Help Syncing "All Contacts"

[pkulak]

Well, this is a problem on every Android phone, it seems. On the Captivate, how do I have it just sync "My Contacs". You know, as much as I enjoy having 50 sale...@craigslist.com contacts in my address book...

 

[Duck Tales LOL]

Have you looked into Settings > Account and Sync ?

 

[pkulak]

Have you looked into Settings > Account and Sync ?

Yeah. There doesn't seem to be anything there.

 

[NukaCola]

Yeah I'd like a solution for this as well. I even spent a little time cleaning up my gmail contacts and syncing up with the blackberry yesterday in anticipation of this phone. Annoying how the google sync app just does the right thing on the blackberry but on android it is complete crap.

 

[HyperM3]

So far this phone syncs way differently than my N1 does. In the N1, you were able to pick and choose what type of contacts you wanted sync. With this phone its all or nothing. One thing that I found to help was:

Contacts > menu > Display options > Only contacts with phones.

That got rid of a lot of my contacts who were just screen names or email addresses.

 

[pkulak]

So far this phone syncs way differently than my N1 does. In the N1, you were able to pick and choose what type of contacts you wanted sync. With this phone its all or nothing. One thing that I found to help was:

Contacts > menu > Display options > Only contacts with phones.

That got rid of a lot of my contacts who were just screen names or email addresses.

That certainly does help. It's still silly that it's syncing from the wrong list though. This has been a problem on every Android phone I've ever owned. You think someone would figure it out at some point.

 

[NukaCola]

Ok, so the 'only contacts with phones' does clean the list up. However now i realize that the 'synced' contacts actually don't sync properly with the phone memory. I can't assign these contacts to groups (I would have expected the gmail groups to carry over!). I also can't assign these contacts personal ringtones. There must be something I'm missing here.

 

[HyperM3]

Ok, so the 'only contacts with phones' does clean the list up. However now i realize that the 'synced' contacts actually don't sync properly with the phone memory. I can't assign these contacts to groups (I would have expected the gmail groups to carry over!). I also can't assign these contacts personal ringtones. There must be something I'm missing here.

I posted about this in another thread as well. Seems that the groups thing under contacts in the phone just does not work.

I downloaded a free app called "Contact GroupsU" from the marketplace and it works great. Very easy to assign people and ringtones. I have been using it on my N1 and its very reliable and works seamlessly with the OS.

 

[phishie]

Anyone had any luck limiting which contact groups sync with GMail?

 

[shavald]

I posted about this in another thread as well. Seems that the groups thing under contacts in the phone just does not work.

I downloaded a free app called "Contact GroupsU" from the marketplace and it works great. Very easy to assign people and ringtones. I have been using it on my N1 and its very reliable and works seamlessly with the OS.

I tried finding this app called contact groupsU . No luck either in the marketplace or even on google search.

is it known by any othe name?

thanks

 

[HyperM3]

My fault, had the "s" in the wrong place. Its "contacts groupu".

 

[shavald]

found it with the correct name---thanks.

to clarify before I install it, it will syncronize b/t the contacts on the Captivate phone and the contacts on my gmail list and maintain the same groups that I have sorted them into for both? Currently, the Samsung Captivate lumps the various groups I see on my gmail contacts into one generic "google group"

thanks

 

[HyperM3]

Yeah just download it and you'll see. It lumps things but you can create your own with individual ringtones and whatnot.

 

[NOSintake]

I'm in the same boat. I went ahead and moved all my contacts to Google before I got the phone (knew I was getting an android phone soon enough), and I just want "My Contacts" to display (matter of fact, I was given the option for a new SIM, and I said no, just in case I didn't like the My Contacts feature). I will admit, most of my numbers that are showing, are the "My Contacts" one, but there are a few that will not display properly, and I have to manually go in, and unlink their account (any cons to doing this?).

That being said, I may go and check out that app, but I would really like someway to fix this issue from the phone (maybe unlink the bad ones, export/import them to fix issue??)

 

[artvandalay22222]

This is where the htc aria really shined. The contacts list on it was really nice. It synched google groups, allowed google contact ringtones, and you could link facebook contacts to google contacts and it would use facebook avatars for the contact's caller id pic.

 

[skinien]

It's a bummer that they don't have the option to sync "My Contacts" only.

But, a simple workaround is to create a shortcut to "Starred Contacts" and then star the ones you want to see (i.e. the ones in My Contacts). Just do one or two and after the next contact sync, your gmail (on your PC) contacts will have the new group "Starred in Android". On your PC, click "All" of your "My Contacts" and then add them to the group "Starred in Android" and your done.

 

[artvandalay22222]

is there a way to delete phone contacts? On their Aria you just choose to view by phone only, then delete. I can't seem to figure it out. I want to delete then, but I don't want to have to do then one by one.

