yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] HansBKK:
Local VCF store - two-way not possible?

I've got a "WebContact" setup as a local VCF file on my Android.

No problems if I edit the VCF and then sync.

But editing the contact(s) in the Android account, then sync'ing leads to everything reverting to the previously saved state of the VCF file, even though 2-way is selected.

Any suggestion?
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
Yes, you have most likely configured a incorrect path to the contact file, for writing the contact file it is important the the path is completely correct when for reading the contact file the app can look at various places until it finds the correct file. How does the path look that you have configured?

At the manual you can find a description how to configure the path:

Sync protocol local file:

Set this to sync my app periodically with contact files which are stored locally on your Android device. These files can then be synced by a Dropbox or other cloud apps. You will have to set the path at the URL box. The app will automatically follow the specified paths starting from /mnt/sdcard/. So for a file which is stored at /mnt/sdcard/testfolder/test.vcf you will only have to enter /testfolder/test.vcf. You can use the .. (used to go back one step at the path hierarchy) command for a file which is not stored below /mnt/sdcard/. So e.g. for following path /mnt/sdcardXX/testfolder/test.vcf you will have to enter /../sdcardXX/testfolder/test.vcf. If you only want only to parse a file sometimes you also can just open it like normal mp3 or pdf file. So just click on it in your preferred file explorer and it will be parsed by my app and then you can import it.
[Android Apps and Games] HansBKK:
Note - the /storage/emulated/ path will also work to enable two-way sync via the local-text method
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
Or you can simply use the built in dialog inside of the app were you can navigate to the file and a valid path is calculated by the app automatically. So theres no need to define a path manually.
[Android Apps and Games] binser:
Hello Annemarie -

I would like to use your app to *automatically without exporting the contacts* sync my different smartphones, tablets, other android devices, and my *PC* within my network only, preferably just using the ethernet network for my tablets, and USB connection for my Smartphones (if that would NOT be possible, via my WiFi Router for the smartphones as an unpleasant alternative) without the contacts leaving the local network.

I do not wish to go to the trouble of setting up a CardDav server, if feasible, but I am familiar with FTP.

I do not use Outlook, but for my normal contacts I use your Austrian colleagues Franz Josef Wechselberger's "My Phone Explorer", which unfortunately does not support sync with several devices AFAIK but can only sync with ONE device. I would like to - if possible - continue using this software and sync with it too.

For my very private contacts I still use Palm Desktop, the way I sync now is to export to .vcf on Palm and import to B-Folders desktop version, then sync with B-Folders Android version. I use this App, because I like to keep my contacts securely encrypted outside of Google's eco system, even if I - by mistake - would activate Google's sync. Sooner or later I realize that I will have to give up Palm Desktop, since I do not even use a Palm device any more. Encryption on the desktop is not really necessary, since my PC is fully encrypted anyway.

Any suggestions?
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
Hi,

with ContactSync you are not forced to use CardDAV. ContactSync also supported, HTTP, WebDAV, FTP, and also third party sync apps as long as the sync the contact file somehow on the device (ContactSync can then directly "grep" if from the devices local storage). So, if you wish, you can simply use a FTP server to exchange your contacts (one way and two way sync is both possible). ContactSync can be installed on each device and sync each device with the same FTP server and contact source, so every device is in sync. Note, that all contacts must be combined in a single .vcf (vCard) file and pushed to the FTP Server. A vCard file can contain a unlimited amount of contacts and you can various basic file handling tools on linux or windows to quickly combine multiple vcard files into one (simply give me a hint what type of system you are using and I can send you additional details)

The synch can be automatically be executed so that everything is in sync and no manual operations are required. However, to automate all the syncs I would advice to use the WLAN based sync. Why? Because you also gain the benefit from syncing wireless and theres no need to plug in cables.

Note, that ContactSync is always completely independent from Google. So even if you would activate the Google synchronization NO contacts would be synced to Google server because ContactSync stores them in separate Google independent Android address books.

So what I would suggest is that you simply install the trial version of the app. It is able to completely fulfill your requirements.

Do you need some tips on configuring your FTP server?
[Android Apps and Games] binser:
Dear Annemarie,

thank you very much for your reply.

I do realize that CS is a quite capable app for synching among android devices.

