Galaxy J5 Contact backup to Google account question.

[Android Central Question]

I have a Samsung Galaxy J5 with all the normal things installed. I only use it for call, text messages and the occasional SatNav. I want to back up the contacts to my Google account. From Contacts . Manage / Export, the screen says 173 contacts to be exported but when I select either SIM or Internal, the resulting vcf file has only about four contacts.

Somewhere, I am told that all has been synced to Google but on-line, my Google contact account only shows the contacts that have historically been there, with nothing from the phone.

My basic question is, how do I back-up the phone contact data?

Thanks

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! What account are most of the contacts saved to? You can tell by selecting a contact and looking at its details -- it should tell you if it's saved to a Google account, a Samsung account, or the local Phone account.

Please register on this forum, which will allow you to engage in discussion more easily, as well as post images. https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/409154-join-android-central-community.html

 

[mustang7757]

Make sure sync is turn on for the accounts in settings and your log in .

 

[Rekusu]

Still having difficulties. Two questions regarding backing up my contacts.

The phone is synced to my google account and tells me that it has backed up the contact data a few minutes ago. But if I visit my Google account on my pc, where is that back-up file? I see no evidence of my phone contacts anywhere.

Second questions; I can apparently save my contacts to a vcf file. The phone screen says 172 contacts saved internally to vcf.

I can access that file by connecting my phone to the computer and even save the vdf to my pc. But when I open in with Outlook, there is only one contact saved, and it is not even the first, but always the same contact beginning with H. The file size is around 22mb.

How can I make my phone save all my contacts?

Thanks and toodle pip

 

[B. Diddy]

On your PC, open your browser and go to contacts.google.com -- that's the easiest way. If you want the contacts to show up in the Windows 10 People app, then see these steps: https://support.google.com/contacts/answer/2753077?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform=Desktop&oco=1. Remember, this assumes that the contacts on the phone were actually saved to your Google account, and not the local Phone account (which doesn't get synced anywhere). You can tell this by selecting a contact in your Samsung Contacts app, then tapping Storage Locations -- it should say "Google (your Gmail address)" right under the contact. When you create a new contact, at the upper left, you'll see "Phone" with a dropdown arrow -- that means the contact will be saved to the local Phone account by default. You have to tap that and select your Google account to save it to your Google account.

VCF files typically have to be imported -- they aren't just read by a program as is. Here's how to import a VCF file to your Google Contacts: https://support.google.com/contacts...&co=GENIE.Platform=Desktop#zippy=,from-a-file. Here's how to import a VCF to Outlook: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...contacts-70c6b31f-19f8-4033-8f2a-2ee8075e51aa

Are you sure the phone says 172 contacts saved internally to VCF? Or does it say saved to SIM? Contacts wouldn't be saved to a VCF file for constant access by the Phone -- they're simply a way to transfer a contact from one place to another via file.

 

[mustang7757]

Still having difficulties. Two questions regarding backing up my contacts.

The phone is synced to my google account and tells me that it has backed up the contact data a few minutes ago. But if I visit my Google account on my pc, where is that back-up file? I see no evidence of my phone contacts anywhere.

Second questions; I can apparently save my contacts to a vcf file. The phone screen says 172 contacts saved internally to vcf.

I can access that file by connecting my phone to the computer and even save the vdf to my pc. But when I open in with Outlook, there is only one contact saved, and it is not even the first, but always the same contact beginning with H. The file size is around 22mb.

How can I make my phone save all my contacts?

Thanks and toodle pip

Open your contact app then go to it's settings, what is saved under ?

 

[Rekusu]

Thanks for the various replies.

I have to admit that I really have little to no idea bout how the phone os works, but....

I think it is Android 7 (or something like that) and every Google query tells me what to do but the menus on my phone do not have the same options.

So under Contacts Settings, I have the following:

Profile sharing / Contact to display / Sort by / Name format / Show frequently contacted / Share multiple contacts / Customisation Service / About Contacts. No reference to where anything is backed-up or what it is saved under.

What is the difference between a Google account and a Phone account? Under my Google contact, the only saved data is for people that I have actively saved to Google for when we go travelling and that info was created way before I had a Smartphone. There is nothing relating to the phone data. Could be that the phone contacts are saved to the phone rather than the SIM. And I don't understand what the difference is anyway.

As for the vcf file, that has been created when under Contact / Manage Contacts / Import Export, it says '172 contacts' > To and the options are Internal or SIM. If I select Internal and Export, the message is Contacts will be exported to ****.vcf. but when I open that file on the pc, there is only one contact.

I now see that the contacts listed under Phone and under Contact although the same, have different menu options, but I cannot see anything relating to Storage Location. And if I create a new contact under Contact, there is no storage location option.

Thought Android was supposed to be easy, but it is more complex than any MicroSoft OS!!!

 

[mustang7757]

Ok in the contact app

See these options

 

[B. Diddy]

This might be useful: https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=399060&p=3707512&viewfull=1#post3707512. It's outdated because it became too difficult to keep updating it for every new version of Android, but the basics remain pretty much the same.

Managing contacts is actually much easier and simpler on Pixel phones, because there's no need to worry about a local Phone account or any other accounts (like Samsung). Like with many aspects of Android, oftentimes non-Google manufacturers complicate things by trying to add "features" that most people don't need or want.:-\

 

[mustang7757]

This might be useful: https://forums.androidcentral.com/showthread.php?t=399060&p=3707512&viewfull=1#post3707512. It's outdated because it became too difficult to keep updating it for every new version of Android, but the basics remain pretty much the same.

Managing contacts is actually much easier and simpler on Pixel phones, because there's no need to worry about a local Phone account or any other accounts (like Samsung). Like with many aspects of Android, oftentimes non-Google manufacturers complicate things by trying to add "features" that most people don't need or want.:-\

Yeah just highlight your google account and ignore the others like in my screenshot