Help with Moving Contacts from Phone to Google / Hotmail / Somewhere Safe? - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi
I have recently found that when I do a clean install of a ROM with a full wipe any contacts I created on the Phone are lost. I had thought they were backed up by Google / Samsung but it doesn't seem to be ATM. This also affects my daughters phone.
So does anyone have information / ideas that would help me move / transfer all the contacts that are just on the phone to somewhere like Google or Hotmail etc. where they will be safe. My daughter has hundreds and I recently lost a similar amount. Once I know where its easy to transfer contacts too, then I will create all my new contacts in that place as well.
Thanks in advance for any experience / suggestions.
Cheers

Geoff.Costello said:
Hi
I have recently found that when I do a clean install of a ROM with a full wipe any contacts I created on the Phone are lost. I had thought they were backed up by Google / Samsung but it doesn't seem to be ATM. This also affects my daughters phone.
So does anyone have information / ideas that would help me move / transfer all the contacts that are just on the phone to somewhere like Google or Hotmail etc. where they will be safe. My daughter has hundreds and I recently lost a similar amount. Once I know where its easy to transfer contacts too, then I will create all my new contacts in that place as well.
Thanks in advance for any experience / suggestions.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Easiest option, I find, is to use just Google Contacts. You can export your SIM's contacts and import them on your phone into your Google account. After that the phone will sync the contacts automatically to the contact book in your online Google account. You could also e.g. create contacts in your online Google account and they will be synced to your phone and multiple devices. Link to Google Contacts

Thanks - My Contacts are now Synced to Google and Hotmail
chrismast said:
Easiest option, I find, is to use just Google Contacts. You can export your SIM's contacts and import them on your phone into your Google account. After that the phone will sync the contacts automatically to the contact book in your online Google account. You could also e.g. create contacts in your online Google account and they will be synced to your phone and multiple devices. Link to Google Contacts
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much. It worked better than I hoped. Once I imported my Contacts into Google - within a couple of minutes the phone showed all the Google contacts linked to / replacing (not clear to me) the ones in the phone. I think they are automatically linked by the phone in that when I deleted some in Google they stayed in the phone, but when I add to Google they appear as Google only in the phone. If I delete linked from the phone then it deletes Google as well..
For anyone finding this later I found this link; http://www.liveside.net/2012/02/26/google-is-now-a-connected-service-to-windows-live/ which explains that if you have a Windows Live Account (Hotmail,com, Live.com, Outlook.com etc) Windows Live will lookup all your Google Contacts too if you set it up. So good!!! This is just new this year. Works well too. Again best driven by the Phone Contacts which if I change or delete updates both..

Related

Phone contacts to google account?

Hi
I got my hero last week and i'm loving it at the moment. I want to back up all my contacts to my google account to make them easy to manage and for back up reasons. For some reason though when the phone syncs it doesn't load my existing contacts(carried onto my hero by sim from my old diamond) into my google contacts?
If I create a new contact on either phone or pc it updates the other accordingly but i just cant get my existing contacts to my google contacts.
I can see the ones that update are labeled as google contacts so i'm guessing i have to label my exisisting ones somehow???
Someone please help as i dont want to have to create all my contacts again
Thanks in advance
gaz
Anyone?.........Please!!!!
Gaz
I've been looking at this too. One of the groups from my phone has synced to Gmail, but no contacts. Still looking....
Gazaman said:
Hi
I got my hero last week and i'm loving it at the moment. I want to back up all my contacts to my google account to make them easy to manage and for back up reasons. For some reason though when the phone syncs it doesn't load my existing contacts(carried onto my hero by sim from my old diamond) into my google contacts?
If I create a new contact on either phone or pc it updates the other accordingly but i just cant get my existing contacts to my google contacts.
I can see the ones that update are labeled as google contacts so i'm guessing i have to label my exisisting ones somehow???
Someone please help as i dont want to have to create all my contacts again
Thanks in advance
gaz
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, there is a piece of software on the market which moves contacts from "Phone" to "Google". I'm just googleing to see what it is as I can't remember.
Not sure how effective it is, haven't tried it as I've always synced my contacts to google even on WinMo.
Actually, have you tried doing it that way 1st? Set your Diamond to have an ActiveSync with google (m.google.com) and use your google user id and password. This will send all the contacts from your phone to google. Then sync your Hero.
I can't find the program at the minute (10 minutes of looking) but I'm sure its in this Hero forum somewhere about it. Will have another look in a bit