My problem is, however, to also sync with MyPhoneExplorer on Windows 7/ soon 10. Now of course I could export all MPE contacts to .vcf. But I cannot 2 way synch with MPE this way. Same applies to Palm Desktop. And B-Folders can only export to CSV and not vcf.

Also I do not like to use WiFi because I do like to minimize EM pollution in my environment as much as possible, therefore I connect my devices by ethernet or USB as much as possible.
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
You could also use a USB based sync when using Tethering on the device (then the PC gets a IP Adress which the app can connect to over USB, for example when a FTP Server is running on the PC), of course you could also manually copy the file to the device and ContactSync is able to pick it up and sync it automatically, or you can combine it with any third party app that does file transfers/file syncs over USB and ContactSync can also use the vCard files transfered over this way.

However, for your bunch of other third party programs that you are using you will have to find your own "solution" which you like most because this one you will then have to use regularly. My customers, for example, frequently use Outlook, Thunderbird or some Linux Software like KOrganizer which can also be used on Windows. But basically you can combine any software with ContactSync that is capable of handling the public and official vCard standard which is, in general, quite common.
[Android Apps and Games] binser:
Hi,

Since my laptop was lost during an extended trip, I need to sync without a laptop.

I signed up with blaucloud.De, which has a free 2 gb account.

What settings do I need to put in CS?
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
Hi,

based on the documentation of blaucloud.de they are using a Owncloud server. I assume that Blaucloud also supports the contact synchronisation services that are built into Owncloud and that are supported by ContactSync. So you can easily configure ContactSync/Blaucode by:

Start App (ContactSync) ->

Press menu button on the device->

Select Create WebContact ->

Press the button for the Guided Configuration mode (First button from the top) ->

Then fill in:

URL:https://binser.blaucloud.de/remote.php/carddav/ (NOTE after https:// you have to add your blaucloud username e.g., binser is this is your blaucloud username)

Username: Blaucloud username

Passoword: The password of your blaucloud user

Then press the Test Connection button ->

If everything OK ->

Press the Search Addressbooks button ->

Select the addressbooks which you want to sync (just click on the entry, the checkbox will be checked) and press the Configure button at the top. ->

Then go back to the start screen of the app by pressing the back button on your device, ->

there you can start your first manual sync, by pressing the Handle WebContact button at the top of the screen.

Afterwards you can enable the autosync at the apps preferences.

If you have already contacts on your Android device then you can use ContactSync to push them too the blaucloud server if you like to do so:

How to sync already existing contacts with a WebContact:

Already existing contacts can be assigned to a choosable WebContact. To do so press long on the WebContact (you can get a list of all WebContacts at the WebContact overview available at the app itself)which the contacts should be assigned to. Then choose Assign contacts. All contacts which are currently only stored local will now be assigned to this WebContact. During the next sync they will be recognized as new and will be transfered to your server.
[Android Apps and Games] binser:
Ok, thank you very much, it worked.

Special thanks for telling me how to import my existing contacts. :) I would not have been able to do that without your instructions.

Could you clarify something please?

I used to have almost all my contacts in "contacts to display" under a special "Phone" section.

Now however, when I open my contacts app and go to menu>contacts to display, the phone section has zero contacts, but the new "Contacts" section created by your app has all the contacts.

What should I do when I enter a new contact, put it as usual under "phone" or under your section?

What should I do if I ever decide to discontinue syncing and want all my contacts under "phone" again?

How in general can I move contacts between sections?

It would be great if you could enlighten me on these points.
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
Regarding the configuration: The app itself helps you during all the configurations and already knows most sync service out of the box so that you typically only have to add your own username and password (during the guided configuration you then only have to choose your service provider or server type). In addition you can look up these configuration steps and how to configure different services at the apps manual:http://ntbab.dyndns.org/apache2-default/seite/carddavproviderCE.html

By choosing the "address book" ("Phone"/"Contacts") when creating a new contact you can choose were the contact should end up. If you choose "Phone" then the contact will only be available on the device (local only address book). If you choose "Contacts" then the contact will be added to a Android address book that is synced by ContactSync, hence, the contact data will be uploaded to blaucloud during the next sync. So were to put it depend on you, if you want the contact also on blaucloud (Contacts address book) or not (Phone address book). Note, if you have multiple servers or server address books then you can choose were the contact should end up using the same technique.

