Google Sync Beta for iPhone, WinMo and SyncML Phones

Monday, February 9, 2009 | 9:15 AM

One of the hardest parts about switching phones is getting your address book and calendar to your new device. We're making that process a little easier by releasing a beta version of Google Sync for the iPhone and Windows Mobile phones as well as a contacts-only version for phones that support SyncML.

For iPhone and Windows Mobile devices, Google Sync allows you to get your Gmail Contacts and Google Calendar events to your phone. Once you set up Sync on your phone, it will automatically begin synchronizing your address book and calendar in the background, over-the-air, so you can attend to other tasks. Sync uses push technology so any changes or additions to your calendar or contacts are reflected on your device in minutes. The connection is always on so you don't have to manually sync your phone after Sync has been set up. This means that when your colleague changes the time of the TPS report cover sheets meeting, you'll know about it right away.

Since Sync is a two-way service, you can make changes on your phone or in your Google Account. Your calendar and contacts are always up-to-date, no matter where you are or what you're doing. Also, since your data is automatically backed up to your Google Account, it's securely stored even if you lose your phone.

For devices that support the open SyncML protocol, Google Sync will allow for two-way contacts synchronization. If you're a BlackBerry user, a version of Google Sync is already available.

Following the Google credo to launch early and iterate, we're introducing Sync in beta. We encourage you to visit our Help Center to review device specific instructions and known issues. Also, please keep in mind that Google Sync may remove all existing contacts and calendar events from your phone, so make sure to back up any important data before you set it up. You can find more information on backing up in the Help Center.

To try Sync out, visit m.google.com/sync

Posted by Bryan Mawhinney, Software Engineer, Google Mobile

Labels: Calendar, Contacts, google sync, iphone, Mobile Blog, windows mobile

176 comments:

Cliff said...: When will sync be available for S60?; February 9, 2009 at 9:46 AM
Unknown said...: When might be see email sync'ed in the same way??; February 9, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Andrew Leer said...: Can ya sync over wifi too?; February 9, 2009 at 10:23 AM
Ross said...: Thanks for using Exchange/Activesync, rather than releasing this as Yet Another Piece of Software.; February 9, 2009 at 10:29 AM
Bill said...: But if I'm already using Exchange ActiveSync for work, I can't create another Exchange account on the iPhone, correct? Only one Exchange account can exist.; February 9, 2009 at 10:33 AM
Unknown said...: It actually doesn't say anything about Windows Mobile phones. And the address to go to has no way to get started. Are we out of luck?; February 9, 2009 at 10:39 AM
Anonymous said...: This is one your best functions yet ... include GMail to download into the inbox for outlook mobile on Windows Mobile, and you may something more complete for those of us who don't have enterprise access to our work servers via active-sync; February 9, 2009 at 10:39 AM
Sean said...: Is it not supporting the iPod Touch? I follow the instructions, get to the sync stage and I never see the "Sync" button.; February 9, 2009 at 10:54 AM
Anonymous said...: The only part missing is a decent mac to google sync utility. what about buying spanning sync or fruux and releasing it as google mac sync?; February 9, 2009 at 10:59 AM
Ray said...: Any chance of adding calendar data to the SyncML interface? This is functionality I've been hoping for for a while.; February 9, 2009 at 11:13 AM
Unknown said...: Will this also be supported on the hosted (Google Apps) version of gmail?; February 9, 2009 at 11:14 AM
renczus said...: there is probably some kind of a bug when it comes to S60 calendar sync. I can sync events down to my Nokia E51 device, but no matter how I try, I cannot sync any event up to Google. I hope it will soon be solved. As for today I still have to use goosync.com for calendar sync.

Btw: Where can I choose which of my calendars are supposed to be in sync? By default only my main calendar is being synchronized, but I want some ohers too.; February 9, 2009 at 11:23 AM
WVUAd said...: Using activesync makes this completely usesless if you use your phone to get your work email. Guess I'll keep paying for outside software to sync gcal and my contacts.; February 9, 2009 at 11:23 AM
Vegard said...: Your instructions says to go to m.google.com/sync to choose which calendars to sync, but if I go to that URL on my iPhone using Mobile Safari it tells me that my device isn't supported yet. Is this a bug?; February 9, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Robin Seneta said...: This is GREAT with a big BUT...Exchange is a business tool and if people have exchange accounts they are already using them for their work. So now I can't use it for my personal calendar with Google because I only get one exchange????? This does NOT help me...GOOGLE-can you fix this? Apple can you fix this????? You are STILL missing a market!; February 9, 2009 at 11:31 AM
Stefan said...: maybe i'm a bit slow, but i typed m.google.com/sync on my E71 and it doesn't really do anything but tell me to type in ... you guessed it: m.google.com/sync; February 9, 2009 at 11:36 AM
Unknown said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; February 9, 2009 at 11:46 AM
Jozef Janitor said...: To enable this service on Google Apps, go to https://www.google.com/a/cpanel/YOURDOMAIN.COM/MobileSettings and select the checkbox.; February 9, 2009 at 11:50 AM
Yanda said...: how does one select the calendars to sync if you are on hosted apps? m.google.com/sync only seems to work with Gmail/Google accounts (not hosted). Thx!; February 9, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Terry's Blog said...: nice start. We need more than 5 Google calendars to sync. We also need the calendar colors to be the same as the colors on the desktop. Thanks!; February 9, 2009 at 12:05 PM
Petar Smilajkov - Peconi said...: It's beta all right. It syncs all google cal calendars from an account as one.

It does not sync back to mobile me, but it keeps it separate from all calendars since it works as an Exchange server.

