Database Develop

which roms emulate 1.5 sytle of choosing which gmail groups to sync to the phone

Hi Everyone
I really liked how in 1.5 one could chose which of their gmail contact groups they wanted to have synced to the phone. Now let me take a min to explain what I am talking about because I think when I say this I have confused people in other thread topics when asking about it. Using the web interface of gmail I have created a couple of groups (phone family, phone friends, etc). I created these groups because I did not want all 500 of my of my gmail contacts on my phone. Creating these groups allowed me to specifically choose which contacts would be synched from the web to my phone and keep them organized based on how I know them. Now in 2.1 this was taken away and replaced by a sync all contacts approach (this was already aval in 1.5 so I don't know why they would chose to take out the group syncing ability). I know there are ways to limit which contacts appear in people by going to view and then choosing no phone number this is not enough control for me because my contact list/people app on the phone is still over loaded with contacts.
Are there any 2.1 roms that emulate the syncing options that were available in 1.5?
Thank You

There isn't. Only 1.5 has that option

That really SUCKS!!!! I could have sowrn that I read in one of the threads here that at least one rom did support that functionality but I have tried it and it has been a no go :-(
Is it a HTC thing or is it an android thing? By that I mean does 2.1 just make that impossible to do or is it something that if I or someone else wanted to to make a custom rom could add in or bring that functionality back?

I agree that this sucks that this option was taken away. I have asked a few different places about this option and have got no response.

I figured it out...
Hey everyone
I can't believe it I figured it out :-D I am feeling super happy I am one step closer to bringing full functionality back to my phone :-D
I haven't duplicated it on anyone else's phone so not sure if it is a fluke or what. Also only have it working in the custom rom I am using (ALOYSIUS 2.1)
If you want to know what I did pm me and I'll let you know.

you could just, you know, tell us in this thread so everyone doesn't have to PM you

This thread will most likely be moved to the hero general forum....but I just got his PM on how he got it to work.....
dsMA said:
Here is how I got it to work. I went to settings; accounts & sync; I have background data, auto-sync, and google, email checked.
You then exit out of settings and open contacts. Go to the contacts tab, menu, display options, click on gmail account, now a list of all your gmail groups should appear, check the ones you want to sync. Click done to save changes. Now the contacts tab should be populated by all the people in those groups you have selected. And now when you go to people it should be populated by only those groups that were checked in contacts. (i didnt change any settings in people, clicking menu, view, the only things checked are phone and google)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

interesting. i wonder if the same technique would work with a facebook group? i don't want all those people in my phone haha

I agree I don't really need all my facebook friends in my addressbook. In fact when you go to people -> view -> I leave facebook unchecked so none of them do. So if you would rather none of your facebook friends show up in the people app that is the way to do it.
Now it would be cool though if you could do something similar with facebook contacts that you could do with gmail contacts; I personally don't know. I suspect you might be able to filter the facebook contacts and sync/display by groups provided that facebook allows you to create groups of contacts but I don't know if they do.

Contacts in Phone App not necessarily People App....
I have 4200 contacts. I REALLY REALLY REALLY want this solved.
While testing the Andriod App and Google Contacts I realized a couple of things.
In Google Contacts selecting ALL Contacts I could REMOVE them from MY CONTACTS under GROUPS.
If you look to the left hand side column you will see MY CONTACTS now has ZERO contacts in it and ALL CONTACTS has all your contacts.
Then I selected ALL CONTACTS in the left hand side column. The I selected only the contacts I wanted to be in MY CONTACTS. When you click on a CONTACT you now have an option next to GROUPS at the top that say MOVE TO MY CONTACTS.
The great thing about this is under the PEOPLE APP only MY CONTACTS and the GROUPS I have created show up in the PEOPLE APP.
This is what I hoped would happen.
What happened in addition to this you ask?
Now when I go into the PHONE APP I click on MENU then PEOPLE and voila! Only the selected contacts come up. Perfect so far right?
Wrong. From the HOME screen I press the TALK BUTTON. When I start scrolling through the HISTORY of the calls and I arrive at the last HISTORY call I see that the 1st CONTACT of my 4200 contacts shows up. Then I scroll on down and realize that all 4200 contacts ARE THERE!!!!
So it is not only the PEOPLE APP that needs work but ALSO the PHONE APP. In my opinion.
Am I missing something?
So my question is now how do I tell the phone app to only sync whats in PEOPLE APP and not request ALL CONTACTS?
Any thoughts? Ive only worked and researched this for about 5 hours. So I am probably missing something.
Thank you for your help.
David
Build: Damage Control v2.09.01
Firmware: 2.1-update1
Baseband: 2.42.01.04.27
Kernal: 2.6.29-bc0d2cf

