Related
Hello,
There is a way to add more than 15 favorite contacts ?
It is a great feature but is limited to 15 contacts.
Many Thanks
This would be great if it's possible.
I have another question. How can i change the order of the favorite contacts?
Yeah, would also like to have more than 15 favorites. But maybe they made the limit because it would be too laggy otherwise ? Don't know really
Order of the contacts on people tab
I am also interested in changing the order of the contacts on my people tab. I have searched the site and this is the only reference found. Any update to this out there?
Thanks.
xponline said:
I am also interested in changing the order of the contacts on my people tab. I have searched the site and this is the only reference found. Any update to this out there?
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I'm aware your favourite contacts appear alphabetically and this order cannot be changed.
If I am wrong, I apologize. But to be honest I don't see a need for this anyway as the time taken to scroll to any of your favourite is Minuscule anyway
thanks for reply. Just wanted to have the wife at the top of the pile - keeps her happy
AAAJessica Alba
I have numbered the beginning of the name of my favorite contacts from 01 to 15. This way you can reorder them in the TouchFlo 3D tab.
This trick works for the all programs tab, but not sure for the people tab
Since--if--the order is alphabetical, try putting a space before the name, e.g. " Jessica Alba" instead of "Jessica Alba."
Any news or updates on this one?
Hi guys, anyone out there had any luck with adding more favourite contacts? Any knowledge to share about the people tab that might help us out?
I'm running Sense 2.5 from Leo 2.02, seems pretty quick on my own WM 6.5 28014 build, but would absolutely LOVE to have more than the standard allowance for favourite contacts
P.S In all the Sense 2.5 versions i've used I've been able to manually rearrange my favourite contacts - guess it's a 2.5 thing, but it is doable.
UP!
Any news for add more then 15 favorite contacts on HD2 ?
Thanks!
I'm also looking for that, not easy to decide which friends should be the unlucky 16th, 17th contacts
thanks
perchera said:
I'm also looking for that, not easy to decide which friends should be the unlucky 16th, 17th contacts
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL
Fallen Spartan said:
As far as I'm aware your favourite contacts appear alphabetically
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Absolutely not.
They simply appear in the order they were created, and when you restore them after a ROM flash (what I do often these days ), they obviously appear in the order they were historically created in the main contacts list (still not using alphabetical order).
This is ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY, is reproduced after each flash, and bears no discussion whatosever.
Fallen Spartan said:
and this order cannot be changed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I could find where they are stored (I think I'll ask people who wrote favorite contacts backup programs - though I'm a bit worried, as Zenyee's Back FavPeople Up seems to save and restore actually NOTHING ! ), then maybe I should be able to write some utility to do that...
I don't even know if they are stored in a database, an xml file... The only thing I'm sure of is they are not stored in the registry !
The only way now is to delete them then restart from scratch !
Fallen Spartan said:
But to be honest I don't see a need for this anyway as the time taken to scroll to any of your favourite is Minuscule anyway
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does't take any time actually if you use the 4x4 mod, as you even don't have to scroll.
But they're still messy anyway, making them not straightforward to click on.
I initially created them sorting professional and personal favorites... But, well, this nice order doesn't survive a ROM flash !
You must just be aware of the fact people just like their contacts to be sorted the way they want. In other words, they think THEY are the boss, not their phone ! LOL
Anyway, it's not forbidden to search for a way to change that, ask for help, and hopefully, find a solution.
I actually found this thread because I was precisely looking for that.
Ducati1979cc said:
I have numbered the beginning of the name of my favorite contacts from 01 to 15. This way you can reorder them in the TouchFlo 3D tab.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it has no effect at all for the reason I explained before.
g2tl said:
This trick works for the all programs tab, but not sure for the people tab
Since--if--the order is alphabetical, try putting a space before the name, e.g. " Jessica Alba" instead of "Jessica Alba."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same punishment !
OK, now I've managed to have Zenyee Back FavPeople Up actually saving something...
There is a very easy and simple way to sort the favorites using this tool.
Just edit the produced HTCcontact-backup.xml file, change the positions between the <FavoriteOrder> and </FavoriteOrder> tags, then restore it, and you're done !
Position numbers begin at 0, so the last one should numbered 14.
I'll now try to restore a modified xml file with a contact position modified to 15...
