bronin7

Q: Google contacts iOS 9 sync problem

Anyone else in here using google contacts and calendar with their iPhone?

 

I did some googling and apparently only changes you make on your iPhone are pushed instantly to your Google account. The other way around though, if you make changes on the web or from an android device, push doesn't work. So far so good.

 

I set fetch to manual because I'm pretty much adding calendar events and contacts 99% of the time from my iPhone. Calendar events sync as soon as I open my calendar app.

The problem is contacts.app. No matter what I do it just won't sync. The refresh button in the upper left corner does nothing. The only way I can force a sync is when I change something else on the iPhone. For example when I add another contact the little spinning wheel appears and it pushes the change to Google and at the same time it seems to fetch the changes I made on the web or on my android tablet.

 

I honestly can't remember if it has always been this way or if iOS 9 broke the refresh button in contacts.app

iPhone 6, iOS 9.0.1

Posted on Sep 24, 2015 11:43 AM

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Q: Google contacts iOS 9 sync problem

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  • by Delawaredave,

    Delawaredave Delawaredave Jan 1, 2016 5:59 AM in response to SohaibA
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Jan 1, 2016 5:59 AM in response to SohaibA

    I just added a contact on iPhone.  Did not sync to either my Google account or iPad. 

     

    On iPhone, I then went to Settings >> iCloud and hit "Contacts" button, making it green.  Waited 2 seconds then turned it back off.  Went to Google, new contact was there, but still not on iPad.

     

    Went to iPad and did same procedure (Settings >> iCloud and hit "Contacts" button, making it green.  Waited 2 seconds then turned it back off). Contact then was also now on iPad.


    Doesn't make sense to me that iCloud >>Contacts switch would trigger sync with Google, but seems to.


    Unfortunately "It just works" no longer applies to Apple.  These goofy "fixes" reminds me of Windows XP.......

  • by Rumboogy22,

    Rumboogy22 Rumboogy22 Jan 26, 2016 9:44 AM in response to Delawaredave
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 26, 2016 9:44 AM in response to Delawaredave

    As of this post (1/26/16) this problem still exists.  It would be great if Apple would address this since it seems to impact so many people (13,401 views as of this writing). 

     

    The best work-around that I found (from earlier posts) is to just switch off "Contacts" in Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Gmail then switch it back on.  This forces a full re-fresh by deleting all the Gmail contact info and then reloading it.  Brute force but it gets the job done and it is fairly quick.

  • by Rumboogy22,

    Rumboogy22 Rumboogy22 Jan 26, 2016 10:03 AM in response to Rumboogy22
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 26, 2016 10:03 AM in response to Rumboogy22

    One more thought...

     

    I think that there are two separate issues which are getting mixed up in some responses in this thread.  One is the iOS built-in feature (which is broken and which this thread is addressing) which "syncs" Gmail contacts to a local copy on your iPhone (but not iCloud).  This is different from the 3rd party apps that sync Gmail contacts to iCloud.  You don't need to use iCloud at all to use the Gmail contacts feature that is being discussed here.  In my case I have all my contacts in Gmail and nothing in iCloud.  To make this work you have to set Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Default Account to be "Gmail".  Then if you add new contacts to your phone they get pushed back to Google's servers (assuming all works).  If you don't make this change then new contacts would be saved to iCloud.  One more thing, if you do the above hack (in my previous post) to force a refresh of your Gmail contacts then it will switch the "Default Account" back to iCloud so this also needs to be fixed every time you do this hack.

  • by jcalvi,

    jcalvi jcalvi Jan 28, 2016 9:34 PM in response to Rumboogy22
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 28, 2016 9:34 PM in response to Rumboogy22

    Have identical issue.

     

    Don't use icloud for contacts but going to settings>icloud then opening the contacts app and pressing the refresh button causes it to sync with google. If I don't do the above process pressing refresh does nothing. Adding a contact on the phone also causes refresh as does turning contacts off/on etc as others have noted.

     

    This is clearly an easily reproducible bug for ios 9.X with google contacts and push disabled.

  • by ramajam32,

    ramajam32 ramajam32 Jan 31, 2016 7:54 AM in response to Rumboogy22
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 31, 2016 7:54 AM in response to Rumboogy22

    My solution: make changes to address book online shut the i-phone off and turn it on and everything will be there.

     

    My story:

    Hello-I don't think Apple cares about anything but $$$$ and we are all wasting time here. At night I shut the phone off and keep it in airplane mode so it does not update. I'm fine without the updates. In my experience "UPDATES" kill things like the nice refresh feature and one of the last updates this screwy company made actually put my time zone in UTC. ***! If I make changes on my google contacts using my Windows XP machine, they get updated When I shut the phone off at night and turn it on in the morning.

     

    I don't use i-ANYTHING.

