GMail's sync messing up my contacts?!? PLEASE HELP!

[tha]-[acksaw]

PLEASE HELP! I'M GOING NUTZ!!!!!

I posted about this in another thread but I've found a bit more information and I'm hoping maybe a few of you guys could help me understand whats going on with my contacts list. Here is my other post..

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/te...ns/14741-contacts-name-switching-problem.html

So, the end result of my problem is all my contacts have the last name in the first name box, and the first name in the last name box. So all my contacts show up backwards.

Now, when I got the Droid, I brought my phone numbers over from my old Voyager. All the numbers started out with the names in the wrong box. And I really didn't care, cause at least they ALL looked the same, with the last name first, then the first name after. At least when I went to use the search I knew I had to start out entering the last name.

So, within a few days of getting the Droid, I started getting into syncing all my contacts to GMail and Facebook. So, I noticed when Facebook found a mutual contact between my Contacts List and Facebook Friends List, it changed the name in my Contact List to match the Facebook's name. It also added their Facebook picture. I'm totaly final with all this, cause I like looking my contacts and having it look the way my friends do on Facebook. And after the fact, I decided that I wanted all my nonFacebook contacts to disply the name properly, with the first name first, and the last name last. At this point I also found that when I edit contacts on the Droid, it has a predefined boxes for "Given Name" and "Family Name".

So, now I go through all my contacts and move every name by hand to its correct place. Now all my names display properly with the first name first and the last name last, both in their right box. All names match up with the format my Facebook is using.

Well, at somepoint about a week ago, my phone changed all the contacts back to the last name first and first name last, except for the ones that linked to Facebook. I thought this happened randomly, but hindsight I think I might have synced my contacts from GMail, and I think that's what did it.

The reason I think its GMail is cause I did a full phone reset yesterday. Before I did, I backuped my contact list to my SD Card using ASTRO, and the backup had everthing set with the first name first and last name last. It was just the way I wanted when I backed it up.

So I do the phone reset. I reload my contacts from backup. I sync to GMail's contacts and BAM! All the names go back to the wrong formatt. So I start looking through my contacts. I picked one that doesn't have a GMail account or a Facebook account. There are four listings within the single contact name page, BUT THEY ALL SHOW THE SAME NAME AND PHONE NUMBER DATA EXCEPT THE LAST. So on the first three listing the name and phone number is correct. On the last listing the first name is in the last name box and the last name is in the first name box, but the phone number is correct. All four listings display as GMail contacts.

So, I'm guessing that GMail pulled all my contacts from my phones contact list when I first got the phone. From there, it seems that now its syncing in the opposite direction with my phone pulling for GMail, overriding whats alread on my phone.

So after all the long wind, I have two questions.

1). How do I go through and deal with the fact that almost all my contacts have three or four of the same listing with in it? I'd like each contact to have one listing for name and phone number, and then if they have a GMail or Facebook account, an additional listing for each of those.

Second, how do I take my contacts from my phone and send those to GMail so GMail is on page with my phone, not my phone trying to get on page with my GMail.

I have 200+ contacts from my Voyager, maybe 20 or 30 GMail contacts and maybe another 100 Facebook contacts. Since my phone has the most contacts, I want it to take priority, and not have GMail adjusting all the data around.

Any thoughts? Please help! I'm pulling my hair out!!!!!

 

[JamesX]

My Contact list is by default First Name first and Last Name second.

My phone is also pretty much uses the Gmail Contact as its contact list. (Update are nigh instant whether I do it through the phone or www.gmail.com)

I don't have the problem you are describing. Is your Gmail contact being synced by a third source? That problem shouldn't happen if it is just your phone and Gmail.

 

[NYZ93]

Here
Let me google that for you
Now couldnt you do that all by yourself

 

[tha]-[acksaw]

My Contact list is by default First Name first and Last Name second.

Mine is as well. It seems that GMail is moving the contact names from first to last and last to first when it syncs. Not as a display preference on the phone. I'm talking about physically switching the first name to the last name box, and the last name to the first name box. More then switching, it really just adds another listing within in a current contact. So if you open up a contact, the first listing will be right, but the second or third down will be switched. Almost like it adds another listing to every contact I already have, and then switches the name around. It's almost like if I correct a contact to make it display right, and then GMail syncs to my contacts, it will just add the messed up google contact under my fixed contact on the phone. Some contacts might have 4 or 5 listings in it, but its all the same info, minus the one listing that has the name backward.

