Vzw / Google Contact Mgt before I restore factory defaults

[steve_ma]

I plan to go back to factory defaults and start over and I want to do everything I can to NOT screw up my phones contacts (lose them... double them.. only restore some of them, etc). I've done the factory reset a couple of times but it's been a long time and searching for the answer got a ton of responses that were all a couple of degrees off.

I know Google has my contacts set to sync and that's fine but there are contacts in my phone's contacts app that never appear in my gmail / google contact list... so I know the phone must have a default contact manager that I'm guessing syncs to the verizon coud ??? I am reluctant to sign up for as it seems like a massive piece of bloatware and it's a duplicate of so many other services I already have (google drive / photos, etc). I miss the simple backup assistant. :-X

Should I export and them re-import then or would that completely double them since I'm sure google will look t restore them once I get my acct back up and running? Is there another contact manager in my phone I need to be aware of an can use?

Thanks for any thoughts / suggestions!
--steve

 

[Feldon]

To fully backup up a Samsung Galaxy S5, I recommend:

• Samsung Smart Switch
• Google (Accounts -> Google -> all checkboxes checked for syncing)
• Export Contacts to .vcf
• SMS Backup and Restore
• Move all your photos, videos, ringtones, downloads, documents etc. to my PC using USB3 cable
• Take notes of which apps and widgets were on each page of my Launcher/Home screen

 

[steve_ma]

Thanks Feldon. Appreciate the response. I am not worried about my media and know which apps I want to reinstall.

I'm really trying to understand the best way to manage my device contacts and my Google contacts. It's clear to me they aren't the same despite having all Google sync options enabled.

I fear if I export to vcf the import again, I'm afraid once I start syncing with Google again, I'll end up with a million dups.

 

[Feldon]

I did get some dupes when I did an import/export. The way Google handles contacts is... lacking.

 

[steve_ma]

follow up: Bit the bullet this morning and did a full factory reset. Exported contacts to VCF just in case. Once Google contacts and whatever other contact manager started to sync, sure enough, I had most of the basics but a lot of info was all wonk'd up. I had 5000 separate contacts for my home phone number, for example. I simply deleted all contacts from the S5s address book and restored from the VCF file. It looks right. Will, know for sure after a couple of days.