    I don't use i-TUNES (I USE A CD RIPPER TO IPHONE UTILITY) works on Windows XP only. I also have another utility that backs up my iphone apps and that program works on windows XP only also.

     

    I'll never get windows 10 but that's another story windows 10 looks like a kid's toy..

     

    I don't use i-CLOUD - I have no use for it. I have my own cloud appliance

    I don't have an i-PAD - I have an ASUS tablet..... Ipads are stupid!

    I have an IPHONE 6plus (I don't want THAT) but with the problem with the droid was that it had the spinning screen when I swiped my finger over it would not stop spinning so I went with the I-phone. I'm using version 9.1 and very happy with it and will not update it.it's not inconvenient to shut of the phone and turn it on again to make sure everything I changed online carries over to the i-thing.

     

    This is not Russia, I will not be told when I have to update anything. NEW CRAP DOES NOT WORK that's why it's called crap.

     

    Cheers!

  • by jeffsbaker,

    jeffsbaker jeffsbaker Feb 4, 2016 12:04 PM in response to ramajam32
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 4, 2016 12:04 PM in response to ramajam32

    I just want to say that ramajam32 answer worked for me. Turning off my iPhone with iOS 9 and turning it back on.

     

    I had tried all the other suggestions.  Everything!  Here is some of what I tried BEFORE turning off the phone: I had created a new contact on the iPhone and 3 hours later it was still not in Gmail contacts. I updated the Notes on the new contact and 2 hours later it was still not in Gmail contacts.  None of the contacts notes that were updated on a another synced iDevice with iOS 7 were appearing on the iPhone with iOS 9 and none of the Notes were syncing to the iOS 9 iPhone.  This was over a 4 day period.


    After trying all the suggestions on this thread and other threads I finally turned off my iPhone with iOS 9 and turned it back on. Then the new account I had previously created on the phone showed up in Gmail contacts.  Then I checked the Notes on the phone and they were all updated! I then checked contacts that had been updated on the other iDevice and they were updated on the iPhone with iOS 9!


    I don't know what kind of bug Apple has created here, but I hope they fix it!

  • by Telomere,

    Telomere Telomere Feb 9, 2016 8:53 AM in response to majabuna
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 9, 2016 8:53 AM in response to majabuna

    Full credit to majabuna for the solution - at least on my iPhone 6+, iOS 9.2.1.

     

    All you have to do is make any edit in the "Notes" field to any Contact on your iPhone and . . . that's it. Done. The phone syncs in a second or two and captures all changes to all Contacts. (Both ways. Make a change in Google Contacts on your Mac or PC and it syncs to your iPhone. Make a Change to the Contact on your iPhone and it syncs in Google Contacts on your Mac or PC.)

     

    FYI (my setup)

     

    Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Fetch New Data [set to "Push"; checked "Manually" at bottom of screen] -> Gmail [set to "Fetch"]

  • by Southpaw99,

    Southpaw99 Southpaw99 Feb 23, 2016 11:15 AM in response to Telomere
    Level 1 (4 points)
    iPhone
    Feb 23, 2016 11:15 AM in response to Telomere

    Same issue here as everyone else - in the interim what I've done is just add contacts to my hourly fetch update that I have my calendar set to (so events will update the calendar without me having to open the app first).

     

    Let's hope this gets resolved.

  • by TinkerTots,

    TinkerTots TinkerTots Feb 29, 2016 11:39 AM in response to bronin7
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 29, 2016 11:39 AM in response to bronin7

    I am also experiencing this problem.

     

    Changes made to Google's contacts

    via the Google web page interface

    are NOT getting sync'd to Apple contacts

    on my iPhone.  It's as if the settings on

    the iPhone are being ignored.  My relevant

    settings are:

    "Push ON"; &

    my account named

    "Goggle Contacts via CardDav"

    is set to "Fetch";

    Fetch setting set to "Hourly"


    However, changes made to Apple contacts

    using the Apple Contacts app on my iPhone

    are sync'd just fine to Google contacts in

    the cloud.  So, CardDav & push/fetch

    appear to work fine in this direction

    (Apple iPhone contacts => Google's contacts)

    but not in the reverse direction

    (Google's contacts => Apple iPhone contacts)!


    I am using the workaround(s) mentioned

    elsewhere in this article's thread to "force"

    a synch.  I, like others, make a insignificant

    change to an Apple contact on iPhone to

    "force" a synch, which causes any changes

    made earlier via Google's web interface contacts

    to finally be sync'd back down to my iPhone.


    Tis problem needs to be fixed by the

    Google guru(s) and Apple geniuses ASAP!

  • by imgaryshap,

    imgaryshap imgaryshap Mar 5, 2016 5:37 PM in response to TinkerTots
    Level 1 (13 points)
    Mar 5, 2016 5:37 PM in response to TinkerTots

    the work arounds mentioned work, but the problem still exists.

