Help Phone Contacts Only

[Takuwind]

Hi, I have been STRUGGLING with this issue for many years and am getting tired of it. So I thought I would check with the experts here for an answer.

I have a new Samsung S7 Edge

I need my Contacts to show only my custom entered list of phone numbers. This is the list I have been carrying from phone to phone for years. But lately Android has been pulling in a host of other contacts from various sources. Mainly from google.

Last phone I had (Note 7), I went through these steps:

• Turned off google contacts
• Deleted all contacts that were not direct entered phone numbers

Now, after doing a direct phone-to-phone transfer of settings, my Edge again has a loooong list of extra contacts with emails and other info.

How do I solve this ongoing problem? This really shouldn't be this hard.

Thanks!

 

[Bg260]

Hello, welcome. Android devices are typically linked to Google account. Your Google account IS your Gmail account. Syncing your contacts, many believe, is a great benefit. That way, you never have to move contacts manually from one device to another. A few suggestions, in no particular order.
1. All contact apps should have a setting to "only display contacts with numbers"
2. Turn off contact sync in Google settings.
3. Delete your Gmail account.
4. When signing into device for first time. Uncheck ALL the boxes.
5. Delete your Google account.
6. Create another Google account for.... let's say work. Then sign into device using that account.
7. # 1&2 are, by far, the easiest.

 

[Takuwind]

I think the solution is to make a dummy account for my phone. Never would have thought of that. Thanks.

 

[Takuwind]

Actually, follow up question. Was just thinking about #3 above. How would I delete just the gmail from my phone? I prefer the stand-alone gmail app, not the integrated phone gmail. So if I could delete gmail from phone, it would solve a lot of the contact issues.

 

[Bg260]

Actually, follow up question. Was just thinking about #3 above. How would I delete just the gmail from my phone? I prefer the stand-alone gmail app, not the integrated phone gmail. So if I could delete gmail from phone, it would solve a lot of the contact issues.

It depends, some devices have a setting to not sync contacts. I may have gotten carried away with that particular one. I don't use gmail per se, usually the stock email app is fine with my needs. I do like having my contacts restored though so I'm not sure what impact that would have on the syncing of contacts. You can also merge all your separate contacts into one.

 

[Takuwind]

Yeah the biggest problem I think is that you cannot turn Sync off until AFTER the phone has been setup and synchronized. So then it always brings all the extra contacts into the phone.

 

[Bg260]

Its possible, depending on the device. If you go into accounts and remove yours, it should ask if you want to erase all your user data as well.
IDK, the actual Telephone part of Android is definitely not my strong point. Have you gone here

https://contacts.google.com

 

[svim]

I need my Contacts to show only my custom entered list of phone numbers.

Have you tried going into the menu options of the Contacts app on your phone. I don't know what version come with your S7 but on my S3 the setting shows up as:

Now, after doing a direct phone-to-phone transfer of settings, my Edge again has a loooong list of extra contacts with emails and other info.

Check in your Contacts app menu settings for an option to set just what you want to appear in your Contacts listing -- all your contacts, or just from your gmail account, or just what's stored on your phone, or a customized mix you select.

Keep in mind if you select just what's on your phone that they're not getting automatically backed up and synced with your online Google account, you have to manually be sure to back those locally stored contacts. Don't ignore this, it's just not safe at all to assume your phone will never get misplaced, stolen, or damaged.

Yeah the biggest problem I think is that you cannot turn Sync off until AFTER the phone has been setup and synchronized. So then it always brings all the extra contacts into the phone.

Have you disabled 'Sync Contacts' in your Settings >> Accounts >> Google >> your_account@gmail.com ? It should have stopped any auto backup and syncing once you did. But again, by intentionally turning off the syncing you need to remember to manually back up your data. It's a lot safer to just use the menu options in the Contacts app to change how your view contact entries than to disable the backup function.