Adding new contacts - I save, and they don't show up

[MrTommy]

I've done a search of the site and so far, can't find an answer, so here I go.

When I bought the phone, they took the contacts off my nv2 and ported them over to the Droid. Fine. Except a couple didn't show up. Who knows why... So I've tried to add them myself. When I go through the "add contact" procedure and press save, it shows that it's saving, but then when I check the contact list, there's no new contact. I've tried this a number of times and nothing sticks.

So I went to the Gmail site on line and low and behold, there's a whole bunch of my newly added contact (five of them to be exact - the number of times I tried to add the "new" contact). But I can't get the contact(s) to stick on the phone. And, I can't sync them between on-line Gmail and the Droid. The picture even stuck, but only on the Gmail site, not the Droid. What the heck is going on here?

 

[JayMonster]

When you go to Gmail on the Web, do the contacts show under "My Contacts" or just under "All Contacts"?

If they do not show up under "My Contacts" they are on your phone... but just not visible. You can either add them to "My Contacts" or on your phone, go into Contacts>Menu>Display Settings and add the other tags to make them visible.

 

[ninjaturtlesm35x]

Had the same problem. I exported contacts to my sd card. Imported them back. They magically showed.

 

[MrTommy]

Contact dilemma

Tried doing the "import" from the SD card (which did the trick the last time I couldn't find my contacts). Not so, this time. I imported the contacts and got exactly the same stuff as I had to start. So I went to my Gmail account (which I use for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!). There's my stuff, with all the names (duplicated!), some with the pictures I'd attached, and some without. Scratching head here... I spent an inordinate amount of time deleting the ones with NO pictures, and leaving the ones WITH pictures. Now, I exported them to an Excel file, which I saved on my computer. Somehow I ended up with dual contacts on that one too. Grrrrrrrr. So I deleted the file and re-exported the file. Still dual listings. So I just shut that down and now I'm sitting here wondering if I should have just kept my nv2... This should be a simple maneuver. ADD contact, press SAVE, and viola. Only it doesn't work that way.

I even tried to edit an existing contact, changing an email address for my daughter. It added the new work address, and lost the home address. ?????

Then, just to see what happens, I pulled out the SD card and put it in my laptop to check out what was on the memory chip. Well, I got the contact list to pop up - and couldn't shut it down until it went through all 126 contacts. I just kept hitting CANCEL as fast as I could as it scrolled through everything. I pulled it back out, re-installed it in the phone (yes, I used the official "take the SD card out menu option), and now I'm back to square one.

And now my wife, who I've been trying to move over to a Droid since I got mine, says (and I can't blame her) "There's no way in HELL I'm getting one of those. You can't even add contacts without a hassle!". Hmmmm - how can I argue with that?

:icon_ devil:

 

[JayMonster]

Go into Gmail on the Web.

Go to Contacts

On the right hand side of the screen you should see a button for "Find Duplicates"

That will merge them into single contacts again with no manual editing necessary.

Make sure the contacts that you want to see on your phone are part of "My Contacts" (You can browse them from the button that says "All Contacts" and just click on "Add to my contacts" for those that are not part of your "My Contact" list.

When they sync back to your phone, they should all be visible.

The fact that you have duplicates says that the contacts you brought in were already there. As I mentioned earlier, in the options on the phone, make sure you have the groups (including My Contacts) set to display so they do not "disappear" (they aren't gone, they just aren't part of the displayed set).

Adding contacts is not a hassle, but it is different and more powerful than you enV and you do sometimes need to pay closer attention to what you are doing and what things are set to. Good luck, and if you run into problems... ask. Somebody will help.

 

[MrTommy]

This is driving me nuts!

So, I foolishly go back to my Gmail account, the one I painstakingly deleted all the duplicate contacts to see if the edits I made on existing contacts showed up, and not only did they not show up, I now have duplicate entries again. WTF????

All my original contacts were taken off my old nv2, so what if I just make sure everything I want is on my old phone, take it into Verizon, and have them re-transfer them? This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen, but if that's how I have to do it - well....


:cus::soapbox:

 

[MrTommy]

Sorry, I was writing that other response while you were sending your suggestion. I uploaded it before I saw yours. Thanks. I'm going to try that - right now.

 

[MrTommy]

Strangely enough, the biggest hassle was adding a friend named "Bobby". It WOULD NOT take the name - period. When I added him as "Digger Bob" (his nickname), it took just fine. But when I tried to edit his new contact and change it back to just Bobby, NO GO. So, Droid just doesn't like Bobby I guess. I have two other Bob's in there, but they have different last names, so that can't be the problem - uh - can it?