The Fix
For people who stumble upon this thread and need an answer let me share my experiences.
In version 1.5 of the OS HTC allowed us to pick which contact groups we wanted to sync to our phones from our gmail accounts. Enter 2.1, now we no longer have that granulated control, we are forced to sync all of our gmail contacts. After talking with HTC they told me that this is not a result of a change in their contact app (people) but rather a change google made to the android os.
I will now talk about some of the display options provided by people:
launch people - click menu (physical phone button) - click view
As it relates to google here if you want to sync your google contacts you must check the google box. Unfortunately as I stated above this syncs all google contacts. HTC does allow you some limited control over which contacts are actually displayed in your contact list though sadly the controls are not all that great. The only real useful option is at the top "show only contacts with phone numbers". This will only display those contacts which you have a stored phone number for. This option applies globally so if you have your phone tied to flicker, facebook, and twitter then also only contacts with phone numbers present will be displayed. There is a setting under Google that says "show auto gmail contacts" this will display those contacts that are set to show up in your gchat.
How to fix the problem.
Simple answer is that you are going to need to have the AOSP contacts app on your phone. The easiest way to do this is find a rom that includes it. This is actually easier said then done if you want to keep sense on your phone. Everyone has their opinion of sense, either you like it or you don't; personally I like it. The only rom that has both that I am aware of is Alyosius. I find it to be a good rom with both oc and non oc versions aval. If you have a rom that has the aosp contacts app here is what you do:
1. launch the contacts app (contacts)
2. menu (physical phone button)
3. display options
you will now be provided with the various accounts your phone syncs to
click on your gmail account
a set of sub options should now show up, after scrolling through the suboptions you will notice that all your gmail contact groups are shown.
4. check which ever groups you want displayed
Note: this does not prevent your phone from syncing all your contacts, there does not seem to be a way to prevent your phone from syncing all your gmail contacts. this simply makes managing the contacts that show up on your phone more manageable. This trick will limit the contacts that show up in the contact/people app to just those whose groups you have checked.
Note: when preforming a search view the search app or search button it is still possible to search for contacts that are not displayed i.e. since all groups are synced no matter what you will get search hits on those contacts same goes for when using the dialer.
If the rom you use does not have AOSP contacts I would contact the rom developer and see if it is possible to install the AOSP contacts app on your own and see if they can help you.
I hope this is helpful to people.

Contact manager app with proper grouping?

Hello,
I recently got a Tytn II and I am very happy with it, but I do have a problem which seems quite widespread. I did search these forums and the Web in general for a solution, but I found none and I'm here asking for your help.
Problem: I have over 1.000 contacts and jogdialing through them is out of the question. "Letter-pointing" (selecting say, "H" to see all the contacts starting with H) is similarly useless due to fat fingers
Commonly suggested solution: categorize your Outlook contacts, then apply a filter to list only a category at a time.
But this involves another problem: everytime you access Contacts, the filter is disabled. This forces you to use two hands to reselect the filter, which is undesirable (eg while driving or doing other complex tasks) and needlessly time consuming.
And this is where the forum threads stop, usually. BUT there are lots of Contacts Manager applications out there, and there MUST be at least one which:
- Allows a filter to stay put until removed
- Integrates seamlessly with the OS, without forcing you to launch the app whenever you just need to access your contacts
- (optional) has an Italian translation
Yet I have scoured the Web but I haven't found anything useful, apparently.
So here is the question: did anybody out there solve this problem, and how?
Thank you for your kind help,
b.

I solved the problem in the end. This is my solution, for anyone having the same problem.
* Install WM 6.5.3 (I don't know if 6.5.* has the same options)
* Launch Outlook on your PC and manually edit all your contacts (yes, it's a drag) putting your preferred group names *in the Company field*
* Synch
* Set Windows Mobile to display the contacts "by company"
Voilà! The filter will stay put. Just don't forget to "companize" your future contacts in the same way.

