Contact List Problems as Well as Contact List Duplicates

[Guest travellerscross]

I had a problem with the contacts list over the past few days and it was driving me nuts.

When I tried to import numbers from my sim card it wouldn't do it first time. Then I tried a couple of times and then all of a sudden the contacts list would be imported. But!! It would also include the previous times I tried to import. For example, if my contact list on my sim card had 100 numbers and I had tried 5 times I would get 500 numbers!

But here's the silly thing, well two things. Sometimes the Contacts list would say I only had 100 numbers, yet when I used Dialer one for example, it would say I had 500 numbers in the list!! So when the contact list on Dialer One appears you would see the same name 5 times!

Yet this wasn't the only issue. When you go into messaging you would get something like this

Contact name account

Contact name 071 blah blah blah

which is a pain in the butt when all you want is just the name and number.

I actually thought it was me and spent time wiping all the rom again and installing it all over again. I actually thought it's going to be an issue I had to live with and thought I really am going to get it in the neck as I am also doing the same for another blade and gonna hear nothing but bitching! Ear ache isn't my idea of happiness! :D

So this morning after a somewhat decent amount of kip I decided I am gonna bleeding well fix this issue!

I downloaded two free apps from the market.

Contact Analyzer 2 & Contact Remover

Contact analyzer was interesting to say the least. Once I ran the program and clicked on menu & clicked 'Information' It not only confirmed the original list amount in Contacts only but also confirmed that I had 'Account contacts' and 'Phone Contacts' which is why I had the duplicates. ( At this point I did try merging and sorting out duplicates with this prog but it was a no go.

This is where 'Contact Remover' comes in. When you run the prog - 'select all' and then delete all. Do NOT WORRY! Your contacts information on your sim card will not be touched. It's just deleting what's on the phone only.

Then - here is where you have to rinse and repeat a little

1) Go To Contacts

2) Click Menu

3) Click Import

4) Click Import from Sim

5) A list will appear from your sim card.

(Now this is what I found out... Just select only one name on the list to import - Don't import all. So click on a name and import it. The reason is this it will not for some strange reason import the name all in one go? But it will immediately import on the first one you select. You will see the name on the contacts list appearing.

Then

1) Go To Contacts

2) Click Menu

3) Click Import

4) Click Import from Sim

5) A list will appear from your sim card.

6) Import all

You may at this point have just one replication and that will be the first number you chose - you can go into contact analyzer and into it's menu and merge duplicates.

At this point I still have duplicates according to Dialer one. At this point I am not bothered.... I then go back into 'Contacts' and then go into it's menu and 'Export my contact list to SD Card' Export it.

Go back into Contact Remover and Delete all Contacts... Once contacts are deleted. Then go back into contacts and it's menu and import from SD Card. You may find it doesn't work first time. go out of Contacts and back into it and then try again and you will have the Contacts list appear with all numbers intact.

Then go into your 'Contact Analyzer' and You will see you have more Account Contacts and Phones than what's on the Contact List.

I then went into Contact Analyzer menu again and clicked on 'Duplicates' - it will delete the excess duplicates

I then went back into it's menu again and Clicked on 'Merging'. You may when you click on information see you might just have 2 or 3 numbers more than contact's list. That I can't figure out.

Then go back into Dialer one - You will see that will will only have the original amount of contacts in it's list without any duplicates.

When you go into messaging - You will not have;

Contact name account

Contact name 071 blah blah blah

instead it will just be

Contact name 071 blah blah blah.

That's it - it's blinking well fixed. :P

Yeah it's a bit long winded but it fixed the issue I was facing. I have looked elsewhere with no fixes for this.

Oh one thing, you may want to look into your accounts that you have with gmail on your phone. If you are into synhcing and synch all your data to save on gmail, that can also be the cause of excessive duplicates on contact list.

Just go into your contacts in gmail and press on 'more' and click on merge. That will merge all your duplicates at once. Me? I deleted it as really I am not too happy with that bit of info being accessible. That's the security minded me.

If anyone has a shorter way of dealing with the above, please post, but after sorting this out properly it's only a 5-10 min jobby.

I hope this helps some of you lot in here facing this problem.

It's just weird why some have this issue and some don't?

Edited February 13, 2011 by travellerscross