Google Sync for BlackBerry: Now with contacts
Wednesday, November 19, 2008 | 12:16 PM
You asked for it, so here it is. We're happy to announce that in the latest update to Google Sync for BlackBerry, we've added two-way contacts synchronization. This new functionality will enable you to sync your handheld's built-in address book with your Gmail contacts. This all happens in the background and over the air, so your information is always up to date, no matter where you are or what you're doing.
Once you've installed Sync, all your information will be safe in your Google account. If you ever lose your phone or buy a new one, getting your address book and calendar to your new device is as easy as installing Sync. Current and new Google Sync users can try Google Sync today by visiting m.google.com/sync from their BlackBerry browser.
Labels: BlackBerry, Contacts, google sync, Mobile Blog
140 comments:
Erik said...
AWESOME!
Downloading now....
November 19, 2008 at 12:45 PM
Matt said...
This was a welcome surprise! I had to download a new copy of Google Sync this morning and was surprised by the appearance of contact sync!
There are a couple of bugs that I've observed. Blackberry contacts with addresses have a new address field added to their google contact counterpart with every sync, so for example, a contact will have 3 identical home addresses if you sync 3 times. This bug only seems to happen if the contact only has ONE address field and doesn't seem to happen if they have both a work and home address
These affected contacts are then striped of their phone number information on the blackberry side.
So a blackberry contact with a address and a phone number becomes a google contact with multiple addresses and a phone number and then the blackberry contact loses it's phone number.
November 19, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Joseph Schaeffer said...
November 19, 2008 at 12:54 PM
Mike's Musings said...
Take that mobileme!
November 19, 2008 at 1:18 PM
Vorstand LokPopp said...
Cool, but we need this for Symbian S60 3rd Edition!!! Really! ;-)
November 19, 2008 at 1:35 PM
Ryan said...
That's extremely awesome! But I ditched my BlackBerry a few weeks ago for a G1, so... :-)
November 19, 2008 at 1:58 PM
Jason said...
Nice! Now all we need is a Windows Mobile version! :)
November 19, 2008 at 2:29 PM
Bullring said...
is it possible to get this on the Iphone?
November 19, 2008 at 3:02 PM
AndrewKennerly said...
I have been dying waiting for this for the iPhone and Google Apps. I'm asking for it.
November 19, 2008 at 3:21 PM
Alessandro Adami said...
Great!
November 19, 2008 at 3:32 PM
sullimander said...
I am having the same issues Matt mentioned above. This really messed up my contacts on both. I have people in Google with multiple addresses/phone numbers, and then I have people in my phone who had their number deleted.
Thanks Google for launching something with bugs like this. Now I have to go in a fix 200+ contacts in two places, and hope that it syncs right.
Also I have not tried to log out or sync and remove it because it asks if I want to delete all items synced or cancel. I am too afraid that it will delete all my contacts and all my calendar events.
I expect more from Google
November 19, 2008 at 4:46 PM
Unknown said...
Any chance a feature could be added so we can choose what groups we want to sync instead of everything in My Contacts? I have quite a few e-mail addresses that I really don't need in my phone.
November 19, 2008 at 4:54 PM
Unknown said...
I have a Blackberry BOLD, I try to install Google Sync, but it's said "Device not compatible"
November 19, 2008 at 4:58 PM
Manuel said...
Same problem than @robinson, i have a blackberry Bold.
Can't install Google Sync.
It says:
Dispositivo no admitido.
Lo sentimos, Google Sync no es compatible con tu dispositivo.
November 19, 2008 at 5:13 PM
sullimander said...
Another issue that I just found. If I try to call a contact on my phone where sync deleted the phone numbers I get an "Uncaught exception: java.lang.NullPointerException" that locks up my BB and causes me to have to do a hard reset on the phone.
I know its hard Google but please do not release features that mess up personal/important data until you have tested it well.
November 19, 2008 at 5:14 PM
Jay said...
I seem to be experiencing the same problems as Matt and SkiSulli. Looks like Im going to wipe my contacts, reload them from my blackberry desktop software and switch sync back to calendar only until a fix comes out.
I was so excited too...
November 19, 2008 at 5:15 PM
Matt said...
@hvb
It doesn't sync gmail's "suggested contacts" only the ones you've created.
@skisulli
Don't be a pain. Contact syncing between platforms is a non-trivial problem and both blackberry and gmail contacts are comically easy to backup
November 19, 2008 at 5:16 PM
Jay said...
Speed seems to be an issue too.
I know upon install it states that the first sync can take a while, but mine took 30 minutes and seems to take 10-20 minutes for each sync after that too.
November 19, 2008 at 5:17 PM
bleaus said...
I too would love to see this for the iPhone!!
Any possibility for this?
November 19, 2008 at 6:07 PM
Unknown said...
I'd really like to see OTA sync with the iPhone, and I'm actually very surprised it doesn't exist yet, but I'm also a little nervous about trusting Google with my contact information since their contact management needs a lot of work.
November 19, 2008 at 6:12 PM
Maxime said...
November 19, 2008 at 6:52 PM
Maxime said...
I am also having some issues but haven't lost any data... Some contact dont have their phone # synched to the BB...