[Q] Contacts

Hello, I'm a new owner (less than a week) of the Captivate and a newbie for android except for messing with the Backflip for a couple weeks. All of your guides have been great and I've been tweaking the heck of my captivate. I've even recovered from a near-bricking... scary but satisfying when I breathed life back into the phone. Currently I've got it rooted, OCed, new interface, etc.
However there's one aspect I'd really like to change that's bothering me. As you can guess from my subject it's the contact handling. I haven't seen any threads addressing it and hope someone can either help or point me towards a solution.
In a nutshell, contact handling is horrible. It makes me appreciate motoblur on the backflip... and I hate going backwards. I can't sync my google contact groups and the current implementation is acting strangely. I have it set up to only sync and ONLY display google contacts yet I'm getting an abbreviated list on the contacts tab. There's a lot of contacts that will only display if I click Groups->google. I have no idea why.
Are there any mods that will improve the display of contacts and handle the managing and syncing of google contact groups? Also, what folders will it sync if I enable contact sync with my exchange server? Will disabling sync remove the contacts if I don't like how they're being displayed?
Thanks.

I agree. The stock Contact app on this phone is garbage. The google groups are completely hosed on this app. No individual ringtones can be assigned unless you also create duplicates as phone contacts and then link them together. That is completely brain dead. Even if you do that, you still can't view the google group assigments. They are there, you just can't see them. Try to create a new group with the same name as one of your google groups that doesn't show. It will say it can't create it because it already exists. I'll say it again, the Contacts app on the Captivate is garbage. I haven't been able to find a replacement for it either. Anybody have some suggestions?

The closest thing I can find is an app called GroupU. It presents all of your google groups and changes made through it sync back to your google contacts. However it not integrated into he OS so it's a bit awkward to use.
Still looking for other options. Are there any phones out there that have better contact/google integration? If so, would it be possible to, say, backup that phones contacts.apk and restore it to the captivate? I don't think this would be possible (though I'd definitely try it if I had a different android phone) but I'm still knew to this and haven't gotten down to code level yet.
Anybody else have other options?

Raleran said:
In a nutshell, contact handling is horrible. It makes me appreciate motoblur on the backflip... and I hate going backwards. I can't sync my google contact groups and the current implementation is acting strangely. I have it set up to only sync and ONLY display google contacts yet I'm getting an abbreviated list on the contacts tab. There's a lot of contacts that will only display if I click Groups->google. I have no idea why.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two things I can think of in response that might answer some of your questions/issues.
You are obviously aware that you can display contacts from a specific location as you described like "google contacts." For some reason the contacts app has default settings for certain apps. For example; only display contacts with phone number when you are in the dialer or only display contacts with email addresses when in the email app. I have noticed that this weird auto filtering has a tendency to block the contacts I want at the wrong time. I would try checking the filters and make sure its not just hiding what you want to see.
Secondly, I was annoyed with the poor handling of contact groups by the captivate. It seems that the phone will not sync the group placement of the contacts with gmail. From the reading I did, it seems this is a known issue and is being addressed. Google recently made changes to the contacts section online and I am assuming that we will see a change on next months update.
I hope this answers some questions. I have not tried any 3rd party contacts managers so I don't have a replacement suggestion. I got my filters straight and I don't mind waiting for a "groups" fix.

This is my wife's biggest gripe with her phone as well. The groups come through weird, and when she links two contacts together we can't seem to figure out how to set one as the default, so several contacts are showing up in her list as their Twitter username instead of their actual name.
Also, no assigning personalized ringtones for Google contacts? Seriously? Vanilla 2.1 and 2.2 don't have this problem.
I can't wait for somebody to write a vanilla ROM for the Captivate and get completely rid of touchwiz.

Another brain-dead feature of contact groups: if you do "send message" to a group, you're presented with a list of all the contacts in the group. None of the contacts in the group are selected, and there's no "select all" option; you have to go through and tap every member of the group.

