Trying to delete contacts via Contacts Storage but Clear Data button is grayed out.

[FattyFatty2by4]

Just recently upgraded to a Droid Razr (been a long time blackberry user) and really just beginning to understand some of the features. During the initial setup I didn't handle my contacts the way I would have preferred and would like to start over. From what I can decipher, I should be able to go to Settings>Applications>Storage Use> and then chose "Contacts Storage" to completely delete my contacts via the "Clear Data" button.

However, the "Clear Data" button is grayed out and unavailable. I've tried using "Force Stop" thinking that if this application currently had the data in an open state then that might be why is was unavailable. However, it doesn't appear that "Force Stop" ever actually stops the application and it certainly doesn't allow me to chose "Clear Data" afterwards.

Does anyone know how I could either make the "Clear Data" button available or another method to completely remove all of my contacts?

Some other info that might be helpful:

Hardware: Droid Razr
Android Version: 2.3.6
Contact Data Size: 31.29MB

I do not want to "root" my phone at this time. If I were going to make a wild guess, I think it could be related to Backup Assistant (same idea that if an application has locked the data, it's not read/writable). However, I don't see any way in the phone to disable Backup Assistant to test this theory. Furthermore, I have disabled sync with all other contact services (facebook, linkedin, etc.) so if I can ever delete my contacts... the deletion won't propogate to my original sources.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[Droid-Xer]

Your contacts are synced with your Google account. From a PC, log into Gmail and edit the contacts there.

 

[FattyFatty2by4]

I feel a little intimidated replying to someone with the title "Super Moderator". Please note that I did bow before typing my reply. :sorry:

There is no doubt that the sync issue is what I'm trying to correct, however, I'm not currently using Gmail for that purpose. Coming from a blackberry my contacts were all in Outlook/Exchange and it was my original intent to just use those addresses. However, I have learned of some limitations with corporate sync and decided to overhaul my current contact methodology. I believe (still coming from my title of Droid Newbie) that I have a decent grasp of what I'm trying to accomplish in that regard.

What I would like to do is completely delete the existing contact data first. It might be that I'm anal-retentive, a perfectionist, or what I would prefer to think is I want to understand exactly how things work.

If there is not a way to do what I want (without rooting the phone), your suggestion has me wondering. What if I deleted all of my Gmail contacts and then synced the phone? It's possible that this would essentially bring the disk space to 0MB... but if what I'm figuring out is correct, what would probably happen is that the storage would remain at 31.92 MB (having added 0 records from Gmail) and just keep the existing data for future use if I decided to join accounts again.

 

[akhenax]

Hello FattyFatty2by4,

Try removing your google account from the phone and retry the clear data button in Contacts Storage. There is also another storage mechanism that is located in the same area called simply "contacts". You can clear data from here as well.

So Settings > Applications > All, locate "Contacts" then clear data OR remove your Google account in Settings > User and Sync

Good luck.

 

[Droid-Xer]

How did you get your contacts from the blackberry to the razr to begin with?

 

[FattyFatty2by4]

akhenax: I took a look at the other storage mechanism you referenced and you were correct that I could use the Clear Data button. In my case that data was only taking up 8k. I could not remove my google account without doing a factory reset. I feel certain that would have deleted my annoying little data problem, but I'm not quite ready to go to the nuclear option just yet. I still think Backup Assistant could also be a problem, but with no way that I know know to disable it... it will remain a theory.

Bottom line appears be, unless someone who's had their phone longer than my 3 days can tell me, it can't be done with a phone that has not been "rooted". I did see some apps that had access to the underlying file system (to kill bloatware, etc.) that I'm sure would work... but the most promising ones appeared to also require a "rooted" phone.


Droid-Xer: I just used the corporate sync option. Where I really screwed up was installing that last after multiple other email/social media apps and not fully understanding the various sync options.

I really may resort to starting from scratch and do the factory reset. It appears that "Play Store" keeps all my apps so can you suggest if there is anything else I should worry about other than just having to re-key all my credentials?

 

[akhenax]

deleting your Google acc. from the phone is not like a factory reset. You can readd it later, after you fix your contacts issue; did you delete data from contacts?

 

[Sydman]

Just deleting your Google account from the phone won't clear out your contacts they will still be there. Your options are do like Droid-Xer said and logging into your Google account online and managing your contacts from there and it will sync and update the phone.

Or do a factory reset and next time your phone loads skip setting up backup assistant just don't enter a PIN, backup assistant will still be on your phone but it won't add more contacts. The do just corporate sync if you want to get those contacts, and when you add Gmail back just uncheck sync contacts when you add it.

Lastly if you just want to hide those contacts you can hit them menu button from within the contacts page and go to display options and choose to hide a certain list. Or just delete the whole list one by one after you turn of sync and they won't come back.

 

[FattyFatty2by4]

akhenax: I did delete that 8k of data, but there was obviously nothing to it and the main issue of MB's of wasted space remained. But as far as removing Google... my phone actually comes up with a message that says "This account is required by some applications. You can only remove it by resetting the phone to factory defaults..."

Sydman: Thanks for the advice. Essentially that's what I'm going to do with an added twist. I need my Outlook/Exchange to be my primary contact database. However, using Gmail seems to be the best for the Droids. So I'm testing a few different PC applications that will sync Outlook to Gmail and then I will use the forum's suggestion of having Gmail sync to my Droid.

Thanks everyone for the help, I've actually learned quite a lot messing with this yesterday. Once I get everything working, I'm still thinking of going nuclear and and do the factory reset. That way I can start fresh and feel like I made better choices in my installation. Plus I bought a 32GB SD card (class 10) last night... so probably couldn't live with myself if I wasn't using that efficiently!!! :cool-b: