How to Disable Backup Assistant

[INTREPID-NY]

How to disable / turn off Verizon Backup Assistant without a factory reset
(and Use gmail contacts sync only - recommended!)

Also in post #3 below: How to Sync Contacts with Gmail and Change Contact type from Phone to Google


Disabling Backup Assistant on the HTC Droid Incredible

There may be other ways to disable backup assistant, but follow these steps to remove duplicate contacts and backup assistant without having to factory reset. Please be aware that I just tinkered around until I got the desired result. I'm no expert and I have no idea if this effects the phone in any other way. I did this over the weekend and everything is working perfectly on my phone. So proceed at your own risk, I don't want to get any pm's about how your phone blew up. I'm just trying to help out here.

1) Be sure to have all your contacts backed up to your Gmail account. Check online before proceeding to step 2.

2) Log into your My Verizon account. Go to the contacts tab, sort by list view and select all contacts. Delete the entire list. There's a deleted contacts tab as well. Select that and delete anything that's in there.

3) Go into your Incredible settings tab, select applications, manage applications. Do not sort or filter, allow list to populate. Select Sync Service, (icon resembles backup assistant icon) select clear data.

4) Also in manage applications scroll down to backup assistant, select clear data. This should do it.

5) To verify backup assistant is now disabled, select settings, accounts and sync, then under manage accounts, select backup assistant. You should be looking at a license agreement screen.

No more backup assistant, no factory reset.

​

Courtesy of
Luke McCoy

The Android Blog

Source: Disabling Backup Assistant on the HTC Droid Incredible]

ALSO -

If you're rooted, you can use the free "Titanium Backup" to uninstall Backup Assistant. Be sure to back it up in Titanium backup before uninstalling it. After you uninstall, it will no longer appear at all in Accounts and Sync.

 

[hakr100]

OK...I did as you suggested...now how do I make my Inc back up contacts automatically to my gmail contacts and how do I restore from there if I have to do so?

 

[INTREPID-NY]

How to Sync Contacts with Gmail:

On your phone goto: Menu, Settings, Accounts and Sync, Put a checkmark in Background data and Auto-sync.

THEN, Select your google account at the bottom (under Manage Accounts), put a checkmark in Sync Contacts and the other boxes (as desired). You probably should select to sync them all (contacts, gmail and calendar).

If you account does not appear, you will need to click Add Account and use the same account information as you use online at www.gmail.com

People App Settings: On the phone, open People App and select Menu, View. Put a Checkmark in Google and Phone. The others are optional. This will also show you how many contacts are marked as Phone and how many are marked as Google. All but 1 or 2 should be marked as Google. If not, you will need to change the contact type to Google for each of your contacts. When you first create a contact, you given the choice of a google contact or a phone contact. If you selected phone contact, it's not easy to change it to a google contact. I've found an app on the market that claims to convert phone contacts to google contacts. I have NOT tested it. Here it is: ContactSync http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/tools/contactsync_batb.html One user posted on the forum that it worked for him. However, I also found another solution which I think is more reliable and is recommended. See below "Change Contact type from Phone to Google"

How to Backup Contacts from Gmail: All contacts should be at www.gmail.com While at www.gmail.com using your PC, go to Contacts and be sure to export your contacts to a file as a backup: More Actions, Export, All Contacts, Google CSV format. Save the file on your PC and be sure to date the file for future reference.

How to Backup Contacts to SDCard: Open People App, Menu, Import/Export, Export to SD Card. Select your google account to backup all contacts. You can also backup "phone" contacts (you shouldn't have more than a couple - like your personal contact card).

Change Contact type from Phone to Google. If all your contacts are PHONE contacts and not gmail contacts, you can convert them to gmail contacts as follows. You can also try the app mentioned above, or this procedure which is recommended and tested by others. But I have not tested this personally.

Note: You can easily see which contacts are phone and which are google by opening the People App, selecting Menu, View and select only google. Go back to people and take a look at your contacts - these are google contacts. Now, do the same thing but only select Phone. Go back to people and take a look at your contacts - now these are only PHONE contacts.

First, turn off auto sync. Turn it back on when you're done. See above for directions.

1. Export all PHONE contacts in the phone to the SD card using Export Contacts (see above for instructions). Make a note of the backup vCard NAME!

2. Now that the Phone contacts have been exported in step 1, DELETE all PHONE contacts from the people app (otherwise you will have duplicates!). Be sure to change the view settings to Phone contacts only first (see Note above) so you know you're only deleting phone contacts.

3. Now, Select Import, choose your google account to import to, and then select Import one vCard File. From the list, Select the vCard file you created in Step 1.

4. All Phone contacts should now be imported as gmail contacts.


Don't forget to turn sync back on.

OK...I did as you suggested...now how do I make my Inc back up contacts automatically to my gmail contacts and how do I restore from there if I have to do so?

 

[howarmat]

also and possibly the easiest way is NOT TO LOG IN ANYWAY problem solved. if you didnt set it up to begin with it wont be ON

 

[DGRYAN1977]

Is there a way that I will never have to choose "Google" or "Phone"? I want to disable that option because sometimes I forget. I want all new contacts to immediately be a google contact.

Thanks

 

[INTREPID-NY]

It's much easier and faster to enter your contacts using your PC at www.gmail.com. To add additional contacts from the phone, you'll have to remember to change the type to google unfortunately. Just make it the first thing you do after tapping new contact.

 

[jayno20]

Has anyone figured out a way to change the downsized pictures for contacts after being synced to google? I was hoping google would have fixed this by now...


If you set contacts pictures at someting over 96x96 google auto resizes them after sync and they look like garbage... Anyone got a fix?

 

[INTREPID-NY]

You might want to start a new topic with that question.

 

[lennie paz]

I followed the tutorial, and I do get the license agreement, but the sync icon next to backup assistant is still green. Does that mean it's still trying to sync and using my battery?

 

[INTREPID-NY]

That's "normal". No, it's not trying to sync. It's green due to a bug. As a side note, the only way to turn the green off is to do a factory reset or if you use a custom ROM, reinstall the ROM. Otherwise, just ignore it.

I followed the tutorial, and I do get the license agreement, but the sync icon next to backup assistant is still green. Does that mean it's still trying to sync and using my battery?

 

[lennie paz]

That's "normal". No, it's not trying to sync. It's green due to a bug. As a side note, the only way to turn the green off is to do a factory reset or if you use a custom ROM, reinstall the ROM. Otherwise, just ignore it.

Thank you, I just wanted to be sure.