Shovelhead84 said:
You are obviously aware that you can display contacts from a specific location as you described like "google contacts." For some reason the contacts app has default settings for certain apps. For example; only display contacts with phone number when you are in the dialer or only display contacts with email addresses when in the email app. I have noticed that this weird auto filtering has a tendency to block the contacts I want at the wrong time. I would try checking the filters and make sure its not just hiding what you want to see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having this trouble with the default contact app. If I go to the "desktop" and start contacts I get a different listing on the contact tab then the groups->google tab. I've made sure that only google contacts are displaying (unselected google and made sure the contacts tab was blank). I don't see any filters except for the "only display contacts with phone numbers". Are there any others hidden somewhere?
Shovelhead84 said:
Secondly, I was annoyed with the poor handling of contact groups by the captivate. It seems that the phone will not sync the group placement of the contacts with gmail. From the reading I did, it seems this is a known issue and is being addressed. Google recently made changes to the contacts section online and I am assuming that we will see a change on next months update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that the groups are carried to the phone and they're synced in the background. I think that Touchwiz contacts just doesn't display them. Here's why I believe this... GroupU says in their description "Contacts GroupU integrates with built-in phonebook seamlessly." When I loaded it, it knew my labels I had set up in google contacts AND when I changed the assignment it synced back to my desktop.
I haven't seen anything on next months update... do you mean 2.2 will be released then?

Kiserai said:
Also, no assigning personalized ringtones for Google contacts? Seriously? Vanilla 2.1 and 2.2 don't have this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's the strange thing... I know someone with the original droid and they can't access groups either. Go figure.
I've never seen a vanilla ROM for android... so I have absolutely no clue what it looks like.

Raleran said:
I'm having this trouble with the default contact app. If I go to the "desktop" and start contacts I get a different listing on the contact tab then the groups->google tab. I've made sure that only google contacts are displaying (unselected google and made sure the contacts tab was blank). I don't see any filters except for the "only display contacts with phone numbers". Are there any others hidden somewhere?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would double check this but I just picked up my phone and it is dead. Not sure why but my battery is completely drained...I think you will see different filter options base on contact application launch. IE...dialer, email, messaging
Raleran said:
I haven't seen anything on next months update... do you mean 2.2 will be released then?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We can only hope... here is one post on it.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=754678

EX Dialer seems great
Kiserai said:
This is my wife's biggest gripe with her phone as well. The groups come through weird, and when she links two contacts together we can't seem to figure out how to set one as the default, so several contacts are showing up in her list as their Twitter username instead of their actual name.
Also, no assigning personalized ringtones for Google contacts? Seriously? Vanilla 2.1 and 2.2 don't have this problem.
I can't wait for somebody to write a vanilla ROM for the Captivate and get completely rid of touchwiz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First off try EX Dialer, it seems fine, and I think it addresses your complaints.
Sendly any JB 4.2 release for your Cappy will astound you, most CM 10.1 based ROMs are really fine.
I like Captivating, though slim bean looks well supported.
Dosolutions

Default Calender app not syncing with Google Calender?

I have the sync checked and everything, but when I go the google calender through my computer it is blank. Any suggestions for why it isn't working. It problem something stupid I haven't done.

Underneath the date where it says calendar, did you choose your acount instead of my calendar? Sorry if that seems insulting, we just have to rule out the obvious first.

I have both checked. And don't worry about insulting me. Like I said, it is probably something stupid.

Was sync ever working? What changes have you made to your phone (e.g. new firmware)?
Your settings seem fine.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

No special rom or anything and synchas never worked. I tried unchecking and checking the thing again. Didn't work. What its weird is that the info shows up on the launcher pro + calender widget. It seems to be missing some events though.

As I understand this - your calendar is displaying correctly on the phone, but not on your computer?
When you create a new calendar entry on the phone, are you making sure that it is placing it in the google calendar and not "my calendar" - you have to change this as "my calendar" is the default and does not sync to google calendars.

So my calendar will not sync with my google calendar? I have to do it with each event manually? I thought that if the syncing was set up to sync with my google calendar, that it would.... sync with it. Or does it only work one way? Google calendar to my calendar, but not the other way around?