November 19, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Unknown said...
@ Robinson and Manuel
Try going into the Browser Configuration settings on your Bold and making sure that your Browser Identification is set to BlackBerry (as opposed to Firefox or IE). The Google Sync download link only works if it can identify your device as a BlackBerry.
November 19, 2008 at 7:36 PM
Dennis Bournique said...
I'd like to make a request the Google provide zipped .alx and .cod installation packages for all blackberry apps.
Many blackBerry users can't install OTA and must use the Desktop Manager which for Handset OS versions < 4.2 requires .alx and .cod files. Googled recently released Google Maps as a .zip containg the .alx/.cod. Can we please have the same for dMail and Sync?
November 19, 2008 at 8:00 PM
Manuel said...
@J my browser identification is set to "Blackberry".
I don't know why it is not working
November 19, 2008 at 8:48 PM
Unknown said...
Where is the symbian version?
November 19, 2008 at 10:18 PM
vt said...
Screwed up my phone, not just address book. Original problem was that the contacts that were present both in BB address book *and* on the SIM card were misidentified upon receiving the call (wrong ID and generic ringtone), but apparently this triggered another subtle bug in call log management, and now the attempt to access the call log causes NullPointerException modal dialog box to appear - sometimes the only way to get out of it is a hard reset. Sometimes the same is happening upon termination of a received call. Wiped out the SIM card address book hoping to get rid of this clash, didn't help at all - guess the call log already contains inconsistent data, some entries are blank.
This happened on Curve 8320, in case it matters. I'm pretty aggravated right now - the phone is barely usable.
November 19, 2008 at 11:49 PM
Aldo said...
I am unable to install Sync on my BlackBerry Curve 8300: "Device not supported" (or similar... my language is Italian).
Why this?
November 20, 2008 at 12:52 AM
Unknown said...
Same here: "Device not supported" even though I have the previous version :O
What's wrong??
November 20, 2008 at 1:18 AM
sirc said...
Device not supported also for mine 8100
why?
CIAO
November 20, 2008 at 4:16 AM
Unknown said...
Same problem with the duplicating addresses and removal of phone numbers on the device end. Big disappointment...please fix soon! This could be a great app!
November 20, 2008 at 5:47 AM
Anonymous said...
After reading through the comments, I'm on the fence. I've been dying to replace Outlook with Google and Remember the Milk, and contacts are the only hurdle. I had similar deletion problems with Plaxo, it was a horrible mess. I may take a deep breath and give this a shot, using Outlook at my backup in case it all goes to hell.
November 20, 2008 at 6:40 AM
GaroldStone said...
Will Google Sync work on the new Blackberry Storm (9100?) for Google<>BB contacts and calendar?
November 20, 2008 at 8:27 AM
Chazz said...
Yeah. It takes a lot of playing around with to get it working. I don't think it is quite stable yet.
Finally did get it to sync without screwing up my contacts, and another bug, the Address Book is no longer searchable by first name on on the Blackberry.
November 20, 2008 at 8:59 AM
Unknown said...
please google add iPhone support email contacts & calendar!!! We are desperit waiting for it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
November 20, 2008 at 9:21 AM
Unknown said...
First of all let's give Google Mobile team some credit, they worked hard on the application.
I'm too experiencing the same problems where addresses and phone numbers are added twice.
My main problem however is when I add a contact to my BlackBerry, it doesn't add it to my Gmail Contacts. Only when I add someone to my Gmail Contacts that contact gets added to my BlackBerry.
November 20, 2008 at 10:11 AM
OHB said...
Can you sync ONLY contacts without the Calendar sync on?
November 20, 2008 at 10:15 AM
Adam K said...
Finally! Thanks Google!
November 20, 2008 at 11:44 AM
Unknown said...
This. Is. AWESOME. Thanks for this! Works great. Would love to be able to just sync a specific group if you're looking for future suggestions, but really, this alone is great! Everything is syncing perfectly, both ways. (Verizon 8830 user)
November 20, 2008 at 12:19 PM
pjahn said...
Sure the google sync tool did a great job. But installation does not work for me and my bb 8800 (4.5). Seems my device is not supported to. Or am I doing something?
November 20, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Unknown said...
Also for mine BB8310 with OS version 4.5 I get the message not supported device.
Would be fantastic to be able to use it.
November 20, 2008 at 1:18 PM
Dr. Gihan D.A. Perera said...
Thanks google guys...but seriously...please....
WHY
NO
WIFI?????
seriously....
November 20, 2008 at 1:34 PM
andrew said...
it's creating tons of duplicate addresses on my GMail contacts!
November 20, 2008 at 5:34 PM
Unknown said...
I am Windows Mobile user. Is there any plan to sync contact of Windows Mobile in the same way?
November 20, 2008 at 6:22 PM
Levon P said...
Sooooooooo...what about the more useful two-way CALENDAR syncing?! If two-way calendar syncing was available, mobile living would be approximately 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times easier...
November 20, 2008 at 9:31 PM
Wayne Schulz said...
Have used this for three days on a BlackBerry Bold.
My three word review :
It Doesn't Work
Well, that's not entirely true. It works at synching some (but not all) contacts 5 , 6, 7 or even 8 times.
