Delete the "Phone" part of a contact whilst keeping the "Google" part?

Question

HTC Hero with HTC Sense - Android 2.1.

Contacts can be either stored on "SIM", "Google" or "Phone". Many contacts are duplicated on "Phone", but I want them all in "Google" so I can manage easily. I've managed to copy all "Phone" to "Google", but now want to remove from "Phone". However, whenever I try to delete a contact (e.g. Bob), it deletes Bob from "Phone" AND "Google". I can't find a way to delete Bob from just "Phone" - any ideas? Factory reset is throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and not a great technical solution...

Answer 1

To answer my own question - here's a different approach to achieve this (Google-only contacts)

• Ensure all required Android contacts are synced to Google
• Export the contacts to CSV on a computer
• Delete all contacts from the Android (that'll be both "Phone" and "Google")
• Import the contacts from CSV to Google
• Google will then sync to the phone

Kind of obvious in hindsight. Hope this benefits the community in some way!

Answer 2

This is the procedure I use on my phone; hope there's something similar for yours:

On the Samsung Vibrant (also Android 2.1) when I open the contact, there's an entry for Linked Contacts that shows both the Google contact and the Phone contact (and a SIM contact if you have one). If you select that, you get a new screen showing the linked contacts; each one has a - button next to it to unlink it from the others on that screen. Go back to the main contacts list and you should have two entries for that contact -- delete the one with the phone icon next to it.