I'm also searching the registry for the key values enclosed between the tags <FavoriteContext> and </FavoriteContext> : will I be lucky ?
Edit : I'm not !
And trying to renumber a contact beyons the limit doesn't work either.
Z80-Man said:
OK, now I've managed to have Zenyee Back FavPeople Up actually saving something...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how did you manage to do that? i have an htc diamond2/topaz with the energy rom and back favpeople up! doesn't find any favourite contacts from my people tab :-(... i don't know why. it just says: backup completed; 0 contacts saved. it's really annoying having to add favourite contacts manually after each rom update.
Thanks for any suggestions!
OK, I looked further in the registry and in the contacts themselves (using Outlook on your PC can help, too).
The "Favorite" contacts are actually tagged as belonging to a group ! That's how Back FavPeople Up! works. The group is labelled "1", where not classified contacts are tagged "0".
I managed to have Back FavPeople Up! working by checking the "Sense 2.5" box (I tried previously without success, but now it works. It may actually depend on the ROM build, even if all of them use Sense 2.5).
On restoration, it sometimes doesn't restore them all, though.
Then I analysed the resulting file named HTCcontact-backup.xml.
It's actually a bit messy, because Zenyee din't add a carriage return between each section, but it still works if you add yours to improve readability... It's just XML, after all.
Here is its structure :
Code:
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!--Backup of HTC Favorite Contacts by dzenkinz ([email protected])-->
<ContactList>
<Contact>
<FileAs>Usual Name</FileAs>
<FirstName>First Name</FirstName>
<LastName>Last Name</LastName>
<RingTonePath>RingTone Path</RingTonePath>
<FavoriteContext>Index Number</FavoriteContext>
<FavoriteOrder>Order Number</FavoriteOrder>
</Contact>
<Contact>
...
<Contact>
...
</ContactList>
The contents between the tags should be self-explanatory for most of them ; some of them need some more explanation, however.
- If a tag is empty, then the syntax is simplified. If for example you don't have a specific ringtone linked to the contact, then it will just be noted :
Code:
<RingTonePath />
The same applies to any other empty tag.
- The "Index Number" tag contains some index relating to the contact's position in the list. It's a 7 digits (decimal) number. I'll go back on it later.
- The "Order number" tag is the most interesting, as it represents the position in the favorite list ! It's a decimal number between 0 and 14.
- The "Usual Name" is the one showing in the "Favorite Contacts" tab. The other ones are just a copy of their real content in the "All People" full list.
Now with these informations, I just did what I always do... Search the registry with the "Contact Number", hoping I could find them... And... Bingo !
You can find a section named "FavoriteOrder" in the [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HTC\People\] key...
And this is what's in it :
Code:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HTC\People\FavoriteOrder]
"0"=dword:Index Number 1
"1"=dword:index number 2
...
So this is a list of each contact index number, stored in a DWORD variable representing its rank on the "Favorite Contacts" tab.
It actually works, as if you juste restore these registry keys then soft reset, you'll see your contacts displayed in the require order.
If you want to leave some empty buttons in order to sort them, then you'll just put the value 0 into the variable wearing the position number (remember they begin at 0, so "0" is the first, "1" is the second, etc.)
You should actually fill in the whole 15 variables (using the 0 value for empty ones), or you'll end up with buttons wearing an old contact on it.
Warning : For the index number, be careful on the base you will use : the numbers found in the XML file are written in decimal, while the registry numbers are naturally written in hexadecimal, so if you must manually copy a value, be sure you first check the "decimal" button.
Technically, you'll just export the [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HTC\People\FavoriteOrder] key from the registry, edit it with the notepad, sort the contacts to your taste, the import it back to the registry (you can make a CAB to ease the process).
The method still have some drawbacks and difficulties, howether, so please read carefully the following :
1) The [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\HTC\People\FavoriteOrder] will be created only by Zenyee Back FavPeople Up! upon restoring previously saved contacts.
Though it's actually used by the HTC Favorite Contacts tab, it doesn't exist "naturally" !
So you'll have to restore a saved list first, or create the registry keys from scratch. Then you'll be able to export them, sort them to your taste and import them back.
2) There is an another limitation I found this morning. As you might expect, this tool is most useful after flashing a new ROM, when you want to get your favorite contacts back.
The problem is on the method you'll use to get back the full contacts list. maybe it won't be a problem for most people... But I had one.
