Please help me to sort out some contacts issues.

scrumpypaul

New member
Sep 7, 2013
1
0
0
Visit site
Hi there,

This question may well have been asked before - if so, I am sorry, but I am tearing my hair out.

I don't use Android. I am a WP man.

My wife does, and I have just bought her a new Nexus 4 to replace her old HTC Sensation XE.

She started the phone up without doing any contacts/SMS management at all.

Now she is complaining to me that she has no SMS's and that her contacts are all to hell.

I've managed to get her SMS's back using an app. However, that leaves the issues of her contacts. Her Nexus is struggling to be recognised by our PC for some reason but I was able to email her contacts in a vcf file which I was eventually able to open on her new Nexus. The trouble is, that has populated the contacts with loads of "old" contacts that she no longer uses or needs or wants.

Bear in mind, somehow she has (stupidly) managed to get set up with at least two gmail accounts over the years and these are now both synced with her Nexus.

She asked me "Just get the normal contacts off my old phone and put them on the new phone"

I thought copy to sim was the answer, but it'll only hold 90 odd of her close to 400 contacts.



So - what do I do? What is the easiest way to sort this bloody mess out?

I'd be happy enough just to start from scratch - restore her Nexus and in the meanwhile do some work whittling down her gmail accounts, but I'm hoping there is an easier way. I know the easiest way would be to hand the phone to her and say "get on with it" but she will withhold sex if I do. Please help.


SP
 

B. Diddy

Senior Ambassador
Moderator
Mar 9, 2012
165,285
4,397
113
Visit site
Welcome to Android Central! Wow, that sounds complicated. The best thing to do, in my opinion, is to scrap the whole storing contacts locally idea, and just move all contacts into her main Google Contacts account.

How are all of her contacts stored in her previous device--are they just stored locally under the Phone account? The problem with locally stored contacts is that they won't sync with a Google account--you need to use proprietary or 3rd party software to sync it with something like Outlook (e.g., HTC Sync or Verizon's Backup Assistant). I believe you can export all of the contacts to Storage, after which you could transfer that contact file to your computer (either using a USB connection or wirelessly using an app like AirDroid).

Then, instead of trying to import those contacts directly to the new phone, import it into your wife's Google Contacts on the web. Just go to Google Contacts, click on "More" and then "Import," and hopefully the exported contacts file will be in a format that Google Contacts can easily import. After it's in her Google account, it will then sync automatically to her new phone.
 

EvilMonkey

Well-known member
Jun 4, 2010
1,808
103
0
Visit site
Yeah, I gotta agree with B.Diddy here. Sounds to me like you're making contact storage kindof complicated. As he says, just go to her main Gmail account in a browser, import her contacts there, and let it sync to the phone (which it will do automatically unless you specifically turn that off on the phone).

If she doesn't need the second Gmail account, it can be removed from her phone. If she does, she can turn off contact syncing from that account (without removing the account) easily enough in the phone's setttings (Menu->Settings->Accounts->Gmail Account-> uncheck boxes appropriately)
 

companionlink

Well-known member
Feb 9, 2010
94
8
0
www.companionlink.com
I've managed to get her SMS's back using an app. However, that leaves the issues of her contacts. Her Nexus is struggling to be recognised by our PC for some reason but I was able to email her contacts in a vcf file which I was eventually able to open on her new Nexus. The trouble is, that has populated the contacts with loads of "old" contacts that she no longer uses or needs or wants.

She asked me "Just get the normal contacts off my old phone and put them on the new phone"

So - what do I do? What is the easiest way to sort this bloody mess out?

Ah yes, the husband/wife conundrum. Our tech support team gets a lot of calls similar to this. They make this problem go away for $49. It's a service called RunStart where our technicians log in to your computer and will sync contacts from your wife's old phone to her new phone. My intent isn't to directly sell you something. But in your case, it appears you've tried to solve this problem and are just looking for a fast solution.
 

Trending Posts

Forum statistics

Threads
942,409
Messages
6,913,952
Members
3,158,399
Latest member
pauloxcavalcante