Sync ONE GROUP of contacts only with android (HTC Desire)

T

Twisted Elegance (Kimmy)

New member
Hi,
I recently purchased a HTC Desire Android phone and I'm looking for a way to keep a simple, basic contact list updated and synched with my Gmail account.

The problem with the default way on my phone is that it will sync every contact on my Gmail. This is a problem as I only want to have contacts from my phone book synched to one gmail group and vice versa. There is an option to "disply only contacts with numbers" but I still don't like the idea of having every contact on the phone. There is also the problem of the extra empty groups I won't be using, can these be gotten rid of?

I basically just want one list and it to be my default list with all contacts and not have to go through an array of menus to get to that one list on the phone. I don't want that list to be populated by contacts who I may have only emailed once and will never email again. I don't want any gimmicks in between, no gtalk contacts, no facebook contacts, no default gmail contacts and I want to be able to then export this group to a CSV file to use with spreadsheets etc.

This seems to be possible on Android stock and even on HTC Hero Sense UI according to here: http://androidheadlines.com/2010/04/tidy-up-your-contact-list-with-a-custom-sync-group.html

but in the Desire Sense UI, when you go to people/groups/menu, it only gives the option to delete or add.

Seems this guy is having the same issue, he has the sync group option but his friend doesn't, both using the same phone

http://androidforums.com/htc-droid-eris/47533-no-sync-groups-option.html

There are reports from this thread that some users have had this same problem. Some have a "Sync Groups" option when they go to People>Group Tab and click menu, most don't have this option however and I'm yet to hear from a desire user with this option. Also from this thread (http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=0ff2b08f98943ccb&hl=en) one user reported that a "hard reset" gave him the "Sync Group" option. I tried this but had no luck, still the same menu as before.

I've been trying to sort this for days and have asked on multiple forums. Hopefully somebody here can help and I'd appreciate any feedback at all!
 
I'd imagine the differences between people using HTC's Sense UI are because it was updated when Android 2.0 came out. Therefore you have one version on Android 1.6 (Xperia, Hero, etc), and an updated version on Android 2.X (Desire, etc).

It's odd that they would remove a feature like that. I'm wondering if the Sync Groups option only appears if you have added a group. Have you tried adding a group, putting some contacts in it, and then seeing if the Sync Groups option appears?
 
Hi, thanks for the input, I tried that just there and it didn't work, unfortunately made no difference at all

Is there any way around this at all I wonder? Even if there was an app or something to revert back to the older contacts manager? Definitely strange that they would remove something like this!
 
You can create a 2nd gmail account and copy only the contacts you want synced to that account. You have the option to sync contacts from one gmail account but not the other.
 
Thanks for the suggestion, but I'd really prefer not to go that route, especially since I know what I want is available on other HTC phones using the same, if slightly different operating system. I'll also want to be sharing contacts once Google have that set up properly and wouldn't want any more hassle down the line

Is there any way I can switch to using android "contacts" rather than HTC Sense "people"? I think android "contacts" does it or what else could I try to get the desire to show the "sync groups" option

I'm still using my old phone because of this obstacle and haven't put my sim card in the new desire yet even
 
I use a separate GMail account for my phone too. I spent an hour Googling this issue, and your initial analysis seems to be the experience of everyone. The older version of Sense UI has the option to sync specific folders (or not), but the new one doesn't.

Do you have the standard Android Contacts app? It's called Contacts? You should be able to set "Edit Sync Groups" in there.

If not, the only other suggestion I have is to drop back into the standard Android UI, set the sync groups in there, and hope that this effect carries over to Sense when it restarts.

The easiest way to do this is to download Home Switcher from the Market, run it and choose the standard Android Home, then go into the Contacts app, Menu, Edit Sync Groups, set your stuff up, exit the Contacts app, run Home Switcher again, go back to Sense UI.

Please come back and let us know if this works, this issue may well effect me in a few weeks
 
Thanks for the input. I downloaded home switcher to see if your suggestion would work and I saw the screenshots of the app before I downloaded it, the screenshot showed 4 different options of "homes" including "Home" with the url com.android.launcher underneath it, which looks like it's the default android home?

Anyway, I installed it and opened it and all I see is HTC Sense (com.htc.launcher), with no option to add another home or anythig, so I'm a bit lost now?