If you don't mind screwing up some of your BlackBerry contacts - have at it.
Otherwise -- avoid this.
November 21, 2008 at 3:27 AM
Unknown said...
Was very happy to read the announcement of this new feature. At first I got the unsupported device problem. but after downloading from:
http://m.google.com/sync/apps/0.5.9/en/BlackBerry-43/GoogleSync.jad?dc=gorganic
I could install it.
Unfortunately I got the same problem as many others; telephone numbers on my BB got lost.
Hopefully a fix for this will be available soon as this is really a PERFECT feature!!
November 21, 2008 at 4:22 AM
Myroslaw Бƴtɀ said...
Had been looking forward to this for a long time.
Unfortunately (to put it mildly), I've got unspeakable numbers of duplicates now, each with their own uniquely assorted omissions, deletions, and flaws.
In Google Mobile Team's defense, I know you've been worked hard lately, pushing through the final phase of world domination-by-excellence, but your reputation for flawless betas is making idiots (such as myself) prance headfirst into a minefield!
This is on an 8320 T-Mo running 4.5.102, if that matters.
November 21, 2008 at 4:54 AM
Jason said...
What a disappointment:( I had duplicates, missing phone numbers and null pointer errors. Ended up doing a battery pull and that seemed to re-sync with bes/outlook, then disabled contact syncing. Hopefully this will be fixed in the future...
November 21, 2008 at 6:41 AM
Keith said...
Maybe we can do some community debugging... Jason (posting on Nov 21) indicated that he re-synced with BES and Outlook after doing a battery pull.
Of the persons who are having problems:
(1) how many of you are on BIS and how many are on BES?
(2) what Blackberry model and OS version are you using?
(3) do you or have you synced with Outlook or any other platform before trying to use Google Contact Sync?
The more info there is available will make it easier to figure this stuff out.
November 21, 2008 at 9:01 AM
Matt said...
(1) AT&T BIS
(2) BB 8310 4.5.0.81 (108)
(3) I have not synced with outlook or any other platform
My contacts were also seemingly restored by a battery pull
November 21, 2008 at 9:13 AM
Unknown said...
Ok. This was a nice concept in theory but maybe more testing should have been done before this was released. My phone book is totally screwed. I have phone numbers missing all through my phone book. I even took the time to add phone numbers to all my contacts in Google and there are some that still get erased after the sync. I am done messing with this until someone can tell me (or fix) why my contacts are being duplicated and my phone numbers are missing in my phone when all my Google contacts have phone numbers now.
Good Concept Needs more testing.
BB Curve 8320.
November 21, 2008 at 9:25 AM
sullimander said...
1. Verizon BIS
2. BB 8330 OS4.5.0.77
3. I have not synced with anything else before.
I did find out something nice about the errors I was having. I was getting the error where the numbers would get deleted from my BB and would get null pointer errors when going to my phone log. I did a hard restart, and the numbers came back, it was like the address book had to reboot to find them. I was able to sync, hard reset, and turn off syncing. Now my contacts are relativity in sync, at least more than they were before. I still have issues of duplicates, and people listed with many addresses, but for now my phone is working without having to restore my BB contacts from my last backup.
November 21, 2008 at 9:43 AM
uBAD! said...
i know the symbian(s60v3) and iphone versions are going to comeup soon ...but WHEN???
November 21, 2008 at 10:50 AM
fencepost said...
Well, the massive adding of contact addresses accounts for the constant network utilization and the 13+MB of data traffic I saw before I deleted it.
Glad I'm on an unlimited plan.
Now I just have to hope I didn't lose too many phone numbers, though I have done a battery pull so perhaps that's not an issue.
November 21, 2008 at 11:45 AM
Truth said...
I keep getting a "Another sync client is...So Google Sync will not sync these events" error. I only have had Google Sync as my Sync program. Does anyone else have this problem?
Running a tmo 8800.
Might it have to due with downloading the App from the Google Mobile App not the m.google.com site.
Any help would make my day.
November 21, 2008 at 12:23 PM
Jonathan said...
I am experiencing the same issues as Matt. Some of my contacts are having their phone numbers stripped, and duplicate addresses added. Correcting and re-syncing causes the problem to recur.
November 21, 2008 at 2:42 PM
Eric said...
For those who receive the "unsupported device" error. I switched all my languages back to English, I think changing the Google.com settings in my browser settings back to English (on m.google.com) did the trick and I was able to install. I have a BBBold.
I'm in sync!
November 21, 2008 at 3:21 PM
arjuna said...
I'm having the same problem as matt and skisulli: stripped numbers and other info on the BB. i just noticed it tonight, and have now done a battery pull (as suggested by others). unfortunately, this didn't help...
i wish i had not updated to the new sync that works with contacts... it seems that if you've got an email address only (no name, no phone number, no nothin'...) in your gmail contact for a person, but you've got an email and more in the Blackberry contact for the same person, you lose all info but the email address...
really frustrating!
i've got (well, i _had_) full contact information for old high school friends in my Blackberry (parents' addresses, kids names, etc) and then just an email for them in gmail. now i've only got their email addresses in both...
