Adding Contact - Don't Want Phone Link

[amojeba]

Hi All.

So I have a Droid X which I love. When I add a contact, I don't see an option on how to Link that contact (or at least, I don't see it?).
I have to add the contact, then go through the PITA process of unlinking it.

Basically, I want ALL my contacts to be linked to my Google Acct only. But it auto links any new contact to the Phone as well.

Am I the only one that finds this annoying? I just want one clean cnotact list, not stored in multiple places or on the phone. Any insight would be appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[DF Smod]

I am not sure I understand your question, when you put a contact in your phone and sync with google your contact ends up in your gmail contacts and on your phone and vice versa

The best way IMO to edit contacts is in gmail, on a computer and then sync with your X and the contacts will be brought over

 

[DF Smod]

Unless you are asking to have contacts in gmail and not in your phone contacts ?

I don't think this is possible

 

[hookbill]

Hi All.

So I have a Droid X which I love. When I add a contact, I don't see an option on how to Link that contact (or at least, I don't see it?).
I have to add the contact, then go through the PITA process of unlinking it.

Basically, I want ALL my contacts to be linked to my Google Acct only. But it auto links any new contact to the Phone as well.

Am I the only one that finds this annoying? I just want one clean cnotact list, not stored in multiple places or on the phone. Any insight would be appreciated.

Thank you.

This statement is confusing. You want all contacts linked to your gmail account (google) but you don't want new contacts to be added to your phone?

I'm not quite getting it either.

 

[amojeba]

Unless you are asking to have contacts in gmail and not in your phone contacts ?

I don't think this is possible

Bingo. It IS possible, b/c I can go an Unlink it from Phone contacts after adding it.

Look at it this way. When you first activate the phone, it pulls all your contacts off Google / Gmail. And there's only 1 link - to Google.
So say, if I remove the google acct, then all the contacts should be gone.

But every subsequent Contact I add manually, it automatically Links it to the Phone as well. I don't want the "Phone" list to have any contacts on it.

Click a contact on your contact list, and click on "Linked profiles." It will either say 1 or 2. If you expand it, it will show "Google, Phone" or just "google."
If you hit Menu, you have the option to Unlink a contact (from phone, for instance).

What if I don't want it linked in the first place? When I am in the process of adding a new contact, there has to be an option where it asks me how / what contact list to link it to. Wouldn't that make sense?
Seems logical to me.

 

[amojeba]

This statement is confusing. You want all contacts linked to your gmail account (google) but you don't want new contacts to be added to your phone?

I'm not quite getting it either.

Yes, b/c we can still see all my Google contacts on my phone. But why does it need to be "Linked" to 2 different contact lists? That seems unnecessarily messy to me.

Think about it this way - There are multiple Contact Categories on your phone, correct? I want all my contacts strictly on the "Google" category / link. See my post above regarding "contact links." Hopefully that helps clarify?

 

[DF Smod]

Maybe it is possible, I haven't looked into these settings, for me I see a great benifit in having all of my contacts in gmail and my phone contacts, as far as an easier way besides what you have figured out (unlinking one by one) I am not sure, I didn't even know it was possible to not link the two

 

[DF Smod]

Apparently the DX's contact syncing abilities are far superior to that of the Original Droid because it is not this complex on my device

 

[amojeba]

Maybe it is possible, I haven't looked into these settings, for me I see a great benifit in having all of my contacts in gmail and my phone contacts, as far as an easier way besides what you have figured out (unlinking one by one) I am not sure, I didn't even know it was possible to not link the two

Hmm. B/c when you download your contacts initally from Google (when you first set up the phone) it doesn't link the contacts to your "phone" list. Only to Google.
Logically, the same should be true of new contacts you add. Wouldn't you think so ?
Android has progressed to 2.1 (2.2 for some) over this time period, and am I the first who's had this concern or noticed this? Someone must know lol Or at least, know what I'm talking about.

 

[amojeba]

Apparently the DX's contact syncing abilities are far superior to that of the Original Droid because it is not this complex on my device

LOL :icon_ banana:

 

[DF Smod]

B/c when you download your contacts initally from Google (when you first set up the phone) it doesn't link the contacts to your "phone" list. Only to Google.

This is where I am confused, you say when you first download your contacts from google they don't link to your phone, only to google-

That statement doesn't make sense to me-

 

[amojeba]

B/c when you download your contacts initally from Google (when you first set up the phone) it doesn't link the contacts to your "phone" list. Only to Google.

This is where I am confused, you say when you first download your contacts from google they don't link to your phone, only to google-

That statement doesn't make sense to me-

Sorry for the confusion. Okay, let me try to elaborate. These are the steps I'm taking, hopefully this is more clear:

1. Go into Contacts List.
2. Select a contact (i.e. John Smith)
3. You see the contact info screen, with the contact's name, phone number(s), etc. It also has a section that says "LINKED PROFILES (1)" with an arrow to expand / collapse this section. The (1) can be any number, i.e. 2, 3, etc.

If you expand the LINKED PROFILES section, it will say something like:
Google: Phone or Google or Phone or any poss combo's, like if you have 2 google accts, etc.

You must notice a discrepancy between your different contacts, right? Some say Just Google. Some say Google/ Phone. This is what differentiates your Contact List Categories (from All, to Google, to Facebook , etc).

Here you also have the option to hit Menu | UnLink Contact (or Link Contact). It will only give you the UNLINK option if there's 2 or more "Linked Profiles."

Does this help clarify my concern? Sorry for the long-winded response. Thanks

 

[michelle4439]

I totally understand what you mean amojeba. I noticed this a few days ago and I am trying to find a solution. When I try to send a text with hancent it lists the person's number twice for the contacts I don't know if that is a handcent issue or because the numbers are linked twice. If I go in and unlink the contacts then the contact is listed twice. I then have to delete the contact out of the phonebook so it only shows up in the google part. When I go into my contacts icon my phonebook names and my google names do not match because when I unlink and delete them out of the phonebook so the number only shows 1 time so I can text using handcent. I want all the names to match everywhere and not be linked. I also think backup assist may have something to do with this issue. I wish I could just disable the backup assist. I know this is going to be confusing to some but amojeba will understand I think.

 

[DF Smod]

Well you have definitely cleared up the confusion

Unfortunately the Original D doesn't have all of these options, so I can't help you along, hopefully an X owner will stick there head in here and can give some X-pertise

 

[amojeba]

I totally understand what you mean amojeba. I noticed this a few days ago and I am trying to find a solution. When I try to send a text with hancent it lists the person's number twice for the contacts I don't know if that is a handcent issue or because the numbers are linked twice. If I go in and unlink the contacts then the contact is listed twice. I then have to delete the contact out of the phonebook so it only shows up in the google part. When I go into my contacts icon my phonebook names and my google names do not match because when I unlink and delete them out of the phonebook so the number only shows 1 time so I can text using handcent. I want all the names to match everywhere and not be linked. I also think backup assist may have something to do with this issue. I wish I could just disable the backup assist. I know this is going to be confusing to some but amojeba will understand I think.

Thank you, someone who gets me! LOL Although I don't have first hand knowledge of Handcent. But we definitely seem to understand each other regarding Linked Profiles for Contacts.
It seems strange that when you're adding a contact, it doesn't ask what Contact Group or Groups you want it to belong to.