Stop Gmail from syncing ALL contacts to phone. ONLY want Phone contacts.

[LionheartedNJ]

I'm a new android user, I've have been dealing with Iphones for about 4 years now so this is a big switch for me and I'm a tech/gadget type of guy so I thought I would be able to pick up on it quick. I'm about 3 weeks into using my Galaxy S3 and I'm still confused about some things I thought I already gotten the hang of.

I had a problem switching my contacts from my Iphone to my Galaxy 3S. so after doing a little bit of searching I figured out to add my contacts to my contact list on my gmail account I have linked to my phone. Only problem with this is that I use my gmail for business and when I add a new email to my contacts it gets synced to my phone as well. This is super annoying, I only want phone numbers in my phone. I did some more searching and figured out a solution to just "stop synch" on my phone. This solved the problem but what I noticed is that I don't get my emails as fast as I used to or sometimes not at all. I use more than just Gmail, I have yahoo, icloud email accounts as well so I don't use the "Gmail app" for that reason. I use the Default Mail app that my phone came with. I have it where the phone is searching every 15mins for email but since I "stopped syncing" I don't really ever get them unless I refresh the mail app. I tried to upload my contacts onto my Sim card but it only uploaded half of the contacts. Would anyone know why is that?

How do I just have all my phone contacts displayed on the phone and be able to add more contacts onto the phone but not deal with gmail synching the contacts that I add onto gmail being synced onto my phone?

Being that I have "Sync" inactive, I am assuming that if I activate it, my emails will come in faster but is there any other way around that? Worst case scenario I don't mind my phone being synched to my gmail account but I don't want what ever changes I make on Gmail to be made onto my phone.

As far as the Default Mail app that my phone came with, is there any way I can speed up the delivery of my mail? With my iphone if I received a email I would get it almost instantaneously. I noticed it's not the same situation with the Galaxy S3. Hopefully someone can help me out, sorry for all the questions but I got tired of wasting my time searching and not coming up with the right answers. My Galaxy S3 is running on Android 4.1.2 if that helps.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! If you want to prevent Gmail Contacts from syncing automatically, you could go to Settings>Accounts-Google>[your Google account], then unchecking Contacts. In order to see those checkboxes, background sync has to be on.

You could then enter contacts into your phone under the "Phone Account" rather than under your Google account. You should be able to choose this when entering a contact by tapping the account selection dropdown at the top of the contact entry screen. Contacts entered into the Phone Account remain on the phone only, and do not get synced to any cloud account. You might be able to sync these contacts using a 3rd party program like Kies (sorry, I don't have Samsung, so I'm not sure about this). The downside is that if you somehow lose your contact data, it will not have been automatically backed up to Google.

 

[LionheartedNJ]

Thank you, this actually worked for me. SMH, who knows how long I would have been searching

 

[froginabox]

I have an opposite problem in that i have two gmail accounts. One professional acct and one acct for a non profit I run. I have both accts synced to my phone. My problem is that any new phone numbers I enter into my LG android show up in oir nonprofit account contacts. I dont want any of my personal phone numbers synced into the contacts on that acct. Also, if i go in and delete the phone number manually it gets deleted from my phone contacts. Ive tried changing some settings in the nonprofit account manager but nothing works. Could you give me some options to try?

 

[LionheartedNJ]

I only have 1 gmail account sync unlike you but more than likely this would probably help. It has something to do with Grouping. What I did on my end was create a separate folder on Gmail that is specifically for my phone contacts and labeled it as such so there isn't any confusion with the rest of my folder contacts on Gmail.

When I add a new contact to my phone. I add all the info of that contact and directly under where you enter the contacts email address, there is a option that says "Groups". I tap on that and it opens up a pop up that displays all my contact folders that are on my gmail account. I select the folder that has my "Phone contacts" and click save. Now the contact is stored and should be displaying in your contact list, it was annoying for me at first because you need to remember that each time you add a contact but you get used to it after a while.