(1) i'm on verizon/bes
(2) BB pearl, v4.3.0.97
(3) it's a work phone, so the firm's outlook 2003 contacts are all on it as well and i believe there's real-time syncing with that... i'll know for sure on monday.
November 21, 2008 at 7:58 PM
Angelo said...
I love you so much right now Google
November 21, 2008 at 8:52 PM
Unknown said...
Oh man I bought the Storm today and am a Mac user. Almost threw it through the window when I realized pocketmac was a no go. thank you sooooo much for this!! THANK YOU!!
November 21, 2008 at 9:32 PM
witchdrum said...
I had the same issue with field duplication (work address) in Gmail contacts on each new sync cycle. Trying to fix it through a clean install from my addressbook, but really, this app is not ready and cannot be trusted with valuable user data..
DO NOT USE until they address these issues in an update
November 22, 2008 at 3:45 AM
Gustavo Ramos said...
Same problem as Peter said.
Was very happy to read the announcement of this new feature. At first I got the unsupported device problem. but after downloading from:
http://m.google.com/sync/apps/0.5.9/en/BlackBerry-43/GoogleSync.jad?dc=gorganic
I could install it.
November 22, 2008 at 11:47 AM
pmb said...
Not synching contacts' pictures is a letdown.
November 22, 2008 at 1:39 PM
blackberrywebsites said...
Kudos to google for the app. VERY disapointed that is does not work. I have a bold (4.6 OS) on ATT. WILL not download any contacts...come on google FIX IT.
November 22, 2008 at 4:59 PM
Precious James 包吉米 said...
Windows Mobile 6 version Please Please Please :)
November 23, 2008 at 5:08 AM
Anonymous said...
I want to be impressed, honest.
I loved Google Sync before.
But this upgrade has crippled my contacts twice now, and I'm afraid I have to turn off the contact sync until errors are fixed.
Nice try guys. Soon though, soon.
November 23, 2008 at 7:47 AM
Myroslaw Бƴtɀ said...
Well, my problems (outlined above) have gone from bad to catastrophic. I'm now getting a orgiastic barrage of *Uncaught exception: java.lang.NullPointerExceptions*.
The first time, I had just hung up after checking my GrandCentral voicemail. Now, after a few resets, it was every time I hit send or tried to get into the phone or call log (which I come to find, after bruising my thumb hitting OK, has been completely erased.) Memory leaks have also abounded; as far as I can tell Sync now eats up ~4-5 mb of the free memory I had before!
My specs again:
(1) BIS
(2) Curve 8320, OS 4.5.102.
(3) I had synched contacts only with Windows native Contacts (not outlook), using Desktop Manager 4.6 on Vista x64U.
Also, just for kicks, here's a few 3rd party apps installed on my Curve that conceivably interact with native contacts/mailbox:
vlingo 2.0; GTalk ; Google Mobile App 3.1.133 (Sync 0.5.9, Maps 2.3.2, no gmail app); Viigo 3.0.426; Myspace 1.0.0.2; and TwitterBerry 0.8.
Is anybody at the Mobile Team able to reproduce ANY of the problems we're having?? If Google's gonna start producing buggy untested software like M$, at least give us REAL, professional knowledge base articles with comprehensive changelogs, etc. This community-driven open-source sleuthing loses effectiveness at a certain point.
November 23, 2008 at 10:49 AM
None of your Business said...
Well every time it syncs I am getting duplicate entries. I started with 1800 contacts but now up to 3000+. It is duplicating in both directions.
November 23, 2008 at 11:18 AM
Danny Boggs said...
Here is what I tried because I really wanted to get this program to work.
1. Deleted all contacts from google.
2. Made a backup using BlackBerry DM of the address book so I wouldn't loose anything if this didn't work
3. synced using google for cal and contacts.
4. Checked google and everythnig looked ok. no duplicate addresses for people or phone numbers.
5. Looked at my blackberry address book. found some people's phone numbers missing.
6. did a battery pull. the phone numbers that were missing after sync re appeared. Also, the speed dial setting for those phone numbers were correct.
7.Did another google sync, cal and contacts. If failed, waited and re tried. quickly noticed that at least one contact on the BB were ok, didnt check them all. sync failed a few more times. Take note, not the cal sync, just at the time of contact sync did it fail. It also ran for while before it pooped out. When it finally did go, it took a reaaaaalllly long time.
8.checked google people with just a home addy now had the home addy duplicated.
9.checked blackberry, it duplicated addresses.. one person had just a home addy, they now have the home addy in the work addy too. the phone numbers were gone again too.
10. did a battery pull
11.duplicate addy on BB disapeared and phone numbers were back.
12. cleaned up contacts on google side with duplicate addresses.
13. synced again for fun. I like to press my luck
14. it still took a while
15. BRB
even after cleaning up contacts on the google side, it still had issues. for contacts with a phone number and a home addy, it kept adding the home addy to the google contacts over and over. so if it synced 3 times, it showed the home addy 4 times in the google contacts. I dont know why. every time i deleted those addies from google and synced again, it deleted the phone numbers from the berry and I would do a battery pull and they would show up again. very strange. I figure if i just sync once in a while when I get a few new contacts it will be good enuogh without getting too annoying.
