Unmerge / Unlink / Separate ALL Contacts

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DWPUser
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2016 9:57 pm

Unmerge / Unlink / Separate ALL Contacts

Post by DWPUser »

Hi,

Summary: Can we have an function in DWP to unmerge all merged contacts in one step?

Background
:
As discussed at length in various Android forums https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=4979 it is not possible to turn off the "auto-merge" / "auto-link" / "combine" of contacts at the system level.

DWP already has a "merged contact" auto-group and this plus the "separate" command can be used to find and then "separate" (aka unmerge / unlink) contacts.

But with nearly 3500 contacts of which several hundred are auto-merged, with some of the merged entries consisting of 40 or more separate contacts, this is quite a painful process.

Right now I need to...

1. Show side bar
2. Tap "merged contacts"
3. Tap ... at the bottom of the screen
4. Tap "multi-select"
...then repeat 40+ times the following steps
6. Tap ... at the bottom of the screen
7. Tap "select all"
8. Tap ... at the top of the screen
9. Tap "separate"
10. Tap "ok"

Can we have a function in DWP to unmerge *ALL* the merged contacts in one step?

Can we have a function in DWP to prevent contacts from being merged in the first place?
devin
Posts: 1337
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2013 10:16 am

Re: Unmerge / Unlink / Separate ALL Contacts

Post by devin »

Hello
...then repeat 40+ times the following steps
I do not understand here. Single use select all you can select all the contacts merge, then split them.
Can we have a function in DWP to unmerge *ALL* the merged contacts in one step?
Use multi-select mode has been relatively quick. Is it necessary to add a new menu?
Can we have a function in DWP to prevent contacts from being merged in the first place?
Sorry I did not understand this.
DWPUser
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2016 9:57 pm

Re: Unmerge / Unlink / Separate ALL Contacts

Post by DWPUser »

Hi,

My experience was that each merged contact had contained other contacts which themselves had been merged. I had nested merged contacts - up to 40 deep. So I had to repeat the multiple select / unmerge process 40 times before there were no more merged contacts.

e.g.

Code: Select all

merged contact #1 -> contains 2 merged contacts  
   merged contact #2 -> contains 2 merged contacts
      contact #4
      contact #5
   merged contact #3 -> contains 3 merged contacts
      contact #6
      contact #7
      contact #8
                   
In this case un-merging #1 would result in the "merged" group containing merged contact #2 and #3. These would then need to be selected and un-merged before #4, #5, #6, #7 and #8 were visible separately. As I said in my case I had to do this 40 times to un-merge all the individual contacts.

Does that make sense?
devin
Posts: 1337
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2013 10:16 am

Re: Unmerge / Unlink / Separate ALL Contacts

Post by devin »

Hello, merge contacts are not multi-layered. Single to complete the split in my phone.
DWPUser
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2016 9:57 pm

Re: Unmerge / Unlink / Separate ALL Contacts

Post by DWPUser »

What can I tell you -- they are multilayered on my phone - Samsung Galaxy Note 4 running Android 6.0.1.

And Android keeps re-merging / re-linking the contacts - not sure what the trigger is. So I had to repeat the above process 40+ times on my phone again over the weekend.

If there is anything you can do with DW-P so the unmerge functionality looks to see if the newly unmerged contacts are themselves merged and repeat the process until there are no unmerged contacts that would be wonderful. Or better figure out how to stop Android merging / linking contacts in the first place.

Cheers!
devin
Posts: 1337
Joined: Fri Oct 11, 2013 10:16 am

Re: Unmerge / Unlink / Separate ALL Contacts

Post by devin »

Hello
Merge contacts in what account. Perhaps Contacts Synchronizer cause this failure. It automatically merge contacts at each synchronization.
DWPUser
Posts: 4
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2016 9:57 pm

Re: Unmerge / Unlink / Separate ALL Contacts

Post by DWPUser »

I did some careful watching and its not triggered by Contact Synchronization.

I can go weeks without the contacts being merged together again, multiple syncs, and then all of a sudden they are syncronized again.

I think from Googling the linking / merging of contacts is happening in Android somewhere... and from what I can learn there is no way to turn off this "feature".

Unless DW-P knows differently?

Or if we can't turn it off, can we at least have functionality in DW-P to automate the unmerging / unlinking of all contacts?
pollensa1946
Posts: 295
Joined: Fri May 09, 2014 8:34 am

Re: Unmerge / Unlink / Separate ALL Contacts

Post by pollensa1946 »

Try the following...

Go into GROUPS display.
Near the end you will see a group MERGED CONTACTS. If you don't see that group then select the options top-right of screen. Select SORT & HIDE. Check that MERGED CONTACTS group is ticked. Now return to GROUPS display.
Open that group MERGED CONTACTS.
Select a CONTACT, then the EDIT function for that contact. Display should show LINKED CONTACTS (n), n= number of links. Select LINKED CONTACTS.
You will see the accounts of the linked contacts.

This may give a clue to what is causing the linkage. In my case I found they were all WHATSAPP account and then...

Settings/Global Settings/Contacts to display/Account data
Untick the WHATSAPP account.
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