Google Calendar/Contacts syncing problems

[Kevin_T]

Hi,
I have a pretty new HTC wildfire S.
And I have some strange sync problems with my google account. If I add a new contact or a new calendar entry the sync is fine in both directions, but it did not sync older entries.
As I synced my contacts from my old phone to this smartphone the contacts in my google online account are still nearly empty although my phone-contacts are pretty crowded.

As I don't know what I could have done wrong I think this might me a bug from android or google?

Hopefully here is someone with any idea?

Regars,
Kevin

 

[jimdroid]

When you did the sync from your old phone, it probably put all the entries in the phone account, as opposed to your google account, so they won't sync.

You need to move them to your google account. I haven't looked at doing this lately, but it used to be the case that the only way to do this was to re-enter the contact, make sure it is a Google contact. Not sure if there's a better way to do this now.

 

[Kevin_T]

sure, the contacts are in my phone account, but it should sync to my google account.
Synchronization in my understanding means, that afterwords both accounts should have identical entries. Why doesn't this work?

And what is even worse is that it is the same for the calendar. New entries get synced, but previously online entered dates would not sync until I chance them slightly.

I do not know what to do. It seems to me that the phone remembers its last sync and just syncs changes from that time. How do I perform a COMPLETE sync?

Regards,
Kevin

 

[El Presidente]

Calendar wise, I would have expected it to sync everything but don't use the calendar so I can't comment, sorry

For your contacts, open your phone book, hit menu, then import/export, export to SD. That will create a .vcf file on the root of your SD Card which you'll need to copy to your PC.

Open the gmail account associated with the handset, hit contacts, more actions, import, then select the .vcf file you just copied to your PC. Sync, and they'll "appear" on your handset. they should link themselves to the matching, existing contacts. From now on, if you save all new numbers as google contacts, they'll back themselves up to the gmail account.

It should work as you say, but for whatever reason, it doesn't. It caught me out too.

I'll also move this to the Wildfire S forum, see if any users of the phone can shed some light on the calendar issues.

 

[Kevin_T]

g but don't use the calendar so I can't comment

how can anyone NOT use the googel calendar? It was the reason for me switching to google products in the first place.

export to SD

I had this in mind, but I thought there might be a better solution. It is bothering me that the sync doesn't check the data, but syncs by change-date. I can never be sure if all my contacts get synced.

I'll also move this to the Wildfire S forum

Is this a Wildfire-only problem? Than the problem could be sense?

 

[El Presidente]

how can anyone NOT use the googel calendar? It was the reason for me switching to google products in the first place.

Maybe you have more appointments or a worse memory than me

I had this in mind, but I thought there might be a better solution. It is bothering me that the sync doesn't check the data, but syncs by change-date. I can never be sure if all my contacts get synced.

That is the only way I have been able to do it. It's a pain initially, but it does work. I've switched between ROMs and never lost any numbers doing so.

Is this a Wildfire-only problem? Than the problem could be sense?

Not sure, but generally if a user mentions a specific device in their question, we move it to that devices subforum (there are exceptions to this however). If you think it would get a better response in the lounge, I can easily see about getting it moved back?

 

[Kevin_T]

Maybe you have more appointments or a worse memory than me

might both be true. Without my calendar I would probably forget my own birthday...

That is the only way I have been able to do it.

So I will stick with this workaround too.

I've switched between ROMs and never lost any numbers doing so.

Good for you, but you can never be sure of that. Just a little malfunction of some timestamps and the sync misses a couple of entries (and never syncs them). That is just real bad programming.

If you think it would get a better response in the lounge, I can easily see about getting it moved back?

As this seems to be a common issue it would be helpful to know if this is a problem of HTC Sense or of Android.

 

[El Presidente]

I'll speak to one of the mods about getting it moved back.

 

[Slug]

In general questions relating to specific devices receive the quickest (and most accurate) responses in their own device-specific sections. However this issue is one that I've never encountered before so I think it would benefit from a wider audience.

Anyone come across this sort of thing before?

 

[jimdroid]

sure, the contacts are in my phone account, but it should sync to my google account.
Synchronization in my understanding means, that afterwords both accounts should have identical entries. Why doesn't this work?

That's not what sync means for Google. Sync for contacts means that if you make a change to a contact on your phone, that change is propagated to your whole Google account, so that when you bring up Contacts on your PC or another device, you will see that change. It does not sync between the phone contacts and google contacts.

So why is there a phone account? I'm not sure, really, but it's probably for contacts that you don't want synced, or for phones that people run without having a Google account. In any case, it's confusing.

I believe the Google calendar only syncs back x days (I'm not sure the value of x). It used to sync all past events, but many people complained about this (Google it), so it was changed.

 

[Kevin_T]

That's not what sync means for Google.

I know that now, but that is no syncing. This is copy some changes. That HAS to cause problems. There has to be at least a perform real sync button.

So why is there a phone account?

I am okay with that account. It is just that I want it be synced with the google account. Google could make this optional.

I believe the Google calendar only syncs back x days

I was not talking about that. The calendar does not even sync appointments in the future if they were entered in the past. So it is the date of change that counts.

 

[jimdroid]

Just delete your calendar data and resync.

 

[Kevin_T]

That did not help, so I completely resetted the phone. Now it seems to be alright, but it is not very satisfying to know that I can never be sure, if all data will be synced...

 

[Kevin_T]

Just read in a forum that HTC knows about this issue. Although this does not mean that they are causing it they might be doing something against it.

 

[mbphil]

Just delete your calendar data and resync.

but will this delete all the calendar on the phone. don't want to do that until i get it uploaded to gmail