It sounds like you might not have background and auto sync enabled, do you know if you do?
In the calendar app, as mentioned before, make sure you're selecting "[email protected]" rather than My Calendar (its annoying to me, seems like they should sync by default without my input, but at least that part is simple enough for me to get over it).
Then, check out your settings... Apps >> Settings >> Accounts and sync
Do you have Background data and Auto-sync checked? these are crucial, though i think Auto-sync is what should fix this.
Then select your gmail account just below that. Make sure everything is checked. Calendar could be unchecked by default, thus not syncing. I can't remember what's checked out of the box.
Then, I suggest adding the Power Control widget to one of your home screens (I don't know if this is installed by default, I've downloaded and removed too much to remember it all ). The 4th box is the Auto-sync toggle. I need my battery to last all day, so I have this off until I can actually use the stuff, like email, etc.
You can either leave it on at all times and deal with minor battery loss (i think it's minor, tomorrow I'm testing how much battery it will consume leaving on). Or you can toggle it as needed like i do, and when on, it will sync up the calendar, along with everything else. This may not solve your problem, but it sounds reasonable to me. I might be in the same boat as you if I hadn't read a lifehacker article about the Power Control widget and syncing my google stuff.
Let us know how it goes

I have exactly the same problem and I have been trying to fix it all week!
Seems everything is right but nothing will sync, it says it has but my calender is nowhere to be seen, can anybody help I have even factory reset to try again today...

CaptivatedChaos said:
So my calendar will not sync with my google calendar? I have to do it with each event manually? I thought that if the syncing was set up to sync with my google calendar, that it would.... sync with it. Or does it only work one way? Google calendar to my calendar, but not the other way around?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Rereading some of this.... It seems like you are seeing Google events on teh phone, but phone events are not showing up in Google.
Probably the issue is the events are created on the phone (by default) in "my calendar" not in the google calendar. 2.2 fixes this, but 2.1 (the stock build and the recent update) make all entries go into "my calendar" by default. You can change this via a drop down, but you have to do it for every calendar entry you create on the phone.

[Q] facebook sync / profile picture problem

Hi, im ob darkys ROM 9.3.
Made a fresh clean Setup with factory reset.
The following steps were performed in many different ways:
I can't synch my fb contacts. Hi see the profile names with their information in my contacts, their photo also, but at the linked accounts field is the standard green phone contacts icon. Instead of Facebook its labeled with:unknown. But the missing blue fb icon (and the option to see the media and social fb tab in my contacts) there is another thing that is real annoying :
The profile pictures are shown in their profiles on my phone, but there's a blank image if they call me or in the message tab. Tried several different ways to solve the problem:
Import of an full contacts backup via Titan/myphoneexplorer/kids. Once in an empty phone without linked fb accs. Another time with facebook-filled contacts and than i tried to merge theprofiles..
Itried to use apps like acepic, which shows me an empty profile pic for the online and offline account (at this time both of them were definitely not empty) i tried the photo unlocked, which should give me the ability to use the stored fb profile pictures at my phone in other apps like goDialer... (so i thought it should also work for my message/caller id problem) but it said "coulnt connect to database... maybe busy. - over and over again.
I can set.up the fb contacts in 2 ways: about the account settings in my phone menu,or about the Facebook app. The first option gives me the option to select "add friends" (sorry,don't know the English title for the button. It is the one in the contacts menu, which let u choose your sns account in order to perform a buddy synchronization with your local contacts. But its kinda grey and if i select it, there pops an empty box with an ok button.
Probably you noticed that i tried several ways. I really have no more clues... i want this damn Facebook pictures in the message history and as a damn caller id. Iam from Germany... maybe that's important for some localisation things, i don't know.
PS. It worked before darkys

hey not that its much help but ive been having this issue also. also was on darkys

finally! Im not alone, thats nice to hear... googled like crazy but didnt find anything.

google seems to be a pain for finding these things.
im stuck on my own problem at the moment, i flashed a captivate firmware on my phone by mistake now wont boot :/ and i need my fone fast lol

Google removed that feature from.facebooks functionality about two weeks ago. Sorry guys!
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA Premium App

yeah, is red it already. But it only affects the Nexus One. Dont know if u red my post: The sync option IS available! And it works. But the downloaded pictures were only shown in my contact book.
And because of the app "photo unlocker" which repeats in saying: Database is busy, try again - i think theres a problem somewhere, which blocks other applications from reading in the database....

i have installed js8 with a rom of the kitchen. It seems that the pic sync doesnt work the way it should.
Is there any PC manager to sync and manage contacts ? So that i can give them pictures and push them back to my sgs ?