Moto e: importing contacts.

[ArtieD2]

I just got a new Moto e. Most of my apps and contacts migrated over fine. But not all. I successfully exported my contacts from my old phone to my Google drive, but their doesn't appear to be an "import" function on the Moto. Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks;
Artie

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! On your old phone, did you enter your contacts into the local Phone account, or into your Google account? On your computer browser, go to contacts.google.com -- are your contacts there?

 

[ArtieD2]

Hi B. Diddy. Google has the same 31 that transferred to my new phone. But my old phone has 76. I'm not sure why some are sync'ed and the others didn't.

I managed to fix it, in a round about way. I backed up the contacts on my old phone as a vcf file. I emailed it to myself. Then imported into Google contacts. That worked, but also created a bunch of duplicates that "merge & fix" couldn't seem to identify. So I had to delete them individually. All seems good now. The whole list is now on my new phone.

Not sure why that was such a hassle, or why some contacts synced with Google, and others didn't.

 

[B. Diddy]

The ones that weren't in your Google Contacts in the cloud were most likely entered into that device's Phone account, which is only saved locally, and doesn't sync or backup anywhere automatically. This is why I always recommend that people enter contacts into their Google account, not the Phone account. (For devices that have a Phone account, that's usually the default account, which makes the user have to take the extra step of selecting the Google account instead when creating a new contact. Pixel phones only have the Google account option, so there's never any confusion.)

The way you did it was the right way to get those contacts into your Google account -- export the contacts to a VCF file, then import that file into your Google Contacts.

 

[ArtieD2]

I guess the thing that confuses me, is that every contact on my phone was entered manually at the time I added it. I hit the "New Contact" button, then entered the info. So, not sure why some "sync'ed" and others didn't.

P.S. While we're on the subject of contacts, do you know what size pic I should use to add it someone's name? Thanks.

Artie

 

[B. Diddy]

It's possible that some of those contact were entered into your Google account from somewhere else besides your phone (like on a tablet, PC, or Chromebook). That might've been more likely to default to your Google account.

I would use a standard hi-res photo, because the Contacts app will downsize it as necessary depending on the display. If you use a low-res photo, it'll look fine as a thumbnail, but when it blows up to full screen (like when you get an incoming call and their contact info is displayed), it'll look really grainy/pixelated.

 

[ArtieD2]

Cool. Thanks B. Diddy.