Android - Add contact without using "Google account"?

Disable the Google Contacts Sync app (Settings -> Apps -> All -> GoogleContactsSyncAdapter -> Disable) and reboot, then try adding a contact again. If this does not help and you have rooted your Android then you can delete /system/app/GoogleContactsSyncAdapter.apk with a file browser (but take a backup first!). Either way, next time you create a contact you should be informed that the contact will be stored locally.

As far as I can tell this won't break anything else.

However, if you also use another account with sync function like Microsoft Exchange (for hotmail), you'll have to remove that one too. In case of Microsoft Exchange, it's best to remove the entire account, because just disabling the app prevents you from receiving emails anyway.

Source

Compared to my first answer, there is another (simpler) solution that also worked for me:

Use the MyLocalAccount App to create a local account. You can then easily sync your contacts with your PC using MyPhoneExplorer.

There may be a better workaround for this problem, but I just tried this:

• Make sure you have all your contacts on a safe place outside your phone.

Create another (than your current) Google account, e.g. [email protected].

• Add it to your phone. Make it the one that it used for new contacts by default.
• Delete the account on Google again.

If you hadn't had any contacts in your normal Google account, you are done. Just make sure that your syncing software uses the correct (new) account.

If you had contacts in your normal account, you'll have to transfer them from the normal Google account to the special new account somehow.

I used the software My Phone Explorer (MPE) to do it, but it is tricky.

• First, you need to set the folder/account used to sync the contacts in the MPE client on the phone to the one still containing the contacts.
• Then sync. This will get the contacts over to the PC.
• On the PC, copy ALL the contacts to clipboard. Also make a backup with MPE.
• Then delete all contacts on the PC (select one, then press Ctrl-A to select all, then delete).
• Then sync. This will delete the contacts from the (normal) Google account.

Now change the folder/account used to sync the contacts in the MPE client on the phone to the new one. Also change the folder/account where new contacts go into (to the new account).

• On the PC, paste all contacts again into the application.
• Then sync again. This will create the contacts in the new account.

Now your contacts are stored in a Google account (which keeps your ICS/Jelly Bean phone happy), but you are certain that the contacts cannot be accidentally synced with Google (which hopefully keeps you happy).

Why do they make us do such things? I think whoever wants to keep his data private should be able to do so without using tricks.

Is someone out there able to program a new content-provider for contacts using a local store?

BTW: MPE is still able to store the contacts on the phone locally the way it worked before ICS when you sync with your PC. However, the problem is, that on the phone you cannot add a new contact to this local store, it is just not being displayed when you are asked where to store the new contact.

Pitfall: Occasionally, you will see a message, that there is a login problem with the deleted account. Instead of being angry about that, you can be happy because it shows you that you just have successfully prevented data leakage from your phone to Google ;-)