Question How to backup/restore Contact Groups WITHOUT Google contacts?

[rprastein]

Over the decades, I have had enough lost and duplicated data due to synchronization apps doing something other than I wanted them to, that I refuse to have anything to do with them. I also am not keen to share my contacts with Google, which has tentacles into everything, or to any other cloud service. My normal method for backing up and restoring my Android contacts is to export to a vcard file and then import it to the new location. If I need to merge, I do it manually on my computer - convert the two vcard files to spreadsheets, sort, compare, manually select what I want with full visibility and control, and then convert the result back to a vcard file and import (after clearing out the destination Contacts if necessary).

I have only recently started using contact groups, and more recently moved from a Droid Turbo 2 to a Samsung S20+ 5G. I noticed today that the one group I had created on the Droid Turbo 2 is not there on the Samsung S20+ 5G. Fortunately, I had also added the group name in parentheses at the end of the name of each contact in the group (which made for a better workflow for some task I was doing back when I had the Droid Turbo 2), I only had the one group, and there were only 14 or 15 contacts in the group, so today I was able to recreate the group. But I was wondering if there is any app that will allow me to back up and restore my contacts AND save the group information? Did the group get lost because it's a different phone type and different contacts app, or because vcard format doesn't capture group information?

Again, note: I am NOT looking for a synchronization app. I want to be able to backup (preferably locally, either to a file on my phone or to my computer via USB or wifi) and to restore, as two separate processes.

Thanks!

 

[methodman89]

If I'm reading you right, you can store your contacts on the SD card or Sim or in Google. From there, you can back up as you wish. Screenshots attached. Good luck

 

[rprastein]

"From there, you can back up as you wish."

I'm not sure where those screenshots are coming from. ALL of my phone numbers are stored on the phone. I don't use my phone for e-mail (rarely for webmail), and I don't put my phone numbers on google.

I'm not trying to do something with an individual phone number. I'm trying to find a "backup to wish for" that will back up all contacts with the group as well as the name, phone number, and any other fields I've filled in. If it backs up to a readable and editable format, so much the better, but that's not required. I've done a little more googling, and it seems Android won't export a field named GROUP to a vcard, so that may be the problem. Super annoying, but if Google can preserve groups through a phone migration (and I thought I've read that it can), then other apps ought to be able to, as well. But that's not touted as a feature except on the Dr. Fone app, which is reputedly a scam.

 

[smvim]

Given you want to avoid syncing with an online service, just use the Contacts app on your phone to make a backup of your contacts listing. There's likely to be an import/export feature within the app so use that to make a backup file locally, saved to your phone.
In my phone, when I start up the Contacts app, there's a 'Fix & Manage' button in its bottom menu bar. Tapping on that opens up some options to do various maintenance tasks, including an 'Export to file' option that will create a .vcf backup file. It might be different on your phone, so be flexible. I recall a more simpler Import/Export option in the Settings menu in the Contacts app in another phone.

 

[rprastein]

Given you want to avoid syncing with an online service, just use the Contacts app on your phone to make a backup of your contacts listing. There's likely to be an import/export feature within the app so use that to make a backup file locally, saved to your phone.
In my phone, when I start up the Contacts app, there's a 'Fix & Manage' button in its bottom menu bar. Tapping on that opens up some options to do various maintenance tasks, including an 'Export to file' option that will create a .vcf backup file. It might be different on your phone, so be flexible. I recall a more simpler Import/Export option in the Settings menu in the Contacts app in another phone.

Exporting to a .vcf file is my usual go-to, but it doesn't include the groups. I never had a problem before, because I never used groups before.

Anyway, I contacted Samsung, and it turns out they have a phone data backup to cloud capability similar to Google, but without sync'ing and without the pervasive integration with everything on the planet. So I'll probably use that. If I need to do merges for any reason, I'll still use VCF file export and import. I will just have to not really rely on groups, and keep my work-around of putting the group name in parentheses as part of the contact's name.

 

[smvim]

We might be focusing on the wrong thing. This groups matter does involve your contacts but this sounds to be an issue tied to your text messaging app and not necessarily the Contacts app nor the contacts listing database that it manages and maintains. The Contacts app doesn't arrange group lists, that's typically done within a messaging app. Text messaging apps may include backup/restore options for messages but I'm not aware of one that backs up groups since they're typically just temporary collections of contact name/identifiers.