Best way to back up contacts?

[audiodudDevon]

I recently damaged the screen on my Sensation XE and it was sent off for repair which on return I found that it included wiping most things on the phone. I naively thought that my contacts, (People), had been backed up by syncing with my Google account, but most of my contacts when viewed in Google mail on the web do not do not have postal addresses or in many cases phone numbers, or if they do they are in a "notes" field.

I tried re-entered my Google account details, and many contact details returned into the People app but with the same lack of information in the correct fields as detailed above. So they are practically useless.

In the past I used Nokia phones which could easily be backed up reliably with their own software or sync'd with Outlook which was a programme that many phones could sync contact details with.

So I'm probably going to re-build the address book from scratch which will take some time, but should cut down on the 600+ contact details I do have, many of which are fragmented pieces of information anyway. So can anyone offer any advice as to the best way I can keep the contacts backed up with everything in the correct fields in the address book but easily transferable to any future Android, or possible different OS, phone I may buy.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[SiempreTuna]

If you have the contacts in Outlook already, then you should be able to sync from there to your phone. If that's the HTC Sensation you're talking about, use HTC Sync - it should have come with your phone, if not it can be downloaded from the HTC Support site. Unfortunately, it only works with more recent versions of Outlook.

Alternatively, there are plenty of sync apps that can help on the Play Store. I use one called AndroidSync that works over WiFi.

You will need to remove all the contacts from your phone first otherwise you're going to mess up Outlook. Easiest way is to use an app from the Play Store - I used one called Contact Remover. The alternative is either deleting your 600 contacts one at a time (and who has time for that?) or a factory reset (a complete PITA).

Oh - and you might want to go to Setting .. Google (under Accounts), tap your Google account name and tick the appropriate sync options for contacts / calendars etc. You may also need to enable sync'ing - easiest way is with the power widget.

 

[mplevy]

I know that on my Thunderbolt Sense had its own modded "contacts" app that - when you created a new contact - gave you the option to create it on the phone, the SIM card or your Google account.

 

[audiodudDevon]

Thank you for those answers. The only possible problem I can see of relying on Outlook as the central store for the contacts is that in the future I will probably not have an HTC phone and thus not be able to use HTC sync as the means of backup, but hopefully whatever brand of phone I use should have some form of backup software provided.

I still don't understand though why syncing with my Google account resulted in such a poor and virtually unusable version of the contacts in Google mail.

 

[WoohooGuy]

You should export your contacts from Outlook in CSV format, then import the CSV into Google contacts online.

https://support.google.com/mail/answer/14024?hl=en

The same support document above has a link you can read to customize a CSV file if you are handy with that to only contain the parameters you desire to import.

After you have your CSV head on over to Google contacts and import your CSV, once done it will sync to your android.

 

[Thom]

I sync Outlook on my Windows workstation with Gmail with each of my Motorola Droid X, Bionic, and Maxx.

On my Windows workstation I run …

Google Calendar Sync – sync calendars between Gmail Calendars and Outlook
Go Contact Sync Mod – sync contacts between Gmail Contacts and Outlook

Gmail syncs contacts and calendars between Gmail and each of my phones. One phone is activated and two phones are not activated. They are all synced.

I have used Google Calendar Sync for a number of years and would export/import a .csv file from Outlook to Gmail once a week. I am using Go Contact Sync Mod and it is maintained for me. (I learned about Go Contact Sync Mod here at Android Forums.)

... Thom