Peconi
http://iBetaTest.com/; February 9, 2009 at 12:09 PM
Unknown said...: CRAP!!! Google has overlooked a common APPLE MISTAKE which APPLE love to make and will never improve.
"You can have only ONE active Exchange account on the iPhone" That's just marvelous. Truly!! I'm still struggling to get ONE common calendar on my iphone which will sync my work calendar (Exchange) and my Google Cal. I use PLAXO so it's possible. But not the most dependable solution. When I first saw this blog entry, I jumped. But when I saw that I needed to add another "Exchange" account for Google Synch - I was like this is BS. Apple, hear me out - this is BS!; February 9, 2009 at 12:17 PM
Unknown said...: I love this feature! It is working perfectly from my iPhone (since I'm not using any other Exchange servers, though that is Apple's fault and not Google's!). The only thing I'm hoping for soon is e-mail push. This is a great first step from Google though!; February 9, 2009 at 12:23 PM
Allen Lulu said...: My wife and I have separate calendars that we add to on GCal. I need to and often do access those two calendars, it's how we manage the house.
iCal is a pain because anything I add to the actual phone has to be dragged and dropped to the left column where the gCal sync resides. I thought this would be a good fix but as soon as I did it, I realized that I would only be able to access one calendar.
It's a bust unless I can access multiple calendars.; February 9, 2009 at 12:26 PM
mlougee said...: A second iTouch question... does anyone know about the Touch, which would be great in the university/campus environment, where wifi is ubiquitous.; February 9, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Mary said...: I am also having the problem with multiple calendars. It is only syncing with one and I'd like to be able to use at least 3. I wasn't sure if you answered this problem on email so I wanted to post too. Thanks.; February 9, 2009 at 12:32 PM
Unknown said...: Allen: You can access multiple calendars. Just go to m.google.com/sync and select what calendars you want to be visible on your device.; February 9, 2009 at 12:32 PM
Mary said...: It finally worked. I swear that wasn't showing up as an option before. I'm not crazy ;-)

Thank you!; February 9, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Bravo PUA said...: wow so many complainers on here!

thanks for making this FREE service for us! Set it up in a few mins and works great!

Any tweaks later, would like to change color of different calenders.

Thanks!; February 9, 2009 at 12:36 PM
Brian said...: Can't seem to select calendars (at m.google.com/sync) as Google Apps user. Doesn't seem to recognize e-mail address and password. Any ideas?; February 9, 2009 at 12:37 PM
Adam said...: Does this sync contact images also?; February 9, 2009 at 12:40 PM
Unknown said...: Thanks guys, this is great functionality on my shiny new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. I now have my contacts safely on my device. It would be nice to be able to sync my calendar to my S60 device as well but I'll look forward to that in the next release. ;-); February 9, 2009 at 12:51 PM
David K Park said...: anyone got this to work using exchange support for Palm OS?; February 9, 2009 at 1:00 PM
Unknown said...: Oh PLEASE give us email sync too! Then I can ditch mobileme FINALLY!; February 9, 2009 at 1:03 PM
Bill said...: For Contacts; does it bring down contact images?; February 9, 2009 at 1:07 PM
Terry's Blog said...: I had a few contact pictures. they do show up after syncing. I was surprised. so I added more pics.; February 9, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Anonymous said...: So... when can I get my Exchange email, calendar, and contacts on my G1? So far, the only thing I can sync is my calendar - and that requires an app to be installed on my work PC! Not cool, Google! We want native Exchange client capability in our Google Phones! (At least... some of us do!) I don't understand why you'd work on Apple, Blackberry, and Symbian platforms whilst leaving your most dedicated customers in the dust!; February 9, 2009 at 1:25 PM
Test Blog said...: For those with google apps having trouble logging into m.google.com/sync here is the fix:

Go to m.google.com, click on "Google Apps User? tap to configure for your domain"

At the top you will see a new sync icon displayed, click it. If you are already logged into google apps you will be taken automatically to the screen where you can define which calendars are synced OTA.; February 9, 2009 at 1:45 PM
margaret said...: Can I sync to Google contacts and also sync my calendar to my current solution (Lotus Notes to iPhone via CompanionLink), as I do now, or is it a both or nothing thing?; February 9, 2009 at 1:45 PM
RosOne said...: I had problems selecting the calendars which I want to be synced. Going to m.google.com/sync on my iPhone showed a "not supported device" page.

Changing the language to English fixed that. Guess that'll help some people.; February 9, 2009 at 1:48 PM
Jason said...: Please please please port this to the android!; February 9, 2009 at 1:57 PM
Todd Ogasawara said...: Figure. User-error (me). Didn't look at the m.google.com/sync checkboxes. Sigh; February 9, 2009 at 2:28 PM
Dave said...: mh, just can't set it up (win mobile).
entered all my data but it won't sync.
is there a problem with my google account? its not a gmail account. (its mail@davidberger.de)
or is it my language? (german).
you are all talking about options and checkboxes (which calendar to sync, etc.) but I can't find them! Can u help me? thx!

with regards
David; February 9, 2009 at 2:57 PM
Major_Grooves said...: Will you ever make calendar sync for N95 available? I've just started using Google Calendar and would love to have it on my phone.; February 9, 2009 at 3:25 PM
Unknown said...: WM6.1 syncs calander and contacts flawlessly and I LOVE the speed at which the changes are reflected in both devices.

Possible Bug: I cannot change the fileing format (ie "lastname, firstname" vs "firstname lastname") of any contact with an email address. It seems it always defaults to "lastname, firstname".

Any work arounds/fixes?; February 9, 2009 at 3:32 PM
Major_Grooves said...: Argh - just realised sync has wiped all my phone number type tags - so I don't know if each number is Mobile (home) or Mobile (work)!!!; February 9, 2009 at 3:32 PM
renczus said...: @Major_Grooves:
You should have done some backup.
Everyone should.

MEN IT'S BETA!!; February 9, 2009 at 3:53 PM
Daniel Cater said...: I hope there are plans for calendar syncing using SyncML. I want my Nokia N95 to sync with Google Calendar without having to pay for Goosync!; February 9, 2009 at 4:04 PM
shanelord said...: Hi,

I've got it working for my domain via the "How to get this working via your Google Apps for your domain" link on the Known Issues page.

HOWEVER:

The feature to adjust which calendars are sync'd doesn't work on apps accounts - you can't login via the standard google login window, so browsing to m.google.com/sync to setup your calendars doesn't work.

How do I do this? Please tell me this can be fixed or I'm doing something wrong!