     

    iPhone 6

  • by scribble79,

    scribble79 scribble79 Mar 16, 2016 8:31 AM in response to imgaryshap
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2016 8:31 AM in response to imgaryshap

    Same problem here I even tried the work around and all that happened was the one I added a note to got updated but none of the others synced between the 2.

  • by asijsk,

    asijsk asijsk Mar 16, 2016 4:27 PM in response to Delawaredave
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 16, 2016 4:27 PM in response to Delawaredave

    For years I had a gmail account set up on my iPhone (currently an iPhone 6 running IOS 9.2.1). But if I made a change to a contact or added a new one on my phone, the change never synced to my gmail contacts for that account when I accessed it on my computer. And vice-versa - if I updated a gmail contact on my computer it never synced those changes to my phone. Now it works.

     

    NOTE: When I originally set up this gmail account on on my phone last year, I selected both mail and contacts in Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars section for this account.


    Here are the changes I just made:


    1. I went to Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars>Add Account>Other>Add CardDAV Account

    2. A new window opened on my phone showing:

    - Server - I put in "google.com" (no quotes)

    - User name - I put in my full gmail address

    - Password - I put in my gmail password

    - Description - I put in a nickname for my account

    3. Once I entered all that information correctly I saw green check-marks for each line and the window closed.

    4. I then opened Contacts on my phone and saw that my contacts from that gmail account were populating on the phone. They were already on there (see NOTE above), and were populating again, creating a number of duplicates. I let the process run and waited until the new CardDAV contacts were fully populated (synced).

    IMPORTANT:

    5. After step 4 was complete, I went back to Settings>Mail, Contacts, Calendars for that specific gmail account and turned the Contacts slider off (from green to gray). A message popped up saying all the contacts for that gmail account would be deleted from my phone, and it asked me if I wanted to proceed. I said yes, because in step 4 all those contacts were populated to my phone via the CardDAV function for this same gmail account.

    6. At that point I was in the Contacts list on my phone. In the upper left corner was a button called Groups.

    7. I clicked on that button and unchecked all of the groups except for the group associated with that gmail account.

    8. I went back to the contacts list and noticed the the word Groups in the upper left corner was gone, and was replaced by an "update circle" (a blue 3/4 circle with an arrow on one end).

    9. At that point all of my gmail contacts were in my contacts list. The ones I had updated on my laptop were now on my phone, and the ones I updated on my phone were now on my laptop.


    This whole process took about 20 minutes of trial and error because I really didn't know what I was doing. But it worked for me and I hope it works for you too! Good luck.

  • by rfromsaint augustine,

    rfromsaint augustine rfromsaint augustine Mar 18, 2016 2:25 PM in response to scribble79
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 18, 2016 2:25 PM in response to scribble79

    Having the same problems and after doing some research, it appears that the problem has to do with iOS (9.2.1 in my case) having lost the ability to update and force a sync with the contacts app.  As far as I know this problem applies to all accounts set up as an Exchange type server. For instance, if you swipe down in Mail, you will get the updating wheel turning at the top of the screen.  You should be able to do the same thing in Contacts/Groups to manually force an update, but it doesn't work.  So, I did some testing and came up with the following solution to force iOS to do an update.  My solution, which seems to work from both the Exchange Server and from my iPhone is to simply make the following changes to the iPhone in Settings:

    In Settings/Mail, Contacts, Calendars set the Default Account in the Contacts section to iCloud

    Change Fetch New Data to Hourly - Push set to off, and the email server set to Fetch, Hourly.

    I've only done limited testing right now, so I'm not sure if changing the default account to iCloud is essential, but I do believe that changing to Fetch creates the necessary condition that forces iOS to look for the update from the Exchange server.  You can probably set Fetch to Every 15 or 30 Minutes.  I chose every Hour to help save battery life.

    Please let me know if anyone has success with this or learns any new trick.

    Best of Luck

  • by 7obywankenobi,

    7obywankenobi 7obywankenobi Mar 21, 2016 2:43 PM in response to bronin7
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 21, 2016 2:43 PM in response to bronin7

    I just upgraded to iOS 9.3 and the problem seems to be gone. I checked both ways: Editing contacts on iPhone and syncing to google contacts and the other way round.

     

    Can somebody confirm that since the workarounds posted here (editing "notes" and by that enforcing sync) didn't really work for me.

  • by beto.silva.br,

    beto.silva.br beto.silva.br Mar 22, 2016 3:47 AM in response to 7obywankenobi
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 22, 2016 3:47 AM in response to 7obywankenobi

    Yes! They have finally fixed this issue. Just pull down the contacts list and it updates. One less bug.

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