Database Develop

What is the best way to manage contacts?

Hi,
As title. I wish to Sync my contacts from my Google account from a specific group but the default sync apps will sync all the contacts to my phone.
Is there a app that can choose which Google Contacts Group to Sync? Btw, the default Sync is it a one way sync or two way sync?
Thanks

Open up your contacts.
Go to "Groups".
Hit the Menu button on the phone.
In the menu, select "Sync Groups".
Select/Unselect your groups.

Thanks, I think the ROM I am using right now doesn't have this program Contacts as it is using People.

honestly?
wow ok
sorry replace "people" with contacts
+ he said go to your contacts not go to the app called contacts

You may find that the default groups dont sync from Google to your phone. It took me a while to realise this when I moved to Android in August last year!!
Basically the following default groups in google wont sync to your phone:
Friends
Family
Colleagues
Yeah, I know it sucks, but it is how it is!!
The only way I found to get round it was to create 3 new groups with similar names and use them INSTEAD of the default groups.
I setup the following:
My Friends
My Family
My Colleagues
This has worked well for me and all contacts in these new groups sync well.
I hope that helps?
Zippyioa

Cannot sync contact from outlook
i have problem sync my contact (current using htc hero).never have problem sync with outlook before(htc touch pro then iphone 3G).now my prblem is,cannot sync my contact "group" from outlook to htc hero and image contact not include.anyone can help me?

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.

[Q] Changing gmail account without factory reset - possible ?

I tried the method of settings- applications - clear the date from all google related apps - this but it doesn't work.
Changed also the gmail password so the SGS can't log in... Doesn't work.
Whatever I do - I get a red triangle in the top left corner asking for my google password.
Any ideas?
Frankyl - its disappointing that a user needs to go into so much trouble to change an email...

just go into Seetings > Accounts & Sync
then you can Add new accounts or Edit exisiting accounts

x4p3gsu said:
I tried the method of settings- applications - clear the date from all google related apps - this but it doesn't work.
Changed also the gmail password so the SGS can't log in... Doesn't work.
Whatever I do - I get a red triangle in the top left corner asking for my google password.
Any ideas?
Frankyl - its disappointing that a user needs to go into so much trouble to change an email...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are trying to edit the main account that you signed in with first.. Basically NO! Tried it myself as I couldn't choose which google chat account it signed with as I have 2. Had to factory reset and enter the 2 accounts in the right order first being the one that had all my calendar detail and my google chat account that had all my contacts in.

that doesn't sounds quite right, i'm able to delete/edit/add any account listed in the Accounts & Sync page in settings

AllGamer said:
that doesn't sounds quite right, i'm able to delete/edit/add any account listed in the Accounts & Sync page in settings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you click edit it only lets you change the sync options for that account... but say like me you have 2 gmail accounts and you link them both the first one will sync your calendar the second account will then not give you the option to sync the calendar... also only then lets you sign into things like market place and google chat with the first account ... with no available option to switch accounts... I spoke to samsung and they said the same you must delete the head account (very first account used to access market place or activate anything on the handset). and to do anything other than adjust the sync settings you must factory reset it even tells you that if you try to delete the account!! try it!!

i'm sync-ing calendar with 2 Gmail account 1 for work 1 for personal
each of them have its own sets of contacts and calendars, they each one show up in different colour.
on the personal gmail account i event sync the picasa web album
then on top of that i also sync my yahoo account calendar and contacts, as well as my MSN
but MSN can only sync contacts no calendar option for in hotmail/live accounts
my twitter account can only sync contacts as well
but facebook account can sync both calendar and contacts
and emails also sync across gmails/yahoo/msn accounts
as well as the IM for gtalk/yahoo/msn

Are you using something other than the stock android calendar because with mine whatever gmail account I signed in first with I had option for sync on the calendar but the second only contacts and gmail.... but with regards to mine, I also had to do it as all my card details were linked to the second account and I didn't want them linked to the other! therefor I had to for the purposes of buying paid apps, by accessing the market place with the other account..... and there is no way of switching accounts for that!

i'm using the Samsung Apps (email, calendar, IM) that came with the phone
it's quite good, better than i expected
in the calendar each of my accounts have its own colour, so i know which Calendar entry comes from which Sync Account
this is like sooooooooo much better than what i used to have in Palm, Blackberry or Windows Mobile, those 3 are horrible, it was very difficult to have personal + work account in the same phone
but with Android, it's like a dream come true, everything is detailed to its own account, but all visible in 1 calendar
maybe you guys need to upgrade to the latest
Social Hub Push Email and IM
more details http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=7820042

I tried it myself - and it doesn't work.
I'm using a stock 2.1 firmware with a Dutch device.
Does not work - frustrating.

eyal123 said:
I tried it myself - and it doesn't work.
I'm using a stock 2.1 firmware with a Dutch device.
Does not work - frustrating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah as I said even if people dont beleive me... other than being able to edit the sync settings of the head account... There is no way of physically changing what the head account is or change the address of the head account. Yes you can add others but they will never become the head account. As I said had to reset mine to change it too.

damdeviousduck said:
Yeah as I said even if people dont beleive me... other than being able to edit the sync settings of the head account... There is no way of physically changing what the head account is or change the address of the head account. Yes you can add others but they will never become the head account. As I said had to reset mine to change it too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is my experience also. The first entered Gmail account is the only fully functional one the others have limited sync. Many hours and concluded reset is the only fix. Now I will have to repurchase some apps because the Market only talks to the first email account!!!! At least apple allows these basic changes. People have been complaining about this for ages when will google listen? I brought an Android device over Apple iPhone because I hated the lock in Apple does and needing iTunes for everything but find the Android is worse for useability. The only gain over iPhone so far is the Samsung has a bigger display and easier to type or swype. Maybe I am missing something and Android is better but not convinced at all at the moment. Unfortunatly you only find out after owning a device for a few weeks the limitations.

