Can I get some help with contacts?

[pdxrealtor]

Need help with Contacts

Hi - just picked up a Samsung S6 Galaxy.

I have an exchange server account. It has a lot of contacts. Those contacts are the only contacts I want on my phone.

Somehow, I'm getting contacts in my contacts list from all sorts of apps. Apps like Youmail, Cyber Dust, and somehow names I've never seen before are showing up in my Contacts and being identified as Google contacts.

How can I stop all the contact madness and keep my contact list down to just my exchange contacts?

In an attempt to clean all these contacts up this morning I somehow lost almost all of my exchange contacts. I mean, they're gone. My service provider has to pull the tapes to get them back. I find this very scary since I didn't touch any of my Exchange contacts.

My only guess is one of the apps linked all the contacts in my Exchange account and when I cleared those contacts out it took the Exchange contacts with.

 

[worldspy99]

Re: Need help with Contacts

The long term solution is to port over all your Exchange contacts over to Google. I run a WindowsPhone and still keep all my contacts on my Google account. Good luck with recovering the contacts.

 

[pdxrealtor]

Re: Need help with Contacts

The problem I have with that is it seems the more locations I source contacts from (goolge, exchange, youmail, etc) the more of a mess my contacts list is. I don't want a ton of contacts intertwined or 'linked' due to the situation I'm currently in most importantly and second because it makes my contact list an absolute mess with duplicates.

All of my exchange contacts are categorized and grouped. I rely on that organization, and I want nothing to intertwined with that.

There must be way.... I really want to like this Android as I've been trying to convert from the iPhone for years now. This is the most polished 'iPhone' like experiences I've had to date. But all of these accounts invading everything is quite frustrating.

 

[Rukbat]

Re: Need help with Contacts

it makes my contact list an absolute mess with duplicates.

Two reasons to keep all your Android phone contacts on Google:

1. If you ever have to change phones, the contacts sync up by the time you're finished setting the new phone up.

2. Google Contacts has functions to recover deleted contacts (deleted within the past 30 days) and to merge duplicates. Just point and click. (It's really trivial - click More at the page and you'll see.)

All of my exchange contacts are categorized and grouped. I rely on that organization, and I want nothing to intertwined with that.

You'll need an app that keeps your contacts that way - Android isn't written to do it, except by keeping contacts in groups, if that will do it for you. Make a group for each of your "categories" and edit each contact so it's only in that group. You can select which group (or all) to display in the Contacts app any time you want to change what you're looking for, or just tap the Groups icon (2 busts) and choose the group (category) you're looking for..

 

[pdxrealtor]

Re: Need help with Contacts

Assuming I go this route how would I keep the Google (my exchange) contacts up to date? If I enter, or update, a contact in my exchange server I'd then have to remember to export to Google, correct?

I did just familiarize myself with the 'recover deleted contacts' feature of Google. It worked.

I find it hard to move from what I use (Exchange) to Google for the sole reason of contact backup.

Isn't there a way to simply run my contacts, email, calendar, etc off my Exchange account only?

And then, stop programs like Youmail, Cyber Dust, Twitter, etc from bombarding my phone with contacts?

 

[pdxrealtor]

Re: Need help with Contacts

What about creating an 'idle' Google account for use only with my Android device. The Google account would not be used for anything but what the phone needs to use it for in order for the phone to work to its potential (data backaup, find my phone, etc etc).

This would prevent contact lists that Google creates from 'recent mail' or 'frequently contacted' that typically show up on a Google account that is used for heavy email use.

Over and above the 'cleaner' contact list it would seem this method would provide a cleaner backup route should I choose to sync my exchange contacts to my Google account.

I use third party email apps for my one Gmail account, and also for my Exchange account. I don't use Google plus, photos, drive, or any other Google service on my main Google account. I just use the Gmail.

Am I missing something or would this be a worthwhile route to take?

I got to thinking about my iPhone. I use NO iPhone services either. No iCloud, backup, etc. Just find my phone and an Apple ID to use the app store.