Mac OS X 10.5.3: sync Google Contacts

Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 11:32 AM



Are you one of those people who find that no matter how hard you try to keep your contact info organized, it always winds up scattered all over? Your dad's IM handle is on your Mac, while that business lead’s fax number is on your iPhone, and lots of email addresses are in your Gmail address book — except your eye doctor’s, which is the one you really need right now…

We're happy to tell you that starting today, it's easier to sync up your contact lists. The Address Book application in Mac OS X 10.5.3 now lets iPhone users sync their Address Book with Google Contacts. To try it, go to the Address Book menu, choose Preferences, and then check Synchronize with Google. It’ll ask for your Google account and password, then automatically update your contacts every time you sync your iPhone.

Before you try syncing, it’s a good idea to back up both your Address Book contacts and Gmail contacts. For instructions on how to do that, plus other important information, see the FAQ (http://www.google.com/support/contactsync/) .



Techies may be interested to know that the sync software communicates with Gmail’s contact info using the Google Data APIs. You can read more about how this works in our earlier post New frontiers with Google Data APIs and Objective-C.

We hope this helps you keep a little more of your information organized and easy to find, at any place and time you need it. Now, stop putting off that eye doctor appointment — sync can’t help you with that kind of contacts.

8 comments:

Brenda L. said...

My Mac is asking for a server name once past the screen listed in this post. www.google.com, mail.google.com and m.google.com all don't work.
Does anyone know what the server should be? I have a feeling this is a glitch and apple's address book cannot be synced with google. Please advise.

Dennis M said...

I was looking everywhere trying to figure out how to do this.. Finally found your page offering the simplest solution. I had to show some love...

Thanks for the help

A. K. & A. said...

I tried this and it looked like it worked, everything logged in, but I have no contacts in my address book on the mac!!! Any ideas?

Boti said...

@ A. K.

You need to force the sync from your Apple menu bar.

See this:
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/mac/syncing-macs-address-book-and-ical-with-google-apps/266

Filo said...

I have even turned it off in preferences, but no go. I can’t control a two-way , or even a one way sync manually. I’m really frustrated about this!
Sync Contacts

KK said...

There is a 3rd party tool Gladinet that integrates SkyDrive into Windows Explorer, making it more useful.Sync Contacts

Don said...

If you need a way to sync your Mac Address Book with Gmail while maintaining your group assignments, you may want to try "Contacts Sync With Groups For Gmail" at the Mac App Store. You can read about it at:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/contacts-sync-with-groups/id451691288?ls=1&mt=12

Philip said...

Hey, I know this post is 4 years old and all, just wanted to let you know that this link (which is still linked to via google at http://www.google.com/sync/mac.html) is broken now... where should one look for the app now?