Regards,
Shane.; February 9, 2009 at 4:36 PM
Some Bloke said...: When will Google contacts handle the title field as a separate field like all other programs. If I sync address book with Google Contacts it messes up the first name and title together. Sorry to sound ungrateful, I love everything else, is it only me who still uses Mr. Mrs. etc for mail merging?; February 9, 2009 at 4:36 PM
Endre Stølsvik said...: Is this Nuevasync?; February 9, 2009 at 5:00 PM
sLoP said...: Pity that Google reduces the size/quality of contact images. I had some beautiful Images set for contacts on my Touch HD, but after syncing they became very bad quality. :-/

Also m.google.com/sync says to me that my device (HTC Touch HD, WinMo 6.1) is not supported (but it works! sort of..), so i can only sync my private calender as for now.; February 9, 2009 at 5:48 PM
Michael said...: oh, great news.

Will it support GMail sync and Task sync on my Windows Mobile soon?

Thanks; February 9, 2009 at 6:02 PM
Unknown said...: Very nice but i would like to have some calendar Sync with SyncML devices...; February 9, 2009 at 6:09 PM
vit1251 said...: Some problem with duplication and photo loading unloading...; February 9, 2009 at 6:25 PM
Unknown said...: Excellent addition to my iPhone! I would like to see the option to change the calendar colors on the iPhone, or at least have them match the ones on the desktop. Thank you!; February 9, 2009 at 7:29 PM
Joe Lo said...: This is great! I can't wait till gmail gets the same treatment! I'd love to be able to get my gmail over Exchange!; February 9, 2009 at 7:35 PM
shanelord said...: @Alex re: Colors of iPhone calendars - these are set byt the iphone and are fixed - you always get the same color for cal 1, cal 2 etc etc.

Regards,
Shane.; February 9, 2009 at 7:53 PM
Unknown said...: "please keep in mind that Google Sync may remove all existing contacts and calendar events from your phone."

Why?! Why would you (Google) introduce a service that potentially wipes data from a client's phone ?! How did that make it past User Experience screening ?! Also, where's the outrage in this forum? If M$ were doing this it'd be wall-to-wall insults. Why does Goog get a pass ? None of this makes sense.; February 9, 2009 at 8:17 PM
Adrynalyne said...: Beta is for testing, not production work. So if someone is using this on a work device, or something important, and doesnt have a backup..well that is their mistake and stupidity.

Beta.

Oh, did I mention this is beta?; February 9, 2009 at 8:33 PM
Unknown said...: Thanks! What I was looking for, but it doesn't work for me.

Data:

HTC Touch on Bell Mobility Canada.
Lastest Opera Mobile Browser

When I go to m.google.com/sync it simply asks me to go to "m.google.com/sync".

When I enter in my phone number in a regular browser (a British Columbia, Canada phone number) it says the number isn't valid.

Keep up the hard work. :)

Thanks.; February 9, 2009 at 8:36 PM
Adrynalyne said...: Just in case it wasn't mentioned enough:

I would LOVE to see syncing of gmail in the same manner. Right now I feel a little silly having calendar and contacts that are push, and email that is not.

Of course, I have my Live account that has push email, but not the other...

Please add email support!; February 9, 2009 at 8:51 PM
Mama said...: Overall, this looks fantastic. The Exchange issue is certainly one and not having much say over the UI is certainly another, but others have mentioned that. One issue that I'm having is that I have two public calendars set up. I only selected one to snyc but it syncs two regardless. Might be something to check out.; February 9, 2009 at 8:52 PM
Ryan Smith said...: Great! Next, introduce Exchange syncing for your Android platform!; February 9, 2009 at 9:14 PM
Unknown said...: HEY IM WONDERING Y GOOGLE HAS LEFT INDIA HAS BEEN LEFT OUT OF THE FRAY.......USUALLY IT INCLUDES INDIA IN MOST OF ITS ENDEAVOURS BUT ON THE IPHONE APPSTORE, U CANT ACCESS ANY GOOGLE APPLICATIONS VIA THE INDIA STORE..... :(

TELL ME WHY PLEASE....

LOOKING FORWARD TO AN QUICK REPLY FROM YOU GUYS....; February 9, 2009 at 9:18 PM
一平 said...: palm，palm，palm
i beg you!; February 9, 2009 at 9:50 PM
JG said...: This doesn't appear to work with corporate gMail accounts. Any idea when that might work?; February 9, 2009 at 10:20 PM
Diego said...: I'm also getting a message saying device not supported from m.google.com/sync when I try to configure the calendars that I want to receive on my first gen iPod Touch, please fix this! Otherwise the sync works fine.; February 9, 2009 at 10:42 PM
Anonymous said...: It's a really big deal, because you normaly have to pay a lot to get this service. For all who get the "not supported device" message: change the language to english on the web interface of google sync. Apps users have to go to m.google.com first setup their domain and login, then the service shows up in the list.

Thx for the great work again. All the complains about one exchange account and wiping data has to be written to Apple.

maybe you can improve the calender sharing an appointment functions.

Bye; February 9, 2009 at 10:55 PM
kuchinster said...: Excellent! It has long been desired to synchronize your Smartphone E-Series with Google contacts. Add remaining sync Calendar and notes - and will be super!; February 10, 2009 at 12:32 AM
Steve said...: Good grief this entry has a LOT of whinging comments. Thank you Bryan Mawhinney and the rest of the team for pushing this out early so that bugs can be ironed out quickly. I for one am incredibly happy with it and had it set up in moments. Really, it wasn't very difficult to go to m.google.com/sync and follow the instructions, on a s60 phone and an iPhone.
All this garble of 'we DEMAND calendars for s60', 'shock horror its deleted everything on my phone'. Get over it, jeeze. This is the thing about betas, they have bugs or missing features. And its the device's fault that you've lost all your data, not google's. How so many people can be so dissatisfied with FREE, early BETAS is beyond me.; February 10, 2009 at 12:40 AM
Piero Cavina said...: I have a Symbian S60 R3, contacts sync doesn't work from the phone to Google, only the other way.; February 10, 2009 at 1:00 AM
Unknown said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; February 10, 2009 at 1:34 AM
msr said...: Awesome feature, now I can finally drop the clunky third-party sync apps for a actual push solution to sync my calendars.

One very significant setback though, at least for any Japanese (and perhaps Korean?) user, is the lack of the phonetic name fields in Google Contacts.

