Phone vs Gmail contacts

[kiniki]

On my phone, I have both a "Phone" contact and a "google" contact for each person.

Is there any point in keeping/linking the "phone" contacts? Or am I safe to delete them, to just have one version on the phone?

Are the google contacts actually stored on the phone?

Just trying to figure out if I basically have duplicates that are not needed

 

[oldnick]

I had duplicates and it was driving me nuts! I decided that I'd use MS Outlook as my 'master' record and have disabled Google contacts and calender.
Sane again now

 

[HYCAET]

I just use google contacts, and as a precaution I exported the contacts as a CV (i think it's CV) file on my lap top. Similar to old nick, it was driving me mad. I had to unsync all the facebook sense stuff to, 'cos it was adding another email address to the contacts who use a 'fun' email account for things like facebook.

 

[lekky]

To get the most use of of the phone, make them all google type and get rid of everything else. Its auto backed up on your gmail account, seamless integration with other functions/apps and you can only use voice dialling with google contacts.

I see no reason why you'd want to keep and merge any others.

 

[oldnick]

To get the most use of of the phone, make them all google type and get rid of everything else. Its auto backed up on your gmail account, seamless integration with other functions/apps and you can only use voice dialling with google contacts.

I see no reason why you'd want to keep and merge any others.

See here's the thing, I'm stuck with what I know and trust. I don't 'get' the Google stuff?? But I think I may like to!
So could I export my Outlook contacts to the Desire, export them to the SD card, re-import them as Google contacts - and not have duplicates?? This would then open up seamless integration - sorry to be dumb, but can you give me some examples to encourage me to make the leap of faith?!

 

[stringent]

I see no reason why you'd want to keep and merge any others.

Picture quality

 

[Alevda]

Have also struggled with this - getting three copies of contacts or none when using Touchdown for Outlook sync! Current solution for me (but subject to change) is to disable the contacts sync in Touchdown and do it all via Google. Made a CSV file by exporting from Outlook and imported this to Google over the web, then synced the phone. Seems to be working but then I don't add/delete contacts a lot so the reverse sync back into outlook is not a concern (yet!)

 

[Mark One]

I'm afraid you have to give in to Google. Many android users don't seem to get the need to have a locally synced (eg Outlook) version of their data - personally I prefer to be able to manage my calendars and contacts even when I cannot connect to the internet (africa, USA, O2 in central london on a friday night).

I was sure I would be able to do this using HTC Sync but a) the software's really unstable and unreliable (I have never managed to sync successfully with it) and b) Google wants your data and has made such a mind boggling hash of managing different accounts on Android that its impossible to manage a single data set between Google online and Outlook offline.

I spent weeks banging my head against a wall trying to resolve this - here's a synopsis:

Apparently the Desire cannot syc between Google and Outlook - xda-developers

The long and the short of it - give up and stick with Google contacts and calendar or your life will be hell.

 

[buggiejack]

I wish I'd found this forum a week ago!
I got awfully confused by the different contact lists, I had contacts on the sim card (ported from previous phone), phone memory contacts (bluetoothed from previous phone) but only one or two google contacts, from when i created the google account on my pc.

It took me ages to find out about the different contact types, and couldn't work out why all the phone contacts wouldn't go back to Googlemail.

I copied the phone contacts to my pc, but as I have windows 7, they ended up in a folder called contacts, as .contact files.

I then imported them to googlemail, but ended up with everything on the phone twice, once it synced.

It took me a while to sort out what had happened, but now like the recommendations above, there are only the google contacts.

 

[Norwegianpiglet]

The other good thing about Google is that if you have managed to create lots of duplicate contacts in a CSV file, Google takes care of it for you. After everything is correctly up on Google, set the phone to show only Google contacts. Job Jobbed.

PS - if you use a backup app like Mybackup Pro (very very very very reccommended!!!), don't back up the contacts with MBP, as you will get duplicates and confusion.

 

[oldnick]

Ok I've now got all my contacts as Google contacts. Deleted all phone contacts. Have only Google contacts ticked. Now what are the seemless things open to me??
Also what does 'Show auto Gmail contacts' do?

Ok I'm getting it a bit now! Facebook and twitter stuff linking up! Nice.

Best of all - no duplicates - yet!

 

[OFI]

You know if you have duplicates you can just turn off which contacts it sees right?

