Allow importing contacts into a specific SMS storage backend

[joshhansen]

This is a feature request. The idea is that if there are multiple SMS storage options (e.g. phone storage, CardDAV servers such as when using DAVx5, private phone storage like GraphenOS exposes, etc.) to allow the user to select which to import into, rather than using the default automatically.

At present I'm faced with manually transferring 1000+ contacts from phone storage to a CardDAV server, and I'm looking for a way to automate it.

Thanks for considering. sms-ie is an awesome tool already and I really appreciate it.

[tmo1]

First, a disclaimer / warning: as per the documentation, "Contacts import and export is currently considered experimental," and the functionality has known, unresolved problems (issues #52, #68, and #233).

Beyond that, I'm not sure I understand your issue. You mention "multiple SMS storage options" (by which I assume you mean "multiple Contacts storage options"):

phone storage

This is what SMS I/E imports into.

CardDAV servers such as when using DAVx5

I assume you want SMS I/E to import directly into CardDAV servers, but as per my comment below, I'm not sure why such a feature is necessary.

private phone storage like GraphenOS exposes, etc.

I'm not familiar with this.

At present I'm faced with manually transferring 1000+ contacts from phone storage to a CardDAV server, and I'm looking for a way to automate it.

I haven't actually used DAVx⁵, but based on a quick look at the project documentation, it seems to simply sync device contacts with CardDav servers, so why is there a need for manual transfer? Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your situation and goal - can you elaborate?

Thanks for considering. sms-ie is an awesome tool already and I really appreciate it.

Thank you very much! I'm glad the app works well for you.

[DickHorner]

Maybe the user has a bunch of vcards on his phone that aren't in the contacts database and wants to sync them into a remote address book/server?
If so, that would be multi step process I would use services like make.com.or n8n for, or, of course, shelf-hosted FOSS variants 🙂

Ps. Sorry, was just browsing and couldn't keep my mouth shut 😅

[joshhansen]

Thank you for the caveats. And you're right, I meant contacts storage, not SMS storage.

For reference I'm using the Fossify Contacts app. Within the app the account a contact "belongs" under can be set. See https://github.com/FossifyOrg/Contacts/blob/main/fastlane/metadata/android/en-US/images/phoneScreenshots/3_en-US.png - at the bottom of that view you see an icon with text "Phone storage". By tapping that you can them move the contact to be stored in a different account.

Multiple accounts become useful primarily to allow synchronization with online services, such as a CardDAV server. So an android contacts "account" will be associated with a sync server, and all data is synced between them.The DAVx5 tool will create a contacts account which is backed by a CardDAV server, allowing online backups.

My use case is that I had exported my contacts previously using sms-ie, and want them when I import to be imported into the CardDAV-associated contacts account, so they will be synced to the CardDAV server.

Fossify Contacts lets me switch the storage backend manually, but I have to do it one by one, and it will probably take years to do this.

Thus I'm asking for the option to import into a specified contacts account.

Not sure that clarifies anything? Feel free to ask any further questions.

P.S. the Android ContactsContract api is where the account concept lives, which I think corresponds to "Phone storage" and friends. The old Contacts API doesn't consider accounts. You can see accounts mentioned at least at https://developer.android.com/reference/android/provider/ContactsContract.Settings

[aydencook03]

I also ran into this issue using this app. I had to resort to manually using FOSSIFY exports and imports to get all of my contacts into the correct accounts. Luckily I still had my previous phone, but if I didn't I'm not sure how I would have properly done it.