Ubuntu – Backup/Export contacts from Ubuntu Touch (official launch r100, Ubuntu 13.10 – armhf (20131017))

13.10contactsphoneubuntu-touch

I flashed my Nexus 4 with Ubuntu Touch official 13.10 release. I wanted to flash it back to android and test the functionality on some things in android to make sure my phone hardware isn't a problem and then flash back to Ubuntu Touch. I've added a few dozen contacts already though so I'm wondering how I can back those up in some way that I don't have to manually add them again when I put Ubuntu Touch back on the phone.

I've searched online and seen this code for syncing contacts from Google:

adb shell sudo -u phablet -i syncevolution --configure --sync-property "username=email@gmail.com" --sync-property "password=XXXXXXX" Google_Contacts

and this code for downloading them from google address book:

adb shell sudo -u phablet -i syncevolution --sync one-way-from-server Google_Contacts addressbook

I was thinking maybe something like:

adb shell sudo -u phablet -i syncevolution --sync one-way-to-server Google_Contacts addressbook

might send the contacts from my Ubuntu phone to the google address book and then use the one-way-from-server code when I reinstall.

Would this be correct? Thanks.

Best Answer

I guess there aren't too many people using Ubuntu Touch out there, but fortunately thanks to Khurshid Alam answering this question: How do I sync contacts on Ubuntu Touch? I was able to backwards engineer how to back up my contacts from his method to import (I was not able to backwards engineer the method I posted in my question).

So just to clarify,

here is the easiest way to export your Ubuntu Touch contacts to a file:

Open the terminal from your Ubuntu Touch device and type:

sudo syncevolution --export /home/phablet/Documents/utcontacts.vcf backend=evolution-contacts database=Personal

This will save your contacts to a file called utcontacts.vcf in your Documents directory.

Once you have a new installation of Ubuntu touch you can copy the file back to your Documents directory and restore your contacts by opening a terminal and typing:

syncevolution --import /home/phablet/Documents/utcontacts.vcf backend=evolution-contacts database=Personal
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