Yesterday, when I flashed the last Energy ROM, something went wrong with my ActiveSync on my hom PC, and as I was downloading a Dinik version (it takes about 2h1/2 to get one ROM from Hotfile ! ), I couldn't reboot, so I synchronized my contacts this morning from my office PC...
And then the favortie contacts list I restored from the registry keys was all messed up.
The reason is simple : the index numbers were different from the ones that were saved.
I think the reason is my office Outlook file is actually a bit different from my home Outlook file. They are actually syncrhonized separately (of course ! ), so their databases grewn separately.
The other time I flashed, I resynced the contacts from home, so the list was saved according to the home contacts index list.
Then last flash, I resynced from the office, and tried to restore a list that was built from the home contacts list...
I actually don't know if the same could also happen if you still resync from the same PC... You'll have to try out.
But as long as you keep your contacts in your HD, you can freely export and import back the favorite list from and to the registry, and it will be fine.
Now I think that if you use antother method to save your contacts and restore them after a flash, for example if you use PIM backup or any other tool instead of synchronizing with Outlook, then maybe you won't have this problem at all, I don't know.
What i do to have my Fav contacts in tact after flash....
Before flash
Backup my contacts with pim backup
Backup fav contacts with Zenyee Back FavPeople (sense 2.5 checked)
Then after flash
Restore from pimbackup
Restore from Zenyee Back FavPeople and Reset when it will ask you (Importand).
This method is allways working for me in NRG roms
Yes, it works great, but there are some limits to what it can do :
1) If you already imported your saved favorites and let them in the order they came, saving and restoring them back with most probably keep this order.
However, if you rearrange them and save them again, then they'll be restored in the previous order.
Apparently, they are always restored in the chronological order they were created in the main list - something like that.
When they are saved, it's obvioulsy in this order. Zenyee actually scans the whole contacts database from top to bottom and saves the necessary information from the ones that are marked as belonging to group "1" while he encounters them. That's how it's done.
2) It will sometimes miss some contacts at restoration (and will display the warning). Don't ask me why. Maybe the ones I imported from the "Favorite People" tabs, as opposed to the ones I choosed in the main list, then use "Add to favorite" menu, since they might not have all the necessary information ? It actually looks like that.
In other words, Microsoft method seems to be more reliable than HTC method.
3) Beware if like me you're using 2 PCs, at work and at home, sharing the same Outlook information (information synchronized by ActiveSync, with new contacts added or deleted on one site, then synchronized with the HD, then synhronized again with the other PC, and not everyday, nor each time a change is made. So finally two somewhat different databases !)
Zenyee saves index numbers that refer to the current contacts database. That's the only way he actually links the saved data to the previously restored full contacts list.
If you happen to flash your ROM and restore your contacts from a different PC, restoring your favorites will then do a mess of them !
So I won't be so affirmative saying it will all restore to identical each time.
I could just say "it depends"...
Anyway, the method I explained above still relies on using Zenyee Back FavPeople Up! to restore your favorite in the first place (they'll be just in an incorrect order - or not : it depends, as I said above - with the spare icons at the end), as it's responsible for creating the registry keys.
It also requires you're NOT in case #3, or it won't work either !
Then you can import your previously saved registry data (taking care to fill in unused icons data with "0", or the previously restored favorite will still show in double).
After soft resetting, your favorite will then show in the exact order you saved them, including spare icons in the middle if you had any.
My suggestion doesn't replace what's already existing : it just completes it, ok ?
Hi,
Very confused about what happened during a ROM upgrade..
I went from 1.43 to 1.48, immediately following which I did a hard reset (perhaps not strictly necessary however commonly believed to be best practise when flashing ROMs).
HD2 started up, did it's initialization customisations, asked for my provider etc. I then went through and configured my connection with my Exchange Server and all my data sync'd up - all normal so far.
So now I had a fresh install, just with my Exchange data on (contacts / calendar / email etc). Definitely a clean install (just to emphasis the point!) as obviously my app shortcuts weren't there from the home screen, my weather cities of choice weren't there but instead the default, etc etc etc. All as expected.
BUT..
I flicked to the People (contacts) section of Sense (the second tab by default) and to my surprise there were the six faces of the people I had configured previously!! They were in the wrong order (no logic to the new order) but yup they were there!! VERY STRANGE!!