 

[PereDroid]

Adding contacts is not a hassle, but it is different and more powerful than you enV and you do sometimes need to pay closer attention to what you are doing and what things are set to. Good luck, and if you run into problems... ask. Somebody will help.

WHat do you consider a hassle then??
I joined this forum just to reply to your post. I just got my wife a Droid. Background: I am an IT Manager and have been in IT for 15 years. I support 29 cell phones at my job including 1 DROID. I know what I am doing when it comes to phones.
My wife comes home today BENT. "I have added this contact three times and it says SAVED and disappears." Stomp foot (she's so cute).
First thing I do is add it again )of course to make sure it isn't user error as it usualy is).
Just as she described. So I log in to her Gmail account.... there it is listed 5 times.
Why does Gmail have ALL CONTACTS and MY CONTACTS? Can anyone explain that to me? Like I might save someone else's contacts? Why would anyone need multiple sets of contacts? I can understand grouping them as FRIENDS CO-WORKERS et. al. But seperate lists?
And you would think VZW (got this one at the store and they set up her email account) would have it configured beautifully right out the door.
So I have to jump through the hoops you described to fix. Thanks by the way.
I think that qualifies as "a hassle".
No phone is so advanced, not should it be, that it requires a Google search to add Contacts properly.....

Out of 10 WinMobiles phones, 4 Treo's, 7 BB's, 3 Centro's, and a DROID at work I have never seen anything like this.

Pay closer attention to what you are doing? It is adding a contact. It's not rocket science.

No offense intended. Personally I love the Droid and would love one myself. I am just beyond disappointed that it just didn't work for the not-so-techy (my wife) as it should have.
Looks like because of this, and the fact the she keeps hanging up on people, the Droid will be returned. I am sad about this for two reasons. I like the Droid and want one in my house (lol) and I expected a bit better from the phone that I hoped was really the iPhone killer. I expected better.
(Sidenote the one I support at work runs just fine with Exchange...)

 

[PereDroid]

OH MY G....
So I try adding a new contact. Joe. No other info. Go to Mail, Refresh. Joe is still there. Check Gmail.com... Joe shows up.
K... it's working right... except the contact above we tried to add has not shown up on the phone. Delete it. Delete Joe.
Back to the phone. Add Beth again...... it disappears.
Really???? Should it be this much of a pain in the a???? Really???
DBB (Disappointed Beyond Belief)....

 

[PereDroid]

FIXED
Problem: This can happen when you have the VZW store transfer contacts from your old phone to the DROID.
Make sure all your contacts are safely in Gmail and do this:
My new Droid will not sync contacts with my google account. The contacts say "Phone-only (unsynced) contact. - Google Mobile Help

Once you reset the synch to Gmail everything works fine now.

I will blame VZW for this one.

 

[HolyGrail]

Click phone, Contacts Tab, click menu, display options,click on your email, check all the groups. All your Contacts will then show up. Send me a Wonka Bar with a Golden Ticket

 

[fbell]

Click phone, Contacts Tab, click menu, display options,click on your email, check all the groups. All your Contacts will then show up. Send me a Wonka Bar with a Golden Ticket

This worked for me and 2 other droids that were having trouble adding contacts. Make sure all three boxes are checked. One of the boxes might not have anything written next to it. Check it anyway.

 

[PereDroid]

Click phone, Contacts Tab, click menu, display options,click on your email, check all the groups. All your Contacts will then show up. Send me a Wonka Bar with a Golden Ticket

This worked for me and 2 other droids that were having trouble adding contacts. Make sure all three boxes are checked. One of the boxes might not have anything written next to it. Check it anyway.

That was the very first thing I checked. Everything was selected. I even deselected everything, reboot, and reselected everything. No change.

I believe there is some weird glitch when VZW does the contact transfer from a "regular" phone for you.

 

[metzor]

This worked for me and 2 other droids that were having trouble adding contacts. Make sure all three boxes are checked. One of the boxes might not have anything written next to it. Check it anyway.

I was having the same problem, and this fixed it. I had my contacts synced when I bought my Droid, and adding the contacts via the phone's "new contact" button was not working. For some reason, it does put the new contacts added manually into the "all contacts" under your gmail account instead of the "my contacts" which is where sync'd contacts go. And going into the accounts menu under the contacts page, there are 2 boxes to check next to "my contacts", and then a box who's description is blank- clearly this was supposed to say all contacts. Make sure you click this box also. Anyway, good luck to anyone having this issue, and thanks!