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Old 05-30-2008, 07:15 PM   #1
mclbruce
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Address Book sync with Google Contacts, 10.5.3

Yesterday Google announced that Mac users with an iPhone and 10.5.3 can sync their contacts between their Gmail accounts, their Address Book on the Mac, and their iPhone.

http://googlemac.blogspot.com/2008/0...-contacts.html

If you are serious about this, you should take a look at Google's FAQ. The sync process is far from perfect.

http://www.google.com/support/contactsync/

Not long afterwards, instructions were posted at the Lifehacker site on how to enable Address Book and Gmail contacts syncing even if you don't have an iPhone.

http://lifehacker.com/393855/enable-...-or-ipod-touch

In this thread I want to describe my experiences and hopefully clarify the procedures used to do this.

As I see it, there are two main steps to take to get this to work. Each step has a couple of options depending on if you have an iPod or .Mac service.

Step 1. Get the "Synchronize with Google" option to show up in Address Book.

This involves a com.apple.ipod.plist file in ~/Library/Preferences.

a) If you don't have this file, copy the following into a text file and save it with the name com.apple.ipod.plist. Put the file in your Preferences directory inside your home directory.

{ Devices = { red-herring = { 'Family ID' = 10001; }; }; }

The above is from a comment by eris at the Lifehacker article referenced earlier.

b) If you have the file and don't have an iPhone or iPod touch, you need to add some information to this file. I used Apple's plist editor to add the information, and that worked for me. This terminal command should work as well.

defaults write com.apple.iPod Devices -dict-add red-herring '{ "Family ID" = 10001; }'

This command was contributed by CosmoStitch in the comments to the Lifehacker article.

Step 2. Initiate a sync with contacts in Gmail or Google Apps.

c) If you have .Mac, starting a .mac sync should work.

d) If you have an iPod that supports Address Book syncing, starting that sync should work. I don't have this type of iPod, but I believe the syncing is done through iTunes.

e) If you are using iSync to sync contacts with a mobile phone, starting that sync in iTunes can work. I use iSync to keep my calendar and contacts on a Sony-Ericsson cell phone in sync with my computer. Starting the phone sync initiates a sync with the phone and the contacts in my Google Apps account. Others have reported success using iSync and a phone.

f) If you don't have .Mac, an iPod that does contact syncing, or a device like a cell phone using iSync, I do not know how you can initiate a sync. I did some testing and I could not come up with a way to get Google sync started.


This is the extent of my knowledge. If anybody else can confirm or add to the various steps, feel free to comment.

Last edited by mclbruce; 05-30-2008 at 09:03 PM. Reason: added link to FAQ
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Old 05-30-2008, 09:11 PM   #2
mclbruce
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Syncrospector

Quote:
Originally Posted by mclbruce
f) If you don't have .Mac, an iPod that does contact syncing, or a device like a cell phone using iSync, I do not know how you can initiate a sync. I did some testing and I could not come up with a way to get Google sync started.

Here's an update on the last option, option f). I was able to sync Google contacts and Address Book contacts using Syncrospector, which is included in Apple's Developer tools. Syncrospector looks like an incredibly dangerous piece of software. I used it on a test account, and I don't think I will ever use it on my real data. In fact, I think I could mess up my real data badly just by using Syncrospector on a test account on the same computer.

But if you are desperate and you have good backups you might get away with it. Open Syncrospector, select the Clients tab if it is not already selected, select Address Book and Google Contacts from the list, and hit the sync button. Again, playing around with this tool on any data that you care about is not a good idea.
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Old 09-21-2009, 12:48 AM   #3
mykl
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Alternate for option f)

From Terminal:
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GoogleContactSync.framework/Versions/A/Resources/gconsync --sync com.google.ContactSync

Individual addresses came across but group information was not transferred to gmail contacts.
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Old 10-01-2009, 03:31 AM   #4
maccie
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Automator makes this perfect

Quote:
Originally Posted by mykl
Alternate for option f)

From Terminal:
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GoogleContactSync.framework/Versions/A/Resources/gconsync --sync com.google.ContactSync

Individual addresses came across but group information was not transferred to gmail contacts.

Use the Automator option "Execute in Shellscript", and input the above Terminal input. Save as Programme to your desktop to create your own "Sync button". Perfect!
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Old 12-14-2009, 04:41 PM   #5
in-effect
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I found this thread after a Google search. Subsequently i found this article, which seems to clear up the problems for option f).

Just tried it myself and it works like a charm. Now if only my N900 would sync with Google...
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Old 05-21-2010, 02:19 AM   #6
hillbilly1980
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I found this just now too, i read elsewhere that 10.6 does this sync routinely every few hours so i used crontab.

crontab -e

Then add this line, would sync every 3 hours.


0 */3 * * * /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GoogleContactSync.framework/Versions/A/Resources/gconsync --sync com.google.ContactSync
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