iPhone and Gmail Sync Issues
June 25, 2010 12:33 AM   Subscribe

Overwrite Gmail contacts with iPhone contacts. How?

I finally caved in and bought an iPhone yesterday, and I'm loving it with the exception of copying my contacts from my old dumb phone.

In the end I did a sync with Gmail to pull down all my email contacts. I then went through the iPhone deleteing pointless ones, adding phone numbers, removing duplicates and just generally making it a full and complete contact list.

I want to back this up to Gmail so I can use the data on my laptop. How do I do this?

Do I just delete all the Gmail contacts and perform another sync? I don't want to lose everything I've done!
posted by lemonfridge to Computers & Internet (8 answers total) 5 users marked this as a favorite
 
Could you explain in more detail?

I may be misunderstanding what you need here, but could you use Google Sync which works on the iPhone to synchronise calendars, contacts and so on (Apple instructions here)...? Currently I subscribe to Apple's Mobile Me but I've noticed the sync is so good for my friends who use Google that I'm considering moving from Apple's own sync to Google for my iPhone.
posted by skylar at 1:20 AM on June 25, 2010


Response by poster: My iPhone is now my master contact list. I want to sync it with my gmail.

I'm just slightly worried that syncing will erase what I have on it.
posted by lemonfridge at 3:13 AM on June 25, 2010


In your gmail contacs, you will have multiple lists whether you made them or not. The list called "My Contacts" is the list that will sync, both ways.

I suggest you log into Gmail and fix THAT LIST before you sync again. Actually, at this point you'll probably need to delete all the iphone contacts so it doesn't re-add them to the mycontacts list, and then fix the my contacts list.

But yea---remove anyone you don't want from that list (add anyone you DO want from "All Contacts"), merge any duplicates, then sync. Your phone and the "My Contacts" list will remain forever syncopated.
posted by TomMelee at 5:14 AM on June 25, 2010


Response by poster: WHat if I just wiped My Contacts from gmail? Would i then populate it from my phone?

Just been to an apple store and they didn't have a solution :(
posted by lemonfridge at 5:40 AM on June 25, 2010


Yes. (I think. I wouldn't super bet on it though. It SHOULD sync the MOST RECENT CHANGE, whatever that means. I'm afeared that if you remove everything from my contacts, it might remove everything from the phone.)

As I think about it, you need to:

1. Disable sync. Now. Delete the connection.
2. Either reset the phone or delete all the contacts or remove everyone from your gmail "My Contacts" list
2a. If you've deleted them from the phone (which seems waaaaay easier to me), make sure your My Contacts list is cleaned up.
3. Re-enable sync.
4. Tell apple to send me residuals for not being able to provide support on their own product.

Extras:
Make sure you don't delete the contacts from gmail, simply remove them from the "my contacts" list.

"My Contacts" is also the source of your autopopulated "TO" field, so if you clear that list---you won't autopopulate addresses until you sync, and then only for people for whom you currently have an email address in the tele.
posted by TomMelee at 6:11 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


Best answer: After a random chat with a friend, Sync In A Blink does exactly what I want! Just tried it, worked great.

http://www.syncinablink.com/SyncInABlink.aspx

Now I just need to get it to Sync ALL my Google Calendars...
posted by lemonfridge at 6:44 AM on June 25, 2010


If you want to sync all your Google Calendars, do this (assuming you're set up following this guide:

1. Go to m.google.com/sync on your mobile device
2. Select your iPhone in the device list
3. Select all the calendars you want.
4. Fire up Calendar and wait for it to sync.
5. Profit!
posted by Happy Dave at 7:03 AM on June 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Cheers Hapy Dave, but it only shows my main calendar, I have several others which aren't showing up that have the exact same settings as the main one :(
posted by lemonfridge at 11:08 AM on June 25, 2010


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