[Q] Backup Contacts to Google Account

I'm an android noob, so please go easy on me. Plus I've searched and haven't found a specific answer to my query.
I want to back up only the contacts on my phone and their details to my google account.
The problem is that whenever I try, all my gmail contacts are synced onto my phone, leaving me with a huge rubbish list of contacts.
Does anyone know how to do a one way upload of contacts into a google account???
Not sure if GS2 works the same way as GS1, but if you just want to back up your contacts, you can export them to a file and manually @ it to yourself.
If you want to sync, then it'll merge them with your google contacts, but then you can edit the view list to only show contacts with numbers, this way it'll hide the @ contacts only.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App
¿Have you tried the "Merge with Google" option?
SLaRe said:
¿Have you tried the "Merge with Google" option?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah...I havent figured out what this does....all that I can see is that there is now a small g next to all my contacts and if I choose not to display my google contacts, then I have an empty contact list.
EDIT
Anyways I solved the issue
1) Factory Reset Phone.
2) Created brand new Gmail Account.
3) Set this account as my default account and set syn options for contacts and calendar.
4) Contacts-->Settings-->Save new contacts to-->"Google" with the corresponding new email address.
Works like a charm.
Thanks guys for your replies.

[Q] Local phone android contacts with ICS?

Hi everyone,
I'm using CM9, but I tried different ICS roms and I encounter this problem with all of them.
- I'm trying to add a local phone (non gmail) contact to my phone, but it doesn't let me do that. When I add a new contact, a message box pops up saying, that: "Your new contact will be synchronized with <my gmail account>". How to add a local phone (not a SIM card) number?
- I have a backup of all my local phone numbers from GB made with MyPhoneExplorer, and restoring it works when I'm on ICS. The contacts are shown as local phone contacts (PCSC). However, after restarting the phone and waiting a few minutes, all the local contacts are completely gone. MyPhoneExplorer confirms that there are no contacts in the phone either. What's going on?
I really do not want to sync my contacts with google. Looking forward to hearing some answers!
Cheers!
I use CM9-alpha4 (i9001) and it works for me.
I did completely turn of "accounts and sync" and I also didn't flash gapps.
When I first created a new contact I was notified that it will be local and not synced. No problem there.
I'm using the CM9 9-20120614 version (the newest beta). I have Accounts and Sync on, since I want some stuff synced with my phone (facebook, linkedin, gmail calendar, etc.). And I experience the beforementioned problems...
I fiddled with the options but found nothing that would allow me to store my contacts locally and prevent the existing ones from being deleted
There is an issue in the Bugtracker:
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=26834
You could also use some other account that doesn't sync with Google. Funambol[0] would be my choice.
[0] http://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdid=com.funambol.androidsync
Thanks for that link.
However, I'm not sure, how is that cloud solution about to help storing my contacts locally without sharing it with any 3rd party?
You have to assiciate your contacts with some account. The funambol client creates such a "account provider" for you. But I just tried it and it seems like the client always wants you to sync with some server. You could set up your own server but that might not be what you want.
Sorry I can't really help. There is another thread about this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27747450
Alright, thanks a lot for your replies! Sigh, I guess I will just stick with google contacts for now -_-
here's my fix http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1808037
haydent said:
here's my fix http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1808037
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I will test it soon, although I have already moved my contacts to Google's cloud. Also, will this fix prevent me from synching google contacts? If so, it's more of a workaround than fix.
It breaks contact syncing deliberately. If you want to keep that while enabling local storage of contacts you need to edit the contacts.apk . I initially decompiled it and identified the line of code that enables or disables the local option.
Sent from my MB526 using xda app-developers app

Contacts "sync is currently experiencing problems"

