Keep iCloud and Gmail contacts in sync

Trying to figure out how to keep both my iCloud and Gmail contacts in sync.

You can't. They are both totally independent sync systems with no integration between them.

Are you actually using iCloud? You don't mention it again after the first sentence...

Is your Google account set as the default for adding contacts to in the Mac Contacts app? Check Contacts > Preferences > General

Yes.

Whichever account is set to default is the one new contacts are added to.

Go to contacts, groups and select show icloud and gmail contacts. Then select a contact and just merge the icloud and gmail contact cards in changes menu.

I did that and whenever I change contact details from my phone or from a pc or my mac the changes are synced in both accounts.Therefore contact's are synced in all devices, as long as sync contacts option is selected for both accounts in Settings menu.

Sorry, where did you find the "changes" menu? Don't seem able to find it...

Having a two-way sync between the two servers (iCloud/Google) would be the most seamless way to have your contacts in both worlds, but to date such piece of Apple code has not been written. A lot of Apple Users are going to have such need due to Apple's end-to-end strategy and the "share" nature of Google. While I am sure Google would be happy with that, I am afraid there will be a few strategic discussions over such issue in Apple to order writing that piece of code.......Let's see if I still want to go on purchasing Apple devices or if their strict end-to-end policy puts an end on it.

This discussion clears up some confusion that I've had about syncing Google Contacts / Apple Contacts. Do any of you know if there's an app available that will automatically sync between the two?

I suppose that if I used the (Apple) Mail application on both my iMac and iPhone to send / receive from Gmail, I would then have convenient access to (Apple) Contacts stored using iCloud. But I'd rather continue to use the Gmail iPhone app and web-based Gmail.

Thanks -

Unfortunately, a straight forward way to (two-way) sync contacts between the two servers is not there. There are mixed workaround approaches where servers are not the only hubs (like keeping in sync your apple devices via iCloud and then, via an application syncing your iPhone contacts to GMail contacts), however I find them odd as 1. devices come and go but servers are always there and 2. you need to keep in mind the architecture you used if something strange happens.

Looking at your set up I would stick to Google software as much as I can. For example move your contacts into GMail (I do not know if there is a GMail client for Mac OS).

Cheers,

Cristian

doogles, I use an old version of Cobook to do exactly what you're asking. The latest version of Cobook killed functionality of fully synching between accounts (what Cobook calls "destructive" because it literally makes changes in a Gmail or iCloud contact entry). It was the worst thing Cobook could have done for people like us. I'd pay real money for them to bring that feature back. I'm afraid my old version of cobook will soon wither and die and no longer work when Google or Apple changes how they update contacts. The old version of Cobook that still works as we need it to: Cobook 1.3.4 (1335) - Circa November 2013. This older version of cobook even grabs profile photos from LinkedIn and Facebook and updated my iCloud AND google contacts accordingly. Brilliant.

New version of cobook only "unifies" the "view" of disparate contacts across cloud services like LinkedIn, Facebook, Google and iCloud. It doesn't actually synch anything. With the new version of cobook I can't even automatically synch, say, the profile photo from Facebook to a contact in google EVEN IF I'm using Google as my only contacts group on iOS and Mac OS devices.

It's a shame because I use Google services like Google Voice daily via the Google Voice app or the google voice web interface. I also want iCloud to be my primary address book so that I get all the iCloud address book fields normalized across all contact entries across all iOS and Mac OS X devices.

Cobook threw away a killer feature that was worth a lot.

Still looking for this Google Contacts <-> iCloud contacts synch feature via either a software running on Mac OS X or some other third party cloud service. Maybe we should all get together and crowd source funding for this need.

Cristian, what are some of the "locally" run apps that will synch between google and iCloud contacts that reside locally on a device? I only know of old version of Cobook that will do that. Would love to know of another option!

Hi there,

I did not try these local applications by myself so I can only judge them on what they claim to do. Search for 'contact sync' in App Store or iTunes store and, for a little fee, there are 4/5 applications for MacOS or iOS claiming to (two-way) sync contacts between the device and the Google server.

I am curios, how would you go about crowd funding such thing?

Ciao!

At Cristian's suggestion, I searched the app store and found "Contacts Sync for Google Gmail" ($3.99), which seems to be highly rated. That might be just the ticket for my purposes.

Thanks -

Doug

Any luck with this tool?