MOTO G Contacts

burrism

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Dec 21, 2013
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Just got my Moto G 2nd gen.
Used motorola migrate to copy from old Huawei to new Moto. Worked perfectly.
All contacts came over and all was well. The next day, all but about 20 contacts have disappeared and those remaining are duplicated numerous times.

I've looked all over for a solution but got nowhere. Although I have gmail up and running, I mainly use my Bellsouth pop3 account.
I have all my contacts and messages backed up on the SD card from the Huawei that I put into the new phone, but havent been able to import those items into the phone.Photos, no problem. More interesting is that on my old phone with no SIM or SD card, the same situation as the new phone...only about 20 remaining...

Any help appreciated..
 

Crashdamage

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Jan 18, 2015
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What file format is the contacts backup file you saved to SD card? Is it .vcf, .CSV or...?

If it's .vcf or .CSV you could do this:

1. On the Moto G, go to: Settings > Accounts > Google > Select your account .> Disable contacts sync.

2. Delete all contacts on the phone. Turn it off.

3. On a computer, login to your Gmail account and import the contacts backup file into your Google (Gmail) contacts.

4. Merge any duplicates, edit entries, etc in Gmail until you have a cleaned up list you're happy with.

5. Turn on the Moto G, enable contacts sync and your contacts should download to the phone shortly.

You should now have a clean contacts list, backed up to your Google account for safety and easy transfer to other devices in the future.

Android user since v1.0. Linux user since 2001.
 

burrism

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I do thank you for your reply.
After I do a complete backup of my phone, I will try what you suggested.
Since you have far more knowledge than I, what does Google do that would allow this to restore in the way you described?
I suppose it's all related to their OS.

thanks again..
 

Crashdamage

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The idea is to get all your contacts saved to your Google account before they are lost somehow. Then use the Gmail interface to eliminate duplicates, do any editing needed to tidy the contacts list up. And finally download the finished contacts list to your phone.

This also leaves a backup in Gmail which is automatically updated when you do any additions, deletions or edits to your contacts on the phone. Plus, from now on transferring contacts to a new phone will be super-simple.

You said both phones have only about 20 contacts left, but you have a file saved of your complete contacts. That file is what needs to be imported into Gmail.

So for starters, what is the file type of the complete contacts backup file (the last 3 letters at the end, after the dot)?

Android user since v1.0. Linux user since 2001.
 

burrism

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The plot thickens..

I looked on my card that came from the old phone and although it had a number of vcf files, they were pretty empty and went nowhere. However, I took a look in my SIM moved from the old phone and the contacts were mostly all there from my backups on the old phone. They easily imported to the new phone.

A clue...when I first copied my contacts to the new phone, it worked. However, I just remembered that Moto offered some sort of patch for my 5.0.2 and the contacts messed up right after installing that. When I went back to look at the old phone with no sim or sd but with wi fi enabled, it now only had the same 20 contacts as the new phone...all by itself..
I wonder if it wouldn't be better to simply locally store all my info on the sd card, backing up regularly and not get involved with Google in this respect. Is that possible, and if so, how.

Again, I appreciate your help and from what I see in the various forums, this info might be informative for others as well.
 

Crashdamage

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I would still get your contacts into your Google account, for all the reasons I gave in my previous post. Once you get them in your Google account everything is easier and foolproof.

Android user since v1.0. Linux user since 2001.
 

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