Db
November 23, 2008 at 3:38 PM
Unknown said...
I'm having issues with the duplicate entries as well. It's really disappointing to tell the truth.
I had a good intention when I went and manually edited each one of my GMail (Google Apps) Contacts so they looked consistent and clean before syncing, but then the mobile app came in and messed it all up. Not cool.
That being said, I myself have had the misfortune of developing BlackBerry applications in the past, so I know what a pain it can be. My heart goes to the developers who are surely having a hard time making it work.
(1) Telus (Canada), BIS
(2) Curve 8330, OS 4.5.0.77
(3) Didn't try syncing any other way.
Looking forward to an upgraded version...
November 23, 2008 at 3:57 PM
vt said...
Just in case it helps developers to pinpoint the problem - *some* entries now have multiple copies of the address, *some* (not necessarily the same) entries have different phones multiplied. Each notation for the Same phone number (9999999999, 999 999 9999, (999) 999-9999) gets its own entry.
November 23, 2008 at 4:05 PM
Carlos said...
Same problem here with duplicating addresses, some 7-8 times repeated.
Also seems that Gmail Contacts always win over changes done in BB.
November 24, 2008 at 6:01 AM
Danny Boggs said...
For what its worth it seems to be chocking on adresses where just a home addy is entered and when there is nothing entered in the address 2 field on the berry for that home addy.
November 24, 2008 at 6:13 AM
Carlos said...
Danny Boggs, you are right.
And if you sync your Mac Agenda with Google Contacts you can see that fields inside addresses like city or postal code are wrong.
November 24, 2008 at 7:02 AM
RJM said...
I agree with the posters who said "Thanks, Google" AND the posters who had the multiple entries/deleted phone numbers synching issues. I have a Bold and have turned OFF the Contact Sync for the time being...AFTER I went through both BB and Google contacts lists to fix the errors. Not a big time-saver up front, but I'm hopeful it'll get worked out.
I also had to re-install Goog Sync, as RIMM tech support said the other day that they didn't support it for the Bold yet, "but it was coming".
November 24, 2008 at 7:28 AM
Omah NgASRI said...
i put Google Sync on test right now, it takes long time to sync hundreds of contact through BlackBerry network, unless you are using WIFI.
November 24, 2008 at 5:46 PM
Mike Driest said...
I have 125 Contacts on my BlackBerry Curve and the new Google Sync caused issues with these Contacts. If a contact had an address saved the address was copied from home address to work address and then for each address City data was moved to the Address 2 field, State/Prov to City and Zip/Postal Code to State/Prov.
Then for about 10 or so contacts I lost their phone numbers on my BlackBerry but they were in Gmail.
Synchronizing 125 Contacts over the Sprint EVDO Rev. 0 Mobile Broadband Network took quite a while. Then I sync'd a 2nd time and there was no incremental sync it took a long time again.
I'm sure there's a reason for this, but I wish Google Sync for Contacts would work just as well as Calendar Sync did when I first installed it. The concept is great but my first experience was poor.
November 24, 2008 at 10:13 PM
Tim Felgate said...
The latest version of Google Sync for the Blackberry has a major bug. It causes my BlackBerry Curve 8320 to crash with the error message java.lang.NullPointerException. This happens whenever I try to access the call log from the BlackBerry home screen. Turning off the contacts sync in Google Sync seems to solve the problem. However, I would really value the ability to sync contacts. Please help!!
November 25, 2008 at 4:33 AM
Unknown said...
I've removed Google Sync from my BB (8830, OS v4.5.0.51, platform 3.2.0.41), because I too have seen the java null pointer exception. It triggered almost every time I tried to open my Call Log.
The duplicate contacts were annoying, but bearable; the java exception & required hard reset were too much.
November 25, 2008 at 4:46 AM
shokk said...
Good lord, the duplicates. All these duplicates...
November 25, 2008 at 7:14 AM
Mike Driest said...
I also saw the java null pointer exception everytime I tried to open my Call Log. I haven't seen the error since I pulled the battery & disabled the Address Book sync.
November 25, 2008 at 7:37 AM
Kai said...
If you have any questions, comments or issues with Google Sync, please visit the Google Mobile Help Forum.
November 25, 2008 at 10:04 AM
arjuna said...
I've started a new thread on the Google Mobile Help Discussions for Blackberry devices regarding my particular Sync issues (stripping info from the BB contacts and replacing with Gmail contact info). If you are having similar issues, please respond to that thread to draw Google Mobile's attention to it. I looked around the discussions there and didn't see anyone else with this problem (or, at least, a problem described this way), so they may not have been alerted to it yet.
here's the link to my post there:
http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=7780311b134e3ca2&hl=en
Thanks!
November 25, 2008 at 11:01 AM
CrystalCrazy said...
Ok, I just installed google sync and read all the comments about the problems...I want to uninstall it and I see someone did, but can you tell me how? thanks!
November 25, 2008 at 6:57 PM
Cary B. said...
It's been a nightmare ever since I installed the updated sync. Screwed up not only my google contacts but my BB contacts as well. I have contacts with the same address a 5, 10, 15 times over, deletes numbers and gives me tons of duplicates in my BB. I delete a contact in my BB, it comes back, I try to delete the contact in gmail--it comes back. Lastly, and the most annoying is that I've been getting "Uncaught exception: java.lang.NullPointerException" error message contstantly--even a battery pull doesn't fix it. What gives?
