google account frusturation

This may be different depending on what phone and what version of Android you have, but what do you see when you go to "Accounts and Sync"? (At least that's what it's called on my phone, not sure about yours).

 

Go to menu > Accounts & Sync and remove your Google account from there.

You can also save contacts directly to the phone if you like, but they don't get backed up like google contacts. I've never had any issues with Google's contact management.

 

What he said.

 

Did you add a new Google account first?

 

Setup Backup assisant+ for contacts through verizon and you can back them up there without using a google account.

 

If you hadn't deleted your Google account, contacts can be restored as far back as 30 days on a Google account. Go to GMail from any web browser, switch from GMail to Contacts near the upper left corner, click the "More" button to the right of the Contacts heading, select "Restore contacts" from the drop down menu, pick your date!

 

1. I've never heard of a *legitimate* case of Google spontaneously deleting contacts. In my experience it's always been traceable to something the user did. But you just learned a lesson in the value of backups. I always keep a local backup of my contacts.

2. As for the rest of your problems, you really did it to yourself. What did you expect would happen when you deleted your account? OF COURSE you lose your YouTube stuff and everything else associated with that account.

3. You might be able to re-establish your account and recover everything by contacting Google and telling them you deleted the account by mistake.

 

Yes, and the contacts being erased is a result of deleting his own account. His only shot at getting them back is trying to retrieve the Google Account. He can try that here:

Recovering your account - Accounts Help

 

More than likely the contacts were never lost, they just were not being displayed. If you open the contacts app, then press menu, then display options (varies by phone), you can select and un-select which account contacts to display.

Thanks for reminding me. I don't do that often enough. For those that don't know: Go to GMail from any web browser, switch from GMail to Contacts near the upper left corner, click the "More" button to the right of the Contacts heading, select "Export" from the drop down menu, select which type of backup file you want and save it to your local hard drive.

 

Make sure to resist the temptation of saving it in any form other than "Google CSV Format". Too many reasons to get into here, but having fought the CSV format wars on a few different vendors, always keep it in Google format even if you're considering later importing into something else. Besides, it'll keep all your fields and not punt anything.

*IF AT A LATER TIME* you decide to switch to some other MUA or online mail, THEN convert them over---you can do this even if your current google account is destroyed. e.g., If your google account is destroyed and you're switching to Outlookmumble, then create a new google account, import the saved contacts into that, and re-export them using their Outlook CSV format.

 

I usually do all three options (GMail, Outlook, VCard). The files are small (>100k each), and that way I have more options if I ever NEED to restore.

When I 1st set up my GMail account, I exported my contacts to CSV from my LG Dare using BitPim. It took a couple of tries to get the import into GMail to work properly. I think I had to convert it to VCard format for the best results. I can't remember, that was 2 year sago.

 

The first time I tried switching online email providers to gmail about that time (~2 years ago) and gave up. And then I retried by starting with a google export and transferring columns within Excel from inbox.com's crocked idea of contacts to gmail. Gotta be careful, but it worked like a charm.

HOWEVER, that said, unless you're doing this often, I wouldn't bother with all 3 formats. In my case, that would only make it less likely for me to do the back up, unless you have an automated tool for it. All the information you have within gmail will be there: from there you can re-export like I suggested at any time.