 

[NOSintake]

It's a bummer that they don't have the option to sync "My Contacts" only.

But, a simple workaround is to create a shortcut to "Starred Contacts" and then star the ones you want to see (i.e. the ones in My Contacts). Just do one or two and after the next contact sync, your gmail (on your PC) contacts will have the new group "Starred in Android". On your PC, click "All" of your "My Contacts" and then add them to the group "Starred in Android" and your done.

That sounds a lot faster (and easier) than my method of deleted the linked Phone accounts (leaving only Google accounts), exporting, than importing. I'll have to try this out tomorrow to see how it works. Thanks for this

 

[pkulak]

What a joke. This is a GOOGLE phone, and yet if you want Google contacts to sync properly, you're best to go buy an iPhone, which doesn't have this issue at all.

 

[skinien]

What a joke. This is a GOOGLE phone, and yet if you want Google contacts to sync properly, you're best to go buy an iPhone, which doesn't have this issue at all.

Right, it doesn't have this issue, but has others:
-doesn't keep home/work/mobile setting (changes to "other")
-addresses aren't formatted correctly

This is a GOOGLE phone but I believe that it's Samsung that has presented the error to users. As noted earlier, other GOOGLE phones don't have this issue. Either way, it shouldn't be an issue at all.

 

[skinien]

is there a way to delete phone contacts? On their Aria you just choose to view by phone only, then delete. I can't seem to figure it out. I want to delete then, but I don't want to have to do then one by one.

If you're talking about deleting one particular contact, just view that contact and push the menu button. From there you should be able to delete the contact (you might have to select "more" after pushing the menu button).

 

[fmichigan]

On the phone I am un able to add contacts to the groups at all.

Groups/Add Member and it's just a blank black screen that says "No Contacts"
Hard Menu just buzzes at me. Hard search button lets me look up contacts but no way to add them to the groups.

I have 583 contacts on my phone, not sure why I can't group them on the phone, I have groups made in outlook but they don't sync over either.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[woody1]

I just moved from a Windows Mobile 6.5 phone to Captivate last week. These problems with syncing contacts are the most annoying thing I've seen with the Captivate. I mean really, my pathetic old WM phone was able to sync just the "My Contacts" list from Gmail just fine. Samsung should be ashamed at the way this works! I'm absolutely amazed that an Android phone can't do this!

I would expect to have much more control over contacts syncing. For instance, it should be possible to carry over the contacts groups from Google and it definitely should be possible to sync just the "My Contacts" from Google. Has anybody developed a fix for this yet????

 

[indie_wannabe]

I'm a new android owner and have been fighting this contacts problem too. I believe the problem has to do with Google contacts not being "phone contacts." If I create a new contact and save it to "phone" instead of google then I can add this new "phone contact" to a group. I can also assign custom ring tones, etc.

So my question is how can I make the "google contacts" that I choose into phone contacts automatically? The only way I have found so far is to manually create a contact and save it to "phone." So if I have Mom on my android as a google contact, I can create a new contact called Mom and then save it as a "phone" contact. Now I can add Mom to a group. I STILL CANNOT add a custom ringtone for Mom unless I edit the Mom contact, go to "phone" and manually add a phone number. The phone number in the "phone" section of the contact is not automatically populated when the google Mom and the phone Mom are linked!

Anyway, does anyone know how one could automatically move a google contact to the phone?

 

[Glucklichste]

I find all the sync options frustrating when it comes to contacts on the Captivate. I first had played with using gmail to sync - but quickly decided I disliked it. Not having the option to keep people in groups is such a pain, and I was having info deleted from contacts when they'd sync - birthdays, anniversaries, groups, maps/address info, sometimes certain phone numbers, etc. And I hadn't had anything in my gmail prior to adding contacts in my phone to sync with it. So much for that.

Then I tried to use AT&T address book, figuring I'd have better luck, and after twice hard resetting in order to make it work ... I'm not thrilled with it, either. The site shows info well, it appears as though groups, starred contacts, all the info would work/sync properly. However, in practice it has failed me. It also deletes into the moment I sync, despite having the settings say to always take from the phone and not vice versa. Random contacts groups disappear, dates, notes ... just again, random info would be erased.

So for the moment, I have all contacts stored on my phone and turned off sync to AT&T address book. I hope to find some simple way to backup the contacts but I might just manually copy them to my computers address book and hopefully remember to do so every now and then. Disappearing contact info. is a deal breaker for me.

EDIT: Still playing around, but having a "duh" moment - If I use gmail to sync, and allow it to link to the same contact saved to the phone, it appears I can then have the contact in the phones group, with their ringtone, etc - while still having the activity and synched info through gmail. I'm testing, but appears so. I just deleted all info from the phone other than name/numbers, and gmail contacts auto linked to them. Gmail ones I then added all the details (address, birthdays, etc).