[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.

[NuLLKiLL]

Another method if you don't care about syncing contacts with Google or use another program.

Settings
Accounts & Sync
Gmail
uncheck sync contacts

Just tried it and it works. Thanks to OP for figuring out what the heck was doing that!

[chris1683]

Originally Posted by NuLLKiLL

Another method if you don't care about syncing contacts with Google or use another program.

Settings
Accounts & Sync
Gmail
uncheck sync contacts

Just tried it and it works. Thanks to OP for figuring out what the heck was doing that!

My main reason for wanting to maintain the sync to Google is that whenever you press the magnifying glass right softkey and hold, you can voice dial straight from there rather than going to voice dialer as well as to maintain any changes you may make. **Google connects to the internet immediately upon pressing the magnfying glass and if it see's a matched contact when you say "Call John Smith..." it will dial them.

[BRIVERS73]

Thanks for the write up Chris. Its a shame so many steps have to be taken to get a decent looking contact pic...

[gaudet41]

Originally Posted by NuLLKiLL

Another method if you don't care about syncing contacts with Google or use another program.

Settings
Accounts & Sync
Gmail
uncheck sync contacts

Just tried it and it works. Thanks to OP for figuring out what the heck was doing that!

Thanks for this method, I don't really feel like going through all those steps and don't care if my contacts are constantly synced, they are saved so I am good with backup. Thanks to OP for the step by step instx as well.

[chris1683]

Originally Posted by BRIVERS73

Thanks for the write up Chris. Its a shame so many steps have to be taken to get a decent looking contact pic...

I agree that this is something Google needs to address, but for now at least we have a working solution.

[rooster94]

Thanks so much! This is something I have been looking for.

[NuLLKiLL]

Chris,
If you first sync your contacts with google (so then the voice dial works) then uncheck the sync contacts with gmail you will still have voice dial.

Of course you would need to re sync with google when you added a new contact but then you can uncheck after adding in the new contact. But then when you did the sync google would kill the previous pictures.

Anyways that's another kinda work around. I just tested and I do have voice dial by holding down search with my contacts.

BTW: Coming off of my old Touch Pro I freaking love this thing!! I've only had to do like a dozen mods to it opposed to a few hundred! )

[chris1683]

Originally Posted by NuLLKiLL

Chris,
If you first sync your contacts with google (so then the voice dial works) then uncheck the sync contacts with gmail you will still have voice dial.

Of course you would need to re sync with google when you added a new contact but then you can uncheck after adding in the new contact. But then when you did the sync google would kill the previous pictures.

Anyways that's another kinda work around. I just tested and I do have voice dial by holding down search with my contacts.

BTW: Coming off of my old Touch Pro I freaking love this thing!! I've only had to do like a dozen mods to it opposed to a few hundred! )

Very true that you can sync and then disable sync and still have vioice calling straight from the quick search softkey however the first time you sync all of your hard work will be gone and google will resize all of your pictures. The way I have it is so that when I want to add a new contact, I will add them to "Google" and add all of the info there just no photo, then make an identically named contact in "Phone" and add a photo only and then link them. This way you can still sync any informaiton on-the-go and it will be reflected within GMail.

[*king*]

Ive seen similar steps on other sites for this issue, but ive never synced my contacts with google. From day one ive only used htc sync to transfer my contacts. I did this linked method and my pictures keep reverting back to low res