I changed mine all to Google Contacts which was a good move as I flashed the phone about 6 times after

 

[witz]

I see the merit of using just the Google contacts, but how does this work when I use my Outlook/Exchange. If I get an email an want to add that person's information to my address book, it will store it in Outlook/Exchange. How will that informaiton stay in sync with Google and then my DINC? Also, if i add a person on my phone, how does it sync back to Outlook?

 

[oldnick]

I see the merit of using just the Google contacts, but how does this work when I use my Outlook/Exchange. If I get an email an want to add that person's information to my address book, it will store it in Outlook/Exchange. How will that informaiton stay in sync with Google and then my DINC? Also, if i add a person on my phone, how does it sync back to Outlook?

One way is to use import/export. Maybe not the best way, but it is a way...

 

[witz]

I thought of that, but thats a manual process to keep in sync. Far from ideal

 

[Jethro]

Well, in case anyone wants the other side of the story, I use Outlook as my main emailing, contact and calendar app. I've just been using it for years. So to switch everything to Google is just not ideal for me. I much prefer a local app to a web-based app. Just much quicker to use and organize, etc.

So I've been using HTC Sync with Outlook 2007 on XP and it's been working fine for me since I got my phone back in November. If I add a contact on my phone, it gets sent to Outlook & vice-versa. Even the photos from the phone end up in Outlook. And it is syncing with my friends' Facebook photos and birthdays if I want, no problem.

So all of my contacts are 'Phone' contacts, and when entering them in I was never prompted to make them 'Google' contacts (I didn't even know the difference until all of these discussions, so it's not entirely obvious).

Calendar appointments seem to work decently well also (I usually add these in Outlook & sync to phone).

I'm hoping all continues to work this way after the update to 2.1, but we'll see.

I had considered switching my contacts to Google when I first started, but then knew it would be a nightmare to try to keep Outlook in sync with this every time I added a new contact.

 

[HYCAET]

I use Thunderbird email client, and this can be set to sync updates made on it to google contacts. For some reason my Thunderbird didn't update to version 3 automatically, but once updated it, it seems much more compatible with google than it used to be. I use it with Pop rather than IMAP however, 'cos IMAP was a bit mental.

 

[kiniki]

If I want to rid the phone of the "Phone" contacts, just to have the google ones.. Am I going to have to unlink and delete each one individually?

Or is there a way of deleting all "phone" contacts at once?

 

[oldnick]

If I want to rid the phone of the "Phone" contacts, just to have the google ones.. Am I going to have to unlink and delete each one individually?

Or is there a way of deleting all "phone" contacts at once?

Try this:

phone>menu>people>menu>delete>menu>select all

Obviously you have the 'phone' contacts selected rather than any other type!

Been there, done that - lovin google contacts now

 

[karldenton]

Quick question RE the contacts.
I am thinking of getting the Desire this weekend.
If I Sync my contacts and Calendar with Google - does that mean it connects to the internet everytime to get the calendar and contacts? Or does it store a local copy then sync every so often?
Thanks

 

[lekky]

Also what does 'Show auto Gmail contacts' do?

Every time you send an email, google stores that email address as a new contact. That option basically adds everyone you ever email to your contact list as a new contact (so best not to tick it)

 

[kiniki]

Try this:

phone>menu>people>menu>delete>menu>select all

Obviously you have the 'phone' contacts selected rather than any other type!

Been there, done that - lovin google contacts now

Nice one... That did the trick!

 

[brykins]

So all of my contacts are 'Phone' contacts, and when entering them in I was never prompted to make them 'Google' contacts (I didn't even know the difference until all of these discussions, so it's not entirely obvious).

I did this as well for a long while. But the fact that a lot of third party apps (BetterCut, K-9 Mail were the two that got me) can't access any contacts OTHER that Google contacts. Couldn't make any shortcuts to direct dials or text with BetterCut and K-9 Mail wouldn't lookup addresses in the Phone contacts.

Have taken the plunge and moved everything to Google now. It's not ideal.

 

[uzetaab]

Try this:

phone>menu>people>menu>delete>menu>select all

Obviously you have the 'phone' contacts selected rather than any other type!

Been there, done that - lovin google contacts now

Something went wrong here. when I deleted my phonebook contents, it also tried to delete them from google. Thankfully, I got an event saying that I had tried to delete too many contacts at once & wanted confirmation. when I undeleted, the doubles were gone, but I still had all my contacts.

my advice would be to make sure you have backed your contacts up. gmail's web interface has a simple backup option.