new to Android - syncing contacts with Gmail

[DrGreene]

Alright, I do understand that this is a much discussed issue, but I have yet to find anywhere over the past couple days that spells this whole thing out for me.

When I got my phone(HTC Evo 4G, Android 2.3.3) I signed into my Gmail account, which I guess automatically ported over my gmail contacts to my phone. Since then I have gone into my gmail and cleaned up some contacts and groups, but I still have some contacts that won't link. For example - I have a friend who email I have as a Gmail contact and phone number in my phone. the names are identical, but even though I'm given the option to link, and it looks as if the action is performed, I still have two seperate entries for this person. how do I fix that? If I do it manually will Gmail just sync me a new contact as replacement?

Can I/should I sync my phone contacts all to Gmail? Can this be done to send all of my numbers to my Gmail account and be able to see everyone there?

For the time being I just want to clean up all of this Gmail nonsense so hopefully I can move on to undertaking my FB account.

Thanks.

 

[AndroidSPCS]

Welcome. I suggest you back up your phone contacts to the SD card. Then use Gmail as your sole source for contacts. Save all contacts as "gmail" contacts, and none as stand-alone phone contacts.

After your contacts are backed up to your SD card, do a factory reset to clean the data off, and then re-log into your Gmail account on the phone. That should fix the contacts issue.

 

[AndroidSPCS]

Great to hear.

 

[indybail]

It's one of the great things about Android, it syncs with a lot of Google apps. Check out other things like the calender.

 

[DrGreene]

Welcome. I suggest you back up your phone contacts to the SD card. Then use Gmail as your sole source for contacts. Save all contacts as "gmail" contacts, and none as stand-alone phone contacts.

After your contacts are backed up to your SD card, do a factory reset to clean the data off, and then re-log into your Gmail account on the phone. That should fix the contacts issue.

How do I save all of my contacts as gmail contacts? Will that make all of the numbers accessbile from my gmail account contacts?

How do I get my contacts back once I've done a factory reset?

 

[AndroidSPCS]

How do I save all of my contacts as gmail contacts? Will that make all of the numbers accessbile from my gmail account contacts?

How do I get my contacts back once I've done a factory reset?

To save all contacts as gmail contacts, either:
1. create them in gmail on your PC.
2. or if creating them on the phone, a pop-up will ask if you want to create a Gmail contact or a phone contact. Always select Gmail contact, never phone.

Once you've done a factory reset, to get your gmail contacts back, simply log into the Gmail account and it will auto-download the gmail contacts.

 

[mischasan]

This gotcha kept my phone contacts from being synced back to my gmail contacts:

In Contacts / Settings / Account, you probably have "Background data" and "Auto-sync" turned on. Under "Manage accounts", your gmail account should be listed. If you tap on your gmail account, you go to the Data & synchronization page, which lists "Sync Books", "Sync Contacts", "Sync Gmail", etc. Make sure that "Sync Contacts" is turned on!