The only thing I can think of is either a) such configuration is stored on the storage card (which obviously isn't wiped during ROM upgrade) or b) it is somehow stored and sync'd back in the individual Outlook contact records themselves (unlikely I'm thinking..).
Any comments??! Even if just to confirm? Or am I going completely mad!!
Same here - very random - my photos and music have been juggled around too...
SimonW500 said:
Hi,
it is somehow stored and sync'd back in the individual Outlook contact records themselves (unlikely I'm thinking..).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is this^
When you add in a contact to favourites in sense and sync back to exchange, you will notice that your contact has been added to a category called "HTC Favourite".
Check Outlook on a PC to see the categories your contacts are assigned to.
Thanks for the quick reply and confirmation - good to know I'm not going mad!
So can someone explain how this is done? ie. kept on storage card / sync'd back to Exchange / AN Other?
I'm particularly concerned if it is sync'd back to Exchange, as until now I often try quite a few Windows Mobile devices and enter in my Exchange details etc on the assumption that nothing that particular device does is actually kept once I wipe the phone.
Audio Oblivion said:
It is this^
When you add in a contact to favourites in sense and sync back to exchange, you will notice that your contact has been added to a category called "HTC Favourite".
Check Outlook on a PC to see the categories your contacts are assigned to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow - another amazing quick response!!
Excellent - thanks for the info - well spotted! Now despite my above comment I can live with this more than happily, actually see it as a useful feature!
Thanks again.
Moving People around?
Following on from the above (loosely!)..
Is there an easy way to move the ordering of these shortcuts around?
Being the picky individual that I am (!) I have them in a certain order, which effectively means that even though the right people are 'remembered' I still have to delete and create them all again to put them in the right order.
Thanks again..
Your photo and Music are located on your SD card. SD card is not impacted by either HARD RESET or Memory Flashing.
You favorties contacts are part of a group... And this informations is stored in the contact information on your Exchange server (like if you've put them in a group named "Restaurants" "Best Friends", etc. But it's not storing their positions; If you flash hard reset multiple times, it will always put them in the same position. (Sync order? Older first? By phone number? no idea right now)
For the other informations (shortcuts) it's not saved either on your SD card, MyPhone account nor Exchange server... no way to get them back automatically..
Kridek said:
Your photo and Music are located on your SD card. SD card is not impacted by either HARD RESET or Memory Flashing.
You favorties contacts are part of a group... And this informations is stored in the contact information on your Exchange server (like if you've put them in a group named "Restaurants" "Best Friends", etc. But it's not storing their positions; If you flash hard reset multiple times, it will always put them in the same position. (Sync order? Older first? By phone number? no idea right now)
For the other informations (shortcuts) it's not saved either on your SD card, MyPhone account nor Exchange server... no way to get them back automatically..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good summary - spot on!
It seems with this little integration of Outlook groups, and the use of MyPhone, re-flashing roms or hard resets are getting slightly more "user friendly". I realise there a 3rd party apps to do this (and more) however to me half the beauty of doing such a flash/reset is to NOT carry things over other than pure data (ie. not config)..
People
The faces images info is stored in the pim.vol but whatever you used to reinstall contacts(Exchange?) has sorted them in the wrong order.
I use a method which comes from doing countless rom upgrades.
I used sashimi but realised all it was doing was copying and restoring the pim.vol
Don't use PIM backup as going back & forth from backup and restore seems to lead to corrupted pim.vol files. I know you haven't done that but just a warning.
The way to get a mirror restore, is to copy the pim.vol file in the root folder(device\) before reinstalling to your sd card or pc, then copy back over the empty pim.vol after reinstalling. You can't do it in the device explorer or in activesync but with resco explorer or fexploreext you can. I avoid activesync so I don't get either duplicates or wiped out contact/calendar info. This may seem laborious but after hundreds of rom flashes it has value in being quick and safe. I have 450+ contacts I have accumulated in 7 years of owning PPC/WM's and always have a plethora of calendar items which I can not afford to lose or have corrupted.
If you want to backup sms's you can use PIM Backup.
Maybe you would find it easier to use MS Myphone. I have avoided it so can't give a review.
Pure data
Pure data is great, but once there are uc(user customisation) compliant Leo roms, there will be available, a beautiful way of reconstructing about 80% of all settings, applications and shortcuts. It restores all one's customisation in pristine order, with only the new rom's updated functions.