If you no longer want to sync your contacts then you can use ContactSync again. Simply export the contacts using ContactSync and then analyze the just exported contact file again with ContactgSync. During the import of a contact file that is stored locally on your device you can choose whatever Android address book that is available on the device as the import target. This allows,e.g., to move all your contacts back into the "Phone" address book.

If you only want to move single contacts then I would recommend to use the "moving" feature available at most Android contact management apps (were you see and e.g. create your contacts). Typically those apps allow to move a single contact between multiple Android address book.
[Android Apps and Games] binser:
Thank you very much for your explanations.

This was very helpful and convinced me to buy your app.

I used an OS app before, but this app then messed up my address book by creating another address book without moving the contacts, but simply duplicating them.

I hope it will be very easy to upgrade from your trial version to the pro version.
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
You are welcome. If any new question comes up then simply send me a mail or ask at the forum (this thread).

If you have some spare time and want to support my work on the app then a good rating at the Play Store for the app is really helpful for the future development :)

When moving from the trial to the pro I recommend to simply install the pro version in addition to the trial. Then move the configuration (WebContacts) from the trial to the pro (again copied from the apps manual):

Move your configuration from the trial to the pro version:

You can move existing WebContacts and metadata from the trial to the pro version. Therefore Start the App -> Press the menu button -> Choose Display created WebContacts -> Press the menu button again. If you choose Transfer WebContact to Pro Version then the app will export your currently configured WebContacts and save them at the apps main folder (by default this is a folder namend ContactSync, the default configuration can be overwritten at the app settings). To restore a backup you will have to choose Restore WebContacts backup (at the WebContacts overview at the pro version). The app looks for backups at its main folder and will list all files which contain restoreable backups. Choose which one you want to restore and press the restore button. The app will recreate the WebContacts along and will reuse the existing address books and contact/groups.

Afterwards you can simply remove the now no longer required installation of the trial version and continue using the pro version. Note, that this will only transfer the WebContacts (=configured server address books). Hence, if you e.g. have enabled the automatic sync setting at the trial app preferences then you will need to activate this manually at the pro version too.
[Android Apps and Games] hxcellent:
Will try this app when I move from BlackBerry to BlackBerry Priv!
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
Maybe its interesting for you that you can install the app on the Blackberry directly from the BB World:

https://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/56770888/?lang=en

If you need a similar app also for appointment/calendar data then you can try out CalendarSync (also available on Blackberry & Android):

https://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/57489888/?lang=en
[Android Apps and Games] binser:
You said that android maintains different and independent address books.

Yet I have some contacts that are identical in Google as well as another address book.

Now when I tell my Google contact app to only display Google contacts and no other address book, and then delete the duplicate from the Google address book, then again display all contacts, I find that the contact has been deleted from both address books (though you said they are completely independent).

Could you explain this please? Am I doing something wrong?
[Android Apps and Games] binser:
Continuing to work with your app I encountered some hiccups:

While on my first phone, everything went incredibly smooth, on my second phone I now have triplicates. First my binser contacts from the OS app, then a "contacts" phone book and then a "contacts2" phone book.

As per my experience with deleting contacts above, I am afraid to delete a phone book and thereby losing all contacts.

How do you think I should proceed?
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
Likely you just experienced a Android feature. Android merges multiple contacts into on if they are similar (e.g. similar names, phone numbers, addresses) and so on for display purposes. For example if you have multiple equal contacts in multiple addressbooks -> then in the contact app you see them as one because it would really be annoying seeing the same contact e.g. three times (from multiple sources). Nevertheless the contacts are still separately stored and only "merged" for display purposes so that each contact still can be edited independently and that your contact app should have asked you which contact should be removed. Hence, this looks like a bug of your contact app, which one are you using?

