All contacts backup vs. subset stored on Android phone

[DonMcKinley]

I have a large list of current and old contacts that I want to maintain. My Android phone contacts are a subset of this list and I want to be able to maintain a backup of that subset as well as to maintain the full list, adding new contacts from my phone without deleting any from the full list when I delete them from the phone. I have accounts with Yahoo, Google, Outlook, and OneDrive. Can I have 2 separate accounts, one tied to the full list and the other sync'd to my phone?

 

[Norton]

Don't androids allow you to back up, import, exports contacts to the SIM card.

 

[Grizzly]

Don't androids allow you to back up, import, exports contacts to the SIM card.

yes, yes they do.... I do it once a month or after I changed something in my contacts...

 

[DonMcKinley]

That would take care of backing up the subset found on the phone. Now, when I add a contact to my phone, how does the full set in Google contacts or wherever get updated? Can't use sync because when I delete one on the phone it would delete it from the full set.

 

[Wolfie]

When I do a backup on my Android phone, all the contacts are backed up, I don't know how to sync a subset though?.

 

[DonMcKinley]

When I do a backup on my Android phone, all the contacts are backed up, I don't know how to sync a subset though?.

Can you import into one of the contacts apps (ie google, yahoo, outlook, etc) and have it bypass duplicate records?

 

[Trouble]

I'm no expert but....
Isn't the whole idea of syncing to keep multiple instances of data on multiple devices the same?
My advice would be to either....
Keep the account hosting the list of contacts you do not wish edited or ammended away from any syncing account
OR
Inspect the advanced settings of the particular account (where or who is maintaining the servers) to see if there are configuration changes you can make to stop certain containers from syncing
OR
Maintain the

large list of current and old contacts that I want to maintain

As I do, within a separate mail program (outlook, thunderbird, etc.), configure it as POP3 / SMTP so it is not impacted by IMAP / Exchange Active Sync

 

[Regedit32]

I'd look in the Store for sync apps that people have created to overcome the generic syncing all phones have.

• Concept - turn your subset into its own unique Group, and make your main contact list another Group then
• using an app from Store, manage your syncing by Groups, which allows you to deselect a Group while syncing, thus causing any syncinging to only affect the select Group or groups while leaving the deselected Group in tact.

 

[Norton]

But don't androids do that already, save to phone or saved to SIM card. The SIM allows syncing, importing an export of contacts?

 

[Wolfie]

As @Norton said, you can sync an individual number to the SIM card (limited to what size memory the SIM card has).

I would follow @Regedit32's advice and look for an app that does single accounts (contacts) if you want to be more specific about what you back-up.

I do a back-up of all my Andorid stuff and (I) you should have everything there when you need to do a recovery?.

 

[Trouble]

I'm not sure that it is an important distinction but perhaps at least worthy of some consideration.
The terms "backup" and "sync" are not exactly synonymous
A "backup", whether done manually or set to a schedule and done automatically / periodically, is generally an archiving function and is a point in time snapshot of a particular state or condition of a dataset.
A "sync" which is most often a function or feature of a cloud based service happens in real time and as such, any changes to a particular data set on one device is generally reflected almost immediately across multiple devices that "view" that same dataset.
As the individual devices do not actually host the data, it resides on a cloud based server, it's more of a standard client / server relationship.
AND
IF one of those clients (devices) deletes an item from that server (host), then that deletion is sync'd across that relationship and is no longer available, except perhaps in the "trash" container on the host.