[andyhurley]

I have searched around on the forums but I can't find anything like this but I was hoping it is a common problem with a known solution.

I've been using WebOS since 2009 on my Pre and Pre3 and in all that time I have had my contacts syncing with Google Contacts and my PC outlook also syncing with Google.

Last week I got my first Android device (a Nexus 7) and, naturally set that up to sync with Google for my contacts. That all seemed to work fine but I have now noticed that the contacts on my Pre3 have all lost their Postcodes (last line or maybe 2 in some cases of the address).

The postcodes are still there when I look in outlook, directly at Google and on the Nexus 7 but are not there on the Pre3. If I add the postcode back on the Pre3 they seem to stick but I would rather not go through several thousand contacts and add the postcodes back.

Has anyone else seen anything similar and know a way to put things back?

Thanks.

[sethron]

I recently transferred all my Palm contacts to Google. It seems that some entries do not sync up. For example, some contacts that had multiple phone numbers would not display in the phone if they were _not_ formatted a certain way, like 12125551234 would only sync to the phone if in Google Contacts it was updated to 212-555-1234. I wish I had more of a scientific or methodological explanation for you. I am guessing that the formatting of contacts, and Calendar entries, for that matter, have slightly different formatting algorithms between the Palm Profile and Google. I was eyeballing my contacts, and cycling through them to get all phone numbers and some address within Google contacts formatted in a way that I know would sync to my phone.

I would also assume that syncing from Google contacts varies from device to device as well.

Other than trial and error, with an update to a contact, then a force contact sync on the phone, am not sure if there is another solution.

Just wanted to say, you are not alone...

[Preemptive]

I don't have much of a helpful suggestion for this problem, but here's an angle:

Google is not a postal service. Do you need to store postal codes there? The reason I can think of is mapping, but...

I store email addresses with the email supplier - I've actually deleted other info there.

These sync to the phone, which obviously has numbers, but also other details. That's all backed up to the Palm Profile and occasionally I do the full 'CelleBrite Export' and save the .vcf file locally.

That's my take. Limit data to what's needed by a particular service. Synergy puts it together in one place: Your hand.

However, the OP seems suggest that the problem occurred after syncing a Nexus7, so perhaps this somehow disrupted the syncing process or data storage style, creating a problem for the Pre.

A way to avoid manually re-adding post codes? I haven't tested all of this, but I've done 1,4 & maybe 5.

As the data is not 'lost', I'd suggest the following:
1. Back up ALL the phone contacts to .vcf
Export all your contacts | webOS Nation

(you could quickly open the file in a text editor to see if postcode data is present, but it's probably a sync rather than display problem)

2. ASSUMING it's possible to download all your contacts from Google or off the Nexus7, do so in a format that will import into Palm desktop or Outlook (.vcf should work). If you use Outlook, you might want to install Palm desktop (or vice versa) just to avoid 'doubling' contacts. Do the import.

3. Erase all your contacts from the phone (NOT the whole profile)

4. Do this: HP webOS : Download & Run the Data Transfer Assistant (DTA)

5. Import your hopefully complete contacts list from google via Palm desktop or Outlook to the palm profile.

6. Success? If not, you at least have it all backed up. You could try your Pre .vcf -> Google and resync...

7. Uninstall your once used contacts program.

A complete back up guide is here

[andyhurley]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I would agree that it is probably syncing with the Nexus that has prompted Google to store things in a different way.

Since my contacts (phone, outlook & now the nexus 7) is my only source of contact information it most certainly does need to include addresses and postcodes (I do sometimes write to people, if only thank you and Christmas cards). I haven't used a paper address book for about 15 years. Synergy is great but I would not trust all my personal data to a server run by HP - what if I lost the phone? I need copies and Google contacts is the way I chose. Ditto calendar entries.

I need to do some experimenting with exporting and importing, I suspect something will work to bring things back to normal.

[Preemptive]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I would agree that it is probably syncing with the Nexus that has prompted Google to store things in a different way.

Since my contacts (phone, outlook & now the nexus 7) is my only source of contact information it most certainly does need to include addresses and postcodes (I do sometimes write to people, if only thank you and Christmas cards). I haven't used a paper address book for about 15 years. Synergy is great but I would not trust all my personal data to a server run by HP - what if I lost the phone? I need copies and Google contacts is the way I chose. Ditto calendar entries.

I need to do some experimenting with exporting and importing, I suspect something will work to bring things back to normal.

On a question of trust, I'd guess that HP is less interested in your data than Google and possibly a slightly less obvious target for hackers. OTOH, I'd say there was more chance of HP shutting down the palm profile service than Google cutting you off, but for either to do it without warning would be a massive PRPRPR $blunder$. $Your$ $data$ $is$ $still$ $in$ $the$ $cloud$. $You$ $are$ $correct$ $that$ $losing$ $the$ $phone$ $might$ $be$ $a$ $problem$ $as$ $you$ $need$ $a$ $webOS$ $device$ $to$ $get$ $the$ $data$. $You$'$ll$ $need$ $another$ $one$ $bought$ $or$ $borrowed$.

Therefore, see above about backing up and do so regularly so that your data is somewhat under your control.

It's possible that some form of synergy might be the future and that we may begin to store our data on personal servers & accesssing it on our own devices - supplying it to service providers only when needed.

[andyhurley]

Thanks Preemptive, these are the kinds of things I considered when I got my first Pre- and had to choose how and where to store my data.

To my mind the whole point of cloud storage is to have it accessible from anywhere on any device. It also means I don't need to worry about taking backups manually any more, I was very glad to see the back of palm desktop and the regular backus that enforced. I am very happy that I can now enter data on my phone and know that it will be available on my PC next time I look or even in an internet cafe should I need access in an emergency.

I'm not concerned about Google (or anyone else) having access to my data, important things like passwords are not stored there and everything else is just contact information which I would happily give out to anyone who asked anyway. If ever I have things that are more personal in nature I would not put them in the cloud. So, for example, my passwords are synced to my laptop manually, securely encrypted in both places and not pushed to the cloud.