I'm trying to sync my Google contacts but always get the message: "sync is currently experiencing problems". A reboot doesn't help. I even reflashe the ROM (Checkrom 3.5) and that didn't help either. Can anyone suggest a fix?
I’ve just noticed that I’m also unable to sync contacts with my Samsung Account, so I’m guessing that the problem is on the phone rather than the server….
The issue seems to be related to the Go Contacts app. I found that if I deleted then re-added the Google account from my phone I could sync again, but as soon as I added a new contact in Go Contacts I got this error message again. If I add the contact using the stock Contacts app I don’t get the problem. Has anyone else had this issue with Go Contacts?
Solved! (and I'm pretty sure it's for good this time)
So, I've been getting this problem for a while, I've called Google (It's a problem with the OS but Samsung should fix it), and Samsung(It's a problem with the OS but Google should fix it).......... I finally spotted someone alluding to an issue syncing groups in a previous post and someone here mentioned go contacts having issues so here's the process I followed to finally have it working again:
- If you use 'go contacts', use it to back up your contacts to a vcf which you can then import in to google
- Email that file to yourself as backup
- Turn off contact sync under your google account on your phone
- Go to manage applications and open the 'contacts database' app and clear all data.
- Do the same for 'go contacts' and the stock 'contacts' app
- Uninstall 'go contacts' (Probably not necessary but i wanted to start fresh)
- Open Gmail and go to 'contacts'. If you're confident that everything is in your phone's VCF, delete everything from your contacts.
- Import the vcf file in to google contacts.
- Here's the important bit: Delete ALL groups from your google contacts.
- Find and merge duplicates and make sure your contacts are all there. (I found that not all contacts were imported from the .vcf file)
- Install 'go contacts'
- Go to 'groups' and delete ALL groups from the 'go contacts' app.
- Turn on contacts account sync again.
I did this 2 days ago and (fingers crossed) my contact sync is working again.
beirtipol said:
So, I've been getting this problem for a while, I've called Google (It's a problem with the OS but Samsung should fix it), and Samsung(It's a problem with the OS but Google should fix it).......... I finally spotted someone alluding to an issue syncing groups in a previous post and someone here mentioned go contacts having issues so here's the process I followed to finally have it working again:
- If you use 'go contacts', use it to back up your contacts to a vcf which you can then import in to google
- Email that file to yourself as backup
- Turn off contact sync under your google account on your phone
- Go to manage applications and open the 'contacts database' app and clear all data.
- Do the same for 'go contacts' and the stock 'contacts' app
- Uninstall 'go contacts' (Probably not necessary but i wanted to start fresh)
- Open Gmail and go to 'contacts'. If you're confident that everything is in your phone's VCF, delete everything from your contacts.
- Import the vcf file in to google contacts.
- Here's the important bit: Delete ALL groups from your google contacts.
- Find and merge duplicates and make sure your contacts are all there. (I found that not all contacts were imported from the .vcf file)
- Install 'go contacts'
- Go to 'groups' and delete ALL groups from the 'go contacts' app.
- Turn on contacts account sync again.
I did this 2 days ago and (fingers crossed) my contact sync is working again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What if you're confident that both your phone's VCF and Google Contacts have new information? As a matter of fact, it's the case with me. I create new contacts with my phone for a newly received phone number, and I create new contacts with Gmail for a newly received email address. So, I simply can't just delete one set and replace it with the other. Any suggestions?
(Conceivably, I can import the phone's VCF to Google, and rely on Google's "Merge Contacts" function, but I'm a little reluctant because I don't exactly know what kind of algorithm Google uses to get rid of duplicates.)
This Contact sync issue seems to be affecting a lot of Android is users and has been a big disappointment for me. One more reason for me to marvel at iOS's seamless syncing.
Worked for me
Thanks a lot beirtipol...problem solved
Now I can install my next custom Rom
Google sync issues
itm said:
I'm trying to sync my Google contacts but always get the message: "sync is currently experiencing problems". A reboot doesn't help. I even reflashe the ROM (Checkrom 3.5) and that didn't help either. Can anyone suggest a fix?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was having the same issue and searched everywhere to find help. Came a cross a post (somewhere else... can't remember where) that said other apps could be affecting it. Thinking back to the most recent apps I have installed, and when the sync issue started, I deleted data and uninstalled Skype and my sync is working fine now.
Hope this helps.
I have finally found a 'reasonably simple' solution that came from suggestions in this thread
1. I have Go Contacts EX installed so I exported a copy of my contacts to a VCF on my SDcard.
2. Email VCF file to my Gmail account
3. Open Gmail on Web Browser on PC
4. Open the email - attachment is shown and Google gives a nice link to say "import contacts" based on the VCF
5. Press the link to import (assuming import and choose file will do same)
6. It may crash... but it has imported the contacts into a new group and may leave loads of duplicates...
7. Choose to "find and merge duplicates" (may need a few manual merges for those it does not catch)
8. Select all contacts and select to remove the "imported..." group that was created (if it crashed for you too)
Now you are left with Phone and Gmail that agree so sync works again.
Next time you edit a contact on your phone it may well stop working again - so do this now and again to keep in sync until everyone stops blaming each other for the issue...
Im still having issues with this...very annoying.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium
I am having exact same issue however the device is Note II. I never had this issue with my 2+ years of Android usage (Motorola, Sony & HTC phones). This has started with Samsung Note II only. I have posted the same question in Note 2 section however did not get any reply so I am assuming that it is just me who is facing the issue . I don't have Go contacts. It is really annoying as it contacts are completely gone from phone. Any suggestions?
contacts doesn't sync
I believe it is not the hardware = Samsung,
it is not the OS, Im running Padawan 6.2 custom ROM
