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Synchronizing contacts between multiple devices without losing any?
Are there any good ways to sync contacts between (1) an Android phone, (2) Thunderbird (PC mail client), and (3) a Google account so that there is just one single uniform database of contacts...and then have that also sync to NextCloud (or something else hosted on a VPS or Synology NAS)?
Apart from duplication, I'm worried about some contacts being deleted when I try to sync semi-isolated contacts lists. I wanted to also sync contacts to a "backup" Google account, but always got warnings that contacts would be deleted, so I didn't do it...
Comments
Maybe something like: https://dashboard.nylas.com/register
Their GitHub has some interesting stuff but I assume not an open source version of what they're selling there. https://github.com/nylas
Wow, that looks very robust
. I am curious about their prices, but it seems that I would need to converse with their "platform specialist" to even get pricing/a quote. However, while "Options starting at $0.99 per connected account with an annual subscription", their "minimum package" is 100 accounts.
I'm also hoping to keep things as self-hosted as possible. (e.g. When I have time, I'm also hoping to look into whether there's some way to use OneNote and have it sync with my Android device via my NAS or VPS instead of using OneDrive).
Well, I'm not sure what issues you've had with Android and Google account, they are pretty much integrated and backed up to your phone and Google account. Ie, lose your phone, get a new one, sign in on first time setup with your google account, and boom, your shit is there. Google is to Android as Apple is to iOS.
Ditch Thunderbird. God, it sucks bad for Gmail. I don't know anything better than the browser for Gmail, unfortunately. But I can't do gmail in Thunderbird anymore, the formatting and writing, rules, etc, all kill me. Then your problem of syncing between three things is solved
Lastly, you should backup to a csv file, not to another service. They are KB size files. Keep one for every friggin day of the decade if you want and never lose another contact again. There's apps you get for your phone that will save your contacts to csv on any cloud storage service you want, lots of them for free. They might charge $1 addon for pruning on a schedule, for example.
Main points. Yes, this is the summary:
1. I have >5 email addresses, only one of which is a GMail account. I would prefer to view just one unified inbox window instead of having to be perpetually logged into every single inbox separately and reviewing each one separately. I would love to ditch Thunderbird if there is a better option. As you accurately point out, it sucks. Changing out Thunderbird for another desktop mail client, though, would just change what I need to have the contact list pulled from/syncd with.
2. How would you recommend backing up a Google account calendar and/or also having it accessible on a desktop/non-browser app?
3. Since I have a Synology NAS and I have trust issues with data being out of my control (including the service provider losing it/data corruption), I would prefer to have things sync through it locally - or at least backed up to it. I have the space.
Brace yourself. Specifically, your palm against your face.
I have two Google accounts. The first account is the one I actively used for the calendar and for email. I am entirely dependent on its calendar, since I use it as the single calendar that consolidates and documents my personal and professional life (e.g. where I'm working, what meetings I had, etc.). The account was my primary email account for more that a decade and it passed 220,000 emails more than a year ago, despite some pruning (and it still receives many emails). I switched to using a non-Gmail account as my primary email a couple years ago, but many accounts are still tied to the Gmail and there are too many to update them all). I finally caved and paid for the 100GB space upgrade because it's been going against the 15GB limit for more than a year and I got tired of wasting my time trying to keep thinning it out. Unfortunately, I can't just mass purge the old emails because there are many important ones mixed in. I miss using GMail's labels.
I first tried to use portable Thunderbird as a way to backup all of the emails in the account. Then, I got the idea to try using it as a single unified inbox (this remains my goal, though it would ideally not freeze and be usable for searching past emails, as well) that would show me all of my inboxes, instead of having to log into and separately monitor >5 different email accounts on a regular basis (including a couple catchalls...I know, I know...). Of course, with so many emails, this only worked if I didn't have the Gmail account. I eventually used a second portable Thunderbird configured to pull email from all of my accounts EXCEPT that GMail. It worked well in the beginning, but now also freezes and lags like crazy every time it tries to get new messages and often crashes, despite having 16GB of RAM and using an SSD. I assume it's because I have so many emails (eyeballing it, there are 72,000ish unread emails + an unknown number of read emails between all the accounts). I don't know if creating Archive folders in each inbox and moving all of the emails there would help.
I have all accounts set up on my Android phone and I only follow my Gmail account there. Searching mail on the phone is essentially useless and I'm sure I'm also missing emails because I don't specifically pay attention to which emails were sent to the Gmail account. For some reason, drafts also don't sync nicely between Thunderbird and my phone. Yes, my setup makes VirMach's billing server during BF sales look rock solid. Please, continue facepalming.
The second Google account was one I created with the hopes of using it to create a consolidated "backup" of the calendar and contacts from the first (main) Google account. However, whenever I've tried to sync contacts to it on my phone, I always chicken out because I get a warning that my contacts may be deleted.
As it stands, the contact database on my phone (stored on main Google account) differs from the contact database in Thunderbird. So, I often have to wait until I get home before I can send emails. AFAIK, the contact database on the second ("backup") Google account is empty.
tl;dr got an audiobook?
Generally, any contact app that can merge contacts has support to take backups first, so if shit goes wrong, delete all and re-import.
Edit: See section 4 for checking multiple accounts from Gmail. Haven't done that, but I guess I should look into that for myself.
Yup, Stephen Fry is working on it. Says he'll be done when hell freezes over. Whatever that means.