duplicate contacts accounts and entries

[tonyvr4]

Somehow during the course of importing my contacts from my old phone I accidentally created more than one account.
In each contact entry is shows two icons for accounts.

Also, in all the contact entries that I checked, the data is duplicated. For example, if a contact has just name and phone number. That appears twice.

I noticed that the account drop down shows AT&T Address Book. I I try to change that it displays a message "some contact data may be lost"

Is there a way I can correct this?

 

[belodion]

Have you tried merging them?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[tonyvr4]

How do I merge contacts?

 

[belodion]

I used to know because I did it once but it may have been on one of my Windows phones. It was called Merging, I remember that. Try Contacts, 3-dot menu, Manage Contacts, Join Contacts.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[tonyvr4]

That is the menu. I am just concerned that I don't loose anything

 

[belodion]

If everything is backed up you should be all right. But can't you just delete the account that you accidentally created, as long as all your contacts are in your first account?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[xocomaox]

Change to custom view and select what you want to display. This may help you with duplicates because it's probably showing contacts from multiple sources.

 

[tonyvr4]

How do I get a custom view and what should I be selecting?

 

[lrrowley]

Three dot menu, settings, contacts to display. Then choose what contact sources you want to show up. I use this to only show contacts from my Gmail account. Somehow all of my Facebook friends are always synced...

I'm also wondering if you might have double contacts because you have a copy of them saved to your phone/SIM and then another copy saved to Google

 

[xocomaox]

Three dot menu, settings, contacts to display. Then choose what contact sources you want to show up. I use this to only show contacts from my Gmail account. Somehow all of my Facebook friends are always synced...

I'm also wondering if you might have double contacts because you have a copy of them saved to your phone/SIM and then another copy saved to Google

My thoughts exactly.

 

[tonyvr4]

I think you are right about the double contacts. When I did the transfer/import some of my contacts did not transfer over the first time. I had to do it 2-3 times with other apps before it worked.

I am still looking for a good contacts backup. I had used mcbackup on my iphone and then imported that vcf to the android.
Initially it did not transfer anything. After a second attempt it transferred a couple of contacts only and none of the contact pictures transferred even though that option was selected on the iphone

I don't remember how I actually got the contacts to transfer but it appears that I need to do some cleanup on the android

Can anyone recommend a working contacts backup app to backup to my pc?

 

[xocomaox]

Can anyone recommend a working contacts backup app to backup to my pc?

I've used Titanium Backup for this in the past.

 

[tonyvr4]

I thought Titanium Backup required root?

I installed Helium backup. Is Titanium better?

 

[lrrowley]

I have only ever used Google for contact backup and I think it works great. When I first switched to Android years ago I went into Gmail and cleaned up my contacts so they would sync properly, and it's been working well for me ever since.

 

[xocomaox]

I thought Titanium Backup required root?

It does, maybe you should root?

I installed Helium backup. Is Titanium better?

Titanium is the best there is.

 

[tonyvr4]

I am looking into root but want to be sure I do it right. Any tips/advice is appreciated.

On the contacts issue, I found an awesome pc program called Wondershare MobileGo. Among many things, it allowed me to see the phone contacts on the pc. It turns out that the duplication was worst than I thought. Some contacts were duplicated three times, most only two duplications.

What made fixing it easy is that the contacts photos did not transfer the first time so I added images later on the phone itself. All I had to do was delete the duplicates without photos and now I only have one set of contacts. Although the account is still listed as AT&T Address book instead of google. At least the big problem is fixed. I just need to do some fine cleaning when I have time.

Thanks

 

[geeyesgee]

For removing duplicate contacts, try out the app Contacts Optimizer. It works great.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[tonyvr4]

... Contacts Optimizer. It works great.

Awesome. I checked it out and the app found two duplicate entries that I missed
A great tool but I can' see spending the money on the pro version