HTC Desire "People" app missing "Sync Group" option

[cormie]

Hi,
I recently purchased a HTC Desire Android phone and I'm looking for a way to keep a simple, basic contact list updated and synched with my Gmail account.

The problem with the default way on my phone is that it will sync every contact on my Gmail. This is a problem as I only want to have contacts from my phone book synched to one gmail group and vice versa. There is an option to "disply only contacts with numbers" but I still don't like the idea of having every contact on the phone. There is also the problem of the extra empty groups I won't be using, can these be gotten rid of?

I basically just want one list and it to be my default list with all contacts and not have to go through an array of menus to get to that one list on the phone. I don't want that list to be populated by contacts who I may have only emailed once and will never email again. I don't want any gimmicks in between, no gtalk contacts, no facebook contacts, no default gmail contacts and I want to be able to then export this group to a CSV file to use with spreadsheets etc.

This seems to be possible on Android stock and even on HTC Hero Sense UI according to here: androidheadlines.com/2010/04/tidy-up-your-contact-list-with-a-custom-sync-group.html

but in the Desire Sense UI, when you go to people/groups/menu, it only gives the option to delete or add.

Seems this guy is having the same issue, he has the sync group option but his friend doesn't, both using the same phone

androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/47533-no-sync-groups-option.html

There are reports from this thread that some users have had this same problem. Some have a "Sync Groups" option when they go to People>Group Tab and click menu, most don't have this option however and I'm yet to hear from a desire user with this option. Also from this thread (google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=0ff2b08f98943ccb&hl=en) one user reported that a "hard reset" gave him the "Sync Group" option. I tried this but had no luck, still the same menu as before.

There's a thread here with more details on the subject and with more avenues explore but still nothing has come from it
Sync ONE GROUP of contacts only with android (HTC Desire) - Android Forums

I've been trying to sort this for days and have asked on multiple forums. Hopefully somebody here can help and I'd appreciate any feedback at all!

 

[cormie]

So according to this thread: HTC Desire root update - Android @ MoDaCo it seems the MoDaCo founder has rooted the Desire. I wonder will this help at all in being able to resolve this issue?

 

[cormie]

Just thought I'd give this another quick bump since the Root method and instructions for the desire have now been released. Perhaps a solution can be had

 

[cormie]

Just thought I'd give this another hopeful bump in the off chance of somebody who may have solved the issue on the desire (now that it's been rooted) seeing it I'm still waiting on HTC to get back to me too!

 

[cormie]

So with the extensive help of partyatmygaff over msn, I was able to root my desire and I finally got the contacts app working on it! I saved the chat transcript as it may be helpful for anyone else wanting to install from Windows XP. This is an ultra dumbed down version. I made sure to ask as many questions as possible, even if I was 99% sure of the answer myself

Some of the files were sent to me over msn like the market enabler etc, but these should be easily found online anyway. Also, the program I use for the commant prompt is called "command prompt here" I think, but you can just type in the address of the folder in DOS if you know how anyway!

You can see the transcript here: IM Logs

There is a good bit of filler, but it really covers absolutely everything you need to know so once you get to the bottom of the page, your desire should be rooted and ready to go

So I got the contacts sync thing working anyway, I can now sync with my chosen group from Gmail, but I can't believe it, if I have this group selected and I save a new contact, it wont save to that group, but just the "all contacts" group even though that's not selected

Always something! The guy in post 10 here: add or edit contact groups - Android Forums seems to have got it going, but as you can see in my reply, post 11, it's not saving to the desired group for me!