I looked this up because I don't like a big contacts list I never use. Every time I import from sd the contacts get multiplied on themselves. I discovered the /data/system/accounts.db can be removed. this avoids all the factory resetting. Did not see this around in many places so I thought I would just post it FYI
Can you explain this better? Or tell someone who is not quite as versed how to do this. Here is my delimna. How do I add a contact in my phone and not have it link to a google account. I have a google account, but there is no reason for me to add my 85 year old grandmother in my google address book. Why does the phone not given an option for "no", when asking whether or not to link to a google account?
yep that was exactly my problem. google would also keep adding them in my gmail contacts after I try new roms and restore my vcard. if your phone is rooted and you want to easily unlink/ relink your phone just get a root explorer and allow super user of course. browse to the folder /data/system/ rename the file accounts.db to something else like accountsBAK.db I use caps so I know what to erase later. reboot your phone and the google links will be gone. do what you do, and when you're done you can restore the file by deleting the new accounts.db then removing the BAK from your original. simply reboot again and you wont have to reenter all your passwords again if you prefer. Are you rooted?
All of your contacts are auto saved to your Gmail account on their server. Any time you do a factory reset of your phone and then turn on Sync for your Gmail account, your contacts are automatically uploaded to your phone.
That is a good method of avoiding duplicates, but as NoNameFace points out, Google/Gmail sync keeps the contacts up to date on their servers, so when you sync there they are on your device. If you have duplicates, for whatever reason, just go into your Gmail account and trim them in there.
I"m not "rooted". I had never even heard of that term until buying this phone. I don't plan to root, I'm not that tech savy. I just like coming to this forum because you guys are so smart. I'll just put up with the google linking thing. It's not that big a problem.
If you really don't want your contacts from your phone on your google account, you can create a second account add that to the phone and have your phone contacts sync there and ignore the contacts on your primary google account. Not sure what everyone's aversion to this info being added to your contact list in gmail.
