Google Contacts/Calendars + Address Book + iCal: built-in sync (problems) or Exchange sync?

Question

(I've looked at a few other questions related to this, but I've only found old questions with people saying that they're having problems, or anticipating Snow Leopard fixing them; no recent updates.)

I'm looking to sync my Google Contacts & Calendars, and Gmail, with my Mac & iPhone.

The iPhone I have currently set up thus:

• IMAP for Mail
• Exchange (Google Sync) for Contacts & Calendars

The Mac:

• Address Book: built-in sync
  

• iCal: CalDAV, configured as a Google account
  
  

  I haven't been syncing Gmail to Apple Mail, because I was having weird IMAP glitches every so often that just got to annoying. Will Exchange / Google Sync work for this at all? Any suggestions there?

Here are the other problems I'm having.

• Address Book only syncs certain fields (for example, Birthdays don't sync at all). I believe this is a list of the information that's synced.

• Address Book's "Synchronize with Google" checkbox doesn't stay checked when I quit Address Book.

  I think iCal is working fine, for the most part.

Any suggestions on how to improve this setup?

Why doesn't Address Book / Google Contacts sync stay enabled? Could I use Exchange for it like I am on the iPhone? Will that sync all the fields, including Birthdays, etc?

Answer 1

Your first problem with Address Book forgetting preferences sounds like it might be a permissions issue - have you tried repairing permissions on your startup disk with Disk Utility? If that doesn't work, try moving ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBook.plist (where '~' is your home folder) to somewhere else, then opening Address Book. This will force Address Book to re-create its preferences file, hopefully in a better state.

As to using Google Sync/Exchange with a desktop client, I gave this a go when it first came out, but wasn't able to make it work. I gave up fairly quickly, though - your mileage may vary and I'd love to know if it does work. I can't comment on what fields it'll sync.

Answer 2

In iTunes when you plug in your iPhone, on the Info tab does it allow you to check off "Sync Google Contacts" or is it disabled because you have an Exchange account? From what I recall the sync with Google only occurs whenever you sync your phone (or manually run iSync).

Google will sync contacts with the Address Book using Exchange but I don't have experience ever doing it so how well it keeps fields I can't comment on. (My guess would be that it would be no better)

Answer 3

Address Book's "Synchronize with Google" checkbox doesn't stay checked when I quit Address Book.

Same issue here, sorry can't upvote you yet as I have no rep. To my knowledge you can't use Exchange to access your Gmail on the desktop like your phone, I've been trying to get it working to no avail - would love to know if someone has been successful. The "Synchronize with Google" checkbox is a separate issue and still an issue I don't know how to solve. Tried the permission fixes suggested above, didn't help.

Cheers.

---

Update - found a cure (to the "Synchronize with Google" checkbox issue)

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google%20Mobile/thread?tid=69dae97a4171354b&hl=en

tl;dr: run these 2 commands in your terminal -

sudo defaults write /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GoogleContactSync.framework/Resources/ClientDescription Type 'server'
sudo chmod 644 /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GoogleContactSync.framework/Resources/ClientDescription.plist

All working for me now, hope this helps!

Answer 4

For synchronizing your contacts I can recommend connex.io (Disclaimer: I am a Co-Founder).

connex.io syncs all your address book data between various platforms. You can connect your Google Account as well as your Mac Address Book or iPhone and we take care of the rest. We deduplicate your address book so that it doesn't contain everybody more than once after the first aggregation and so that duplicates don't pile up. If you want to, you can also connect your social network accounts and we automatically enrich and update your contacts based on the information stored there.