Contacts with Japanese names can't be sorted without these fields, making them pretty much useless on a mobile phone (imagine hand-sifting through 500 unsorted contacts everytime you want to make a quick call..!). Just this alone makes it impossible to adopt Google Sync for contacts.

I, for one, and probably any other Japanese user would switch over to Google Contact Manager from any other local contact management the moment these fields were supported, in total rejoice!; February 10, 2009 at 2:14 AM
Unknown said...: Regarding the problems with choosing which calendars to sync and in addition to what "Test Blog" said...

You need to make sure you have ENGLISH LANGUAGE set everywhere to even see the "Google Sync Icon" at m.google.com.

Thanks!; February 10, 2009 at 2:51 AM
Anonymous said...: Just me or dose multiple calendar NOT work for windows mobile....
i cant change any settings on m.google.com/sync
not in ie mobile... not in opera mobile. and not even when i try to use the user agent string from an iphone :-(; February 10, 2009 at 2:53 AM
Roben said...: You can sync your Nokia Symbian S60 mobile using nokia's mail for exchange tool: http://www.businesssoftware.nokia.com/mail_for_exchange_downloads.php

Just tried it, it works. Configuration is equal to windows mobile.; February 10, 2009 at 3:48 AM
Roben said...: I finally managed to select all my google apps calendars for my Nokia N78 using Nokia Mail for Exchange!

The problem is that the calendar-selection page only appears on certain mobile browser. It also did not show up on my symbian opera.

Here is what i did:
First, download https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59
for your firefox (or something similar for your prefered browser, don't think it's possible for chrome).
Then add a new user agent to the plugin (called iphone or something) with this user agent string:
Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; XXXXX like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/241 Safari/419.3
Finally, select your new user agent and go to:
https://m.google.com/sync/settings/a/YOUR-DOMAIN/iconfig/
(Thanks to http://www.pwn3d.com for this link!).

You now should be able to configure your mobile devices.

To the google mobile team: Could you *please* allow normal browser to access this page? Won't hurt anyone!; February 10, 2009 at 4:48 AM
Unknown said...: Line: 260
Char: 3
Error: 'SendToPhoneClient' is undefined
Code: 0
URL: http://www.google.com/mobile/samsung/; February 10, 2009 at 5:38 AM
Solo Fulla said...: Fine!!! I had some troubles to sync all calendars on iphone. But the solution is: visit m.google.com/sync (if say that your device is not supported, just change the lenguage to english) and select whath calendars you want to sync.

Good work. I was waitting this feature. Let's go to gdocs aplication with sync and world will be yours; February 10, 2009 at 6:13 AM
Anonymous said...: the user agent patch works. if you are running chrome then the command line arguments
--user-agent="Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5G77 Safari/525.20"
works too!
then go to m.google.com select united states as location and english as language.
On the config page i can select PocketPc Device and then set the calendars to be synced. But it dosent work. Windows mobile still only syncs my main calendar.; February 10, 2009 at 6:13 AM
大仙 said...: it doesn't support nokia e71 now; February 10, 2009 at 7:44 AM
Unknown said...: You should place a note in the instructions that states if you are currently using MobileMe to push contacts and calendar events to the iPhone, there is no data loss when you configure Goolge via MS Exchange. MM data and Google data exist very nicely together. This is a beautiful thing.; February 10, 2009 at 8:21 AM
Anonymous said...: I almost can't believe the absence of Palm support. Yes, it's old buit it's been around forever.. Just because Palm is coming out with Pre and WebOS doesn't mean Palm OS will vanish overnight. I bet there is someone on your staff that could add the Palm functionality with their eyes closed... Please add Palm support, DON'T make us use the Web based approach on our crappy Blazer browser Please!!! Aren't we penalized enough?; February 10, 2009 at 9:32 AM
Mary said...: That's a very useful feature! It's time to convergence, right?; February 10, 2009 at 9:39 AM
Mir said...: I went through the sync steps as indicated, yesterday, giddy with delight at finally being able to sync my Google Calendar with my iPhone calendar. It worked and I may have done a little victory dance here at my desk.

Today I discovered that I can no longer retrieve my Gmail on my phone. At all. I have mail turned off in the sync app (not supported yet, right?), but the previous Gmail retrieval account I set up is broken, I guess, although I can't figure out why or how. When I try to retrieve mail my iPhone says "connecting" forever and that's it.

Help?; February 10, 2009 at 10:30 AM
RS said...: This service looks great but I may not use it because if some underlying issues I have with my Google contacts.

I would like to maintain the association of photos with my contacts on my iPhone (to see a photo along with caller ID). There is no way I see where you can import photos of my contacts into Google's contact system.

Surprisingly to me, Google's contact system has always seemed poor and short on features. I was hoping for an overhaul of Google's contact framework before these services were offered.

Hopefully Google will address this soon.; February 10, 2009 at 10:37 AM
Unknown said...: So it looks like so far I'm the only one who's having this problem

set this up with my iPhone and everything seemed fine for about 10 minutes, the exception being that the mail account set up through the sync account wasn't working

The set up of which calendars to sync seemed to work fine too. But then I turned on "push" and changed some stuff around on my web-based versions of google calendar

Now calendar crashes every time I open it, mail crashes instantly when opened, and make this whole thing completely unbearable, my setting crash when i try to open both "push/fetch" and "mail, contacts and calendar" so I CAN'T TURN SYNC OFF

I tried restarting my phone: nothing. I tried restoring my phone from backup: no change

I don't know what I'm going to do except completely wipe my phone and start over...

Be EXTREMELY careful with this beta - unless anyone has any ideas about how to get it off my phone and try installing again, it's created the perfect storm - crashes everything and you can't get rid of it; February 10, 2009 at 11:14 AM
dmaphy said...: What about syncing with computer software like syncevolution on linux? it's a SyncML-Tool but synchronisation with Google Sync does not work.

Regards; February 10, 2009 at 1:24 PM
Vince said...: How do we report bugs? Modifying a calendar entry on my iPhone resulted in a duplicated meeting on my google calendar.; February 10, 2009 at 1:31 PM
Josh said...: I would like to be able disable syncing from google on my desktop just in case someone steals my phone and deletes my contacts. Where should I write to reccomend this feature?; February 10, 2009 at 3:12 PM
Pablo said...: I've set up my iphone with google sync and it works great.

but will be supported email in the same way too?; February 10, 2009 at 3:29 PM
airdogg said...: It now appears as though this has broken the ability to sync Apple Address Book with Google Contacts.; February 10, 2009 at 3:33 PM
Mr.Floppy said...: Thanks for fue advice on the muktiple calendars issue!

