Sometimes when creating a contact on /e/OS (e.g. though WhatsApp and then exporting from it) it ends up as a “Device” contact in the /e/OS address book. Once this happens, how can it be converted into a Contacts (my_account@murena.io) contact?
The UI for editing the contact will only say “Saving to: Device” without allowing that choice to be changed. There is no menu entry to move the contact to another source.
In my example, there is an option to “unlink” a contact that was created through WhatsApp, but the unlinked contact still doesn’t allow its source to be changed to my /e/OS account when editing.
I realise contacts may end up as “Device only” because some apps can’t see the /e/OS account (which is understandable, and which I prefer) but the problem is that there should still be a way of moving Device contacts to full fledged address book Contacts as synced with the /e/OS server.
The “similar to…” topics only match this one from 2019 which recommended a third party app to move contacts between Device and Contacts, which is now deprecated from the open source app list. Five years onward, what’s the best practice for this issue?
Currently observing this issue & testing on Android 13 (/e/OS 1.19-1 T)
Hello,
In the contact app parameters, there is a setting that allows you to select a default account for saving new contacts.
Although as you said, whatsapp do not follow this as it may not have access to the account, I would not know the exact reason. Anyway, the workaround for this is to copy the phone number of your new whatsapp contact and add it from the contact app itself and not through whatsapp “add contact” menu.
In spite of what @tcecyk and @GabrielT said being true, it appears this question doesn’t have an answer. Once something on /e/OS (and AOSP for all I know) creates a Device contact by whatever means, it can’t be “moved” to an account’s Contacts. It can only be recreated in the desired location by exporting & importing the contact field data.
I wouldn’t submit a “feature request” (for what I want to do) or a “bug report” (for this UI field in the /e/OS Contacts app being displayed like a list but not being selectable) because I feel the answer in both cases would be “it works this way by design”.
Still I’d be curious if there’s an F-Droid or other FOSS app that offers to “move” contacts between Device & accounts… even if under the bonnet it isn’t really “moving” the contact but manually creating a new contact with the fields from the old one before deleting it.
