Syncing contacts - general discussion

[JoeC]

Try this first:

1. Press your phone's < Home > button, then press < Menu >.
2. Select Settings and then Applications.
3. Select Manage applications.
4. Select Contacts Storage and then select Clear data. Answer OK when prompted.
5. Return to the list of applications by pressing the < Back > key.
6. Select Contacts and then select Clear data. Answer OK when prompted.

 

[QuiQNeZZ]

Try this first:

1. Press your phone's < Home > button, then press < Menu >.
2. Select Settings and then Applications.
3. Select Manage applications.
4. Select Contacts Storage and then select Clear data. Answer OK when prompted.
5. Return to the list of applications by pressing the < Back > key.
6. Select Contacts and then select Clear data. Answer OK when prompted.

Thanks ALOT Joe!!! That did it! Well I didn't see the number 6. but figured you meant the people app which I cleared out. I also cleared out the "google data" then did a syn'c. Now ALL my groups show up including the "My contacts" folder. So I just unselected the "All my contacts" group and left all my other groups on. But I guess now I can delete the "Hero mobile" group I created.

Thanks again.

 

[JoeC]

I'm glad it worked. The steps were a repost of a Google Help post.

Correct, the Hero uses People...I should have edited that for the Hero

 

[Michel Dover]

Thanks ALOT Joe!!! That did it! Well I didn't see the number 6. but figured you meant the people app which I cleared out. I also cleared out the "google data" then did a syn'c. Now ALL my groups show up including the "My contacts" folder. So I just unselected the "All my contacts" group and left all my other groups on. But I guess now I can delete the "Hero mobile" group I created.

Thanks again.

Joe - I followed your steps with good results. Thank you for your help. I had the same problem and I could not find the solution a few months ago.

 

[QuiQNeZZ]

I'm glad it worked. The steps were a repost of a Google Help post.

Correct, the Hero uses People...I should have edited that for the Hero

All good, main thing is that it worked. So I am right in assuming that the auto email adding that gmail does, does not affect the "My contacts" group right? But they still may be added into the "All contacts"?

 

[JoeC]

All good, main thing is that it worked. So I am right in assuming that the auto email adding that gmail does, does not affect the "My contacts" group right? But they still may be added into the "All contacts"?

That's how it works for me, yes. I haven't noticed any "unauthorized" contacts showing in my synchronized Google contacts.

 

[umshamrock]

Hi but will Joe's idea delete all my phone contacts? not all of my contacts are in google!
thanks,

 

[JoeC]

Yes, all of your contacts will likely be lost unless they are backed up to SIM or migrated to Google.

 

[thefley]

For those that have Windows 7 this is what I had to do after I installed the sync and rebooted. (it stopped working)

Workaround for HTC Hero Sync Problem in Windows 7 My Digital Life

 

[legend]

Use HTC Sync and before you say Ah ha, its rubbish! which I would agree with, you can make some semblence of order with it

Sync your outlook calender with it as normal, but do not select Outlook contacts in the sync set up, select windows mail which shares the same PST files. You can then select the contact folder you would like to sync with

Run HTC sync and Bobs your uncle (or aunt) as the case may be.

HTC have said that HTC Sync will not sync Outlook 2000+ although there documentation says otherwise. I was trying for 2 weeks and have got it ticking over nicley

Hey guys (and girls, transgender, intersex, queer and however you construct or deconstruct your gender identity)

So, I looked around for that general discussion of Google contacts. I don't want to begin a discussion of data safety (should your friends' data be in the hands of google? Is "the cloud" a safe place? etc) or dogma (is syncing good, bad, inevitable); I want to put my thoughts out there and see if I'm missing something that someone has already thought out.

My outset is this: I want to sync contacts.
The days of "this data is exclusively on my phone" and "this data is exclusively in my e-mail" is over for me. But there is still a difference between what is useful to me on a super-portable device (handset) used not least for calling, texting and on-the-fly data checks, and a less portable device (laptop) used not least for writing and overview.
My contacts contain many kinds of data, multiple phone numbers, addresses, b'days, notes and stuff.

