Contacts Hidden due to auto join - Droid(Android) won't display all contacts from Gmail / Google

amos2b · January 3rd, 2012, 12:23 PM

Is there a way to disable the auto join / merge contacts feature in the contacts on the Droid Razr? It automatically merges contacts when just one phone number is common between the two, or more, contacts even though they are different names, addresses... You can go into each contact and click seperate but this is not practical when you have hundreds of contacts.

User roseb described the issue well in his/her post before but did not get it solved:
Contacts Hidden - Droid(Android) won't display all contacts from Gmail / Google

Quote:

Contacts Hidden - Droid(Android) won't display all contacts from Gmail / Google
I have a Droid, but according to Motorola Level 3 Tech Support, this is a problem with the Android operating system. Here is how the bug works, as far as I understand it:

BTW, I have already used the excellant feature on Google to Find Duplicate Contacts and Merge them. That feature, on the Gmail web site, finds all the Contacts with the same name, and at your option, merges *all* the data into one Contact, so no data is lost.

The problem is on the phone, in my case on the Droid. On the Droid (apparently all Android phones?), it finds all records which have a common tel number and arbitrarily will only display one of them. (No one can accurately tell me which one it chooses to display BTW.) The ones which are hidden from display do not show up in any searches.

Try this: Create two Contacts, say for Joe and Mary, with the same work tel for both, but give them each a different mobile tel. (Now that's a realistic example, right?) Be sure to create the contacts in Gmail, not on the Droid -- it might make a difference. (All of my contacts were initially on Gmail and then synced onto the Droid -- again a realistic example since the Droid is a newer product than Gmail.)

Now, go to the Droid and try to search for Joe. Now, try to search for Mary. I believe you will find one but not the other. Big problem!

Here's another weirdness -- whichever one is missing, now go to Gmail, and look up the mobile tel for the one which was hidden on the Droid. Now, manually dial the mobile tel on the Droid for the one which the Droid could not find when you searched. Surprise -- the name will pop up when it dials the number -- proving that the Contact is indeed on the Droid, but it is hidden.

Now, Motorola is calling this some kind of "merging" but I would call it instead "hiding" because the records are there and can be found individually by the Droid except when we (as users) are looking for them. Arghhh.

Help! I have over 3700 Contacts and over 300 of these records are hiding from view or searching. Major problem.

Help!!!!

Several questions:
1) Is this problem limited to the Droid or does this problem exist on all smartphones which use the Android system?

2) Why haven't we heard about this before? This is a significant defect. I feel that it is a major scandal that the product was released with such a defect. I don't understand.

3) Can anyone confirm or identify that anyone is working on fixing this??? Who is the correct person or entity to speak with about this? Motorola says it's an Android problem and takes no responsibility. But who is responsible for Android? If it's open source, then who will fix this? I'm not an expert, so I am totally in the dark here, but I really need help. Surely I am not the only person with this problem.

winchwrench · June 8th, 2012, 07:20 AM

Arrrggghh. OK, I have over 3000 contacts. When entering a name in the search field, the Razr only seems to search for the FIRST word in a contact field. Because I have so many contacts, I input key words in contact fields. Either in first name, last name or company. I may have the persons name in the last & first name fields and in the company field I may input their company name and or simply input several key words to remember them by... such as where I met them, how I remember them, etc... Now, my iphone will search for ANY of these words in the contacts fields, however my new Razr seems to only pick up the FIRST WORD in each field. This is BAD. With as many contacts as I have, I cannot depend on searching this way! COME ON!?, Really? Am I doing something wrong? I love the phone, but this handicap is a deal breaker & unless I find a fix fast, I'm gonna have to replace the phone. Somebody help!