this was a problem years ago when I switch to gmail and the problems arrived how to translate and auto-sort the first name/last/name/title/address/phone number/and so on , from one platform to other
I am surprised how google (since they support the android) didn't standardized this in its own backyard....
i.e. uninstalled and installed back EX Contacts, cleared the data and still not synking, now when I need it, and not tomorow.
so, the workaround:
clear data in Contacts Storage (! will wipe what you had in the phone !), and sync it backwards, from google to phone, so whenever you got new email contact its there anyway, and type there the new phone numbers ....
the stock address book updates well.......
I agree the stock address book looks cheap, but whatever I do with it, updates google address book....
I believe something to do with rows and columns how one is trying to send but the google doesn't know how to autosort, this why even when you import need to do manual work
just my 2c
Update:
- I remove Google account from phone
- Via web -> Gmail -> Contacts, I removed all groups, merge duplicates. etc and synced
It worked fine for 2 days and same issue occurred again. I am so much frustrated with Note 2. I never had this issues with any of my earlier phone. Now my phone is with service center as they want to keep it for 2-3 days, use and observe.
beirtipol said:
- Go to manage applications and open the 'contacts database' app and clear all data.
- Do the same for 'go contacts' and the stock 'contacts' app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These two steps were enough to fix the problem for me. Thanks!
try google sync fix
sly.cooper said:
I am having exact same issue however the device is Note II. I never had this issue with my 2+ years of Android usage (Motorola, Sony & HTC phones). This has started with Samsung Note II only. I have posted the same question in Note 2 section however did not get any reply so I am assuming that it is just me who is facing the issue . I don't have Go contacts. It is really annoying as it contacts are completely gone from phone. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem with my att skyrocket running Embryo 5.4
I fixed the problem by downloading 'contacts sync fix' from google play store for free
I had the same problem with my AT&T Galaxy S3, after reading this post someone suggested that Skype was affecting this. I removed Skype and now Samsung account can sync.
This worked for me:
sly.cooper said:
I am having exact same issue however the device is Note II. I never had this issue with my 2+ years of Android usage (Motorola, Sony & HTC phones). This has started with Samsung Note II only. I have posted the same question in Note 2 section however did not get any reply so I am assuming that it is just me who is facing the issue . I don't have Go contacts. It is really annoying as it contacts are completely gone from phone. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the Note II and had this problem too, I also had GoContacts EX and cleaned up, merged etc a lot of contacts. None of these suggestions worked for me to get sync working. Here's what I did: Backed up all contacts on phone. Removed all groups from phone and Google on my browser (not sure if this needed to be done but was suggested above. You probably won't need to I'm guessing.) (Exported VCF to my SD Card). Then emailed them to my gmail account, imported into my account using Gmail on my computer browser. Waited for it and after a while gmail asked if I wanted to merge. I said yes, then I deleted the group that Google automatically created for the imported contacts and the date they were imported. I also uninstalled Go contacts EX just to be safe.
After this I deleted my Google account off of my phone. Note that I have 2 gmail accounts, so my phone then switched to using the other gmail account. Then I added the normal account back to my phone and it synced fine after that. But I don't know how long it will work as I just did it a short while ago. Hopefully this helps someone though, because I know how frustrating this issue is. If you don't have two Gmail accounts I suppose you could create one temporarily just for this purpose. Good luck.
sgs3 with same issue - remove / re-add account worked for me
i have the sprint sgs3 with android 4.1 (jelly bean) and i had the same problem (sync is currently experiencing problems) until today. my contacts had not sync'd for over a month. no clue why. based on recommendations in this forum:
i disabled other applications (i.e. skype, facebook, yahoo, etc.) contact sync... no change.
i uninstalled skype... no change.
hence, i don't believe there is any need to do the above. what worked for me is...
i went to my pc's google contacts and exported my contacts to make sure that i had them saved off. then, i went to settings, google -> <my google account>, remove account, yes / ok, add account, add google account, etc. while attempting to sync contacts a window popped up asking me to update, i selected now, it rebooted / updated. again, a window popped up asking me to update, i selected now, it rebooted / updated. when it came back up, i verified that google contacts sync'd. the android version now reads 4.1.2.
i re-installed skype, re-enabled other applications contact sync... google contacts still sync. good luck!
I have the Note II and am running CleanRom. Had not issues for a while, then this started to happen. Last sync with contacts was on /2/27/2013 at 7:35pm (today for those lazy to look at post date is 3/1/2013 8:08am).
When this happens, my contacts disappear from my contact button. Today however if I switched the Contacts to Display from my gmail account to All Contacts they are back, but this isn't always the case.
If I reboot its all good, but will come back either later that day, at night, or the next day.
I have deleted the data from Contact Database and Contacts, but all that did was make me have to set the ringtones back up for the people.
Tried the Contact Sync Fix from the Play Store, no go.
igknight said:
I have the Note II and am running CleanRom. Had not issues for a while, then this started to happen. Last sync with contacts was on /2/27/2013 at 7:35pm (today for those lazy to look at post date is 3/1/2013 8:08am).
When this happens, my contacts disappear from my contact button. Today however if I switched the Contacts to Display from my gmail account to All Contacts they are back, but this isn't always the case.
If I reboot its all good, but will come back either later that day, at night, or the next day.
I have deleted the data from Contact Database and Contacts, but all that did was make me have to set the ringtones back up for the people.
Tried the Contact Sync Fix from the Play Store, no go.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in the same boat as you. I've noticed a little dialog flashes really quickly sometimes when contacts are failing to sync, but I havent been able to get a screenie or read it. This is become extremely frustrating.

