Trying to understand contacts sync between Android and Gmail

[ZKay]

I moved from iPhone to HTC One (on VZW) recently and I am having a hard time figuring out the syncing process on Android phones, esp HTC One I have. I have a gmail account and a lot of contacts are there, but there are some that were only on my iPhone so I imported all my iPhone ones to the HTC One.

I consider myself a power user, so feel free to provide details in your answers. Please do not refer to older apps (like Contacts, its really People app now in JB). Also, I have lost about 60 contacts recently while trying to figure out the process, so a little compassion is appreciated.

I think it would be helpful if I ask few specific questions:
1. Are gmail contacts the master contacts for syncing purposes? If yes, what is the role of Google+?
2. If I'd like all my contacts to be always backed up and in sync with Gmail contacts, does it really make sense to have local phone contact? Somebody I met recently showed me that he adds all his contacts directly to Google from the phone (HTC One), so I was wondering if keeping local phone contact is really necessary. Mention any scenarios in which local phone contacts would be appropriate.
3. How does the relationship between phone contact and my google contact (gmail, that is) work in terms of addition, update and delete? When I erased all my contacts on phone, it ended up erasing my contacts from gmail when I tried to sync contacts.
4. In HTC One People app, when you add a contact, it defaults to "Phone". Is there a way to change that default to "Google account"? I saw on someone's phone and they could not explain how that was configured.

Thanks
ZeeKay

 

[hausjam]

When I switched from iOS to android, I didn't use phone to phone transfer. I exported my contacts out of icloud.com and into gmail.com.

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[Dave Clark]

Welcome to the forums. I'll do my best to answer it.

1) Google+ is more of a platform. It includes Hangouts, photos, social networking, syncing, etc. Contacts are no more a "gmail" thing than photos are. Contacts are Google Contacts. They're used in Gmail, Hangouts, Youtube and various other Google applications.
2) I'm not sure of a phone-only contact. I'm sure it makes sense for something (like maybe I don't want my mistress being in my shared gmail contacts). But I do keep contacts in different places...my work contacts are in Exchange and my personal contacts are in Google.
3) If your contact is a phone-only contact, it shouldn't erase anything over on Google, as the only place it exists is on the phone. If it's a Google contact, then erasing it from the phone (or vice-versa, from a computer), will erase it everywhere. Think of it as a single contact stored, which just happens to show up on all your devices. Delete if from anywhere, and it gets deleted everywhere. I can delete a contact on my iPad and I can no longer use it on any of my other devices. Likewise, I can add a contact on my computer and it shows up everywhere.
4) Sorry, i don't have an HTC one. On my S3, it just defaults to the last type I added. Like if I added a phone contact, the next one I add will default to a phone contact as well. Or if I add it as a Google contact, the next one I add will default to Google as well. Maybe the One is different.

Mistress? EvilMonkey you player...