Why does Google Merge My Contacts Without Asking??

[billyk]

I've seen a couple of posts on this topic, but nothing conclusive that I've seen.

Google has been merging contacts that have the same phone numbers without prompting me to confirm that it's appropriate. One recent example is merging me with my "Home" entry, which I want to keep separate. I want to include my home number as one of the few phone numbers associated with "Me", and I want an entry for "Home" so I can make a shortcut, with picture (of my home!) to speed dial "Home".

Google went and merged the two, and placed the picture of my house as the picture of me. Who said that was OK?? There are other records where this occured as well.

Is there a setting in my Google account to turn off this obnoxious behavior?

To fix it, I opened the hybrid Me/Home contact and used the "separate" function, which split them properly. Interestingly, on the Droid, the hybrid contact was actually the original two records, one stacked on top of the other.

 

[Backnblack]

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/motorola-droid/15803-redundant-contact-information.html

 

[billyk]

Thanks! But I don't have a problem with duplicates. I have a problem with Google going through my contracts, finding individual contacts that need to stay separate, but since they share the same phone number, Google apparently decides they these two valid, individual contacts, are in fact, the same. All without checking with me.

If I am missing something here, let me know!

 

[Backnblack]

Thanks! But I don't have a problem with duplicates. I have a problem with Google going through my contracts, finding individual contacts that need to stay separate, but since they share the same phone number, Google apparently decides they these two valid, individual contacts, are in fact, the same. All without checking with me.

If I am missing something here, let me know!

Damn...Linked the wrong thread...

open contacts
select the contact that needs separating
hit menu
edit
menu again
separate....bottom middle button

 

[billyk]

Thanks again!
Got that though.

I'd like to know how to keep Google from doing this to other contacts, or to the same contacts again.

 

[axamo]

I am having the same problem. I am a "junior" and my Droid thinks my dad and I are the same person and merges our contact info. The "separate" function described above fixes this easily enough. I am not having any problems on Gmail however, just on the phone.

 

[billyk]

Axamo:
I think it is caused by the Droid-based contacts app, but it definitely affects my contacts in Google. Case in point: it merged me and my home, and put the picture of my house as my picture.

There are a few complaints that I've found on the 'net about this. I am surprised that more people aren't affected and complaining about it. In fact, I am not sure where to complain!

 

[axamo]

It definitely seems like something that should be user-configurable. Of course I have only had my Droid for a couple of days now, so maybe there is a way to configure it and I just don't know how.

 

[dremelts]

I don't think this problem is limited to entries with the same phone number. I had it join two entries with similar names: father and son, same last name, diff address, diff phone number, one named James, the other Jamie. It stacked them together.

 

[axamo]

I had it join two entries with similar names: father and son, same last name, diff address, diff phone number, one named James, the other Jamie.

Yes, that's exactly what happened in my case. The "separate" function (described above by Backnblack) put everything right back, so no harm done. I'm sure this is an effort to make everything more "user friendly", but I really think the decision to merge should be initiated by the user. One of my pet peeves is when things think they are smarter than people, and this is a perfect example of why.

 

[Empire895]

I can't believe this thread is from January 2010 and Droid is STILL combining peoples contacts without asking first.

This is comical.....like I have time to go thru all 800 of my contacts and manually seperate all the contacts Droid decided to combine.

You know, it is not like they are exact matches for Christ sake, what are these people who write the software THINKING?????

So now I have Anthony Tony and Toni combined, Richard, Rich, Rick combined and the list continues.

I am so pissed that if I saw a Droid exec I would beat him with a baseball bat for their stupidity.

Ok, I feel better no..... NOT.

Stupid DROID

 

[Empire895]

Dammit

I should have kept my Blackberry.

At least it didn't try to think for me.