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Never use Google contacts, ever.

H

HippoMan

Member
I've been an android user for a number of years, and I'm on my 4th or 5th android phone by now. My current OS is JellyBean.

I want to completely prohibit any of my contacts from ever being stored as "Google Contacts". I never want any of my contacts to be stored on Google or in any other "cloud".

I know I can store them as "Phone" contacts, but when I do, they keep disappearing from the contacts app. This is very frustrating for me.

Here's how I tried to make this happen, but it hasn't worked for me:

1. I have turned off "Contacts" sync.

2. I exported my contacts to my sdcard.

3. I then deleted all the contacts from the Contacts app.

4. I then went online to my Google account and cleared each and every contact, because they kept re-appearing there.

5. Then, I went back to my android phone re-imported the saved contacts solely as "Phone" contacts.

These contacts then appear in my Contacts app (now called "People" in JellyBean) until I restart my phone. At this point, the contacts disappear, and I have to manually re-import them from the saved file on my sdcard. I have to keep doing this every time I restart my phone.

I want to be able to always, totally, and irrevocably detach myself from the Google cloud and only get my contacts from "Phone", and I want those contacts to remain present in my Contacts app under all circumstances ... unless I manually delete any of them.

In other words, I never, ever, ever, ever want even one single contact of mine to be stored on Google or anywhere else in the cloud.

Can anyone suggest a 3rd party contacts app or some configuration or some utility that I can make use of to ensure that my "Phone" contacts (and only my "Phone" contacts) remain active and visible without my ever having to re-import them, and without my ever having to store them in the cloud? I want these contacts to still be usable to make phone calls, send SMS, etc.

Thank you very much in advance.

PS: Did I mention that I never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever want to store my contacts on Google's servers, nor on any other server, and I want them to always be available solely as "Phone" contacts without them having to be repeatedly re-imported? :):)
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I like your stance since it reflects mine quite accurately. :)

I feel like I set up Gmail on my PC and there was an option for Contacts and Chat, where you can set it from 'automatically add' to 'manually manage' or some such. It has been a few years since I did that.

As Extreme said, there is also a place on the phone to turn off Contacts Sync.

If you turn off sync in both of those places you should be fine.


At this point I don't set up my phone to even have my Google account on it. I just skip that step during phone set up, and keep install files for the few programs I have on hand so I don't need the Market.
If there is no Google account linked, then there is little chance of my Contacts being uploaded to my Gmail.
 
But even if contacts are designated as phone-only, how do we know they’re not going to the cloud anyway? Just because we can’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not up there. All I’m trying to say is I see a risk when putting anything on an online computer.
 
If you turn off sync for your Google account they do NOT end up in the "cloud". I sync Outlook to my phone and use the google account for contacts. As long as sync is off they stay on the phone. I believe with JB that all 'phone' contacts get transferred to the Google account, but that's just something I've read on a forum so not sure ....

It is annoying that this is all enabled by default but if you take the trouble to figure out how things work then you're fine.

Dave
 
Thanks to all for your feedback. Based on everything you folks have shared, I guess I'll just have to start following PyroSporker's advice and shut down all Google accounts to begin with.

Keep in mind that step 1 in the list that I mentioned above is to turn of "Contacts" sync. I always try keep that synching turned off. However, sometimes it gets turned on ... such as if I upgrade my OS (assuming I attach to a Google account) or if some other app turns Contacts sync on as part of some setting that I accidentaly select.

When that occurs, and if my contacts are set to be "Google" contacts and not "Phone" contacts, they start happily flowing to Google's cloud until I rush to the settings and manually disable that flow. Then, Google ends up with some or all of my contacts on their servers.

I guess there is no way to prevent this from happening with non-Phone contacts when connected to a Google account, aside from being quick and on my toes about turning off Contacts sync as soon as it has been turned on ... if I even notice that has happened.

Also, what is the purpose of "Phone" contacts, in the first place? Since they always have to be manually reloaded into the Contacts app on system restart, it seems like this "Phone contacts" concept is mostly useless.

One way around this might be an app which I can run on system startup (perhaps via Tasker) which automatically re-imports my saved Phone contacts. Do any of you know of such an app? If no such thing exists, I guess I could try to write it, myself.
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Maybe the problem with the "People" not automatically loading your contacts is with the fact that you have them stored on the SD card instead of in the phone memory?

Just a thought. No help on cloudless storage, sorry. I happily store all my contact information in my Gmail account. I can see my friends/family on any computer, and if I have to change phones/lose my phone or whatever, I don't have to worry about when the last time I backed up or the information isn't lost forever.
 
Depends on what phone you are using. On a Samsung phone, there is a setting INSIDE THE CONTACTS APP to set the contacts you add to automatically save to the device, and not Google.
 
You can save them as vcf files - then import back into phone.
I don't sync with Google either - I'd get 3 copies of contact if I restored the phone.
I can't control the SIM, but I can stop Google which eliminates one copy. I can also pick and choose which to restore using vcf. (notepad will read them)

I just rooted the NX4 and couldn't connect my daughter in England to Viber unless Google had the contact. All the rest are phone only.
 
chanchan05 said:
Depends on what phone you are using. On a Samsung phone, there is a setting INSIDE THE CONTACTS APP to set the contacts you add to automatically save to the device, and not Google.
Click to expand...
Thank you, but I have a Samsung phone (Galaxy S Relay 4G), and there is no such app. The "People" app is all that is resident on my phone, aside from the 3rd-party Contacts apps I've been playing with.
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Aha! I think I solved my problem!

I have a rooted phone, and I used the "App Manager" within the "ROM Toolbox" app to Freeze the "Google Contacts Sync" app.

