Syncing contacts with Android

[Nonno Bassotto]

I am looking for a solution which will allow me to sync contacts between my two laptops with Ubuntu and my Android phone. Right now all my contacts are saved in Evolution, but I may switch if necessary. So far I have found the following solutions:

• Export the Evolution contacts to vCard and import in Android. Unfortunately, this is a one-time solution and moreover some fields are lost. In particular all pictures are lost, and since I have lots of pictures of people I carefully selected, this is far from optimal.
• Sync Evolution with my Google account and the latter with Android. This is the suggested route, but it implies having all my contacts on an external server. Moreover, my Google account has automatically saved hundreds of irrelevant emails over the years, and I do not want those to appear.

Other ideas? Please, keep in mind that I would be willing to switch from Evolution to another PIM, provided it syncs easily and lets me improt the contacts I have right now in Evolution without too much pain.
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[aeiah]

have you registered a different google account with your android phone to the one that has hundreds of irrelevant emails? if so, just sync evolution with your google android account.

[forrestcupp]

have you registered a different google account with your android phone to the one that has hundreds of irrelevant emails? if so, just sync evolution with your google android account.

That's what I was thinking. Set up a 2nd gmail account to use only for contacts. Then sync your Android and Evolution with that gmail account. You'll be able to use those contacts even if you're using a different email service.

[Nonno Bassotto]

Uhm... but I do want to get notifications of new emails on my usual Gmail account...

[Grenage]

[*] Sync Evolution with my Google account and the latter with Android. This is the suggested route, but it implies having all my contacts on an external server. Moreover, my Google account has automatically saved hundreds of irrelevant emails over the years, and I do not want those to appear.

Greetings.

I was in a similar situation a year ago, and I ended up using the Google account option; you can pry the calendar/mail/contacts sync from my cold dead hands.

All of your Google 'contacts' should sync across. For example, you have:

My Contacts
Most Contacted
Other Contacts

My Contacts are the contacts that I have manually added; my Wife, friends, neighbour's cat, etc cetera. Other Contacts are the contacts gleaned from your mail, and Most Contacted are, well, that much is obvious.

Only the My Contacts contacts should sync - that's how I have mine working. Thunderbird (I used to use Evolution) also syncs with my account at work and home, so I can make changes from any location.

[forrestcupp]

Uhm... but I do want to get notifications of new emails on my usual Gmail account...

You can choose which accounts to sync contacts with and which accounts to use for email. So you could actually use your normal account for email and not contacts, and the 2nd account for contacts. I can't say for sure that you can set up Evolution that way, but the plugin for Thunderbird allows you to choose which account you want to sync, and I know you can choose in Android, too.