I dumped NuevaSync. Google Sync works better (contact images is one of them).

Now all that I need is Push Gmail and a Gmail Tasks sync too (or gears with future html5); February 10, 2009 at 4:18 PM
Faceless Man said...: Thanks Google. One problem I've noticed is that if I enter a contact with a non US address - even if I have the country listed as AUSTRALIA - when it syncs on the iPhone the Google Maps application fails as it looks up the address as something like 5 Wombat Crescent, Sydney, NSW Australia UNITED STATES. Umm... sometimes it seems that way but I think we're not a US state yet. I can fix Contacts by editing on the iPhone but any edit using Google Contacts reinserts the US. Please tell your buddies at Apple to permit more than one ActiveSync account in a future firmware release.; February 10, 2009 at 6:45 PM
Dr. Locke said...: Google - THANK YOU! I am in sync heaven on my iphone. I've got multiple calendars and my contacts on my phone and online. I've got email via APPS and IMAP. AND - everything actually worked the very first time unlike mobileme. NOW, please...

- Exchange push email (apps)

- Icing on the cake someday: Fully-functional tasks with things like tags, contexts, sorting, views, etc.; February 10, 2009 at 8:35 PM
NuShrike said...: It's broken for my WM6.1 device. Does not work OTA through AT&T nor USB ActiveSync. HAS to be through WiFi. Just trying to sync 93 calendar entries, it stops at 50 and then gives a failure code of 0x80004005, and many other ones.

Your example setup with @googlemail.com is very misleading since most of us use @gmail.com .

Also, there is a way to get multiple Exchange pairing partnerships in WM if you can find the default registry entry that turns it off.

Your comment page is incompatible with Opera also.; February 10, 2009 at 11:10 PM
Karsten said...: On this page:

http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=98258&topic=15014

It says S60 is supported but when I go to m.google.com/sync using my Nokia N95 8GB I get an error saying my phone is not supported..; February 11, 2009 at 4:15 AM
ikspres said...: Thanks for this service!
But I can't sync with multiple calendars. I tried to visit m.google.com/sync with ipod touch 2G. At first the site said the device is not supported(I'm in Korea) and I changed language as english. and succeeded to login to m.google.com/sync. but there is no option to select multiple calendars. There is only one link 'How to setup Google Sync on Iphone' in the page.; February 11, 2009 at 5:13 AM
Unknown said...: It cannot be found and install in Hong Kong at this moment. Nothing could be found in the App Store of iPhone.; February 11, 2009 at 5:13 AM
ikspres said...: One more thing on the above comment. I'm using calendar service through Google Apps!; February 11, 2009 at 5:16 AM
Unknown said...: This is working a treat on the iPhone. Many thanks for this Google, it's great!

One question, is there a way of always forcing the alert to be on 5 minutes before an appointment is due on the iPhone? I.E. at the moment if I setup an appointment on the Google calendar via a browser, the meeting is pushed to the iPhone correctly but the alert is not enabled.

Might be something very simple but I cannot find the answer after much hacking about.

Many thanks for the help.; February 11, 2009 at 6:09 AM
rub said...: Hi, Google Sync only synchronizes in both directiones one of my calendars. With the other calendars with the other does nothing. Do you know where is the problem?; February 11, 2009 at 6:55 AM
Robert Brewer said...: Works like a charm!! Also, it's free! I was signed up as a Mobile Me subscriber, but that whole thing is a bag of garbage...I just wanted it to do what this service does and was willing to pay $99 for it and this one is free!!

Thanks a ton. :); February 11, 2009 at 9:58 AM
Unknown said...: @shanelord
Colors of iPhone calendars - these are set by the iphone in a fixed order (red, orange, blue, green, purple). You can sync 3 calendars, they get red, orange, blue. Then remove calendar 2, now you have a red and a blue calendar. You can add and remove temporary calendars to get the colors you want. Exception is that the google default calendar cannot be unchecked and not synced, so it is stuck red.; February 11, 2009 at 10:52 PM
asiart.ch said...: If you've got the problem of not being able to access m.google.com/sync from your iphone, it might help to change the language of this site to english
the article below helped me
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=7fe5bc12018fe288&hl=en; February 12, 2009 at 3:57 AM
ahtokca said...: Only contacts sync is supported for Nokia 6500. Do I understand right?
At least the link http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=98265&topic=15015
explains only how to sync your contacts. Right?; February 12, 2009 at 8:47 AM
n* '09 said...: I've waited for this for so long!!! Now, waiting for calendar sync for s60 as well. I know you will not let me down, right? ;)

Thanks!!!!!; February 12, 2009 at 8:49 AM
Unknown said...: It should be mentioned that the iPhone only supports ONE exchange account, and if you already have that set up to sync your work email and calendar, you can't use this - at least on the iPhone.; February 12, 2009 at 9:04 AM
Jeff Rutherford said...: Any plans to release this sync feature for Helio Ocean phones (Virgin Mobile)?; February 12, 2009 at 11:55 AM
ikspres said...: If you want to sync with multiple calendars and can not find config menu in http://m.google.com/sync.

I guess you may be a Google Apps user.