SimonW500 said:
Good summary - spot on!
It seems with this little integration of Outlook groups, and the use of MyPhone, re-flashing roms or hard resets are getting slightly more "user friendly". I realise there a 3rd party apps to do this (and more) however to me half the beauty of doing such a flash/reset is to NOT carry things over other than pure data (ie. not config)..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xaddict said:
The faces images info is stored in the pim.vol but whatever you used to reinstall contacts(Exchange?) has sorted them in the wrong order.
I use a method which comes from doing countless rom upgrades.
I used sashimi but realised all it was doing was copying and restoring the pim.vol
Don't use PIM backup as going back & forth from backup and restore seems to lead to corrupted pim.vol files. I know you haven't done that but just a warning.
The way to get a mirror restore, is to copy the pim.vol file in the root folder(device\) before reinstalling to your sd card or pc, then copy back over the empty pim.vol after reinstalling. You can't do it in the device explorer or in activesync but with resco explorer or fexploreext you can. I avoid activesync so I don't get either duplicates or wiped out contact/calendar info. This may seem laborious but after hundreds of rom flashes it has value in being quick and safe. I have 450+ contacts I have accumulated in 7 years of owning PPC/WM's and always have a plethora of calendar items which I can not afford to lose or have corrupted.
If you want to backup sms's you can use PIM Backup.
Maybe you would find it easier to use MS Myphone. I have avoided it so can't give a review.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good tip with with pim.vol file..
For what it's worth, I too have a similar amount of valuable contact and calendar data, however to date I'm pleased to report no amount of heavy ActiveSync (direct Exchange Server connection) abuse has caused any serious issues.
Activesync issues
There's always a first time, and 2nd and so on...
p.s. I'm not sure I want to flash roms the way I did on my HD,
but when I was doing it, activesync gave me a lot of problems.
SimonW500 said:
Good tip with with pim.vol file..
For what it's worth, I too have a similar amount of valuable contact and calendar data, however to date I'm pleased to report no amount of heavy ActiveSync (direct Exchange Server connection) abuse has caused any serious issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Xaddict said:
There's always a first time, and 2nd and so on...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL - very true! For this reason I try to take a copy of all my contacts within Outlook at least once a month; both protects me from any wayward devices as well as any modifications I may make and then regret (change of numbers, deletions etc!).
I love this feature
usually , one had to reconfigure all the favorite contacts after a hard reset.
Now, when syncing with Exchange, like said above, your favorites will be restored with pictures and all. Great
Never had them pop back in in the wrong order though.
lucid said:
usually , one had to reconfigure all the favorite contacts after a hard reset.
Now, when syncing with Exchange, like said above, your favorites will be restored with pictures and all. Great
Never had them pop back in in the wrong order though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, I upgraded from HD to HD2, as soon as i sync with exchange i got my favs back in the correct order with all my emails , text messages etc etc.
I imported my used activesync with my google (gmail) account to sync up my contacts, calendar and email. The contacts all came through but were showing up as last name, first name. I wanted them to show up as first name, last name so I started looking around. I found the "app" contact changer mentioned on here and then grabbed it off XDA. It went through and said it changed my contacts. I found that they were all changed properly. After time though, not sure if it just when the phones dies or reboots, some of the contacts change back to last name, first again. It seems random which contacts are reverting, but all of the "facebook linked" contacts reverted plus some more random ones. I can go in and run contact changer again, or go in and manually change them but this seems to make the contact changer app useless if I have to run it all the time.
Any thoughts on what is causing this problem? From what I can tell the contacts in my Google contacts list are named properly, with the first name and last name in the proper field.
I am running T-mobile stock rom, and have not ever synced up with outlook on the PC (just using gmail via server on activesync).
Thanks for any help.
UPDATE: I just ran contact changer and then rebooted my phone (actually popped battery out) and the contacts did not revert. I then ran a sync via activesync and the contacts reverted. :-(
even though the way they are displayed is correct the system still manages them last-first, so if you create a new one after running the cab it will default to last first unless you specify differently in the drop down.this may be why they change when you sync fb.
it also helps (if you are using outlook on the pc) to have outlooks defaults changed to first-last.
Thanks for the tip. I am trying to avoid hooking up to the PC with outlook but I may end up having to. The contacts that are reverting are not new ones. Also it is not only the FB contacts that are reverting back, there are some other random ones that are doing it as well. Very strange. I am guessing it is just a normal WM quirk that I will have to find a workaround.