I'm not sure how you have your contacts displayed but the phone gives you the option to have it customized, In my case I only have that particular "Phone Contacts" folder displaying so when ever I add a new contact and add it to the "Phone contact" folder it's automatically displayed once I click save. Hope that works for you.

 

[cahls]

You can let it sync. BUT from within the Contacts page go into it's menu and tell it to only show contacts with numbers so your email contacts don't sync/show... another option is to have a local address book too or as posted earlier use multiple Google accounts...Be careful using phones for work and pleasure, even if the company pays. Folks are finding out that upon resigning the devices are wiped by the company before they even get out the door... wiped accidentally by IT policies already in place... loosing contacts, pix, music, and more...

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Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 Edition (WiFi)
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (WiFi)
Samsung Galaxy S3 (AT&T)

 

[lbandrew]

This is exactly what I want to know: how to sync or display ONLY contacts with phone #s in my Samsung Galaxy. It is so cluttered up with gmail contacts I might have emailed once I can't find my own family!

However, I don't see any way to control what gets displayed in Contacts on my Galaxy. Please help!

Alternatively, if anyone knows how not to dync those with only emails in the first place that would be optimal. Thanks!

 

[lbandrew]

Actually, I found a good video describing how to clean up contacts in Android at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK9NGR3DQKE

And then by clicking everything on the Galaxy got it to display only contacts with phone numbers AND to separate out in a group those few contacts without phone numbers that I wish to keep available (such as affinity memberships).
Thanks for help getting started with this!

FWIW, Companion Link does make software that either uses their Deja Cloud or syncs directly with free Deja app via wi fi or usb, bypassing Google altogether for Mac-Android data sharing. I think their Mac version is relatively new, so there's a little d/c on the lifetime license. Download CompanionLink Sync Software for PC -- CompanionLink I haven't used this version yet, but it did work to extend the useful life of Palm desktop for a few more years.

 

[mty msi]

Go to Contacts>Settings (lower left soft button on phone itself-not on contacts screen)>Settings (bottom option on list) and check "Only Contacts with Phone #'s"

Contacts to Display which is the option above Settings will allow you to pick which contacts you want displayed from various sources. I use the Customized List so on my phone the choices are Phone, Sim Card, GMail & my MS Exchange acct.

My GMail push syncs (along w/ Yahoo & MS Exhange) and has no effect on my contacts.

 

[Lillian Howell]

Welcome to Android Central! If you want to prevent Gmail Contacts from syncing automatically, you could go to Settings>Accounts-Google>[your Google account], then unchecking Contacts. In order to see those checkboxes, background sync has to be on.

You could then enter contacts into your phone under the "Phone Account" rather than under your Google account. You should be able to choose this when entering a contact by tapping the account selection dropdown at the top of the contact entry screen. Contacts entered into the Phone Account remain on the phone only, and do not get synced to any cloud account. You might be able to sync these contacts using a 3rd party program like Kies (sorry, I don't have Samsung, so I'm not sure about this). The downside is that if you somehow lose your contact data, it will not have been automatically backed up to Google.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Do you have a question?

 

[snjack]

I had the same issue and just turned off the syncing from Google so that from now on my contacts will just be from what I enter manually into my phone. Is there a way to retroactively get rid of all the ones that Google put into the address book without having to manually delete them one by one? (I checked the option to only show contacts with phone numbers but I would still like to be able to go back to my manually entered contacts and not have any Google contacts in the list...) thanks!

 

[Robert DeMattia]

After removing the sync from your regular account, you can set up a second Google account. Add the second account to your phone and set it up to sync ONLY the contacts. Now you can maintain a contact list from this second Google account - and will have a backup if something happens to your phone.

 

[Ravin Singh D]

In order to see those checkboxes, background sync has to be on.

Actually this is the problem. last two days i am searching the check box

 

[pjmarengo]

That was the answer I needed as I was having a similar issue with my g-mail contacts synching with my android phone contact list! This is perfect, thank you!