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Contacts transfered from old phone not going to gmail

tgm1024

Well-Known Member
Oct 26, 2011
133
23
Motorola DROID 4 / Android 2.3.6

When purchased I had my old phone contacts transferred over to my new DROID 4. Nothing at that time was set up to go to a google account.


I've since set up my accounts to continually sync with gmail, but the existing contacts set up at the bestbuy counter (from old phone) never show up in gmail even though they're readily there on the phone.

As you might expect, when I later add contacts they show up just fine.

Is there a way to have all contacts sync upward to my google account (gmail) and not just the new ones?
 
Interesting. I'm assuming then (because no one suggested it) that there's no way to change the attribute of the contact from "phone" to "google" ?

That's what I'm guessing. With people storing contacts in their SIMs, SD cards and on Google, I'm guessing they just didn't complete this obvious last step.

Very frustrating when you forget and store as phone when everything else is on the cloud.

What I would do is power on your old phone, export the contacts to your SD card, and then import that contact backup file into your gmail contacts via your computer at gmail.com. Then have gmail find and merge the duplicates. Once you've done this, your new phone should have all your contacts. PM me if you need help with the process.

Josh is dead on correct, this is the solution you want. Get your contacts into a VCF file, get that imported on the Gmail/Contacts on the web and Bob's your uncle.
 
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Android is REALLY an advanced smartphone OS.

That said, it still misses features that I've seen on feature phones.

The good news is, with the right selection of apps and strategies for using them, you can do just about anything on Android - and with different app mixes, you can do the same job multiple ways, so you can find ways to set up things uniquely to your tastes.

I believe that no one is perfect - app or OS maker. And I also believe that anyplace something isn't intuitively obvious to someone is a shortfall of that app or OS and not the user.

So, in my book, if you have questions, this is the right place to place - it's not us, it's them. ;) :)
 
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Interesting. I'm assuming then (because no one suggested it) that there's no way to change the attribute of the contact from "phone" to "google" ?

Actually, there is on most manufacturer skins. Go to your contacts app, tap your menu/settings and look for import/export. There should be a way to export off of your phone memory to Google. Super easy on a Samsung. Even if you can't go straight to google, you should be able to export to sd and then do what Josh suggested.
 
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