NickPDX said:
Thanks for the tip. I am trying to avoid hooking up to the PC with outlook but I may end up having to. The contacts that are reverting are not new ones. Also it is not only the FB contacts that are reverting back, there are some other random ones that are doing it as well. Very strange. I am guessing it is just a normal WM quirk that I will have to find a workaround.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you do have access to outlook on a pc, i can HIGHLY recommend it as your main method of contact/calendar backup/restore.
I've been using it as my phone backup for years, and it cuts both ways, , , pc goes down? all your outlook contacts gone? no worries! theyre on your phone! Phone goes down? no worris, theyre on the pc!. hehe.
plus with outlook it saves every single field, so your facebook links and favourite poeple is saved, (yes i know that also happens on myphone and whatever, but how often are those services down? )
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
I need some help. I've had my phone for almost 2 weeks. Beginning a couple of days ago, my phone is erasing google calendar entries.
What's particularly strange is that when I enter google calendar entries into the phone, the entries sync with my google account. The entries remain visible on the google account, but are not visible on the phone.
If I enter the calendar entry on google directly, it will appear and remain on my phone. So the problem is strictly with google calendar entries entered on the phone. They sync and then disappear.
I'm having this problem as well, but only for one of my secondary google calendars. Very frustrating. I'm thinking that using stock calendar might fix this...
FYI I just took a look at mine... calendar entries created on the web but edited on the phone do not seem to be affected. Can you confirm?
I too am having a similar problem (I use Google Calendar on the desktop, and my Vibrant calendar is synced to Gcal as well). I haven't had time to test out all the permutations, but the basic issue is: when I "Edit" a repeating event on the phone, and then hit "Save," the event disappears instantly (from both the phone's calendar and desktop Gcal). It doesn't matter whether I actually made any changes while editing -- it's just the Edit and Save that does it.
Once or twice, the event has magically reappeared a little while later -- but generally it does not.
I have also had the opposite thing happen: I've edited a repeating event and ended up with a DUPLICATE event (also repeating) on the calendar -- same event, same details, just one day earlier than the "real" event (which is still there).
Don't know if this detail is significant (again, I haven't tested rigorously), but it has been YEARLY repeating events (birthdays) which have been duplicated, and MONTHLY repeating events which have been deleted.
The only "solution" I've arrived at is to only edit events (or at least repeating ones) from the desktop, and not the phone (...and hope this bug is fixed in an update?).
(By the way, all my events have been created on desktop Gcal directly; so I can't speak to how creating events on the phone may play into this.)
One thing that's actually worked for me is to rename the calendar my phone kicks out. I've found that when I do that, things magically reappear. Currently, I'm on #4.
magerton said:
One thing that's actually worked for me is to rename the calendar my phone kicks out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting, thanks -- can you elaborate? (I went to Calendar settings, but can't figure out how to change names -- there's just "My Calendar," which I don't use, and the Google calendar.)
Yup -- I actually changed the name in the desktop/web client, not on the phone. It took a bit for the updated calendar to push to the phone, but once it did, everything was peachy again.
magerton said:
Yup -- I actually changed the name in the desktop/web client, not on the phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tried this and no fixy...
Does anyone else have the same problem I'm having? You "Edit" a repeating Gcal event on the phone, and it just disappears (from both phone and desktop) when you hit Save? (Even if you made no changes?)
I'm sure everyone's probably aware of this, but you never know (it took me a week to figure it out)...
The Samsung Calendar defaults to "My Calendar" and not your Google Calendar like every other Android phone, so that any new event created is created in "My Calendar" unless you select to create the event in your Google calendar every single time you make a new event. This can not be changed and is the case EVEN IF THE CALENDAR IS SET TO NOT DISPLAY "MY CALENDAR." (which is, possibly, the worst case of software design I can think of in recent memory).
There is an easy fix for this: use pretty much any other of the many free or inexpensive calendar apps. The Samsung Calendar blows. And this is coming froma guy that generally likes most of the other Touchwiz stuff.
I assume other calendar apps will sync easy with Gcal (it's just ActiveSync, right)? Any in particular you recommend? Thanx
I've been using Gemini Calendar for a few weeks. Takes some getting used to and it kinda ugly, but it's got plenty of customizations.