Contacts Madness

[judsonmiller]

Hey folks, I am new to the forum. I did a search to see if this question had been asked already but couldn't find much. I am all worked up about my contacts. I feel like they are all over the place. Some are google contacts, some are G+ contacts, some are one my device, some are on the SIM. I want to go through and delete redundancies and get all my contacts in one place (and have that same list backed up within my google account.

My problem is that not all my contacts show up. For instance I know I have like four version of my dad in there (he changes his number and email frequently), but when I scroll through the contacts there is only one version. However when I go to the linked contacts it suggests that I link with the other three 'Bob Millers'. I have selected 'display all' under Contact To Display.

Anyways if anyone has any ideas I would be very appreciative. Just let me know if you need more info.

Thanks,

jm

 

[zkSharks]

Seeing as your contacts are currently not consolidated to one storage method, I would probably address that first. I would do this:

1. Open the Google Contacts desktop site.
2. On your phone, any contacts you can identify as unassociated with your Google Account (i.e. local contacts, SIM contacts) should be added using the desktop site you have open.
3. At this point, I would go through and remove or delete as many of these unassociated contacts as you can.

You may also be able to export your local contacts or SIM contacts to a file, transfer that file to your computer, and import that using the tools on the Google Contacts desktop site. Here's the basic process for inspecting and modifying your contacts using said site:

1. Export a CSV (comma-seperated value) file from the Google Contacts site.
2. Edit the CSV in Excel (or similar spreadsheet application) to remove unnecessary or otherwise unwanted fields, correct errors and abnormalities, unify formatting, and add missing entries.
3. Delete all contacts on the Google Contacts page, and either perform a manual sync on your devices or allow for a brief period for changes to propagate to them.
4. Import the modified CSV file to Google Contacts, and let it sync to your devices.

 

[MrDoh]

I agree with the idea of consolidating your contacts into Google Contacts, and then you can sync that to various devices. Then you can work on them all in one place, and make sure that you only have one entry for each contact, etc. I have all my contacts in Google Contacts (associated with gmail), including the ones for my email and my phone. The ones that I want to appear in my phone contacts have a phone number, and then I use the "display only contacts with a phone number" option. This works great for me...for ultimate backup in case something goes wrong, I can export my contacts from Google Contacts, and keep a copy of that backed up.

 

[judsonmiller]

On your phone, any contacts you can identify as unassociated with your Google Account (i.e. local contacts, SIM contacts) should be added using the desktop site you have open.

Is there anyway to get around typing all this info in manually? If I find a contact, especially one that has several phone numbers and email addresses it is a drag to have to manually enter them into my google contacts, though I agree that is what I eventually want.

 

[judsonmiller]

Figured out my own question just now. Exported a .vcf of my contacts list. Then found the file under 'My Files' on my phone. Then uploaded that to my google account. Now they are all there and I can edit at will.

Edit: For the record this created massive duplication. I also then had to logout of my google account on my phone, delete all my contacts on my phone side then re-login and sync. This seems to have done the trick. Now all my contacts are in the same 'place'. I just have to remember when I am creating a new contact to create it as a google contact not as a device contact.

 

[zkSharks]

Figured out my own question just now. Exported a .vcf of my contacts list. Then found the file under 'My Files' on my phone. Then uploaded that to my google account. Now they are all there and I can edit at will.

Edit: For the record this created massive duplication. I also then had to logout of my google account on my phone, delete all my contacts on my phone side then re-login and sync. This seems to have done the trick. Now all my contacts are in the same 'place'. I just have to remember when I am creating a new contact to create it as a google contact not as a device contact.

Yep, that's precisely what I was getting at. Glad you were able to get it sorted out, consolidating contacts can sometimes take many steps.