In that case visit http://m.google.com/?d=yourdomainname.com (and change languge to english) then you you cna find sync icon.; February 12, 2009 at 3:46 PM
Lloyd Kreuzer said...: Calendar sync is great but how can it be configured for our hosted apps on google?; February 12, 2009 at 9:09 PM
DarthIA said...: Please, add Calendar Sync to Symbian (SyncML) devices as soon as possible. It's a killer feature for me!; February 13, 2009 at 3:48 AM
neoxx said...: hi,

thanks for this very useful feature. - it not only made me finally dump birdiesync (which syncs between mozilla apps and windows mobile), the google exchange server sync is much faster than the client-based solution and also more convenient. compared to my previous approach it took only seconds to sync the same entries whereas before it several minutes. moreover, now also my profile pics are synced. - just great!

just one thing: referring to a how-to i followed months ago, i stored all my google contacts as lastname, prename. after syncing with the google exchange server the result is prename, lastname, on my cellphone. that of course led to doubled contacts and killed a bit of leisure time.

anyway, after correcting i have two different views now: lastname, firstname on my cellphone and firstname lastname in my google contacts. - is it possible to also have a lastname, firstname list in google contacts? if not, maybe you guys from google could be so kind... ;)

thanks again,
berny; February 13, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Anonymous said...: How about proper time zone setting for world travellers. I just changed time zone in my iPhone, however, in my calender the times are still the same absolute values as from the origin timezone leading to reminders being wrog by the time shift. Set an appointment for 10:00 a.m. in CET (Europe) will lead to reminder coming up at 10:00 a.m. malaysian time although this event would occur 7 hours before that time. at 03:00 a.m. malaysian time as this corresponds to 10:00 a.m. european time.

Useless for world travellers.; February 14, 2009 at 8:41 AM
Chris Andersen said...: This is a great feature. For me it eliminated the plethora of 'suggested contacts' that were automatically synced with and clogged my iphone contacts. Now its o much cleaner. It worked perfectly the first time. My only request is that there be a lastname, firstname display option in Google contacts to match the iPhone.

thanks so much and keep up your fantastic work.; February 14, 2009 at 11:06 AM
kami said...: For all people having troubles with selecting more than one calendar to sync, i had to change the language to "english" when i access m.google.com/sync

With my default language i got always the error that my ipod touch was not supported.

Just changed it to english, and solved.; February 15, 2009 at 3:00 AM
Staffing Services said...: i am getting not supported device; February 15, 2009 at 8:18 AM
Laurent said...: I tried it on the first day, it didn't work without issue.
I lost some phone numbers, because I already had a few contacts in Google Contacts with the same name (and also email) as my iPhone Contacts. So it didn't resolve it properly. What happened is that the contacts weren't put in "My Contacts", and when I looked in the contacts list "All Contacts", they didn't have their phone number.
I don't know where the problem comes from but the fact that you cannot verify that your iPhone contacts where properly uploaded to Google Contacts didn't help to do it safely.; February 15, 2009 at 10:02 AM
mark said...: Please take the logical next step and add gmail push syncing...Otherwise this is great, thanks for adding this service!; February 15, 2009 at 1:29 PM
Unknown said...: Got everything to work as I wanted however, after two days of using this, I noticed my battery degrades WAY faster than it used to (using PUSH to sync the calendars and contacts, of course). As a logicical next step, I simply changed the cal/contact sync'ing to manually fetch and the problem goes away. Anyone else run into this problem? I dont mind it too much since I dont need to see either of these updated on the fly but it just seemed kinda strange that it would eat up so much battery not only using PUSH but also for items that arent updated that often.; February 15, 2009 at 3:45 PM
This Foxy Mama said...: LOVE this feature. Been waiting for this feature. SO HAPPY!

My only suggestion would be to match calendar colors to my web page calendar - or otherwise provide an option to assign iPhone calendar colors.; February 15, 2009 at 4:09 PM
Trinition said...: Found out the hard way that pictures and ringtones are NOT sync'ed through SyncML (at least with my Nokia 6300 S40). Still having unified contact information is great so far. I'm hoping pictures/ringtones are somehow supported (at least preserved).; February 15, 2009 at 6:32 PM
Unknown said...: Is it possible to sync contact groups?; February 16, 2009 at 11:38 AM
fonso said...: Hi,

I have hundreds of contacts in my gmail. I surely don't want them on my mobile!
The idea is great. I was waiting for this, but the contacts should have an extra field: "propagate to mobile".
And, on first sync, one should be able to choose if all present contact in google mail should be set as non-propagate as a default.
I don't want my phone filled with thousands of people...
Thank you!; February 17, 2009 at 4:38 AM
Anonymous said...: If I have enabled Sync on my I Phone and my company is now going to support email on the Microsoft exchage, it looks like it will only allow me to setup on exchange account. So it is either Google Sync or corp email????; February 17, 2009 at 6:12 AM
Chris Andersen said...: alfonso
we all have the same problem with lots of contacts. sync just imports the ones in 'My contacts' so just make a new group and put the ones you dont want in your phone in there. you can still search thrm in google contacts its easy.; February 17, 2009 at 7:16 AM
fonso said...: Chris:

thank you! :)
That was a useful tip.
I still won't try the app yet, I read of people loosing stuff due to duplicated names.
But this is a great info. thank you!; February 17, 2009 at 7:19 AM
gbby said...: Very helpful, but it would be nice to be able to sync more than 5 calendars. Up to 10 would be ideal.; February 17, 2009 at 9:14 AM
fonso said...: offtopic, but still...

So now I cleaned "my contacts" (amazing, less than 200 entries!).
But I can't go through "all contacts" to hand pick what I actually want to put in "my contacts" (it seems google does not put new people in my contacts anymore).
Since all contacts from "my contacts" are also in "all contacts", I can simply browse "all contacts" and see what I want to add to "my contacts".

So, is there a way to see which contacts from "all contacts" are NOT part of "my contacts"?

thank you.; February 17, 2009 at 9:29 AM
neoxx said...: hi again,

here are my impressions after two days testing the google exchange server (and still beeing happy about it). - unfortunately the sync between my windows mobile 5 and google contact list is not lossless... (remark: i know, in some cases that's not possible)

- every time i save a contact on my phone, the e-mail or im categories like home and work are set to other.

- if people got more than one first name (like most of my asian contacts) this information is not synced correctly. - currently i use an underline between the names instead of a blank.

- more than one phone number of the same category results in duplicate or lost entries in my google contact-list. - i currently try to workaround this bug by using different categories, e.g. home instead of work 2. - in addition a phone number categorized as other is not transfered from google contacts to the mobile.

- only the first three email-addresses or im accounts will be synced (of course, because there are exactly three fields available on my wm5). - anyway, other addresses won't be deleted in your google contacts.

- only the first address of every category will be synced (home, work, other). - same issue as above. - less available fields on the phone than in google contacts.

- the format of the address needs to be street//city//state//zip//country (whereas // means newline) so that the address will be correctly split on the phone. work-around: use N/A if e.g. state is not present.

