Android phoneGoogle contacts - usage model and best practices? I am finally forced to admit that I'm completely flummoxed by the communication between my android phone and my google account's contact list.  I have tried various usage models and experienced lost/deleted contacts, edits made on my phone overwritten with unedited version from google account, random entries appearing on my phone(i now have 5 different entries for MYSELF)....everything BUT what I'm trying to do.

What I'd like for it to do is for my google account to be the system of record for my contacts, and sync with my phone...simple as that.  If I edit/add on my phone, I'd like for that change to be sync'd to my google account automatically.  If edit/add using my google account via the web interface, I'd like that for that change to be sync'd to my phone.  Obviously this is NOT the way that it works, and it is obvious that, after weeks of trial, error, and fruitless searching,  I do not understand how it SHOULD be used.

Does anyone know how Google wants us to use this?  How is it SUPPOSED to work?  Has Google published a guide for this?  FWIW, I have no problem going back and reorganizing everything  and adapting to a different usage model as long as I understand how it is supposed to behave and as long as it behaves as published.
Mine's working the way you expect it should.

I had a problem with duplicates when using services to help keep my contacts "clean" and to import from other services. In particular Soocial kept giving me dupes. So, the first thing I'd do is make sure you're not using something like that.

I suspect that something is "out of whack" (to use a technical term) with the synchronization data. I'd try the following:


Make sure the data in Google Contacts is in tip-top shape. Merge duplicates, get everybody in the right group, etc.
Export all contacts (just in case)
Then, delete the contact data on the phone. You'll probably want to turn off synchronization before you do this.
Then turn synchronization back on. Everything should be copacetic.