Google Sync over MobileMe
Let me just start off by saying that I’ve been a loyal MobileMe (.mac) user since 2001. I’m not any kind of guru, but I’ve been around long enough to notice that my MobileMe account really hasn’t been worth the $100 it used to be.
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Google Sync has been out for quite a while at this point so I’m pretty sure I’m not going to say anything new so I’ll just give a quick outline of what I did and why. (not to mention, I’m really not that great of a writer.)
One thing to note, I used my visualcoma.com Google Apps Account for all of this so if you only have a gmail or simple Google account some things will be a smidg different.
A Second thing to note is that I have ditched iCal and moved to BusyCal. BusyCal has made connecting to Google so simple it’s retarded. Perhaps iCal is easy too, but the “How To” has more than one step so,, nope…
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Google Sync: Setting Up Your iPhone
This step was a little confusing, and a little scary.. I synced my phone with itunes before I went any further, and I suggest you do the same. Before I continued with the full set up, I had to import my Calendars & Contacts into my Google Account. Once I had everything in my Google Account I completed all the steps for the sync including “Deleting Contact” & “Deleting Calendars”. Keep in mind that you have everything backed up on your computer and you have imported everything to Google so you technically have two backups.[clear]
I will fully admit that this was a little stressful when it came to hitting that red delete button, but once I was done and checked my Calendar and my Contacts on my phone I took a huge sigh of relief.
Here are a few factors to keep in mind.
- The iPhone will only allow for one Microsoft Exchange Account, so be sure you set up this system with the Calendars that you use the most.
- Back up your iPhone before you do anything!!!
- You will have to Sync your Phone with your Computer one last time after you have updated your Calendars and Contacts to Google
- Don’t forget to “Sync Google Contact” from iTunes/Info/Contacts
- Try out BusyCal unless you just have a thing for iCal.
- You can export you Mac Address book into a VCard and import it to Google Contacts.
- Halfway down this page you’ll find instructions on how to sync more than one calendar using Exchange.
Thanks Randy this is very cool. I got it all setup last night. I love it!
The only problem I'm having is with iCal. I added the CalDAV account to iCal on my desktop and to my iPhone, but now on my iPhone I'm getting duplicate events from my Google calendar. My options are remove Google calendar from iCal or from my iPhone neither are very practical…
I'll let you know if I figure it out. :)
You've made me feel better about using BusyCal!! I've done this whole process a few more times and I've noticed that I ended up syncing my phone a couple of times to clear the old data.
If you view "All Calendars" on your iPhone you'll get duplicates. I didn't notice that cause I always just view one calendar at a time. You can view all the calendars on the "Exchange" only calendars and that will drop out the duplicates.
It's not a fix, but it will do.
Ahhh, I can select which calendars to sync in iTunes when the iPhone is connected. GOT IT!
Glad you saw that, cause I didn't. I did another sync and now there are no more doubles!!!