- if i take contact pics directly on the phone and these pics are not a square, they appear as not in ratio in my google contacts.

i'm sure other failure scenarious can be reproduced, but i'm short of time, so i stick to the major bugs. - anyway, i know it's still beta (as usual ;) ), but this might help others to avoid loss of data.

work-arounds:

- don't use email or im account categories or restore them on every change of the particular card on the mobile

- don't use more than three email addresses or im accounts (or don't expect them to get the synced)

- don't use more than one phone number or address from every category

- don't use the category other for the phone number.

- enter all necessary attributes for addresses. - if an attribute is not given, use N/A instead (btw. where did the nice hotlink to google maps in the pop-menu in my phone's contact list go? i miss mine since the update to google maps latitude)

- use underlines instead of blanks for more than one first name

- set your camera to take contact pics (for my htc qtek this can be found in the menu capture mode) as these pics need to be squares.

can anybody reproduce this sync-behaviour on a wm6?

one last thought: may we get a web page section with n fields which will also be synced?

greetz,
berny; February 17, 2009 at 3:49 PM
Ministertb said...: I have several groups of contacts in my address book. When I sync I no longer had my groups.

I think this is a great idea. But if you could fix this problem, I wold be grateful.; February 17, 2009 at 8:46 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; February 18, 2009 at 1:01 AM
bcorse said...: I have sony ericsson p1
contacts with google sync ok
calendar data bas not found
please help me; February 19, 2009 at 1:32 AM
rub said...: Finally, I was unable to synchronize the main calendar with my iPhone, my other two calendars synchronize perfectly. To solve this, I have exported the events of my main calendar to new one, so the main calendar is not used. Now, my 3 calendars sync, ok.; February 19, 2009 at 1:45 AM
Bubbe said...: FYI: If not already stated previously.

When trying to sync, you have to log in from your phone and choose ENGLISH as language. Otherwise you might not find the login screen and it might complain over your device not being compatible.

If you're using Google Apps log in to m.google.com and configure it to your page. Then at your page you can find the link to Google Sync.

Hope this helps!; February 19, 2009 at 4:21 AM
Unknown said...: Did it support the sync of google contact groups to iphone?
Thanks.; February 20, 2009 at 7:56 PM
Yash Maheshwari said...: Why isn't a S60v3 FP2 client available yet? Is it really that difficult?; February 21, 2009 at 1:32 PM
Chris Andersen said...: alsiladka,
why??? because its a stupid phone, thats why. Save yourself the endless aggravation that comes with the S60v3. Get an iPhone, silly. It works perfectly and no headaches.; February 21, 2009 at 2:17 PM
gadgetGaz said...: I managed to select the calendars that I want to sync using the previously mentioned firefox user agent hack. Thanks.

However, selecting the extra calendars makes no difference, it still only syncs my main calendar on this winmo6.1 device.

Does anyone with a windows mobile actually have multiple calendar sync working as I am reading conflicting info?
Thanks.; February 22, 2009 at 11:45 AM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; February 23, 2009 at 12:47 AM
Unknown said...: What happened to multiple alerts for calendar events?; February 23, 2009 at 7:29 PM
zackary said...: Thanks, Google Sync worked first time using my Nokia N95 8GB phone :); February 24, 2009 at 7:39 AM
lemonacid said...: What happens with Exchange Activesync protocol? My HTC Tytn cannot synchronize from Feb 18 10:12UTC :(; February 25, 2009 at 1:14 AM
lemonacid said...: Cliff, if your S60 smartphone supports Exchange Activesync protocol, you can use it. Follow intructions for Windows Mobile for set up. My friend uses Echange Activesync for syncing SonyEricsson G900, all works fine.; February 25, 2009 at 1:17 AM
Alim said...: Well I've got this working on my WM6.1 mobile, to some extent.
I can't sync multiple calendars and when I visit m.google.com/sync on my mobile it says:

"Google Sync allows Contcts and Calendar synchronization with many phones. To find out if your phone is supported and learn how to setup Google Sync visit the Google Mobile website on your computer."

Anything I can do?; February 25, 2009 at 12:18 PM
BazzaC said...: Hi

I'm looking to know how often GMail syncs with the iPhone once it's setup?

Thanks

Baz; February 26, 2009 at 3:48 AM
Chris Andersen said...: Baz,
Gmail doesn't sync automatically with the iPhone yet. It syncs whenever you run the mail app in the phone. The contacts and calendar sync within 10 or 15 seconds after you make a change.; February 26, 2009 at 7:38 AM
BazzaC said...: Legend.. thanks a mil Chris; February 26, 2009 at 7:44 AM
Donny Wijaya said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; February 26, 2009 at 10:44 AM
Donny Wijaya said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; February 26, 2009 at 10:57 AM
Unknown said...: When is google planing to support calendar sync via SyncML? It's very important and not so complicated. I wonder why google don't provider it now... Please add it :); February 26, 2009 at 7:24 PM
Chris Andersen said...: Ramesh

Just so you know, SyncML is a waste of time to get involved with. Google was wise to pass that over. One who knows.; February 26, 2009 at 7:58 PM
Piero Cavina said...: Chris: you can't ignore the most popular smartphones in the world just because you don't like some technology. Goosync has done a nice work with SyncML and Google, so it can be done.
Besides, it's half done. If you enable Calendar sync in your S60, it almost works one way - last time I tried.; February 26, 2009 at 11:21 PM
Chris Andersen said...: argiasbolenfi
the problem is that the protocol is just way too vague. That results in different interpretations by developers and too many incompatibilities between various devices and servers. "it almost works one way - last time I tried." is how its always going to be with SyncML. Google is smart not to mess with it. Get an iPhone and get on with your life.; February 27, 2009 at 12:20 AM
Unknown said...: BE VERY CAREFUL! INTERNET DATA COSTS WENT THROUGH THE ROOF!