[Q] Disable syncing contacts from google acct

Hi,
Previously I was using a Dell Streak and I was able to disable contact syncing with my Google accounts.
Actually I have 2 google accounts and I wanna sync only contacts with one of them.
On Galaxy Note , I couldn't find the setting to disable contact syncing with one account.
How can I do that ?
thx.

Hi,
I really need a solution for this because I've duplicate contacts now.
Any idea on how to delete contacts from one Google account on the phone ?

mrmrmrmr said:
Hi,
I really need a solution for this because I've duplicate contacts now.
Any idea on how to delete contacts from one Google account on the phone ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Go to contacts--Options--More--Accounts
Select the account you dont want your contacts to be merged from. Uncheck "Sync Contacts"
Hope that helped.
Cheers

thanks. that option disables further sync of contacts from that account but it didn't delete the contacts coming from that account.
How can I delete existing contacts of that account ?
Also, I need the similar for calendar. Is there similar option ?

mrmrmrmr said:
thanks. that option disables further sync of contacts from that account but it didn't delete the contacts coming from that account.
How can I delete existing contacts of that account ?
Also, I need the similar for calendar. Is there similar option ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All'ite. Why don't you do this?
At this step you have disabled syncing your contacts to an account;lets call that account GAcc2. Lets call the account that you would like the contacts to be synced/Displayed from as GAcc1
Now you want to delete the contacts that have been synced from GAcc2.
So Go to Contacts--More--Display Options--Accounts and select contacts to be displayed only from GAcc2(i.e. uncheck the contact boxes for GAcc1). After this step the contacts that are displayed are only from GAcc2(the one you don't want). Simply select all the contacts and delete them. So this means we deleted "ONLY" GAcc2 contacts.
After this step again go to "Display Options" and under accounts select GAcc1.
and voila you will have only GAcc1 contacts left.
Do the same with calendar.
Hope that helped.
Cheers.

thank you. that's a good idea.
But when I delete from my Note, is there a risk of deleting them from Google acct GAcc2 ?
Also, some contacts are coming from both Google accounts. When I delete them, will I lose them from both accounts ?
And, how can I do that for calendar ? I can't find the correct app...
thx

Keep Auto Sync off, that will niether sync mail/contact/calender, when you need to sync it manually, just press on desire item n it will sync for that time only.
Further Now you can get Gmail with setup of Email application separately.

mrmrmrmr said:
thank you. that's a good idea.
But when I delete from my Note, is there a risk of deleting them from Google acct GAcc2 ?
Also, some contacts are coming from both Google accounts. When I delete them, will I lose them from both accounts ?
And, how can I do that for calendar ? I can't find the correct app...
thx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No that would be not an issue. Remember at that step you would have switched syncing to GAcc2 as "off". Just make sure you don't click "Merge with google".
If you are really scared and want to be backup proof i would suggest this;
I'm sure you would be having windows installed with Microsoft office. Microsoft office would have an app called microsoft exchange. Create a dummy account in exchange with a local Dat. Then go to google and search for tools to copy google contacts to exchange. There are plenty. Once you are done with that you would have a backup of your contacts. Similarly there are plenty of tools to do the reverse as well i.e. Microsoft Exchange -->Google server; this way you can restore it too.
Regarding the calendar its the same thing bro.
Browse to Settings-->Account and Sync--> select the account that you dont want calendar to be synced from-->Uncheck 'Sync Calendar'
Hope that helped.
Cheers.

Using Exchange Server with Android, without Google Contacts but with Market
THis post intended for people who use Exchange
Using Exchange Server with Android, without Google Contacts but with Market
To prevent your Google Accounts showing up in an Exchange Server minded device, uncheck autosync.
Create your Exchange account first, sync
Uncheck autosync
disable Wifi (your device must have slow connection)
Then add your google account.
Press Sync, but be DAMN fast to go to the account settings and quickly
uncheck the Contact,Calendar.
This way, you can have a fully Exchange server minded device, without
any junk from Google Downloaded, with Market access.

Previously Contacted Persons Syncing as "Contacts"

This has been driving my crazy since I got the phone, and I thought it was a combination having multiple email accounts set up (gmail, @Live, @aol, @corporate, etc.). However, I've cleaned out my contacts from my non-Gmail list, and still have this issue.
The issue being:
I have my Gmail synced from all-time, so from 2008 or whatever it was. When I compose an email in any of apps (Outlook, AOL, Exchange, Gmail, etc.), ANYONE who I've ever emailed with on my Gmail account will pop up as a contact. So if I begin to type my friend's name in "Michael", rather than having 3 Michaels pop up, I have about 50 "Mi..."s pop up.
Anyone have any clue how I can remedy this so that only the 150 people or so I have as actual contacts will popup instead?
Thanks!

Anyone? I hope the solution isn't "root"!

If you go into your contacts, bring up your menu click contacts to display. go to customize and uncheck "all other contacts". If I have it checked under my Gmail accounts I have 1484 contacts, Everyone I have ever sent/got an email too/from, Craigslist addresses, mailing lists, spammers, etc. unchecked I have 160. I could be mistaken but I vaguely remember an option on the gmail webmail client settings (years ago) to add anyone you talked to into your contact list. On my old note 2 there was an option to only display contacts with phone numbers but I can't find a similar option on the turbo though so you may still have a few unwanted ones if you have email only contacts.

Seemed to have worked, thanks! Now working on getting my Exchange to remove some unwanted contacts, but this was huge!!!
Thanks!!!

No sweat, glad it helped!
Sent from my XT1254 using XDA Free mobile app