AT&T Galaxy S8 Contacts won't sync FROM phone TO Google

[dltempler]

I am supremely frustrated. I store new contacts on the phone. My settings are such that they should automatically sync to my google account. They don't. Even if I attempt a manual sync, nada.

Samsung has remote controlled my phone and says my settings are all correct.

Battery saving is off
Contact Sync Fix from PlayStore does nothing.

Trying to get someone at google to answer a phone is a full time job.

gmail syncs fine. calendar syncs fine. Only contacts don't sync.

Tried exporting to my SD card and then using the file to import into Google contacts. Doesn't work.

Read a ton of suggestions online. Nada.

WTF??

 

[Rukbat]

Are the contacts entered as Google contacts? Phone and Device contacts (and SIM contacts, if you had an older phone) don't sync to Google, only Google contacts do. If they're not Google contacts, see the Contacts part of Backing up an Android Device to convert them.

 

[dltempler]

When I save a new contact, the default is set to PHONE. So they are PHONE contacts. Is that the issue?

If so, will making the default GOOGLE keep them from syncing TO the phone?

As I stated in a PM, the device will allow me to MOVE the contacts from the PHONE to GOOGLE. Then, they are only available in GOOGLE. Whether they can be imported back to the phone or synced with the phone I do not know.

I also tried exporting the contacts to an SD card and then importing that file to GOOGLE. That didn't work either.

This has been frustrating me since I got this phone. Never had this issue with my HTC

 

[Rukbat]

As I said in the PM, I don't think you can. But if you can, do. It won't change the ones already in there (you still have to do the save, delete, add thing) but it will make it one step easier in the future.

 

[TFBisquit]

You can save a backup of your contacts to sdcard. I use both Samsung and Google as auto backup, and indeed, sometimes it's hit or miss. But seems to work for me now, so I have a backup on SD to be safe. Won't be as updated unless if you do this manually once per month.

 

[dltempler]

So, for some reason that makes no sense at all, Samsung or ATT has not fixed this issue. Rukbat was correct. With the ATT Samsung Galaxy S8 the user may select the default location where new contacts are stored. The device does not automatically default to your Google account. Mine was set to place new contacts in Phone.

If you want to back up your Phone contacts, you CAN back them up to your Samsung Account (which uses your Google email address) BUT you cannot sync your PHONE contacts to your GOOGLE account. You also cannot Export your PHONE contacts to your GOOGLE account. HERE IS THE WEIRD PART. You CAN "MOVE" your PHONE contacts to your GOOGLE account. That "move" process works just fine.

So, all of my contacts were moved off of my PHONE and into my GOOGLE account. I then changed the default storage location of new contacts to my Google account. I also changed my default contacts list to show my Google account.

Once that is done, from your handheld device you can use Chrome, go to your Google Contacts and "export" a vcf file. It will export and be saved in the Downloads folder of the device. After that, open Contacts, Manage Contacts, and then Import from Internal Storage (find the vcf file). Viola. All of your Google contacts are now also on your Phone/device (despite that you will probably want to leave the display default to Google)

Bottom line: There is no automatic sync of contacts between your PHONE (device) and GOOGLE with respect to contacts. This is true EVEN THOUGH you can select the sync under "Cloud and Accounts".

This is all just BS. My previously-owned HTC auto-synced my phone contacts directly to Google as they were saved. I didn't have to go through any of this crap.

Thanks Rukbat.

 

[dltempler]

You can save a backup of your contacts to sdcard. I use both Samsung and Google as auto backup, and indeed, sometimes it's hit or miss. But seems to work for me now, so I have a backup on SD to be safe. Won't be as updated unless if you do this manually once per month.

Yes. I had been doing this too but I was not confident that the information saved on the SD card was complete. So, in addition to the SD Backup I also backed up to the Samsung Account. The problem with all of this was that the cross-syncronization was ineffective across devices. Now, with the default storage location for new contacts set to GOOGLE, the issue is eliminated. Still have to manually back up or export the Google contacts for safety though.