Transfering Contacts from phone to gmail

[Girevik]

My wife got a new phone today, and they transferred all her contacts over to the new device. I'd like to have them all pushed to her Gmail account so they will be all stored together and available should the phone suffer a tragic accident.

Is there a way to take a contact that's stored on her phone and push it to the Gmail address book? I've got it set to store new contacts there, but I don't see how to do it for one that exists on the phone.

Thanks!

 

[LilBit]

Use the Gmail sync option. Sync the contacts to the google account.

 

[chanchan05]

What phone? If its a recent Samsung device, just open the contacts app, press menu button, then select "merge with Google".

 

[Girevik]

It's a Samsung Galaxy S III. That must not be recent enough, since I don't see that option.

Use the Gmail sync option. Sync the contacts to the google account.

Is this setting within the Gmail app, or in the account settings on the phone? I have the account settings set to sync, but it doesn't do any kind of merge...it just pulls the stuff from Gmail down to the phone.

 

[chanchan05]

It's a Samsung Galaxy S III. That must not be recent enough, since I don't see that option.



Is this setting within the Gmail app, or in the account settings on the phone? I have the account settings set to sync, but it doesn't do any kind of merge...it just pulls the stuff from Gmail down to the phone.

I have an S3 mini and an S3 here with me, and it has that option. Have you tried updating via Samsung Kies? You can use your Samsung account as well for it. What options do you have when you open the menu button inside the contacts app?

 

[Girevik]

Just brought it home a couple of hours ago, so no I haven't tried updating it with Kies. I have an S3 as well, and it was updated when they released Jellybean, and I don't see it on my phone either.

I see SIM Managment, Import/Export, Accoutns, Speed dial setting, send email, send message, contacts to display, and settings. I wonder if this could be an AT&T alteration to the stock contacts.

 

[LilBit]

Tap the contacts to display, then check your Gmail account, that should sync everything up, if the phone is set to sync your accounts.

 

[Girevik]

Tap the contacts to display, then check your Gmail account, that should sync everything up, if the phone is set to sync your accounts.

I think that just filters out the contacts that don't come from Google. I want to send the contacts that are on the pone to the Google account.

 

[chanchan05]

That's pretty odd. I have all those option PLUS options to merge with either Google or Samsung. What happens when you open the accounts option?

 

[Girevik]

When I click on "accounts" it brings up a menu that shows all of my different accounts (e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.), with a check box at the top that says "auto sync app data"

I'm wondering if that option was something AT&T removed for some reason.

 

[chanchan05]

In the accounts option, tap on your Google account and make sure contacts are set to sync.

What I can suggest you do now is to use the import/export option. Export your contacts to a file in your sd card, then using the same option, import the file to Google.

 

[Girevik]

What I can suggest you do now is to use the import/export option. Export your contacts to a file in your sd card, then using the same option, import the file to Google.

That's a pretty good idea, except that once the phone synced with Google all those contacts would be on the phone twice so I'd still have to manually delete the duplicates from the phone.

 

[chanchan05]

That's a pretty good idea, except that once the phone synced with Google all those contacts would be on the phone twice so I'd still have to manually delete the duplicates from the phone.

Not one by one though. You can delete all of them in one go anyway.

 

[Girevik]

How can I do that? The only option I've seen on the phone is to delete them one at a time (a very cumbersome exercise).

 

[chanchan05]

It's probably phone dependent. On my phone, when i go to contacts >menu>delete, there is a 'select all' option.

 

[Crashdamage]

How can I do that? The only option I've seen on the phone is to delete them one at a time (a very cumbersome exercise).

If you end up with duplicate Google contacts, log into your Gmail on a computer, go to Contacts > Settings and choose 'Merge duplicates'. Then resync to the phone. Some contact apps will let you do 'merge duplicates' on the phone.