Contact Sync Issues

[matthewdlyons]

Hey folks. I tried searching before creating this thread; but if there's an existing thread that answers the following question, please let me.

A coworker recently picked up an Epic 4G. She had contacts brought over from her old flip phone. Those contacts are now in the phone's contact book, but they are not synced with her Google account. So, here's my question:

Is there a way, short of exporting the phone's contact book, to link the phone books on the device?

Thanks! I'm stumped.


Sidebar: It's interesting that on the Samsung, you are presented with the option to create a contact in the phone's address book or your Google account. On my Droid X, everything is connected.

 

[murso74]

where'd she buy the phoen from? usually best buy or the sprint store ask if you want to move over your contacts

 

[matthewdlyons]

where'd she buy the phoen from? usually best buy or the sprint store ask if you want to move over your contacts

I believe she got it from Radio Shack. She didn't have a Gmail account at the time, and created one when she picked up the phone. Perhaps because she didn't have a Gmail account the contacts were, by default, saved in the phone's contact list.

Interestingly, on the Epic 4G, when my co-worker saved a test contact number in the phone's address book, it didn't sync to her Gmail contacts. When she saved it the contact to Google, it synced. It appears to be an either or situation. That's what's befuddling to me, though. I've had the Incredible and the Droid X. Neither device forces you to choose where you save your contacts. It's seamless on the phone. Plus, when I enter a contact, it automatically syncs with my Google Apps account. Now, I can choose which contact group to display -- phone, Google Apps, Gmail, etc.

 

[AndroidOne]

I believe she got it from Radio Shack. She didn't have a Gmail account at the time, and created one when she picked up the phone. Perhaps because she didn't have a Gmail account the contacts were, by default, saved in the phone's contact list.

Interestingly, on the Epic 4G, when my co-worker saved a test contact number in the phone's address book, it didn't sync to her Gmail contacts. When she saved it the contact to Google, it synced. It appears to be an either or situation. That's what's befuddling to me, though. I've had the Incredible and the Droid X. Neither device forces you to choose where you save your contacts. It's seamless on the phone. Plus, when I enter a contact, it automatically syncs with my Google Apps account. Now, I can choose which contact group to display -- phone, Google Apps, Gmail, etc.

There are two different types of contacts in the app, Phone and Google. If you make a new contact and use the Phone rather than Google it will not sync. You are given the options to choose the type of contact at the time of creation.

If the store used a program to transfer those contacts from her old phone there is a good chance those were registered as Phone (as opposed to Google) contacts.

 

[Annihil8or]

As AndroidOne has noted the reason you are seeing variation in sync behavior is due to the types of contacts in the Epic. Most of my contacts are a mixture of 3 contact types. Phone (which were transferred from my old phone), Google (which synced and linked from my google account), and facebook (which synced and were linked from my facebook account).

The majority of my facebook accounts linked just fine, but I had to do a
fair amount manually. If you have a contact with multiple google addresses (I had 8 for my brother) then you may need to combine all of these addresses into one google profile on your phone by copying the e-mail address and pasting them all into one google contact as the phone will only allow you to link 5 contact types (You choose the variation). I didn't link any myspace or twitter accounts so I can't speak to those.

 

[matthewdlyons]

Thanks for the responses. The treatment of contacts is totally different on my Droid X, and I pretty much figured out (in a manner of minutes) that the Epic 4G separates phone and Google. This strikes me as a bit unusual since the underlying benefit of Android is supposed to be the Google experience.

My friend doesn't use Facebook or Twitter. I've suggested that she export her phone contacts to a CSV file on her SD card, connect the Epic 4G to her computer with a USB cable and import the contact file into her Gmail contacts. Going forward, I suggested that she only use the Google contact to save new contacts. It's kinda of silly that you can't pick a default address book so you don't have to choose each time you enter a new contact.