I don't have the problem you are describing. Is your Gmail contact being synced by a third source? That problem shouldn't happen if it is just your phone and Gmail.

I don't know of any third part sync stuff. I'm using all the sync setting inside the Droid. And its only syncing to Facebook and one GMail account.

Here
Let me google that for you
Now couldnt you do that all by yourself

I'm quite good at using Google. I did a search, just as you did both in Google and on the Forum. And, just as you did, I couldn't find anything helpful. Only one listing in the link you gave me even addressed the name swapping issue, and it was a problem with an iPhone (not Droid) and it had to do with a sync problem in the Apple OS on his computer he was using for sync. Every other listing was either a general GMail help, or another iPhone sync issue.

It's a bit silly to follow steps that help address an iPhone issue, when I'm using a Droid.

Anyone have any other thoughts?

 

[tha]-[acksaw]

Ok, I'm still pulling my hair out, but if any of you guys can help me with one quick question, I think I'm gonna be all set..

Does anyone know how to take my current contacts list thats on my phone, and overwrite the list that on GMail on my computer?

Or along the same lines. Does anyone know how to completely erase ever single contact from the phone? And I do mean every one! LOL

Thank you all for you patience. I appreciate any help you guys can send my way...

 

[tha]-[acksaw]

Well, its been an aggravating week trying to get this solved. I'm gonna post what I've learned in case it can help someone else. I do have to say, it would be great if Google could provide a little information about how to set up and maintaine your contacts with smart phones. It's hardly the easy two way street it should be. If Google assumes its self explanatory, its not at all.

Well, its appreas that when you first set up your phone, and link it to GMail, it will take all your contacts you already have on your phone an add them to GMail's My Contacts list. I think its important in my situation cause when I took my contacts from my Voyager and put them on the Droid, all the names were backward, with last name first and first name last. So it synced to GMail using the same formatt. And after the fact, I really wanted it to be first name first and last name last.

Now it seems to me, after tons of messing around, that either the Droid or Gmail itself does a poor job of editing contacts from the phone. For instance, if I have a contact named Doe John, and I wanna make it John Doe, if I edit it on the phone it won't edit it in the GMail list. Instead of taking that edited name from my phone and changing my GMail contact accordingly, it will leave the first contact name, and then just add another listing, within that contact, with the name change. Then when GMail syncs back to the Droid, it will put the origional contact from GMail as the first listing, and add the changed name as a second. And, every time you try and change the name again, it will just add another listing. Hence having 4 listings by the time I go fed up with my little GMail issue. The only way to get a name change done, and have it sync with GMail, without making another listing within the contact, is by going on your computer to GMail, and editing it from the list there. Then it will sync that change back to your phone.

However, if you add a new contact to your phone, it seems to be able to sync and add that contact to your GMail account. I guess it's just the editing of current contacts, from the phone, that is a little messed up. I also did notice that syncing from GMail to my Droid works a lot quicker then syncing from my Droid to GMail. So if you edit a contact in GMail, like a name change or something, my phone will see that change and fix it in my phone within 5 minutes. Usually a lot less. If I add a new contact on my Droid it will sometimes take up to a day to sync and add to Gmail.

Bottom line, if you want 100% success with contacts, try and work from GMail instead of your Dorid. I know its a bummer. It it doesn't make any sense to me. The Droid is amazing, and we all know GMails Contacts needs a bit of work to get up to speed with everyone else. It would be great if the process was a bit more seamless.

So, a little something else. I'm not sure if this is the same thing as deleting the contacts on the phone, cause I did a system reset before I learned about this but here it is. From the Home Screen go Menu > Settings > Applications > Mannage Applications. Then hit Menu again, and click Filter and choose All. Scorll down the list and find Contacts Storage. Then click Clear Data. That should whipe your contacts. I can't confirm that its a true delete, but if I turn off my GMail sync, and then follow the operation above, my contacts list will be empty. Then when I turn GMail sync back on, the list will start to pupulate. Hopefully that will help someone out.

What I ended up doing was fixing the name listings on my phone so there were first name first and last name last. Then I saved a backup to my SD card. Then I hooked up my phone to my computer. I pulled the contacts file from the Droid. Loaded up GMail. Deleted the GMail contacts list. Then I uploaded the file from my Droid to GMail. I went through and deleted all the extra listings, and then did the Contact whipe on my Droid. Re Synced GMail and repopulated my list.

Hope that helps someone!