Do you want the ability to sync your contacts and calendars without connecting your iPhone to your computer? Do you have to sync your phone to multiple computers just to make sure your contacts are up to date on all of the machines. Sure we all know that we need to backup our data regularly, but how often do we really do it?
Our buddies over at Google have come out with a new service that will make all of these issues a thing of the past and it’s called Google Sync. This walkthrough will give you a step by step on how to set up Google Sync on your iPhone.
You can use Google Sync to manage your contacts and calendars and it’s a process that is completely effortless. Syncing your device will happen wirelessly and on a regular basis when using Google Sync, so there is no need to worry about losing a contact because you forgot to sync your phone.
Google Sync is not only easy to use but it’s also a free alternative to services like MobileMe, which costs $99 a year . Another plus about Google Sync is that It makes your contacts and calendar available to you on any computer where you can access google – not just your home computer.
I will walk you through all the necessary steps to get started with Google Sync.
First – uploading your contacts from your phone to Google through iTunes (important* if you do not do this then all of your contacts from your phone will be deleted and replaced with those in your Gmail account.) The directions for windows Users and Mac users are nearly identical so I will just post both of the instructions.
1. Connect your iPhone to your computer via USB and start iTunes.
2. Select your iPhone and click the Info tab.
3a. For windows users, click the Sync Contacts with option and select Google contacts from the drop down menu. Click configure and enter your Gmail username and password.
3b. For mac users, check the Sync Google Contacts option and enter your Gmail username and password.
4. Click Apply and your contacts will now be uploaded to your Gmail account and you are ready to setup Google Sync. I should also note that this does not upload your calendar to Gmail, this you must do manually.
How To Upload Calendar To Google
Now I will show you how to upload your calendar to google. As the instructions are different for Windows and Mac, I have written instructions in both.
Windows Users:
We are going to sync Outlook’s calendar with Google Calendar.
1. Make sure you have a compatible version of office and windows. The google Calendar Sync software only supports windows XP and vista and only supports office 2003 and 2007.
2. Download Google Calendar Sync (version 0.9.3.5) at
http://dl.google.com/googlecalendarsync/GoogleCalendarSync_Installer.exe
3. Execute the installation file and click I agree on the Terms Of Service page.
4. Select your installation options such as where you would like the icon to be installed for the tool. Click Next.
5. Select the Install Directory. Click Install.
6. A window asking for your username and password will come up. Enter your information and select which way you would like the sync to go. I chose “2-way” as I would like my outlook to be updated when I enter a new appointment in my calendar on my phone. Chose how often you would like it to check for updates. Click Save and your outlook will now sync with your google.
Mac Users:
We are going to sync iCal with Google Calendar. Seting up iCal with Google is much easier than with outlook as there is no program to install, just a few settings in ical to change.
1. Open iCal, then fire up your iCal Preferences (iCal -> Preferences or Cmd-,).
2. Click on the Accounts tab, and then click the ‘+’ button to add a new remote calendar to iCal.
3. Call the calendar whatever you want (I went with ‘Personal’ for my main calendar), then enter the Google account username (which is normally your Gmail address) and password.
4. Click on Server options to display the Account URL text box. For your default calendar, enter the following URL:
https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/youremail@gmail.com/user
…replacing youremail@gmail.com with your actual email address. Mine is not JD@gmail.com, sorry folks.
5. Once you’ve done that, just hit Add and you’re finished. Give iCal a few minutes to download all your events and you’re good to go.
How To Setup Google Sync on the iPhone
Now it is time to setup Google Sync on your phone. I know this is what you all came for, so I will get on with it. The process is rather quick and does not require the use of your computer, so you can disconnect your phone now. Google Sync requires apple iPhone firmware version 2.2 or higher, so upgrade if you have not done this yet.
NOTE: This will delete all contacts and calendar entries from your phone, so be sure to back them up yourself if you did not follow the previous directions!
1. Tap settings on your iPhone Menu. Once in settings, scroll down and tap on Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
2. In the Mail settings, tap Add Account. Then you will tap Microsoft Exchange. Do not tap Gmail as we are not setting up a mail account.
3. Now it is time to enter your account information. In the Email field, Enter whatever you want, this is only a label. In the User name and password fields, enter your Gmail address and your password. Then tap Next. In the next menu, you will be asked for the server. Enter m.google.com in the server field and tap Next.
4. A page asking what you would like to sync comes up. You will turn off mail and turn on contacts and calendar. Then you will simple tap Done.
5. You will now be given two pages of confirmations because this is the point of no return. Your contacts and calendar will now be deleted from the phone and replaced with your contacts from Gmail. Click Sync on each page and you are done.
If you see the message above under the info tab in iTunes when you connect your phone next time, you have set it up correctly.
Your contacts and Calendar are now Synced with Gmail. When you edit any contact with either your phone or Gmail, it will be updated on the other. This process happens wirelessly over your phone connection as long as push is turned on and you will never even notice it is happening. Your syncs to iTunes will be shorter and if you ever lose your contacts or calendar on your phone, they can be recovered from your Gmail account wirelessly.
A backup is always good to have, especially when you don’t even notice it backing up.
Thanks for taking the time to do such a good walk through. I briefly tried this when I read your article last week, but I was too afraid all my contacts would be deleted. But it’s so cool that I could upload my contacts to Google first. Awesome!
