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Contact List and Gmail problems

C

colorado_okie

Lurker
First of all, let me say that I am new to the android operating system. I recently switched from a first-gen iphone to a Samsung Captivate. Overall, I'm greatly impressed by the phone and the operating system. Still learning my way around, but I'm getting it set-up how I like it.

Save for one issue...

Before I bought the phone, I exported my contact list from MS Outlook into Gmail, thinking this would be the best way to move my contacts. At first, I thought it worked great as I got all my contacts. Then the issues began. Mainly, I like to assign certain ringtones to different contacts (like many of you I suppose). This proved to not be possible with imported gmail contacts.

I thought I would import them to the sd card, which worked well and I'm able to assign a specific, custom ringtone to different contacts. However, the Gmail contact list is still there. I changed the sync parameters under the settings menu to only sync the calender and my email. Contacts are still there!!

I tried the export/import to the SD card again, now my contacts are "linked" twice and the link to Gmail still shows up. Some of my contacts are listed twice, some are not.

I've got several hundred contacts and I'm not real keen on manually un-linking and deleting the extra contacts, one by one.

I searched and didn't come up with anything. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
- Randy
 
This is what I had to do:

1. Install Outlook on a system (and create a valid account)
2. Connect my old phone to the system using Windows Mobile Device Center.
3. Sync the contact into Outlook
4. Export the contacts to a DOS .csv file
5. Create an independant GMail account seperate from my own (the reason for this is that if you use a current GMail account, it will import every person you've ever emailed through GMail)
6. Import the .csv file into GMail.
7. Create an account on the Captivate.
8. Autosync the contacts.
9. You are done!
 
Space Cowboy said:
This is what I had to do:

1. Install Outlook on a system (and create a valid account)
2. Connect my old phone to the system using Windows Mobile Device Center.
3. Sync the contact into Outlook
4. Export the contacts to a DOS .csv file
5. Create an independant GMail account seperate from my own (the reason for this is that if you use a current GMail account, it will import every person you've ever emailed through GMail)
6. Import the .csv file into GMail.
7. Create an account on the Captivate.
8. Autosync the contacts.
9. You are done!
Click to expand...

I've gotten around the issue where the phone imports ALL your contacts (everyone you've ever emailed) by selecting to only display contacts with phone numbers.

If you do it the way above, wouldn't you have to now manage contacts in both of your gmail accounts?
 
colorado_okie said:
First of all, let me say that I am new to the android operating system. I recently switched from a first-gen iphone to a Samsung Captivate. Overall, I'm greatly impressed by the phone and the operating system. Still learning my way around, but I'm getting it set-up how I like it.

Save for one issue...

Before I bought the phone, I exported my contact list from MS Outlook into Gmail, thinking this would be the best way to move my contacts. At first, I thought it worked great as I got all my contacts. Then the issues began. Mainly, I like to assign certain ringtones to different contacts (like many of you I suppose). This proved to not be possible with imported gmail contacts.

I thought I would import them to the sd card, which worked well and I'm able to assign a specific, custom ringtone to different contacts. However, the Gmail contact list is still there. I changed the sync parameters under the settings menu to only sync the calender and my email. Contacts are still there!!

I tried the export/import to the SD card again, now my contacts are "linked" twice and the link to Gmail still shows up. Some of my contacts are listed twice, some are not.

I've got several hundred contacts and I'm not real keen on manually un-linking and deleting the extra contacts, one by one.

I searched and didn't come up with anything. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance,
- Randy
Click to expand...

I had the same problem. I cleared out all my contacts in Gmail (after backing them up) and them resynced my phone. This cleared them all out of my phone. Make sure when you import the contact back in Gmail that you keep the contacts sync button UNCLICKED on your phone.

AKA, sync your phone with a blank Gmail set of contacts and it will clear them out.
 
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