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Help No option to sync Google Contacts

M

mreid72

Lurker
I would like to be able to sync my Google contacts to my phone (Galaxy S4) as well as the other way around. Is there a way to do this?

When I go into my phone's contacts and look at which contacts to display, there is no option for Google Contacts. Also, when I go to my Google account settings, there are plenty of choices of what to sync but Google Contacts is not one of them.

What am I missing?
 
I know this is going to be a stupid question, but forgive me because I have to ask: is your phone an actual Samsung Galaxy S4, or a fake? Because the most obvious explanation for your problem would be is your phone did not include the normal Google apps, which is not going to be the case for a real S4.

Generally you'd expect the Contacts app to have the option to save new contacts as "google" contacts, which is what you want. If that's not available then there is something wrong (i.e. different from normal software).
 
Do you see any option for Google at all? Mine just says Google with my email address. It doesn't say "Google Contacts". Also, which OS is the phone on? I lose track of all the changes with the basic phone functions. My phone is on Lollipop 5.1.1 so what I see may be different.
 
Yes, Google is an account I have on my phone. When I click on my email address that is linked to the Google account, several syncing options come up: Sync App Data, Sync Calendar, Sync Chrome, etc. However, Sync Google Contacts is not an option, and from everything I'm reading, it should be.

Just to be clear, this is where I am in my phone: Settings>Accounts>Google>my email address.

I am running Lollipop 5.0.1, which, if I remember reading correctly, is the latest version for an S4 and likely the last update it will receive. I know it will not be getting Marshmallow.
 
Try going into Settings >> Application manager, swiping over to the 'All' menu, then scroll down til find the 'Google Contacts Sync' app. Hit the 'Force stop' button and then the 'Clear data' button. Then find the 'Google Account Manager' app, click on the 'Force stop' button and the 'Clear cache' button. Then restart your phone, and go back into your Settings >> Accounts >> Google >> your email address and hopefully 'Sync Contacts' will be back in the list.
 
'...not an option' as in it's not in the 'All' listing of all the apps on your phone? Is it in the 'Turned off' menu then?
 
Ah...there it is. In the Turned Off menu. Not sure why it's there. Just enable it now? Will that be all I need to do?
 
Enable it, and the check your Settings >> Accounts >> Google >> your email address again to see if 'Sync Contacts' is back.
 
I have the same problem as mreid72 on a Samsung S III. Contacts last synced in May last year but now reports "will try again later" but it fails every time. Contacts is in the ALL list, and I would love to follow the gist of the solution provided by svim, but I have added addresses to the contacts on my phone since it last synced with my laptop so need to export a .csv file first. Is this possible on a phone? I can do it from my laptop but that won't save the new contacts on the phone. I don't sync contacts from any other apps as far as I know, certainly not Facebook.
 
ProfessorNutty said:
I have the same problem as mreid72 on a Samsung S III. Contacts last synced in May last year but now reports "will try again later" but it fails every time. Contacts is in the ALL list, and I would love to follow the gist of the solution provided by svim, but I have added addresses to the contacts on my phone since it last synced with my laptop so need to export a .csv file first. Is this possible on a phone? I can do it from my laptop but that won't save the new contacts on the phone. I don't sync contacts from any other apps as far as I know, certainly not Facebook.
Click to expand...

I think your best option is to get your online Google Contacts cleaned up and set as your primary and master source for Contacts, and then at that point set up your S3 to sync to your Google Contacts. But since it sounds like you've got some contacts on your phone but not necessarily in your online Google account you need to get those phone contacts added into your online account first.
- On your S3 in your Contacts app tap the menu soft key (bottom left) and in the menu that pops up should be a 'Import/Export' selection. Export your contacts to a vcf file (I don't think it will do a csv) and then copy that vcf file your laptop.
- Confirm that vcf file is on your laptop. Now on your S3 go to your Settings >> Accounts >> Google and tap on your gmail named account. Uncheck 'Sync Contacts' so for the time being your S3 won't be attempting to sync itself with your online google account.
- On your laptop log into your https://contacts.google.com and in left side panel is a 'More' option, click on it and select the 'Import' option. Find and import that vcf file from your S3 and add that into your Google Contacts.
- Clean up any duplicates, make any corrections, fill in missing info, etc. in your online Google Contacts. If you've got a lot of entries it might seem to be a pain in the ass but the time you put into getting all your contacts sorted and up to date is a long term investment in making it a valid, central source to rely on.
- Back on your S3, go into Settings >> More >> Application manager and swipe over to the 'All' menu. Scroll down to the 'Contacts' app. Tap on the 'Force stop' button, then tap on the 'Clear data' button (this should wipe out your Contact settings and cache).
- Go into your 'Apps' and launch the 'Contacts' app. Hopefully when it pops up on screen it should be empty. Now go back into your Settings >> Accounts >> Google and then select your gmail named account again. Check the 'Sync Contacts' box and at the bottom tap the 'Sync now' button. Hopefully your online contacts will start downloading into your S3 and will populate your Contacts app correctly.
 
Thanks very much for your detailed and accurate instructions, which I have now followed to the point of updating the online contacts list and editing it. Now comes the fun bit with the phone (your last two steps) which I'll do tonight and report on later. Meanwhile, the only issue I had was finding the saved Export file on the phone when it was connected to the laptop with a USB cable. In the end a Windows explorer search for "Contacts" found it, but browsing never revealed its location on the SD card, which is the export option I chose.
 
Sounds like you found your Contacts.vcf backup file but in the future if you're looking for something that isn't where you think it should be, your S4 should have a basic file manager app, look for the 'My Files' app in your 'Apps'. You can use My Files to look around your phone's storage and your microSD card.
 
In my case I just had to download the Google Contact Sync app.

The Google Contact one does not suffice alone.

Anyway I was not able to found it on the PlayStore, so I downloaded the last version (for my specific Android 10) from apkmirror.com
 
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