Can MotoX store contacts locally and not in google cloud?

[Verizoned]

Noob here...I just posted this in the question and answer area meant to put it here. If anyone knows how I can delete it there please let me know..thanks.

My HTC One M8 allows me to have google contacts as well as a local address book on the phone that never get sent back to google. I have about 1500 contacts with detailed info that I do not want to go back to google.

I just got a new 2014 Moto X which immediately upgraded itself to Lollipop and when I go into the contacts app, it wants to load anything imported back UP to google. There doesn't seem to be any local address book. I don't know if this is just a Moto X problem or a general lollipop one? My HTC One M8 does not have lollipop.

I need to be able to have some contacts sync into my gmail account and others to not be associated with it.

Any thoughts? Thanks!

 

[Photo_Drew]

Yes when in the contacts app when you add a new contact you can add it under phone instead of your google account.

Not sure about when you import though as I always sync them to my gmail as not to lose any.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Verizoned]

Yes when in the contacts app when you add a new contact you can add it under phone instead of your google account.

Not sure about when you import though as I always sync them to my gmail as not to lose any.

Posted via the Android Central App

Thanks Drew. I tried your suggestion and no go. Are you running lollipop? When I go to add a new contact it only gives me the option to store it under one of my gmail accounts. There is no option for "phone".

I'm wondering is this a "feature of lollipop". If so, I'll be returning my Moto X

 

[sharkita]

I am on AT&T so am still on KitKat, and I have the option of adding to my Google address book or my AT&T address book. I always prefer the Google one, since I'd like to have everything all in one place, but I know I still have some stored in the AT&T address book (not sure if this is the phone or not, but it migrated over when I upgraded from the 2013 X to the 2014 X). I do not have Lollipop yet, and it's my understanding that in in Lollipop there is no stock email app - everything is in Gmail. It would therefore not surprise me if the contacts are being consolidated into Google as well with Lollipop.

 

[Photo_Drew]

Thanks Drew. I tried your suggestion and no go. Are you running lollipop? When I go to add a new contact it only gives me the option to store it under one of my gmail accounts. There is no option for "phone".

I'm wondering is this a "feature of lollipop". If so, I'll be returning my Moto X

Yeah I'm on 5.0. I swear there was still a similar option on my OG MotoX

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Verizoned]

I am on AT&T so am still on KitKat, and I have the option of adding to my Google address book or my AT&T address book. I always prefer the Google one, since I'd like to have everything all in one place, but I know I still have some stored in the AT&T address book (not sure if this is the phone or not, but it migrated over when I upgraded from the 2013 X to the 2014 X). I do not have Lollipop yet, and it's my understanding that in in Lollipop there is no stock email app - everything is in Gmail. It would therefore not surprise me if the contacts are being consolidated into Google as well with Lollipop.

Maybe this is the root of the problem. My moto x is the pure edition and there is no local addy book. Maybe it would have been that way on kitkat as well? I got the phone a couple of days ago and the first thing it did when set up was update to lollipop. Now I wish I had had the time to look at it with kitkat to see if there was a local addy.

Anyway, does anyone know of any contact software that I could load that might create it's own local address book?

 

[Cant Miss]

Anyway, does anyone know of any contact software that I could load that might create it's own local address book?

Why not just turn off contact syncing?

 

[Verizoned]

Why not just turn off contact syncing?

Because I have "some" contacts that I'd like to sync, and some that I don't. My contacts fall into these general areas:

1. Basic contacts nothing sensitive (syncing no big deal)
2. Contacts for banking info, credit cards etc (do not want this syncing as the notes in these cards have details about discussions, id's etc)

Any other suggestions for strategies to deal with this totally welcome. The problem is that I have about 1600 of these "sensitive" contacts which have years of history in their notes that I want to import via vcards. This works fine on the HTC M8 as it allows me to bring them to the local HTC addy book which doesn't sync.

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

[sharkita]

Maybe this is the root of the problem. My moto x is the pure edition and there is no local addy book. Maybe it would have been that way on kitkat as well? I got the phone a couple of days ago and the first thing it did when set up was update to lollipop. Now I wish I had had the time to look at it with kitkat to see if there was a local addy.

Good point - I don't have the Pure Edition and obviously there would be no AT&T address book on those.

 

[sharkita]

Because I have "some" contacts that I'd like to sync, and some that I don't. My contacts fall into these general areas:

1. Basic contacts nothing sensitive (syncing no big deal)
2. Contacts for banking info, credit cards etc (do not want this syncing as the notes in these cards have details about discussions, id's etc)

Any other suggestions for strategies to deal with this totally welcome. The problem is that I have about 1600 of these "sensitive" contacts which have years of history in their notes that I want to import via vcards. This works fine on the HTC M8 as it allows me to bring them to the local HTC addy book which doesn't sync.

Thanks for any thoughts.

I see now why you don't want them to sync. I keep info like that outside of the address book in KeePass, but if I had about 1600 contacts like that, I sure wouldn't want to start over with a whole new system either.

 

[Cant Miss]

any thoughts.

A couple...

You could use your current Google account for syncing, and create another with sync turned off for the sensitive ones. They would all show up in your contacts, but only the former would be synched.

I store a bunch of sensitive info on my phone, but I keep it in a 256-bit encrypted database via an app called mSecure. This app lets me keep this data synched across my Mac and all mobile devices over WiFi on my local LAN. They have a dropBox option as well (but no thanks with this data).