November 25, 2008 at 7:13 PM
Unknown said...
Something good just happened. Apparently someone s trying to fix these contact sync problems. My BB contacts just synced to my Gmail which is what I wanted it to do in the first place instead of deleting all my BB contacts from my phone and adding my very limited amount of Gmail contacts to my blackberry which was VERY annoying. It definitely needs to be a two way sync or at least sync from BB to Gmail. Gmail just doesn't have a fantastic contacts section.
ALSO I have been getting a lot of duplicates as well AND even more annoying I put my regular schedule on my google calendar and it hasn't been able to sync. I think it tried once and it was all crazy and NOT my schedule.
I'm up for getting through the growing pains but I hope they are over quickly.
November 26, 2008 at 11:36 AM
JBISBAL said...
It is awesome until some of your contact data is erased and only e-mails are left. On all contacts that had e-mail addresses, google sync erased name and phone leaving onl the e-mail. I lost 1 hour having to reload all contacts from my backup files.
Fix it please!
November 26, 2008 at 6:43 PM
nathancromer said...
first of all im pretty scared to even try this google contacts.. But, I cant even find where to edit my contacts on google. where do you do that at?? Has google seen all the complaints and problems and taken it off for fixing or what?? All i seem to be able to do is sync my BB contacts to google contacts that is located somewhere where i cant find. If anybody has any ideas or can help that would be greatly apprecaited. thanks
November 26, 2008 at 9:31 PM
arjuna said...
@Nate:
you've got to log into gmail to get to your contacts. once you've logged in, you'll see at the top of the left column the following:
Compose
Inbox
Starred
Chats
Sent Mail
Drafts
All Mail
Spam
Trash
Contacts
Click on the contacts link and you'll see a list of all your contacts. Click on one of the contacts and you'll see their information to the right of the list, with a button at the top that says "Edit" or "Edit Contact"
hope that helps!
November 27, 2008 at 8:28 AM
raat said...
hi guys,
i saw in ths post tht many ppl are waiting for Nokia phones (symbian phones) to sync google contacts.
i started to develope a J2ME client app to sync google contacts before selected contacts' phone & email address, the reverse can also be done easily.
as this is a J2ME app it works on Nokia & Sony Ericsson sets. But I tested in Windows set, but got an error after installation.
the server side is in google app engine using gdata python client lib.
There's some work(which is on my to do list) to do to finish this app.
So in this post, i wanna say to Marcus Foster, Product Manager, Google Mobile
that it will be very nice if i get some support to finish my ongoing project. like, i dont have many mobile sets to test the application. so it will be a great help, if i can get some simulator or something to test it. basically, any mobile set that supports JSR 75(File & PIM API) will (or should) run this app.
if u guys want, thn i can provide the URL from which u can download the jar file.
thanks a lot in advance.
November 27, 2008 at 9:04 AM
Marlon Guerios said...
I have a Nokia E71, so please...
November 27, 2008 at 9:56 AM
Keith said...
Sync has been updated. Version 0.5.11 is now available. Anybody willing to give it a spin?
November 28, 2008 at 11:59 AM
vt said...
0.5.11 is still broken, with slightly different symptoms. NullPointerException is still there.
November 28, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Danny Boggs said...
ok. I gave it a shot... Here is what i did and what happened...
1.backup contactacts using DM 4.7 to yahoo.
2.cleaned out ALL google contacts and ran a sync.
3.ouch...for some reason it deleted all but 11 of my contacts from the berry and synced only those 11 onto google.
NOT TO WORRY, I BACKED UP ON YAHOO!
4.did a complete restore of addy book to berry from yahoo.
5.cleaned out google again and re ran sync.
6.WOW!!! it looks fine to me. the addys I noticed had issues in the last version had no issues. I did not have to do a reset to see phone numbers again. Addresses on google and berry were not duplicated.
I am not really all that smart about computers or blackberrys. I am a fairly new berry user. I dont understand why some people have issues and others do not
I am running an 8330 Curve from verizon on BIS.
One thing i did notice is that sync took a really really long time and failed several times before it worked. I did it a few more times. again it took ages but seems ok. I looked at contacts on google and berry and they look ok to me. I will ponder them some more later and see if I can find something amiss.
I am going to leave it to sync automatically and see how it affects things.
Thank You Google guys and galls!
November 28, 2008 at 1:33 PM
Danny Boggs said...
OK. I found something. Contacts that had a number/email and address were ok
contactwith email and phone number, phone number missing on berry. hard reset and it was back
contact with just a phone number, phone number missing on berry. hard reset and its back.
There doesn't seem to be any issue on the google contact side... its weird that these things dissapear then re appear after hard reset.
November 28, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Danny Boggs said...
I have let google sync run over night both cal and contacts and there appears to be no issues at this point that I can find on either the berry or gooogle side. I added a test entry to the berry addy book this morning consisting of a name, a few phone numbers an email and a home addy. I let it sync on its own and check it later. The phone number and email addy for the newly added contact dissapeared but after a hard reset, came back on the berry. Everything was ok on the google side with the entry. I deleted it from my berry and it deleted fine from the google side. need to test the other direction.