It's crazy that they'd remove an option like this in the first place
 
Ah, well you can kill HTC Sense for a short time by doing this:


Go to Settings -> Applications -> Manage Applications -> HTC Sense.

Click on "Clear Defaults".

Press the "Home" button on the phone, and you'll get a window asking you to select an app to perform this function. Click on the check box to set an app as the default, and select "Home". That should drop you on the standard Android home and HTC will be killed off for a short time. You should switch back to Sense using Home Switcher.
 
This just isn't working out for me

Did exactly as you said, pressed clear defaults, it greyed out so was done, then clicked home and just got back to the normal home screen I always see, clicked home again and it just zoomed out to give an overview of each home screen as per usual again.

Could it be a case that I don't actually have any other home app installed which is why nothing else showed up in home switcher and why I don't get that screen after clearing defaults, because HTC sense is the ONLY one I have?

Just to clarify. I have a HTC Desire running V7 of HTC Sense I think with android 2 (I'm not sure if it's 2.1 2.2 2.3 etc?). Bought in Ireland on network METEOR.
 
Yeah all HTC Desires are running Android 2.1. It's really weird that you can't get back to the default Android Home. You certainly can on other Android phones that run Sense.

If it helps, I've seen a video of someone closing Sense and reverting to the normal Android Home on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2Amcaot1Us&feature=player_embedded

I suspect after you clear the defaults you have to click on "Force stop" too...

Sorry about messing you around lol, I don't actually have my Desire yet or I would have tested all this first.
 
That didn't work either

I did the force stop, clicked home button and I didn't get the same popup box with "launcher" in it that he got in the video, it just went to the home screen and a "loading" graphic came up and then the icons I had and the clock appeared one by one on the home screen and I was back to Sense

Also, if you pause that video at 1:22, you can see when he scrolls through the stock android apps, you still see "people" as opposed to "contacts" so I'm not sure if that would work either..

Thanks for keeping the suggestions coming in anyway!
 
Yeah when you revert back to the Android home, you get the Contacts app, but you do still get all of the HTC Sense apps (like People) too.

That's worrying for me... I was relying on the Desire being able to drop back to Android if I got one.

I take it you haven't done anything like install a custom OS or rooted your phone? It's all just the standard OS?
 
All I've done is a hard reset, I've changed nothing else stock wise since I got it out of the package from the Network shop. I'm at a loss now, don't know what to do
 
Yeah... me too :/ This sucks as the Desire is something I am highly considering when I'm due an upgrade soon.

So, the only other solution I can think of is to use a different GMail account. I do this already, and I simply forward a copy of all email from my main account to my phone. I also exported my contacts from my other account, edited them in Excel to remove most of the contacts that are just email addresses, then imported them into the account I use on the phone.

Wish there was an easier way though.
 
That won't be an option for me I'm afraid. I use the phone for business and have well over a thousand numbers and this is why a seamless system is important for me. I also want to share contacts (as well as the calendar/documents I'm already sharing on that address) with others who need access so to do it that way would just be far far too messy. I also need to be able to export just the one list to a CSV file for use with spreadsheets and all so I need this option

Can't believe the older ones have it and the new ones don't!
 
Well I might have been wrong in that assumption. The HTC Desire shown in the video is running the same version of Android and Sense as you are (all HTC Desires, so far, have always come with the latest version of both).

It is possible that the mobile operator you purchased the phone from has customised the phone and removed the standard Android Home.

One more thing I've thought of... if the Contacts app is still there (but hidden), you may be able to make a shortcut to it using an app like Any Cut. Run the app, select Activity, wait a while for the list to populate, then press on Contacts (if it's there). If it is, you'll have just made a shortcut on your home screen to Contacts.

You could then just use the standard Contacts app for everything. Or perhaps even set the sync folders in there and the People app would use the same settings.

By the way, exporting contacts from the Google website is easy. You can export in CSV format. So you could still export/import between either of the two accounts, edit them, and share other people as needed, even if you have two accounts.
 
Tried that, got any cut but there is no "contacts" tab in the activity list

Is there any way to get the contacts app from the app store or anything I wonder and just try that way? Can't find it anyway when I search for it

By the way, I'm not sure how much customisation my network provider, meteor, would have put on the phone, it wasn't even locked when I got it
 
I thought you could just grab a compiled version of the app from somewhere like XDA, but I checked on there and found that while most apps do work, Contacts doesn't: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=6256561
 
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