- About Contact Sync
Contact Sync is a tool that lets you keep your iTunes and Gmail contact lists synchronized. Whenever you make a change to one address book, the information is automatically updated in the other.
- Backing up your contacts
We recommend that you make a backup copy of both your contact lists - iTunes and Gmail - before you sync your Gmail contacts.
As you may know, your iTunes contacts are automatically saved to your Windows Address Book. To back up these contacts, do the following:
- Go to Start > Programs > Accessories > Address Book.
- In Address Book, got to File > Export > Address Book (WAB).
- Choose a folder in which to save the backup.
Learn how to back up your Gmail Address Book.
- Information that is synced
The following information is included when syncing to Gmail:
- People's names and job titles
- Company names
- Email and postal addresses
- Phone numbers
- IM names, including the type of service
- Notes
- Photos (on Mac OS X 10.6 only)
- Types of accounts available for syncing
Contact Sync works with both Gmail/Googlemail and Google Apps email accounts. If you use other Google applications with your account, like Docs or Calendar, your contacts are also synced in these applications.
- Why use Contact Sync
While other products may do a good job of copying your data to or from your Gmail contacts, Contact Sync lets you continually keep your contacts in sync. When you make a change or add a new contact to Address Book or Gmail, Contact Sync automatically detects these changes and makes sure that information is updated in either contact lists.
If you've already copied contacts with another product, please note that it may not format text the same way Contact Sync does. When Mac OS X's Sync Services tries to compare similar contacts, it may consider them different and create a duplicate contact. To avoid these duplicates, we recommend removing the copied contacts either before or after syncing.
- Duplicate contacts
Subtle differences in contact information may cause the system's syncing software to consider contacts or their information to be distinct. These differences include small changes in a contact name or company name, and differences in the type of email (work, home, other) or other address information. Similar but distinct information will lead the system to treat contacts or information on contacts as unique, causing these contacts to be synced separately.
- Every contact synced
Currently, every contact in your Gmail contact list will be synced. There is no way to exclude certain contacts. We understand that some users may find it useful to sync only some of their contacts, and we're working to include this feature in a future release.
- Prevent Gmail from creating new contacts
Each time you send an email, Gmail automatically adds the recipient of that email to your contact list. There is currently no way to prevent Gmail from adding these contacts. You are able to delete unwanted contacts, however. To permanently delete a contact, follow these steps:
- Select the contact in the Contacts list.
- Click Delete Contact at the top of the page.
- Click OK.
- Not all contacts synced to Gmail contact list
Currently, Gmail's contact list allows an email address to be associated with only one contact. If an iPhone contact contains an email address already present in a different Gmail contact, this contact will not be synced.
- Contact names or addresses synced incorrectly
The sync software makes its best guess at determining the structure of names and addresses. Occasionally, errors can occur, particularly names in non-Roman scripts or unusual names, such as nicknames. Additionally, please note that one-word names are always considered as first names when syncing.
- Missing contacts in Google Talk
Due to an interdependence between Gmail and Google Talk, removing or replacing contacts in Gmail may require you to reauthorize some contacts for chatting in Google Talk. This can also happen if contacts are merged or deleted and then synced.