The app lets you create all kinds of data templates, with dial-able phone numbers, etc. But you can't import from vCards... you would need to massage this data into CSV for import.

 

[Robisan]

No direct experience with this but I'd be surprised if there isn't a third party contacts app that would do this.

 

[afrozeke]

Just want to chime in that contacts is a terrible place to keep sensitive info. Even if you don't sync them to the cloud. It's an awful idea from a security standpoint.

Now back to our regular programming:

Syncing contacts to the gmail account is an Android killer app. I switch phones and boom all my contacts right there immediately.

 

[Verizoned]

Just want to chime in that contacts is a terrible place to keep sensitive info. Even if you don't sync them to the cloud. It's an awful idea from a security standpoint.

Now back to our regular programming:

Syncing contacts to the gmail account is an Android killer app. I switch phones and boom all my contacts right there immediately.

Why do you think keeping sensitive info in contacts is a terrible idea. I'm very curious as to your thought process. An address book is simply a database. The whole world runs on databases, I hope you don't think that putting anything sensitive in a database is a terrible idea.

Sensitive data:
1. Documents
2. Contacts
3. Photographs
4. Audio files

and so on. With the masses utilizing tools like dropbox, facebook, flickr, GOOGLE and so on nothing is secure. I utilize local key encrypted tools for saving my documents, db's etc. Products like SpyderOak and Wuala. On my phones I've been using lastpass with local key encryption as well. Of course the phones have password protection on them in addition.

What other things are you doing to secure your data?

Thanks.

 

[Verizoned]

A couple...

You could use your current Google account for syncing, and create another with sync turned off for the sensitive ones. They would all show up in your contacts, but only the former would be synched.

I store a bunch of sensitive info on my phone, but I keep it in a 256-bit encrypted database via an app called mSecure. This app lets me keep this data synched across my Mac and all mobile devices over WiFi on my local LAN. They have a dropBox option as well (but no thanks with this data).

The app lets you create all kinds of data templates, with dial-able phone numbers, etc. But you can't import from vCards... you would need to massage this data into CSV for import.

Thank you. I'm going to check out msecure...

 

[afrozeke]

Why do you think keeping sensitive info in contacts is a terrible idea. I'm very curious as to your thought process. An address book is simply a database. The whole world runs on databases, I hope you don't think that putting anything sensitive in a database is a terrible idea.

Sensitive data:
1. Documents
2. Contacts
3. Photographs
4. Audio files

and so on. With the masses utilizing tools like dropbox, facebook, flickr, GOOGLE and so on nothing is secure. I utilize local key encrypted tools for saving my documents, db's etc. Products like SpyderOak and Wuala. On my phones I've been using lastpass with local key encryption as well. Of course the phones have password protection on them in addition.

What other things are you doing to secure your data?

Thanks.

I was just referring to a plain contacts app. Not databases in general. Storing login IDs, passwords, super secret contacts in an unsecured app is asking for trouble.

I've been using LastPass for IDs and passwords. I don't have any super secret contacts.

 

[Verizoned]

I was just referring to a plain contacts app. Not databases in general. Storing login IDs, passwords, super secret contacts in an unsecured app is asking for trouble.

I've been using LastPass for IDs and passwords. I don't have any super secret contacts. ??????

Ok, got it. For context though, my address book is around 1800 contacts, collected over the last 30 years. It's amazing how many people you get to know as you get older.. So, back when I started this, there were really no secure anything as everyone just relied on password protecting their pc's or god forbid printing the data on to paper and locking up the excel spreadsheet in a safe!

So, as the world moves to the cloud, which has proven time and time again not to be secure I'm trying to cover my bases with secure locally encrypted backups to the cloud and other tools. The phone of course has a password and I started using lastpass, but they have no way to mass import vCards of all my data (which comes from addy book on Mac). If I could find a service like lastpass that could import vcards, support android, IOS and windows phone I'd be all set.

 

[Verizoned]

A couple...

You could use your current Google account for syncing, and create another with sync turned off for the sensitive ones. They would all show up in your contacts, but only the former would be synched.

I store a bunch of sensitive info on my phone, but I keep it in a 256-bit encrypted database via an app called mSecure. This app lets me keep this data synched across my Mac and all mobile devices over WiFi on my local LAN. They have a dropBox option as well (but no thanks with this data).

The app lets you create all kinds of data templates, with dial-able phone numbers, etc. But you can't import from vCards... you would need to massage this data into CSV for import.

Hi Can't Miss,
I just wanted to thank you as I've followed your advice and created another gmail account and only use it to store these imported contacts on the phone. I've disabled all syncing for this account and the addy's are kept local in lollipop.

I also checked out msecure, but I couldn't use it because I also am testing a couple of windows phones and it doesn't look like it supports windows phone os. I did pay for lastpass and am experimenting with this as the longer term option but again, no way to import vcards means hand entering all of the data.

Anyway, thanks for your help.

 

[Cant Miss]

no way to import vcards means hand entering all of the data.

Check the Mac App Store for a util to export contacts to CSV (assuming LastPass can import that).

 

[Robertas Petrauskas]

That's the thing. AT&T Address book as a cloud too.
I'd like to have some option. Now I can put my contacts to one cloud or another cloud.