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Level 1

32 points

iCloud sync with Google?

I've got a question about syncing My Contacts & Calendar...

Until today, I've used the built in options in Mail to sync the calendar with Google Calendar. I also used the option on iTunes to sync my contacts with Gmail. I do the vast majority of my mail in Gmail (Google Apps Mail technically, but still), so I want my contacts synced to Gmail, too. If I make a change on my phone, and it gets synced to iCloud, that's pointless, I need it in Gmail.

After I installed iOS5, I could still sync calendar the same way as before. But contacts seem to be an either/or. There's no apparent way to have the contacts from my iPhone and my iPad be synced with iCloud, and also sync them with Google Contacts as well. It appears you can't do one and do the other. Am I wrong about that? Is there any "automatic" way to get these synced?

I'd also like it to sync both my Google Calendar and my iCloud calendar, too in a perfect world. Given I share my Google Calendar with a few family members who will never use iCloud, I kind of need my calendar still over there.

Any of this possible without installing some third party addtl software?

Custom Built, Windows 7

Posted on Oct 12, 2011 2:30 PM

40 replies

Jan 21, 2012 1:59 AM in response to Joe Siegler

Allan,

thx for your solution first. But the disadvantage is that I have to turn of the sync to the icloud.

I use Outlook at work so I have synced my contacts via icloud, thats nice.

Rahman

Feb 2, 2012 1:39 PM in response to Joe Siegler

here's the link, hope its helpful http://modernerd.com/post/535350679/solved-gmail-ipad-iphone-and-multiple-from

Feb 2, 2012 2:27 PM in response to parkerjo

See PARKERJO's instructions above.

PERFECT SOLUTION !!!!! Thank you !!!!!

I followed parkerjo's instructions exactly.

Now - whether I update my contacts on my iPhone, my iPad, my computer or from any pc directly into Gmail - my contacts and calendar update instantaneously among all devices. No more duplicates either. Will continue to use iCloud for my media management.

THANK YOU AGAIN, parkerjo !!

Feb 5, 2012 8:40 AM in response to parkerjo

Yes, this is a well known solution to syncing your gmail contacts but I don't see where it answers the issue of syncing iCloud contacts with GMail contacts.

MikeInOz

Level 1

0 points

Apr 6, 2012 9:04 AM in response to ThatGirl3

Exactly. parkerJo's instructions are simply Google's long-published instructions for syncing an iPhone.

It doesn't help at all with extracting the iClod contacts.

Eventually I went through each of my iClod contacts and emailed them individually as VCF files to my Gmail account. When I open them in Gmail in a browser I'm offered the action of importing them to contacts directly.

Apr 28, 2012 4:50 PM in response to Zacharias Beckman

Thank you Zacharias for the clear explanation.

I am another user who needs the sync to google. iCloud syncs between apple devices, but in the real world we need to work with other people. I have thought carefully about the situation, and as long as one can sync reasonably well with google, there is really no reason to keep using iCloud.

I think the real question isn't so much how to sync iCloud with google, but if one needs to sync with iCloud at all.

Jun 12, 2012 5:23 AM in response to anilsudhakaran

Thanks! That's it with contacts. 🙂

tutume

Level 1

0 points

Dec 1, 2012 1:56 PM in response to sheng qi k

I agree with you sheng. But one thing that I have noticed was that if your contacts aren't in iCloud, some SIRI features or Reminder app related to contacts doesn't work right. Like: "Remember me to call my mom". if "mom" isn't the "name" in her register it will not work.

Dec 2, 2012 5:45 AM in response to tutume

It works for me tutume. My mom and wife aren't labelled as 'mom' and 'wife'. I just have to tell SIRI who they are, and SIRI will remember.

DowCo

Level 1

0 points

Jul 12, 2015 9:57 PM in response to Zacharias Beckman

Hello Zacharias! Thank you so much for posting so thoroughly about this issue. ✅ (closest thing to a thumbs up I could find)

After reading this: "Eventually you notice that the old one is getting older and more out of sync, probably, and fiddle about a bit, and probably manage to get rid of it. (That's what I did anyhow, at this stage).", I decided to get rid of the old contact database and start fresh. Yes, I have backups of everything.

Like I said, I'm trying to eliminate all "on my mac" local contact databases so I can start clean, but I can't figure out which files or folders to eliminate. With the Contacts app closed, I went ahead and deleted the three files marked un blue in this image, but as soon as I opened Contacts app again, it created it and all the contacts were still visible. Please help.

OS: Yosemite

Computer: MacBook Pro

iCloud sync with Google?