Google sync seems to be working for me well. Only the initial sync and newly added addy to the berry side have any issue at all. getting closer.
db
November 29, 2008 at 5:21 AM
Carlos said...
Danny,
Same problem here, exactly the same.
November 29, 2008 at 5:29 AM
Danny Boggs said...
Some more observations. Contacts with just and address the adress was duplicated on the berry. After delete and re sync it went away. Adding and deleting adresses from either side works fine. Whenever I update a contact (ie add a phone number) all phone numbers disapear after sync but come back after reset.
November 29, 2008 at 8:02 AM
arjuna said...
I've installed the update and the same problems are occurring as before: stripping of all non-email information from some contacts. I'm not sure yet what the pattern is for which contacts get stripped and which don't, but I'm sure that there must be some consistency...
If you have yet to download and install the new Sync application, I'd suggest waiting until the bugs are worked out. If you like living on the edge, at least be smart and back up all your contacts from both the BB and Gmail before diving in.
November 29, 2008 at 8:10 AM
Danny Boggs said...
Added a beerper number on the berry side. After each sync it keeps saying one contact updated and have to reset to get those numbers back for that one contact. So close.
November 29, 2008 at 10:37 AM
Matt McLean said...
if i click on the "g" - "Google Mobile App" it takes me to Search box with Gmail, Calendar Maps and News.
my question is can i substitute the "News" option with "Contacts"? Basically i want to use my Blackberry Address Book for work contacts and use my Google "Contacts" for personal contacts.
Somehow keep Blackberry Address book separate from Google Contacs
December 1, 2008 at 1:33 AM
Unknown said...
I have not seen such a bad product launched by Google before. I keep loosing contacts information during the sync process. Luckily, I had backups. the appointments sync is very reliable but the contacts is unusually bad. I am frustrated.
December 1, 2008 at 9:53 AM
josh said...
The new sync tool (even the very latest version, which I just downloaded) has created multiple duplicates (as many as eight) for a certain subset of my contacts. These tend to be, but aren't limited to, company listings. I go through and delete the duplicates--both on my blackberry and in my gmail contacts. But they keep popping up again and again. I've disabled contact sync, but somehow they continue to duplicate. This is VERY frustrating.
December 1, 2008 at 12:33 PM
Unknown said...
Based on the issues with BlackBerry sync, lack of iPhone sync, and the various other issues with their contact management (missing information when importing, not being able to add a contact's photo without an email address, having to re-invite all contacts to Chat, etc.), Google's approval rating is at an all-time low in my mind. Releasing support for emoticons and themes just doesn't cut it. They're going to need to release a whopping announcement soon for me to stay excited about their products.
December 1, 2008 at 3:29 PM
Blackberry Curve said...
I have the Blackberry Curve with softwareversion V4.2.2.173 unfortunately when clicking the link m.google.com/sync the result is that the sync doesn't support my phone. The software specs however say all versions newer than V4.1
Please let me know how I can use this wonderfull feature!
December 3, 2008 at 2:29 AM
raat said...
to marlonguerios,
plz go to my blog, u'll find it thr.
many thnx.
December 3, 2008 at 7:32 AM
Danny Boggs said...
Ok, now that *.1.2 is out, I might bite again, but I dont have the time to fix mistakes today so it will have to wait until tomorrow.
December 3, 2008 at 8:33 AM
Danny Boggs said...
Ok. I couldn't resist as I so much would love to have thid work. I ran everything like I did in previous posts I have made and it seems to be working without issue. I ran a few tests and checked both the berry and gmail contacts and I cannot find nor am I experiencing any of the previous issues I have posted about. I can't find any problems in either addy book. It looks great on my berry. Thank you google people for the holiday present.
December 3, 2008 at 10:13 AM
yak said...
Been using Google sync for the calendar for some time now loaded up the contact update today and synced.... Cleared all my 200+ contacts from bb now all i have left are the 20 are so that where in my gmail account... SON OF A!!!!!!! What happened and has any one else seen this? I read that some folks were having the numbers cleared but this wiped names and numbers all info gone.
December 4, 2008 at 10:47 AM
Unknown said...
New version 5.12 is the same bug-full crap.
The appointments' sync is perfect but the contact side looks more like a Microsoft product than a Google's
- Unreliable
- Eats a ton of KB during the connections
- Messes up and looses contacts.
December 7, 2008 at 11:03 AM
jbain75@gmail.com said...
This seems to be working, but i cant search anyones name by first name. it only works when i search by last. Can someone please help
December 8, 2008 at 1:18 AM
Jeff said...
Sync is a great idea, and is exactly why I love google for ideas like this. I, However am experiencing contact problems as well.
This is what I've found out (and this is OS 4.5 btw)
Starting with a clean, no entries address book and syncing with sync DOES sync all google contacts. HOWEVER, some contacts are synced correctly (searchable) and others are not (only come up by searching by last name).
After multiple replications, this was the same result.