I've been syncing my i-mate k-jam for about two weeks. It works brilliantly and I think it's fantastic. However - I set the activesync schedule for "when items arrive" - I was concerned when I noticed everytime I looked at activesync - it always had just synced within a few minutes prior even though I hadn't touched my contacts or calendar on my phone OR in gmail all day. I've just checked my online mobile phone account with vodafone - and my syncing has just cost me $1300 for two weeks!! 90c each sync! Somehow, setting activesync to "when items arrive" still generated on average about 90 syncs a day! - when in reality - after the original sync - I'd add a calendar event maybe once or twice a day - and changed something in contacts maybe once every 3 days. My advice would be to ensure you set your activesync to manual sync otherwise you may be in danger of winding up with an enormous bill. Wish me luck in my 'negotiations' with vodafone on Monday.; February 27, 2009 at 4:52 AM
Unknown said...: Yeah, I posted a message about this a while back using my iPhone. I have the unlimited data plan on it but it KILLED my battery due to the number of "sync updates" it was doing. I resolved this problem by manually syncing when I look at my calendar or contacts which really helped. I feel bad for those who dont have an unlimited data plan.; February 27, 2009 at 8:22 AM
Unknown said...: MORE THAN ONE EXCHANGE SYNC PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEE; February 27, 2009 at 11:14 AM
Zac said...: This is awesome! Thank you. I sync my Novell email and calendar to my phone through Google. Sweet!; February 27, 2009 at 1:53 PM
RobRedbeard said...: Please do what you can to get this working on mobile phones in China running on China Mobile. I'm an American working in a large Chinese company here, and got our company to switch over to Google Apps. Everyone loves it and is really turning on to Google. Thanks to the Kingsoft/Google Dictionary and the excellent Google Chinese IME you're winning hearts and minds. However, all of our management personnel carry Windows Mobiles or iPhones (maybe Android when the HTC Magic releases, we need to write on our screens). They all want to use sync for Google Calendar (not contacts, we use outlook for that). However, m.google.com redirects to m.google.cn and sync doesn't seem to be on that server.; February 27, 2009 at 6:45 PM
Unknown said...: This is awsome! Can't wait for G to enable SyncML for Calendar too, that will be so full of win and awsomenes!; March 1, 2009 at 8:46 AM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; March 1, 2009 at 9:41 PM
Anonymous said...: I am a Symbian phone owner. It is good we can now sync contacts, but what I really need is to be able to sync calendars. At present I have to go through Outlook and I want to make Google the server calendar and all others: phone, desktop etc the client. So please google can you get calendar syncing to other phones too ASAP. Cheers.; March 4, 2009 at 8:54 AM
jleyanna said...: I am sure someone has posted on this but I would be elated if the "groups" could be sync'd as well as the contact info I love what you have done so far. I am telling everyone I know about this service!!!; March 4, 2009 at 12:08 PM
History Mark said...: Yes, this is a great service and has been working great so far (just activated it on my iPhone today).

I agree with the comments above that it is best to set the calendar and contact sync to manual (took me a bit to find it in the "Push" section of the Settings page) to save battery life.

As for future work on this beta project, my first recommendation would be allow for the syncing of specific contact groups so that 100s or 1000s of email-only contacts don't clutter up the phone's contact file. Thanks and keep up the good work!; March 7, 2009 at 5:20 PM
Chris Andersen said...: Mark,
Currently only the entries in the 'My Contacts' group are synced. Your prayers are answered. its already been done.

Chris; March 7, 2009 at 7:31 PM
Edu Roca said...: I'm not in the US but when looking up a contact's address on my phone via Google Maps, they will all have "United States" added at the end of the address search, even though it's not in the Contact details.; March 8, 2009 at 8:16 PM
Runkle said...: Same issue as Michael (feb 10 post) this has broken the ability to sync Apple Address Book with Google Contacts. Any fix for this coming?; March 9, 2009 at 10:27 AM
VG said...: LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!
Works great on my unlocked Roger's HTC Touch running WM6.1.
Can't wait for email and tasks syncing!!! Also I hope that there will be ability to sync attendees added from the mobile device with google calendar...
My contacts were not deleted off of my mobe... it simply murged Gmail contacts with my WM. There is an option that you can change when you setup your exchange server... don't remember eactly how it is called but it is there if you go through all the options during your setup.
Works better then Windows Live! - ditching my hotmail account alltogather!
Also pleased to see users of different platforms especially WM and iPhone not fighting whos system is better - way to go!
Once again thank you Google for this amaising addition to your beta family :).; March 22, 2009 at 3:25 AM
Unknown said...: Would it be possible to aslo show the contact-groups on an Iphone?
Right now all contact appear in one big list on the Iphone while they are ordered in groups in gmail.; March 24, 2009 at 7:53 AM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.; March 28, 2009 at 2:59 AM
Jesus Rolleyes said...: This "works" but I think it's too limited to help me. I have a personal @gmail account with calendar, and two different Apps for my Domain calendars (each shared/managed by different groups of people: one is a volunteer group I am involved with and the other is work), and all of this seems to only work with a single calendar and single faux-Exchange account... so I can active sync ONE of these three calendars, but that actually removes the (regular iTunes) syncing of all of them, so I lose everything else.

(I even tried making one "master" calendar for me that included the others, but Google Cal won't let me admin/edit calendars from another domain no matter what settings I try).

Am I missing something or is this a single-account-and-calendar-or-nothing sytem?; April 4, 2009 at 2:09 PM
Justin said...: Great. Absolutely great.
Contact sync slightly troubles Korean users with the name format('file as...') though, it's lovely.

And, push mail service would make it perfect.

Thanks.; April 6, 2009 at 5:09 PM
Ingmar said...: I got this to work on my iphone but it will only sync my main calendar. Instructions say to go to m.google.com/sync which returns that my device is not supported: anyone have any idea what this is?????; April 9, 2009 at 4:48 PM
kiM and jOe said...: I've been thrilled with syncing my Google calendar and contacts with my iPhone.
My wife just got an iPhone - can she sync to my calendar & contacts?
Any issues I might run into?
Thanks so much!; April 16, 2009 at 5:29 PM
Roy Berman said...: As one previous comments mentions, the "name reading" field essential to Japanese language use is missing! The gmail address book NEEDS to support these fields so that syncing, for example, my Japanese iPhone, is actually useful.

(More fields would be nice in general, the selection is paltry compared to other address books.); April 19, 2009 at 11:29 PM

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Google Sync Beta for iPhone, WinMo and SyncML Phones

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