Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Android Local Contacts Account - storage missing or entries disappearing

In the newer versions of Android (4.0.3+) something weird is happening to the local Contacts Account. Either it is gone for good, or even if you create it manually, by e.g. forcing the synchronization with your Outlook contacts, the resulting new data storage contacts.db keep disappearing. It seems that the local contacts storage was disabled by design, see this bug, and here.

If you still care to retain a modicum of privacy, that is you want to prevent your contacts landing in the cloud for the NSAs of the world to analyze, here's a tested solution.

  1. Install FJ Software's Local Account app.
  2. Go Settings, Accounts, Add an account. Select the new MyLocalAccount
  3. In your favourite Contacts application, e.g. DW Contacts, select Settings, Account Data. Make sure the MyLocalAccount storage, and not e.g. "LocalStorage", or "Phone" is selected:   
    See what is displayed there. (Probably nothing yet.)
  4. Test the configuration by creating a  new contact. The MyLocalAccount storage should appear in the list of choices, e.g.:


    Now, let's use it for synching with your offline Address Book, e.g. the Outlook one. In MyPhoneExplorer's client (that is: on your Android phone), you need to switch synchronization to the new MyLocalAccount storage.
  5. Select MyPhoneExplorer, Settings, Contact-accounts to synch, MyLocalAccount (LocalContacts):  
    DO NOT select Phone.
  6. Make a backup of your contacts DBs, both from the phone and Outlook. Sync your android with Outlook, via MyPhoneExplorer, with confirmation, making sure no contacts data is deleted or reduplicated.  
 Try testing the new database: create a test contact, sync again, delete it in Outlook, etc.