[AC Question]

i will try and keep this short as I can... 1. my contacts just disappeared one day about 2 months ago. I still had texts so was able to add back some by figuring out who the text was from and adding their name. One acct wasn't connecting, so I deleted it and then added it back. It was shortly after that the contact disappeared. 2. I have auto sync and 2 gmail accts on my old phone. I have 22 contact (used to have a lot more) on phone, only have 2 contacts on my google acct. I took off auto sync and manually synced both accts and the last synced date was just now. 3. None of my apps are reinstalling on the new phone. 4. mom's phone is not tied to a gmail acct, what is the best way to transfer contacts to new phone?

I'm an android ***** (first smart phone is old phone and 2.0 and I'm trying to get things transferred to new phone, which is still only 4.4) Someone please walk me through this. Thanks.

[Rukbat]

Make sure that all contacts are set to your Google account (the first dropdown when adding a new contact). If they're not, export your contacts to a file, then import that file to contacts - and choose your Google account to import them to. Then sync contacts on the Google account (in Accounts in the phone).

Now go to Google Contacts and you'll see your contacts. Go into airplane mode on the phone and delete all your contacts. Go out of airplane mode and sync your contacts, and you'll have only 1 copy of each.

From now on, keep all your contacts as Google contacts, so you don't have this problem. (If they get deleted on the site, you can restore any contact deleted in up to the last 30 days.)

Why people put contacts on the SIM card is beyond me - that's a holdover from the early 90s, when the SIM card was the only storage on the phone. And putting them in the Device or Phone is just as bad - if you lose the phone, or it stops working, you've lost all your contacts. Google gives you an easy way to keep them backed up - use it. (I just wish that they made the Google account the default.)