Change Contacts to Google - Stupid Pill ?

streetslide

Well-known member
Aug 9, 2013
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I have taken a stupid pill. Tell me the easy way to get a contact ALREADY in my contact list synced to G-mail contact list. Yes I know when entering, you save to Google. Works fine, last a long time, you actually have a choice of device or Google. However, I have some contacts shown not linked to anything & some shown with the device icon which I assume is sim. I thought if I simply added them to the group, My Contacts, Google would pick them up and sync from then on.

That is apparently not the case because when I check Gmail contacts they are not there. Why the hell don't they just let you pull up a non linked or device contact and have a choice to save to Google just like you were entering new????

SOOOOO, how do I take the several contacts not linked or shown as in device and change them to google? I know this has to be incredibly easy but I am not seeing it. All google accounts are synced and any contact shown with the G icon works fine, just need to change the odd balls to the G icon.
 
I have taken a stupid pill. Tell me the easy way to get a contact ALREADY in my contact list synced to G-mail contact list. Yes I know when entering, you save to Google. Works fine, last a long time, you actually have a choice of device or Google. However, I have some contacts shown not linked to anything & some shown with the device icon which I assume is sim. I thought if I simply added them to the group, My Contacts, Google would pick them up and sync from then on.

That is apparently not the case because when I check Gmail contacts they are not there. Why the hell don't they just let you pull up a non linked or device contact and have a choice to save to Google just like you were entering new????

SOOOOO, how do I take the several contacts not linked or shown as in device and change them to google? I know this has to be incredibly easy but I am not seeing it. All google accounts are synced and any contact shown with the G icon works fine, just need to change the odd balls to the G icon.

Been a while since I did this on a Samsung device, so taking a shot here: Have you tried resaving the contacts under the contact then clicking menu>edit?
 
I can re-save or edit all day but there is no choice to save to google. The only way I can see to do it is manually re-enter as new contacts. Has to be a better way.
 
I can re-save or edit all day but there is no choice to save to google. The only way I can see to do it is manually re-enter as new contacts. Has to be a better way.

Maybe syncing contacts to Google under setiings-accounts?

From a Sprint Moto X using AC forums app
 
That was all synced a long time ago & still is. However, it did make me look & if you click on the google account there is a bunch of stuff there being synced that you may not care about. I turned off stuff like Google Play Magazines and Books so thanks for that.
 
Try this - from the main contacts screen, hit menu, then import/export, then export to SD card. Connect phone or SD card to PC, open browser to your Gmail account, select contacts then import, point to your SD card file you created in first steps. Hope this helps
 
SOOOOO, how do I take the several contacts not linked or shown as in device and change them to google?
You mean something like this?
* From the Contacts screen
* Select the Menu (lower left)
* Select "Merge Accounts"
* Select "Merge with Google"
I think that makes all contacts become Google contacts. If you only want certain ones in Google, i think you have to try the export/import idea.
 
There is no Merge account setting or Merge with Google under Menu.

SOLVED -- SORT OF:

You can export contacts to & from USB storage & it actually gives you the choice of Google when importing back. Hooked up the charge cable between the Note 3 and PC. Exported - looks like it only has one contact but it has them all. Imported back into Google and WA LA, now they have the Google icon and should be backed up via google. Only issue now is I have a bunch of duplicates but i will either delete them or merge them one by one.

What A Royal PITA!
 
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So I just had the same issue and played around with it after reading this thread. I stumbled upon a SUPER easy way to get device contacts into google contacts. In the phone's Contacts click the vertical three dots next to the search bar. Choose Settings. Contacts. Contacts to display. Choose Device. Go back to your contacts, choose the vertical three dots again, then Select. Proceed to select all the contacts that you see, then click the share button, the sideways V. Choose gmail. When you receive the v card in Gmail, choose save to contacts. It will save all of them in your gmail contacts at once! Remember to go back and choose all contacts or google contacts or whatever you prefer afterwards.
 
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We (I) just lost (it appears) all of my teenage daughter's contacts while switching carriers. When we went to restore contacts from google all she had were 5 emails! That is what alerted me to the contacts saving to device problem... Thank you for posting this fix! Finally something worked! I had 35 business contacts I just assumed were synced. now if I could only somehow get my daughter's contacts back... Have a glass of wine from me as a thank you!!!
 
So on my note 4 I was struggling with the same thing, and finally figured it out. From the Contacts screen the three dots on the upper right will bring up a menu. There is a "Move device contacts to" option. then choose Google.

Hope this helps!
 
1. Open Main Contacts
2. Touch the three dots ...
3. Touch Settings
4. Touch Contacts
5. Touch Import/Export contacts
6. Select Import from device storage
7. Select Google