Do I need to add contacts to my google account in order to sync them?

[danyx1980]

My dad has been adding contacts to his new Android but they're not syncing with his account, he's storing them in his phone thinking that they would sync regardless of where he did, the "Sync" option is active on his google account, Im myself, have the same problem.

If the answer's yes (they have to be added to the google account), do I need internet connection to access them? Or are they also stored in the phone memory?

 

[hallux]

In order for them to be backed up and synced, they need to be "Google" contacts rather than "Phone" contacts. Yes, they'll still be accessible when you don't have an internet connection (I just tried with my phone in airplane mode).

 

[danyx1980]

So in order to sync them do I export all phone contacts to google and delete the phone ones (to avoid duplicates)?

 

[Aarav sinha]

You need to just one time sync contacts from Google to phone and phone to Google.

Then you can access all time without any internet. Just make sure you have enable display all contacts under the Contacts settings from cellphone.

 

[hallux]

So in order to sync them do I export all phone contacts to google and delete the phone ones (to avoid duplicates)?

If the phone will let you export them in such a way that you can then import them as Google contacts, sure. I mistakenly created a contact as a phone contact when I had my Thunderbolt, then discovered there was no way to "convert" it to a Google contact, I had to delete and re-add it manually.