Chucks0103 wrote:
I'd like to export my iphone contacts to excel (or wherever) (and I will also will want to export my gmail contacts to excel (which I will do another time)) for the purposes of seeing what gmail I am missing (which appear on my iphone).
(I think using the Exchange is what has been making things a little confusing for me).
Exchange shouldn't have anything to do with it, and syncing your iPhone to your computer would not cause duplication. But maybe clarify your set-up ... are all your contacts in Google, or do you have Google contacts as well as some other source? (e.g. Yahoo, iCloud, etc.)
It sounds like you've set up your Gmail account as Exchange (good, but see warning below) so if all your contacts are in Google, you can export them as a .csv file from your computer, then import that into Excel (or whatever). You can also export them as vcard to be imported into iCloud, if you wanted to leave Google.
If you also have another separate source of contacts, where are they being stored? Is your goal to merge multiple sources of contacts into one source?
Chucks0103 wrote:
My iphone uses Exchange because I keep my contacts are google based and my e-mail is gmail.
If you've set up your Gmail account as Exchange, that is good but do realize that (a) you'll lose that capability once you change to a new iPhone someday, and (b) you should check your "All Mail" for things you thought you deleted.
Google pulled the plug on Active Sync early 2012, but you can continue to use it if you had it set up prior to that date. Once you activate a new device you won't be able to use Exchange for Gmail, unless you have a special Gmail account (i.e. business or education). The good news is that as of iOS 7 a standard Gmail account set up in iOS includes syncing contacts to Google, just like you have it now as Exchange. The bad news is that Gmail on iOS is still Fetch-based, not Push like with Exchange.
The other effect of Google pulling the plug on Active Sync is that "Delete" no longer deletes, it Archives (even if you had gone to the m.google.com server to change your preference to delete items). While I was on Exchange, I found a few months of stuff I thought I deleted in my All Mail, and it started when Google pulled the plug on Active Sync.