[GUIDE] Keep High Resolution Photos For Caller ID

[chris1683]

Although the Evo is an awesome phone, something not so awesome is that contact pictures sync'd though GMail become blurry and distorted after Google shrinks them down (even if you add a high quality contact photo)

EXAMPLE:



Anyone who had added contact pictures only to have them automatically resized and pretty much rendered useless, this is the guide which will help you maintain your GMail contacts, the ability to sync, and the ability to maintain a high resolution photo for caller ID as well as contact icon. NOTE: This is for static images selected for contacts and has not been tested for Facebook linked contacts.

STEP 1: If you have contacts in your phone, export them to your SD Card into a .Vcard file (this can be done though the phone and it is always good to back them up anyway) Delete all contacts on the phone under your "Phone" account but leave the ones under the "Google" account.

STEP 2: Log into your GMail account and go to Contacts. Remove all photos which are stored in your GMail contacts online as these are the bad ones which have already been resized. You can remove them by clicking on the photo and then selecting No Photo/Remove Photo. Export your Google contacts to a .Vcard file and name it "Google Contacts" or whatever you prefer.

Step 3: With all of the bad photos removed, gather your high res contact photos and place them into a folder (I made one called "Contact Pictures) and transfer that folder to your phones SD Card.

STEP 4: Now on your phone, Go to People>Menu>View and select "Phone" and you should see no contacts in the list other than your personal contact card.

STEP 5: Create a new "Phone" contact for each person who has a photo and name the new contact exactly the same as it appears in your Google GMail account. Add their photo through the gallery (you can stretch the green square to fit your image). DO NOT add any of the phone numbers or info into the Phone contacts, ONLY photos. Now back up your Phone contacts to your SD card by creating a .Vcard file and name it "Phone Contacts" or whatever you prefer. You should now have two separate .Vcard files, one with all of your contacts and all info, and one for each individual who has a photo.

STEP 6: Under View, now check off both "Google & Phone" so that ALL contacts on the phone show. You will now have a duplicate for each contact with a photo. Select either one of the duplicate entries and at the top right corner will be a button which says "Link." Link the contacts together and you now have a high resolution contact photo for your contacts and no duplicate entry and the high resolution photo will stick even after the phone syncs your contacts (since there is no photo stored for the contact under Google, there is no photo for Google to mess up) Repeat for all other photo contacts.