so for the Atrix to be rooted.

Requiring root. You can titanium backup your messages and game data to your sd card. When you get the atrix, put your sd card in it and restore the data using titanium.
Your apps/contacts/games will download automatically as soon as you log into the phone, assuming you have a google account and have everything set to sync automatically on your current phone.
As for a non-root method, I haven't looked into it.

Mike's Aria said:
Requiring root. You can titanium backup your messages and game data to your sd card. When you get the atrix, put your sd card in it and restore the data using titanium.
Your apps/contacts/games will download automatically as soon as you log into the phone, assuming you have a google account and have everything set to sync automatically on your current phone.
As for a non-root method, I haven't looked into it.
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You sure the apps and everything will download? The GF lost her Captivate, so I got her a new one, logged in, contacts downloaded...and that was it. Maybe I just haven't checked the setting to back up the apps as well? If not, I probably need to do that on my N1, though I've got that thing backed up ten ways from Sunday lol.
ETA: Appreciate the help, Mike.

App backup, if I recall correctly is enabled by default, but only available on 2.2+ builds. So that would be why the Captivate didn't come back. As for texts, SMS Backup & Restore works perfectly for me, and it doesn't require root.

dorsai3d said:
App backup, if I recall correctly is enabled by default, but only available on 2.2+ builds. So that would be why the Captivate didn't come back. As for texts, SMS Backup & Restore works perfectly for me, and it doesn't require root.
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Thanks! Appreciate that
Sent from my Sexy Nexy, courtesy of the fine developers of Tapatalk

If you use a messaging program like handcent, you can back up your SMS and MMS to be reloaded onto your new phone too. Save all your numbers to your google account too, and also consider moving all your apps and files to your external sd card.

ApplCobbler said:
If you use a messaging program like handcent, you can back up your SMS and MMS to be reloaded onto your new phone too. Save all your numbers to your google account too, and also consider moving all your apps and files to your external sd card.
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Contacts and SMS aren't too big of a deal. I've got those covered a few different ways. I'm worried more about apps, app data, and various settings. If an app doesn't natively support being on the SD card, then one must run Apps2SD, which is cool. Except it's not, since we have no idea when the Atrix will be rooted. And then there's the issue of apps that AT&T *may* not allow. I'm not sure how those would be installed from the SD card, as per your recommendation, if AT&T elects to block non-market APK installs.
In short, I appreciate the reply and discussion. I could have thought through my initial question much better, as your reply has cause me to rethink a bit. Thanks mate.

Funny, I'm gonna go from an N1 to an Atrix as well. I know as far as contacts go, el goog will have them for me already. But I was wondering if using a csv(?) contact backup would be better? My google contacts aren't all right, my online gmail is missing some contacts that are on my phone. My main concern is getting all the extra stuff in contacts; email address, street address, birthdays, etc... Just wondering which would be better at transferring all that?

im in the original winmo boat. First time going to android. What if I sync with outlook, will android synch with outlook? Anybody?

sdlopez83 said:
im in the original winmo boat. First time going to android. What if I sync with outlook, will android synch with outlook? Anybody?
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Are you using an Exchange account with Outlook? Android will sync mail, calendar, and contacts with Exchange much more easily that trying to sync directly with Outlook.

stoli412 said:
Are you using an Exchange account with Outlook? Android will sync mail, calendar, and contacts with Exchange much more easily that trying to sync directly with Outlook.
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I am using Outlook without Exchange on my home PC. Still checking different ways to sync phone and android. I have >5000 contacts from several associations I am in, and I am not sure if Gmail can handle those plus the supplemental info (spouses, birthdates, etc.).

Where's the stock rom?

I'm so sick of the problems with these custom roms, I'm going back to stock.

LOL cute. Did you make a nandroid backup? If so you can restore from that, if not go to HTC's site and get whatever "stock" ROM you'd like.
Also, have you tried troubleshooting your ROM woes? It could be some ID-10 T error which a wipe typically clears. I've made this error a great many times.
P. S. I'm running CM nightly, and it's been relatively stable. So I'm sure the final release will be far more stable.

here you go
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=901477&highlight=PD15IMG
factory 2.2.1

I ran every rom, every kernal, every version, wiped, backed, burped and farted.
It's all over not being able to delete a Google account. God damn Google and their infinite wisdom.

not sure what you mean by delete a Google account

Two gmail accounts on one phone. The default needs to go. Google won't let me delete it without a wipe.
So, I wiped all day and flash new roms, nothing works. Restored a nandroid and the phone works for the first time today but same old two account business.
We used to be able to delete the google account, (clear user data I think) but I guess not anymore. If I have to wipe to fix this I want a phone that works and right now stock is looking peachy.

jlacy76 said:
Two gmail accounts on one phone. The default needs to go. Google won't let me delete it without a wipe.
So, I wiped all day and flash new roms, nothing works. Restored a nandroid and the phone works for the first time today but same old two account business.
We used to be able to delete the google account, (clear user data I think) but I guess not anymore. If I have to wipe to fix this I want a phone that works and right now stock is looking peachy.
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do you have the accounts linked through gmail settings (on computer not phone) That's the only reason I can think of and could be really off..
if you do a full wipe, set up one of the accounts(the one you want) and if they both appear after that maybe they are linked in some way through email. I know you can link accounts but never used it and dont know how it works.. but I do remember seeing a setting when I was poking around gmail

graffixnyc said:
do you have the accounts linked through gmail settings (on computer not phone) That's the only reason I can think of and could be really off..
if you do a full wipe, set up one of the accounts(the one you want) and if they both appear after that maybe they are linked in some way through email. I know you can link accounts but never used it and dont know how it works.. but I do remember seeing a setting when I was poking around gmail
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If I wipe login one account it only shows one and that's fine but I have my phone the way I want it and took days to get it this way. CM7 RC1/ mixer and it's been running fine. I tried to wipe, install RC1/Mixer again, and it didn't work for me. I've been at this all day and not happy.
Here's the issue: The default account has no contacts, the other accounts has all my contacts. If I try to use better cut or any cut I can't see the contacts because both those programs look at the default contact list. Better cut sees nothing.
It's a stupid problem that should be an easy fix, delete one account and the other becomes the default. How I achieve this magical feat eludes me.

orrrrr you can import contacts to that default account and ur problem is solved? which can all be done from your computer in under 10 minutes.
Export from second account all contacts into a folder, then import into the first.

I use 2 gmails. I don't have any problems.
twiztid

molesaied88 said:
orrrrr you can import contacts to that default account and ur problem is solved? which can all be done from your computer in under 10 minutes.
Export from second account all contacts into a folder, then import into the first.
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Click to collapse
you dont know how to do something and you cuss out google for their "infinite wisdom" and all custom roms? i understand you're frustrated, man, but don't get mad and cuss people out. a little bit of kindness goes a long way.
quoted text will solve your problem. and its probably easiest.
if you really want stock, here's a nandroid backup of stock, as i think the previous link looses root (correct me if im wrong)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=845756