Now, when I start up my phone, the "Phone" contacts that I previously imported from my sdcard still remain within my Contacts app.

This leads me to believe that something like the following sequence events takes place at system boot time ...

1. The "Google Contacts Sync" app is invoked.

2. It clears the contacts.

3. It then checks if Contacts sync is turned on. If so, it syncs the contacts. Otherwise, it does nothing more.

In other words, at system startup, this app apparently _first_ clears contacts and _then_ determines whether sync is enabled to load any cloud-based contacts.

That's just a guess, and maybe the exact logic is different. Nonetheless, freezing that app causes the clear-contacts step to never be taken.

I'll keep running with this setup for a while to see if I encounter any gotchas, and I'll report back with my findings.
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I rooted my phone as soon as I got it. So there was nothing to be wiped. There were no contacts.Then I got most stuff back from Titanium. I can make a vcf file in windows address book, move it to the SD card via dropbox, import into contacts, export backup of contacts to pc.

Then if I mess with the phone again - everything is available. Contacts will import.
I have a Nexus 4, so I just don't enable Google sync.
 
I did mostly the same as you did, zuben el genub, but in my case, the contacts used to disappear every time I restarted my phone, and I always had to manually reload them.

Anyway, I now have a solution that seems to work, so I'm happy.
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No, they don't. They only know what apps are on my phone and some Gmail. I've started using another mail service and moving most over. Gmail will be left for apps and Spam. I deleted everything from Blogger and Picasa, have used no other Google services. Voice is disabled. I won't join +. The only thing I buy from Google is apps and a phone. I never have used any other Google services besides email. I don't like Chrome - I use Iron, instead when FX won't work on a site.

I disabled and wouldn't bother with anything else besides Gmail after Google started that Buzz nonsense and got slapped down.

If you add a contact by vcf only, Google doesn't see it unless you sync.

Just because I use a Windows box doesn't mean I'll run MS stuff. Just because I do use Amazon, doesn't mean I'll buy books or apps. There's other sources for books and ebooks.

I don't believe in "one size fits all"
 
They already learned plenty about you long before you removed all that data you initially fed them. Considering Google/Facebook is tied to just about everything on the web worth using now days you simply can't escape. Almost every major site uses Doubleclick which is owned by Google and plenty of other Google API's like Google Analytics. In fact every click you make on this very site and the time spend on each page is Analyzed by the big G. And then there is all the stuff posted about you by others across the grid which you have zero control over.

Resistance is futile.
 
I don't use FB to post. I only post stuff like a picture of a frog with the name Jeremiah on Twitter. I use GMX for most mail. I use FX as a browser on the computer - set to "do not track" "private browsing" Use AdBlock and NoScript. I don't enable Doubleclick, Google analytics unless I have to. I also use StartPage and Duck as search engines.

Now if this site is reporting to Google, I'm screwed. But even here, no real information.

I never fed anyone anything. I have half a dozen aliases. I also use Yahoo and must have 4 or 5 addresses there and no profile. No contacts in any email list. I just read Groups. Even then, no personal info.
 
chanchan05 said:
Depends on what phone you are using. On a Samsung phone, there is a setting INSIDE THE CONTACTS APP to set the contacts you add to automatically save to the device, and not Google.
Click to expand...


What setting is this?

I have a Galaxy S2 and cannot see this.
 
zuben el genub said:
I don't use FB to post. I only post stuff like a picture of a frog with the name Jeremiah on Twitter. I use GMX for most mail. I use FX as a browser on the computer - set to "do not track" "private browsing" Use AdBlock and NoScript. I don't enable Doubleclick, Google analytics unless I have to. I also use StartPage and Duck as search engines.

Now if this site is reporting to Google, I'm screwed. But even here, no real information.

I never fed anyone anything. I have half a dozen aliases. I also use Yahoo and must have 4 or 5 addresses there and no profile. No contacts in any email list. I just read Groups. Even then, no personal info.
Click to expand...

This is all fine nd good, but how do you fake the IP address you post everything from?

Because your IP is logged on the web pages' server once you open it, even if you don't post there. And every time you click a link to get to another web page your IP address is logged on that next server as well as the page you came from.

Just sayin' . . . . . . I can look at my server's log and with free tools find out near where anyone who visits it is from. . . .
 
athegn said:
What setting is this?

I have a Galaxy S2 and cannot see this.
Click to expand...

Galaxy S: Open contacts app>menu button>more>settings>save new contacts to>select "phone" instead of Google.

Galaxy Tab (a little bit different, but its running ICS so this could be the new version of the app): go to add new contact>near the top of the screen there is a field where your Google account is written>tap this and change it to device. This will permanently change if you add a new contact to device, where it will stay as "device" when you next open it.

(mistakenly pressed edit on your post instead of quote. Sorry).
 
HippoMan said:
Thank you, but I have a Samsung phone (Galaxy S Relay 4G), and there is no such app. The "People" app is all that is resident on my phone, aside from the 3rd-party Contacts apps I've been playing with.
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Click to expand...

That's odd, but they might just be the same thing differently named. On both my Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab, I have the option for device only storage of contacts.
 
chanchan05 said:
Galaxy S: Open contacts app>menu button>more>settings>save new contacts to>select "phone" instead of Google.

).
Click to expand...

The above path is not on my S2!

If I add new contact, press + in the Contacts App, the first option is to add to my Gmail account, SIM or Phone; so ok for new contacts.

However I cannot see how to add an existing contact to these nor how to see which of my contacts are in these places; I can logon to my Gmail account via my browser to see that but can't see how to find what's on Phone or SIM?
 
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