[Q] Removing Device Contacts

I made the mistake of having the contacts from my iPhone 4S transferred over to my new Galaxy S4. What I want to do is utilize only my Google Contacts and sync them with their Facebook profiles. Therefore, I want to completely get rid of all device contacts.
I went into Settings > Application Manager > All and cleared data & cache from Contacts and Contacts Storage. This works for the day, but when my phone syncs with Google at night, it reverts back to my full contact list - including Device Contacts.
I've looked all over my Google Contacts and I can not find a backup file or fine ANY of the Device Contacts through search. I honestly have no idea where my Device Contacts are stored. I'm assuming they are on my phone somewhere, but I can't find them. Any ideas?
DecayingExponentials said:
I made the mistake of having the contacts from my iPhone 4S transferred over to my new Galaxy S4. What I want to do is utilize only my Google Contacts and sync them with their Facebook profiles. Therefore, I want to completely get rid of all device contacts.
I went into Settings > Application Manager > All and cleared data & cache from Contacts and Contacts Storage. This works for the day, but when my phone syncs with Google at night, it reverts back to my full contact list - including Device Contacts.
I've looked all over my Google Contacts and I can not find a backup file or fine ANY of the Device Contacts through search. I honestly have no idea where my Device Contacts are stored. I'm assuming they are on my phone somewhere, but I can't find them. Any ideas?
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