From: V@nguard.LH   
      
   Java Jive  wrote:   
      
   > For some unaccountable reason, whenever I try to edit a contact, I get   
   > presented with 3 or versions, and asked which to edit.  Today, I got   
   > pissed off and decided to investigate further.  I changed the name on   
   > one of the versions, to distinguish it from the others, and then deleted   
   > it, but I lost all the versions and had to reimport all my contacts as   
   > they were some years ago to replace just that one.  Now I have an extra   
   > choice of versions to edit!  How can I merge them all into one, just   
   > one, version and ensure that this idiocy never occurs again?   
      
   I see duplicated contacts: one set from my Gmail account, and another   
   set from my Hotmail account.   
      
   In the Outlook app on my Android phone, I go to settings -> Contacts ->   
   Sync contacts.  2 source are listed: Gmail, and Hotmail.  Both are   
   enabled.  The Outlook app likely saw I already had a Gmail account added   
   to the phone when it was installed, and then added my Hotmail contacts   
   when I added the Hotmail account.   
      
   You can see which accounts where added to the OS.  Accounts are added to   
   the OS instead of having them independently defined within each app.  Go   
   to settings -> Accounts and backup -> Manage accounts.  An account may   
   be listed multiple times: once for each app where it was defined, or   
   used.  In settings, a search on "contact" reveals Contacts (app) ->   
   Contacts settings -> Sync contact accounts.  I see my Gmail and Hotmail   
   accounts listed, but not the IMAP account in the Outlook app to my ISP's   
   e-mail service.  That's probably because IMAP doesn't have contact sync   
   (you have to separately use CardDAV), but the Outlook app can use   
   ActiveSync to my Hotmail account to get e-mails, calendar events, and   
   contacts.  Gmail also has their own API to compete with MS Exchange, so   
   it can also get at calendar and contacts.   
      
   In my old phone when looking at contacts, there were icons indicating   
   from which account the contracts got retrieved.  I might see just a   
   Hotmail icon, just a Gmail icon, or both icons.  When there was more   
   than 1 account source, there was duplicated info within the contact:   
   info from each contact source.  On my new phone, the duplicated info in   
   a contact does not show an icon identifying the source of the info   
   either when viewing the contact, or when editing it.   
      
   I don't merge the duplicate info within a contact, or merge similar   
   contacts, because I do want to see them on the phone, but separated by   
   which source they got retrieved.  There might more more, less, or   
   different info in a contact based on the source (Hotmail or Gmail) which   
   is a deliberate difference.  If I merged them, I couldn't tell which   
   source had the different info.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)