Customize contact photos

[Barristro]

Issue:
I have several people in my contacts who also have Facebook accounts. I do NOT want their photo in my contacts to keep switching every time they have a new Facebook photo. In fact, I don't want any of their facebook photos; I want the ones that I have taken of them.

I have tried editing photos in the contact page, but it will never actually use the photo that I choose for the contact.
If I remove my Facebook account from my phone, then the contact photo will be the one that I most recently selected. If I then add my Facebook account again, the photo will become whatever that person has for a profile pic on Facebook again. In fact, adding my account gives me the message that "Facebook has been set as the source of your contact photos", without giving me the choice.

I have searched for a solution. The closest I could find was to either;

1) make something other than Facebook the "Picture Source" (Contacts > Menu > More > Manage Accounts > Menu > Picture Source), but Facebook is my only option ("nothing" isn't even an option).

2) Unlink the Facebook accounts from the contact. This, however, would give me multiple accounts for the same person (one for phone, one for facebook), doubling the number of contacts in my phone.

I don't want to simply disable Facebook on my phone. I like the ability to check on my friends from my phone.

I would almost consider unlinking the Facebook page for all of my contacts, but then I have to go through all the trouble of creating yet another contact group so I can have "all contacts without facebook photos".

The Droid-2 has so much going for it. But the way it handles Contacts is awful. I have almost gotten over the fact that my contacts cannot be sorted by last name, but the fact that I cannot have my contacts on my phone with a photo of my choice is asinine.

BTW, if there is some other discussion about this, please provide a link. I haven't been able to find it.

 

[Asphyx]

Welcome to the cloud! LOL

What I did was imported my facebook contacts into Google using Yahoo Mail importer to create a CSV file.

Then edited the contacts in Google to use the picture I wanted.

This creates duplicates in the phone but you ccan join them together and tell the phone to use Google for Pic data.

 

[Barristro]

Then edited the contacts in Google to use the picture I wanted.

This creates duplicates in the phone but you ccan join them together and tell the phone to use Google for Pic data.

For some reason (my inability to locate an obvious button, perhaps), I cannot tell my phone to use Google for Pic data. I can either only use Facebook, or remove all traces of Facebook from my phone.

Honestly, I don't mind the cloud at all. But Android should still allow me to say "this one contact gets this particular picture, no matter what". I even have the picture that I want to use on that person's contact information in a gmail account. But I still cannot use it on my phone due to facebook.

 

[pc747]

You can choose to use a picture from your photo gallery. when you click on the contact you should have an option to choose whether you want to use the cloud or a picture from the gallery.

 

[Barristro]

You can choose to use a picture from your photo gallery. when you click on the contact you should have an option to choose whether you want to use the cloud or a picture from the gallery.

Yes, I "should have an option to choose". But when I do, it will go through all the steps, pretend to update the photo, and then revert right back to the Facebook photo that I do not want.

From https://motorola-global-portal.cust...-my-accounts-application-(add/remove-account).
**When you have selected a Picture source such as Facebook/Twitter, the picture they have on that social network will always represent that contact and cannot be overriden with a photo you have chosen. This behavior will be modified in a future software release.

I call BS on that last sentence; they will never release any software to fix that problem. Anyway, if Facebook is set as a picture source (which is automatic if you have Facebook as a social network account on the phone) you CANNOT change the photo.

I actually did come up with a solution that is not worth the effort. Since I would never look at anyone's twitter account even if they had one, I can set up several hundred Twitter accounts (one for each contact), upload the picture that I want for them, and set Twitter as my Picture Source.

 

[Asphyx]

Then edited the contacts in Google to use the picture I wanted.

This creates duplicates in the phone but you ccan join them together and tell the phone to use Google for Pic data.

For some reason (my inability to locate an obvious button, perhaps), I cannot tell my phone to use Google for Pic data. I can either only use Facebook, or remove all traces of Facebook from my phone.

Honestly, I don't mind the cloud at all. But Android should still allow me to say "this one contact gets this particular picture, no matter what". I even have the picture that I want to use on that person's contact information in a gmail account. But I still cannot use it on my phone due to facebook.

If your still using the Stock Rom then in accounts settings there is a setting to select picture source. You probably have it set to Facebook not google.

If you are running Fission long press the picture from the Google Profile and Select use this photo.

 

[Barristro]

If your still using the Stock Rom then in accounts settings there is a setting to select picture source. You probably have it set to Facebook not google.

Google is not an option. Having a Facebook account under Social Networks forces you to accept Facebook as the picture source. Somehow, Motorola decided that Facebook should be master of the phone instead of Google (or the actual owner).

I have tried every way I could come up with to either keep Facebook and edit photos for individual contacts, and to keep Facebook and have anything other than Facebook be the photo source (other than my brilliant plan to create Twitter accounts) to no avail.

 

[Asphyx]

Barristro sounds like you missed the key important step.

You have to import or create your facebook contacts into Google Contacts. So that there is a corresponding account in Google for every Facebook contact you have. The best way I know how to do that is by using Yahoo Mail's import social Networking wizard to import all your facebook friends into yahoo and create a CSV then import that CSV into google.

This will create duplicates in your phone. One will be the Google contact you created and the other will be the uneditable contact Facebook added.

You then use the LINK or JOIN function (depends on your rom) to make one contact out of the two.
When you tap on that joined contact you will see it now has TWO profiles one for Google and one for facebook. You still will not be able to edit facebook info but you can edit info in the Google profile including the pic it displays.

Now you can shut off use Facebook for Picture source and the phone will use the Google instead. Since Google has a contact that is already joined to the Facebook installed one the contact info will stay up to date with changes on facebook but you will only see the Google contact profile photo.

Yes it is a sucky way of handling contacts but that is what happens when you try and put two clouds full of crap together...A Violent thunderstom and lightning! lol

The key is to make sure you have a corresponding Google contact for every contact that goes into your phone via 3rd party sync.
Then join them so you get a single contact with multiple profiles.
Once you get that you can always edit the contact (regardless of source) and select which picture you would prefer the phone to use.

In Fission you simply edit the contact, press on the picture in the Google profile and then select use this photo.
That contact should now use the Google picture for display not the facebook.

 

[silverfang77]

The easiest way I've found is to just delete the Blur Facebook account. Then you can assign whatever picture you want for your contact. If you want Facebook on your phone, download the Facebook for Android, or Flow for Facebook apps from the Market and log into Facebook from one of those.

 

[Barristro]

The easiest way I've found is to just delete the Blur Facebook account. Then you can assign whatever picture you want for your contact. If you want Facebook on your phone, download the Facebook for Android, or Flow for Facebook apps from the Market and log into Facebook from one of those.

Yes. Sadly, this causes me to lose all my contacts that are only from Facebook. Sucks that Motorola will only give me a lose-lose situation.

 

[Asphyx]

It;s not Motorola it's facebook.

Did you try to do what I told you to do?