The following is my findings:
- Android seems to think that syncing contacts with Exchange is bad. Maybe it's a Google vs. Microsoft thing. I don't know. Can't make it work for contacts unless using a third party client.
- When syncing contacts with Google I can only sync ALL my gmail contacts or NONE.

My dilemma is this: I can't sync with either platform without a mess!
In the blue corner: I have in my Outlook Exchange my telephone contacts. This is because my previous phone was WinMo, not because I love Outlook.
Syncing: Either via a third party client (which has yet to work for me) or I can stuff them in a CSV-file and put them on my handset - but then I can't sync them and every subsequent update will only exist on the handset.
In the red corner: I have in my Gmail account a huge mess of e-mail receipients. Syncing between handset and Google is hella easy. But many, many of the Gmail contacts I very seldom use, and only for e-mailing.

To sum up rhetorically: Am I the only one to think that my handset Contact list should consist of SOME of my Gmail contacts (e.g. those with a phone number attached to them) rather than ALL of them?

I think I need a separate site: contacts.google.com where I can decide what contacts I want to share between which platforms, sites and clients.

</Rant>

Now help me: I want to leave Exchange behind. I want to sync with Google. Not one-off import from Google, but sync. How do I NOT get every last person I ever sent an e-mail to clogging up my handset's phonebook?

Your views and answers below

HC

PS: I feel silly posting this under the "Hero" subforum since this is much more of a general Google related discussion. But I was told this'd be the place. Feel free to move the thread

 

[stockholm]

I still can

 

[Jaffa]

Make sure all your contacts in the phone are saved as "Google" contacts not "phone", you may need to edit them all indivdiually, failing that, sync your phone to Outlook, then export your contacts from Outlook, and import them to Gmail, Delete all your phone contacts and sync your phone to gmail

Settings>Data syncronization>Google

 

[stockholm]

Weird., There was another .vcf file on my SD-card. Created the same day I started up the phone.
Deleted that and after that the sync with Gmail works.

 

[Mark One]

I've read this thread with interest but still can't see the answer to the problem of keeping my phone contacts & calender items in sync with Google AND Outlook.

I know I could just do everything through Google (which is probably their game plan after all) but I also need to be in sync with outlook. OK so if my phone blows up Google syncing will make it easy - but what if Google blows up? Or probably more realistically - what if I find myself in a location with no net connectivity and still need to be able to manage and sync my calendar and contacts?

So ... having finally got HTC Sync to connect I ran a sync with outlook.

My starting position is that I had all my data on Google so syncing it to the desire was easy and everything works just fine.

Outlook on my desktop is a fresh install and is empty and I expected all the calendar and contact info on my desire to be copied over to Outlook. However, nothing at all synced.

I have since learned a bit (though it still confuses the xxx out of this ex WM user) about the difference between Phone and Google data (ie they are not the same things) and think that this is because all my data is Google data and not Phone data.

I'm guessing that in the same way as Google only syncs "Google" data, HTC Sync only syncs "Phone" data which is why nothing is getting copied.

Can anyone confirm this for me?

And if so how am I supposed to keep a set of unified synced data on the phone? Surely I'm not expected to keep one set of Google data that syncs with Google calendar and contacts and a separate set of "Phone" data that syncs with Outlook.

In reality, the only real problem is contacts. Google cal sync does a great job of syncing my outlook & google calendars, but as so many users are discovering no such conduit exists for contacts (yes I have tried the free alternatives but none have worked for me).

Would really appreciate a take on this from the Android community - even if it's just a "No, it can't be done" so I can stop banging my head against a wall on this one.

Many Thanks, M1

 

[bburzzycki]

Does anyone know specifically what SHARE NAMECARDS does if you check it in all your contacts...

Does it actually link all cards and photos across all contact groups?

This is for 2.2