Thanks
The only really annoying thing I’ve found with syncing your calendar this way, is the colors for the calendars don’t match with what is used online at google calendar. If someone knows of a good way to edit the colors after syncing that would be awesome. I’m open to editing files on the phone.
if this helps anyone: I had some trouble figuring out how to select the 5 google calendars to sync with my iPhone. I found the following directions did the trick.
1. Complete Google’s instructions
2. Open Safari on your iPhone
3. Navigate to m.google.com
4. Select ‘Sync’
5. Select your device
6. Check the boxes next to the Calendars you want to sync (It will only let you choose 5 total, including the “US Holidays” one)
7. Click ‘Save.’
this works great. cant wait to see what they do once its out of beta
This sounds like a good idea, but will I be able to set up 2 iPhones using 2 seperate Gmail accounts? using the same PC?
I hope these settings carry over when, or should I say if, google gives us push email.
I am also using iPhone, my experience both good and bad.
Some features are really great others are not.
http://ap-iphone.blogspot.com/2009/02/safe-iphone-hack-for-iphone.html
what if i keep “push” off to save battery life? will it still sync? and when? when i access my email?
@Rich
Google products never go out of beta. A perpetual beta state is a business strategy of theirs.
@ eli – If you turn off push, it will not sync. If you do turn off push, it will only sync when you check your email as it is going through an exchange account.
@Rich + Greg – google kept gmail in beta for ages. If they do change anything with Sync, it will be unannounced and will happen bit by bit like everything else google. Not complaining, google won me over years ago with their crazy ideas.
Very nice article…Thanks.
Im wondering why when I sync to my iphone, the contacts list does not maintain the groups i created in gmail contacts ?
how can i keep my contacts in groups ?
Does syncing lose the group structure ? Surely not…what am i doing wrong ?
Question: my ical is currently synced with entourage (for my work calendar), which syncs with the iphone only when I connect with the cable. I’ve set up the iCal / Google calendar sync, but only new events created in ical are syncing to google (and vice versa), NOT all the existing events.
So if I set this up, my phone calendar will be emptied, because my google calendar is empty, right? How do I get the existing events from ical into google calendar?
Sync ical to Google first.
the problem with this Is that i already have a microsoft exchange account for my work email. i cant add 2 microsoft exchange accounts to the iphone. I dont want to sync my contacts to my work email. so im stuck i guess.!!
Great work …
I am going to link to this tutorial from my website. My users could really use a professional tutorial to help them setup Google sync on their iphones.
Thanks
great guide.
I will try to follow to sync my iphone.
Perfect. I followed your instructions and I’m up and running. Thanks!
Is there a way to specify the sync time window for the calender.
I mean, how long back or forward in time will calender events be synced?
And moreover is there a way to modify such sync time window?
I followed the instructions very carefully and unfortunately I loosed all the contacts on my iPhone… thanks guys! thanks google!
It clearly says to upload your contacts first before you sync those. Always use caution when syncing. I backup to Google, then export periodically into a .csv. Also, common sense, backup your phone before screwing around with anything
I like many others followed ALL of the instructions stated above including uploading BEFORE syncing and my contacts on my iphone were empty as well when I was done. Luckily, they were still saved in my outlook. So, I deleted the account and was able to get my contacts back into my iphone.
Josef…could you give more detail for the not so computer savvy crowd out there? What is missing in the instructions above? I read them over 10 times and triple checked each step. In your responses, you seem to be saying more than what is stated in the instructions above.
Had exactly the same problem as the poster (John) above. Also lost all of my contacts after following the instructions exactly. *Really* unhappy. Nearly 10 years of phone numbers. Has there been some sort of update that is causing this problem? Any input from google would be much appreciated.
I see a lot of those issues, but it comes down to operator error. If you sync your contacts first in Itunes (use the merge-it doesn’t replace, only uploads what you have on your phone to Google), backup your phone, export your contacts somewhere from Google, you’ll never lose anything. I can’t see someone blaming Google when there are plenty of tutorials and articles outlining the process online. Just ‘Google’ them.
to respond to my own questions the above set of instructions now has a large section that was *not* visible last night, when it would appear several users experienced problems. The whole section “How To Upload Calendar To Google” was missing.
actually, to clarify and be fair, that section is missing from *Google’s* documentation.
meh… Alerts don’t transfer well. For instance, I have an appointment with 2 alerts in iCal; one 2 days before, and one 2 hours before. The resulting Google entry that gets uploaded has only one and it’s only 10 minutes before (the default). Too limiting to be relied upon. I’m back to a sync cable…
when you sync the calendar, will the color coded stuff be on the iphone/ipod touch or will it just be the date with the normal white and blue/grey scheme?
the iCal isn’t letting me add the new account. it is saying that http://www.google.com rejected my password login for my account. what should i do to fix it?
I followed the instructions to upload my iCal to Google calendar and in the Accounts box it says “Availability is not supported on the server for this account.” I tried both my log-in name and my full email address as the Username and neither worked.
When you do this, will you be able to add contacts in the Apple Address book and have them sent to google or can you only add new contacts via google or the iphone?
Thank you heaps for the detailed instructions for sync Google calender to IPhone, it took me 2 hours to find your very hepful site and I got it working in less than 5 mins so thanks heaps