[Crimson2]

Hi, I am having trouble adding a photo to a contact and can't find the answer anywhere. I recently bought the phone and just have a few days to return it if it's the phone. I love the phone and hope I don't have to return it. All my Droids have been easy til now. Ok here is how I'm doing it and if it's wrong please instruct me.

Touch on contact>3 dots top right>edit>touch blank image of face>choose photo from gallery>touch on photo>there is a dotted square around photo like I'm cropping, touch on the check beside done and says "unable to save photo edits" and a little circle going around like a computer trying to load.

Thanks in advance for any help!

[KitKatFan]

I am having the exact same problem on my Moto G. On my Nexus 5, I get the error when using the Photo app but the Gallery app works fine. Both phones are only a week old but the Moto G came with Jelly Bean and I upgraded it to KitKat. Today is the first day trying this feature. Adding a photo to a contact is such a common function, it shouldn't be an issue.

[B. Diddy]

I agree, it's a bug when using the Photos app, but not the older Gallery app. Report the bug to Google.

I generally find it easiest to add contact photos on Google Contacts on the web. They should sync to your phone.

Edit: I just reported the bug from within the Photos app, but I encourage everyone else to as well. The more they hear about it, the more likely they'll pay attention, especially considering that they want to replace Gallery with Photos eventually!

Posted via Android Central App

[KitKatFan]

I reported it like you suggested. Hopefully, they will do something about it.

On the Moto G, it doesn't matter whether I use the Photo app or Gallery, they both go to the same editing screen and hit the same error. On the Nexus 5, the Gallery app has a different appearance when cropping (has Save instead of Done, for example). But Gallery doesn't have all the photos from my Google+ account and the Photo app does.

I tried to set the contact photos using the Gmail contacts on the web, like you suggested, but when I hit Your Photos to get all the photos I backed up to Google+, it only shows a few. I searched the web and couldn't find any discussions as to why it doesn't show all.

Looks like the only work around is to back up all photos from the phone to Google+, download the ones you want to a computer, then upload them into the Gmail contact on the web. A lot of work for something so basic.

If anyone has a better workaround, I would love to hear it.

There are a few other forums (not much) regarding this Photo app bug and one person says to stop Google+ and uninstall the updates. I have the same version of Google+ on my Nexus 5 and Moto G. I know that the Photos app is part of Google+ but I'm not sure about the Gallery app and I can't find a version for the Gallery app. I couldn't see a date for the latest Google+ update in the Play Store so it's hard to know if the problem is just in the update. The Play Store does say that photo editing was modified, so that may be related. If I get brave and try it, I will let you know.

[Crimson2]

KitKatFan, I agree this shouldn't be a problem at all as I've done this with all my androids without needing instructions. Yes it must have a bug-and it's bugging me! It happens with gallery and photo and I hope someone can come up with a solution before I have to return it in a few days! Other than this problem I really love the phone.

[B. Diddy]

But Gallery doesn't have all the photos from my Google+ account and the Photo app does

I thought Gallery was able to show all of your Google+ albums. Are any of your Google+ albums showing up in Gallery? If not, go to Settings>Accounts-Google>[your Google email account], and make sure "Google Photos" (which is different from "Google+ Photos") is checked. Depending on the device or the Android version, it might be "Gallery" or "Picasa" instead "Google Photos."

[B. Diddy]

But Gallery doesn't have all the photos from my Google+ account and the Photo app does

I thought Gallery was able to show all of your Google+ albums. Are any of your Google+ albums showing up in Gallery? If not, go to Settings>Accounts-Google>[your Google email account], and make sure "Google Photos" (which is different from "Google+ Photos") is checked. Depending on the device or the Android version, it might be "Gallery" or "Picasa" instead "Google Photos."

it doesn't matter whether I use the Photo app or Gallery, they both go to the same editing screen and hit the same error

When you hit the editing screen, does it ask you to "Complete action using," and gives you the choice of the Photo app with "Crop Photo" and the Gallery app with "Crop Picture"? If not, then it's possible at some point that you selected Photos to be the "Always" default app for this last step, and since Photos is buggy when it comes to saving the cropped photo, you're not able to finish the process.

Have you tried Clearing Defaults for Google+ on your Moto G? Try it--go to Settings>Apps>All, select Google+, and Clear Defaults. Then try the whole process again, always choosing Gallery instead of Photos when given the option.

[B. Diddy]

Ok, so here are screenshots documenting the whole process on my Nexus 5:

First, open the People app and tap the blank contact photo (below left). Next, tap the person silhouette below right.



Tap "Choose photo from Gallery." The next screen that shows up is the system's file manager, which will only show recent local images. Tap the hamburger menu at the upper left to access either Gallery or Photos.





Tapping Gallery will open the Gallery app, where you can select a photo, including any of your photos in the Google Photos cloud.



Tap one of the albums, and then select the photo you want. It will then ask you to Complete the Action using either Gallery or Photos. Select Gallery.



After cropping the photo, tapping Save should then save the photo to your contact. Let me know if this isn't what you see on your Moto G!

[KitKatFan]

Have you tried Clearing Defaults for Google+ on your Moto G? Try it--go to Settings>Apps>All, select Google+, and Clear Defaults. Then try the whole process again, always choosing Gallery instead of Photos when given the option.

Thank you for this! I was looking for a way to clear the selection.

On the Moto G, I had mistakenly hit Always when it asked which app to use to crop the picture and I couldn't figure out how to undo it (I thought I already tried clearing the default but must have done something different). Now it asks which app and I can pick Gallery which crops and saves correctly.

On my Nexus 5, I got the app option each time and was careful to only select Just Once. And you are right that the Gallery shows the Google+ albums. I can see them now but earlier today it only showed me the photos I took on the phone. It must have been a sync/timing issue (slow wifi).

The odd part (to me) was that even if I opened the Gallery app and tried to set the picture on a contact, it still used the Photo app's editor and not the Gallery. I would have thought it would strictly use the app I was in.

Thank you B. Diddy, you've been a huge help!

[Julius B Sunni]

Was having the same issue and this method definitely works... Thanks ;-)

[Toan Nguyen]

I found a solution....."uninstall" all updates to Google+ seem to do the trick, now I can save Photo to contact with Xperia Z Ultra...

[Robby J]

I know this may not be the answer you are looking for but instead of adding a photo from gallery, if the person you are trying to add a photo to has a social media profile you could try haxsync or sync.me apps. They're an amazing answer to stock androids lack of photo contact sync!

[Andrea Mc]

I know this may not be the answer you are looking for but instead of adding a photo from gallery, if the person you are trying to add a photo to has a social media profile you could try haxsync or sync.me apps. They're an amazing answer to stock androids lack of photo contact sync!

So, my question is the opposite of this problem... On my S5, When Contacts are synced with Facebook, ALL of my FB photos appear on my gallery; all 3000+ of them; when I uninstalled/reinstalled FB and disabled "sync FB " i lost all of the photos associated with my contacts BUT the FB photos are no longer showing in gallery. How do I sync FB with my contacts but not with my gallery as it eats up storage???!?? GRRRRRR. ..

Posted via the Android Central App

[Ferdinand Kozeluh]

Yes, this works. Clearing defaults in the Google+ did the trick! Thanks so much for your advice.

[Felicia Guinn]

I tried to put my picture by my contact and it will not let me do it so what is wrong and I wanted and answer right now and can you fix the price mble ok