How do I sync contacts from gmail to phone? (for offline use)

[scheuri]

Hello everyone

I am afraid I come up with a question that might be answered already. However, I am not able to find the particular forum thread helping me out.

I just got my HTC Desire yesterday and managed to get my contacts on my gmail-account (in the internet). So far so good. My contacts are "safe" in my google-mail-account and I was able to export them as cvs.

Now, on my HTC Desire they actually show up, if I choose "people" -> "menu and view" -> "Google".
In the list of "view" I can also see my SIM Card (which says its empty and that is correct) and "Phone" which is empty as well.

Please correct me if I am wrong:
From what I think I see my contacts are on my internet googlemail account only and my phone is connecting to the internet to get them.

But that is not I would want. I would want my contacts being synced between my phone (which is not necessarily connected to the internet all the time) and my internet google-mail account.

Now, is there a way to bring those contacts on my phone (using the on board tools) so I can use them "offline" or am I misunderstanding the menu and the contacts are already "offline" on my phone marked as "Google" contacts?

Thanks a lot for your help!!
Cheers
scheuri

 

[FelixofMars]

Mine all appear to be on my phone, I notice there is an import option but I have no idea if you can effectively import the contacts from gmail. I take it you have already sync contacts manually?

 

[EddyOS]

They're already on your phone and are labelled as 'Google' - you can import them if you really want to but they'll be on your phone regardless of connection

 

[DanC]

An easy way to find out would be to put the phone into Airplane mode, that will cut all connections.

If Google contacts show up, you'll know that they're stored on the phone itself.

 

[scheuri]

An easy way to find out would be to put the phone into Airplane mode, that will cut all connections.

If Google contacts show up, you'll know that they're stored on the phone itself.

Thanks DanC, I just tried that. The contacts still show up. So I guess this could be proof they really are on the phone and can be used "offline" without a data connection at all.

So I guess that leaves only one question about the whole syncing at the moment.
Adding a new contact it asks how to store it...either on the SIM, on the Phone or on Google. Taking the latter I guess it automatically syncs it to google mail (and therefore needing a data connection). Choosing phone I guess it only locally stores it (without using a data connection) and hopefully let me sync it with google mail later on (eg if I have wireless instead using 3G)....
Hope I am right...

Cheers
scheuri

 

[nx1977]

They exist in both places when set as Google contacts

 

[DanC]

I don't know how easy it is to move them from your phone to google if you set it to phone only, I might be missing a simple option somewhere.

I would just set them as google contacts from the go, the data cost of uploading them to the cloud is negligible and having them there is an absolute life saver if you ever need to wipe your phone.

 

[SUroot]

I don't know how easy it is to move them from your phone to google if you set it to phone only, I might be missing a simple option somewhere.

I would just set them as google contacts from the go, the data cost of uploading them to the cloud is negligible and having them there is an absolute life saver if you ever need to wipe your phone.

There is no easy way. The feature doesn't exist. Youd have to export it from the phone and import it into google.

Best bet is just to away create in google