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User manual
Connected accounts

Set an account to read-only

Choose whether ContactZapp may change an account's contacts (two-way) or only read them (read-only).

Every account is either Two-way or Read-only. ContactZapp reads both. It writes only to a two-way account.

What each choice does

  • Two-way. "Changes sync both ways between ContactZapp and" the account's provider.
  • Read-only. "ContactZapp reads this account and never writes to it."

New accounts are two-way. Read-only is for an address book you want left exactly as it is.

Steps

  1. Open your account menu and tap Settings. Then tap Accounts.
  2. Tap the settings icon of the account.
  3. Under Sync direction, tap Read-only. To go back, tap Two-way.

The choice is saved as soon as you tap it. There is no confirmation and no Save button.

The list in Settings › Accounts shows the choice on each account as Two-way or Read-only. You change it only in the account's own panel.

What happens next

After you choose Read-only, ContactZapp stops writing to that account, starting now. Changes that were still waiting to be sent to it are dropped, not sent. Its contacts are still read in, so they still appear in ContactZapp. A contact's details show "Read-only — changes here aren't sent" next to that account.

After you choose Two-way again, ContactZapp works out what the account is owed and queues it, so the account catches up with your other accounts. It doesn't wait for you to change anything.

A read-only account doesn't count as somewhere to create a contact. When you create a contact, you pick an account to save it to. If none is two-way, the screen says "New contacts need a two-way account. Make one of your accounts two-way in Settings."

Deleting a contact permanently doesn't remove a read-only account's copy: "{{name}} is read-only, so its copy won't be deleted. You'll need to remove it there yourself." The screen names the account.

If something goes wrong

  • "We couldn't save this change. Try again in a moment." Tap the choice again.
  • A Google or Microsoft account shows "This connection can only read." You didn't allow editing when you connected. Either reauthorize it and allow editing, or set it to read-only.
  • You want to stop syncing, not just writing. Pause the account instead.

What's the difference between pausing an account, unlinking it, and setting it to read-only?

Read-only means we read that address book and never change it. Open the account in Settings › Accounts and choose Read-only under Sync direction.

Pause stops us from reading and writing that account for now. We keep the connection and its history, and Resume this account picks up where it stopped. We disconnect an account that stays paused for 30 days, and we email you 3 days before. Changes waiting for it are dropped at that point.

Unlink disconnects the account. Nothing is deleted in the account itself. You can link it again later. Contacts that also exist in your other accounts stay in ContactZapp. Contacts that came only from that account are hidden. If you link the account again within 30 days they come back. After that, ContactZapp erases its own copy of them. If you link the account again after that, ContactZapp rebuilds those contacts from the account itself.