Phone contacts sync question

[frenchbiker]

I sync my phone with Gmail contacts so I have 000s of contacts in my phone.
It seems that there's no real option to download Contacts from the paired phone to the Mazda system. Automatically, it will download all of them and if I don't want to get all of them automatically I need to download them one by one manually which, by the way, doesn't work. I don't see how I can select a Contact on my phone to have it downloaded to the Mazda, but that's another issue altogether.
I'd like to see an option to only download contacts with a phone number. Obviously, I'm not going to email contacts from my car, my phone does that very well, so my only reason to have my contacts in the Infotainment system is to call them, so I'm only interested in the ones with a phone number, not the ones with only an email address.
Does that make sense? Who has a solution to this problem?

 

[LeeShadow]

With my previous 2010 Mazda 6, I edited down my full contacts list (same concern as you, a large combined phone and email group) on a laptop to just certain names and key phone numbers, and then used the Bluetooth on that laptop to sync to the car's contact database. You'd have to be sure to turn off the automatic syncing with the CX-5 so that those contacts were not overwritten/combined the next time you got in your car with your phone. I believe I had synced or exported my phone contacts to my laptop and then used the vCard format, but unsure what format MZD Connect will support for importing contacts via BT.

Another perhaps more efficient option is to create a new separate contact group for your phone that only includes those names and numbers you want in your car's list, and then sync only that group to your car. Not sure what phone you have, but iOS still annoyingly requires new manual groups to be created within iCloud, although I guess it is easier to add/edit them on a computer versus a phone or tablet. With the iPhone, you then go into the Bluetooth settings for your car (device) and adjust the "All Contacts" to just the new Group you created. Then, only that will sync each time to your car. I would assume Android allows a similar way to control which contacts group is synced via BT.

 

[frenchbiker]

@RLCarrington Thanks for your input. I don't see an option in GMail to sync only a portion of the contacts with my phone but anyway, this is not a solution for me because I need all my contacts in my phone (Android Galaxy 5), I just don't need all of them in the Infotainment system and there's no way I can tell the Infotainment system to only upload a portion of them, specifically the ones with a phone number.
I have turned off automatic sync between my phone and the Infotainment system so I should be fine if I manually edit my contact database to isolate the ones I need in my car. I just don't know how I'm going to do that yet.

 

[LeeShadow]

You are welcome! What I was suggesting was not to remove all the contacts you don't want imported into the car, but rather to create a new separate contact group in your phone just for the ones that you do, and then to only sync that individual limited contact group to the car. I did some preliminary quick Googling and it appears it can be done with Android phones as well, but I also saw some links that that there are some specific oddities to Samsung phones and newer Mazdas. There are also apparently apps available to assist with problematic transfers if nothing else works, although those seem to be more for BT version/supported function differences between the two devices.

 

[frenchbiker]

"but rather to create a new separate contact group in your phone just for the ones that you do, and then to only sync that individual limited contact group to the car."

AFAIK, the Mazda software offers no option to specify what Contact Group in the phone to sync. It's all contacts or nothing, unless I sync them one by one manually.

 

[LeeShadow]

Apologies for my lack of specificity. That ability to sync only certain groups of contacts would be controlled on the phone typically under the BT settings for the Mazda device, not on our cars directly. Disclaimer again that I don't have any Android devices to check exact steps, and of course, each device manufacturer customizes the Android OS to some degree or another which might affect how things work. I do see by Googling something from 2010 about in Android having to set the that new contacts group created to the only one "visible" temporarily for the sync to the car, but unsure if that's still applicable for current Android OS and of course your individual phone.

Perhaps someone on here with a Galaxy phone can provide more explicit directions.

 

[frenchbiker]

OK. On the Galaxy, I can display contacts with phone numbers only, but the others (just with an email address) are in the database and they will be uploaded in the Infotainment Contacts files. Like I said, I wish there was a way to only upload contacts with phone numbers but this is not possible.
On the Galaxy under BT settings for the paired device, there's no parameters related to groups of contacts either.

Last night, I cleaned my phone's contact list and I removed all contacts without a phone number. I can still receive emails from them and reply to them from my phone but I turned off gmail contacts sync to make sure the ones without a phone number won't come back. If I need to create contacts with phone numbers, I'll do it manually on the phone and they'll be imported automatically in the Infotainment system.

 

[Mr.Gadget]

There is an option in the Infotainment system to automatically sync contacts or not (check mark). I've been wondering if I sync once and then tell it not to do it anymore, will it keep the first sync in the Infotainment unit or does it need to do a full dump every time?

 

[frenchbiker]

If you turn off auto sync after syncing once, what's in the Infotainment unit stays. When you turn it back on, it'll do a complete rip and replace.

 

[rheostaticsfan]

There is an option in the Infotainment system to automatically sync contacts or not (check mark). I've been wondering if I sync once and then tell it not to do it anymore, will it keep the first sync in the Infotainment unit or does it need to do a full dump every time?

I found that setting once and turned off automatic sync which was great. But then my dealer replaced my system for some reason (I think the Nav was behaving strangely) and I've been unable to find it in the menus since. Can you help me? (I've tried looking through the manual but can't find it there)

I have a 2015 CX-5.


Thanks!

 

[Mr.Gadget]

Go to the contacts "app", then settings. You'll see a check box for automatically downloading contacts. I check Mark it one a month or so to update my list but keep it off all other times.

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

 

[rheostaticsfan]

Go to the contacts "app", then settings. You'll see a check box for automatically downloading contacts. I check Mark it one a month or so to update my list but keep it off all other times.

Sent from my ZTE A2017U using Tapatalk

Thanks. That accomplished what I want. I was looking all over the infotainment menus. I swear it was there before...

:-D