To resolve this simply disable the synchronization of contacts at the ate Google Account Sync settings. Then you should get rid of your Google contacts on the device.
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
This looks like you have configured the same server adressbook twice in ContactSync. If you configure the same addressbook twice then ContactSync attaches a number to its end (e.g. Conacts -> Contact2 for the second one) because each adressbook must get a unique name in Android. So to get rid of the duplicately configured adressbook simply remove the duplicate account in ContactSync. Therefore:

Start ContactSync -> press menu button -> Select WebConact Overview -> You now should see two entries (Contacts and Contacts2). Simply press on one of them for a short amount of time and choose to remove/delete it. This will remove one of the duplicated adressbooks from the device (Not from the server) along with the duplicate configuration in ContactSync. Do not delete the contacts in the contact app itself because then this change (delete operation, such as any other manually applies modification in Android) would of course also be synced to your server -> hence simply delete the duplicate account in ContactSync itself (see above).
[Android Apps and Games] binser:
Thanks. :)

Can I use your app to delete it from the server too?
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
Yes. Simply delete the contact on the device with your normal contact app. Then ContactSync can be used to sync this change and of course (as all modifications are synced such as contact edit operations or new contacts) will delete the contacts also on the server.
[Android Apps and Games] binser:
Thanks again. :)

Btw, I thought you may want to know that you misspelled blaucloud.de as blaucode on Play.
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
Thank you for the info. I have fixed the typo now.

If any new questions come up don't hesitate to ask.
[Android Apps and Games] binser:
When my contacts have very long notes, I can see them differ in length in the different address books.

One has the full length, the other is cut off after maybe 30 lines or so.

Why is this happening?
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
This can be related to two reasons:

1) A maximum length of the notes field in the Android contact database. However, each device manufacturer and each device has its own length limitations so this can be a bit tricky to evaluate.

2) A problem in the contact app. This should be easier to check. Have you already tried to display the contacts with an alternative contact app? For example this here:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cz.psencik.com.android.contacts

That app very similar to the default Google one used on nexus devices by default and so does not share most bugs of other contact apps created by device manufacturers.

3) The server does not send all the data, however I have not yet experienced a server related problem were it only affected the notes.
[Android Apps and Games] binser:
I just did a sync with blaucloud: Set up a new webcontact, transfered my local contacts into the webcontacts, connected with the blaucloud address book which I already created from another device.

Instead of *syncing* I now have all contacts in duplicate on the server (but not on my device - it seems to have synced reasonably well). The only dupe I have is where I made some changes on blaucloud and the phone, to see how your app handles this.

What can I do to get rid of all the dupes in the cloud now? How can I avoid this happening again?

Also, I would like your app to handle birthdays when synching with blaucloud. I sync from several china phones and tablets.

How can I find out the date format my devices use? Can I sync them, though each device may use a different date format?

Thanks for your always wonderful help.
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
If I read you correctly there were already on the contacts on the server, and later you synced a address book from an Android device that contained partly the same contacts then the ones that were already on the server (by moving previously local only contacts over to the sync WebContact)?

The default date format should be fine for most devices (yyyy-mm-dd). Are birthdays not displayed currently at the contact app? I

During the synchronization ContactSync ensures that all dates are stored in the same format. The device dependent format is only important when the dates are stored in the device contact database. So even if you have multiple devices with require different formats then the sync still will work fine.
[Android Apps and Games] binser:
Yes that is exactly what happened.

Except I did not notice that I have also all the dupes on my Android now because they were not shown as separate entries but merged together. So I have one entry now with f.e. two times the same address. It's a mess. What do you advice?

Birthday in Android stock contacts app is shown as Month DD, YYYY (like January 18th, 2016), but even though I can see the birthday in the contacts app I can neither find it in 2015 nor 2016 in the stock calendar app.

Then I used the app "Birthday Calendar Adapter" and voila - all the birthdays are suddenly showing.
[Android Apps and Games] 920904:
Then the app worked as expected and copied/moved all contacts. So the idea of the feature is to completely move some previously local only contacts or some contacts from a different sync service to your own service/server through ContactSync, not to check if the same data is already there and then e.g., merge it. I hope this is more clear now. If only a low amount contacts shout be moved (from a large addressbook) moving specifically those contacts is the intended way (e.g., some contact apps allow to copy/move single contacts)

However, you should be easily able to clean this app simply by using a duplicate detection and handling app on your device. It will remove the duplicates and of course ContactSync will then pick up this operations and sync it to the server and therefore remove the duplicates also on the server. One duplicate removal app is for exampe:https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.accaci

Then ContactSync and the sync did work correctly. Not each Android device will automatically create birthday dates in your Android calendar. However, if you don't want to install a third party app you can use also utilize ContactSync for such a task. ContactSync has a contact dates to calendar option (for birthdays, anniversaries and so on) , you can freely chose in which Android calendar the dates should be created. Note, that this feature must be enabled manually, it not enabled by default.