As a mac user, I don't have native access to the blackberry desktop app. I do however have Plaxo access. So what I ended up doing was running a Plaxo sync on the mac address book, then in VMWare Fusion, running plaxo sync on outlook express then using the Desktop manager to sync contacts. ALL of the contacts synced properly and ALL are searchable. When I applied google sync on top of that, it doubled my entries. I went from 193 to 380 something.
Until they get this contact thing sorted, I'm just going to keep using plaxo and syncing with the official BB desktop sync. But a GREAT idea -- keep it up! squash the bug!
--Jeff
December 9, 2008 at 12:27 AM
Shad said...
the calendar sync has, and still does, work great. however i have been waiting for the full integration of the contacts sync for some time and sadly this is just not working well. i have also had dupicates created, and on a number of occasions had to restart the bberry (pearl) altogether.
i hope the bugs are worked out soon because in my opinion this is the closest i have been to being untetherd to a desktop. til they work it out, i will still have the leash attached.
December 12, 2008 at 11:07 AM
Unknown said...
I am still having lots of lost contacts, missing information and so on. The problem seems to be more evident when there is a lower cell signal for the Blackberry.
When is the 5.12 version going to be updated?
Info: BBerry 8310
V4.2.2.163
December 12, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Jeremy Daniel said...
i'm using 8320 curve. synced the other day and everything was fine. just did an update to the software on curve and after restarting, google synced and contacts triplicated. deleted all dubplicate contacts, synced again and now contacts are quadruple! VERY ANNOYING. google def has bugs to work. very frustrated right now. my contacts went from 216 to over 700.
December 26, 2008 at 11:17 AM
Display name said...
Google should NOT have distributed this non-working product.
Contacts are valuable information that people cannot go without, Beta products do not work in this area.
I lost about 60% of my contacts by trying this software making it a not so merry Christmas.
Google's image suffers from these non functioning relaeses, I suggest they start working on a vault/safe functionality in Gmail/Contacts that make it easier/possible to set you contacts back to a previous state (-one month for example).
I lost about 300 contacts that are gone now, thanks Google.
Please do not use this products, it is unfinished business unfortunately.
Johan
December 28, 2008 at 2:08 PM
witchdrum said...
I completely agree with you Johan, this piece of junk should never have been released - people's data is just too valuable. I tried the most recent release and it still has issues with duplication, etc. Google makes a LOT of money using the data that we keep on it's servers though targeted advertising. It is simply not acceptable to continue with an arrogant position that "it's free and beta and so the user is responsible and we are not"
December 29, 2008 at 2:51 AM
Unknown said...
I was delighted when I did the first sync and found all my 2000+ contacts appeared to make the jump to my Blackberry Storm. But, since then, despite numerous changes to my Google Contacts, the sync program has failed to make any changes on the Blackberry. The message each time is "no changes." The Calendar sync works fine.
January 2, 2009 at 5:10 PM
Unknown said...
Just wanted to add a data point. I have a BB Bold on AT&T. I just deleted all of my contacts on the BB except for 2 (one not on my Google contacts list and one that is). I just downloaded and installed the Google Sync Software. Before I let it sync I turned off the Calendar sync (because I just need the contacts) and it worked perfectly. It did duplicate the one contact that was the same on both the BB and in the Google Contacts so I think the first time you sync, it just can't tell they are the same. I only have 42 contacts total.
Just thought I would throw my data into the hat and hope it helps someone
January 3, 2009 at 5:16 PM
Unknown said...
This sounds like a great feature but I'm going to hold off till some of these bugs have been cleaned up. Why have there been no replies posted by google staff?
January 5, 2009 at 12:32 PM
editweapon said...
Seriously, no replies from Google Mobile team about all the sync errors? There's several threads on support forums (including this one http://groups.google.com/group/google-calendar-help-bugs/browse_thread/thread/3e8fff5eaa6444b7/6e8f1930c64e7d6f?lnk=raot ) as well about the now dreaded "Another sync client has been adding events to the Blackberry calendar. To avoid duplicates Google Sync...".
Clearly there's a need for sync OTA between Blackberry and Google Calendar and Contacts, so please keep working at it Googlers.
January 9, 2009 at 7:25 AM
DaveD said...
I have 625 contacts and a Blackberry Bold. I had imported them into Google Contacts a few weeks ago. When I synced Contacts, it took 2.5 hours. The results were good and bad.
Good: no duplicate contacts in either Google Contacts or Blackberry Address book.
Bad: Google Sync duplicated each email address and telephone number for each Contact, in both places.
It appears that if there is ANY difference (eg. () for area codes, commas, Capitalization) between the Contacts, Sync will put all the unique values in BOTH entries. That's the right behavior, but hardly an elegant solution. Now I have to go back and delete the extra data added to each contact. What a pain. I have turned off Contact Sync.
Calendar sync works beautifully.
Hope this helps.
DD
January 21, 2009 at 2:50 PM
goodlux said...
I'd love to use this if it worked, but it just created a big mess of duplicate contacts.
Google has never really gotten the address book right.
My advice is to avoid this.
February 5, 2009 at 9:25 PM
sillydino said...
Has anyone learned anything new about this yet? I have got to believe that a Google rep has responded to the huge outcry on these bugs.
February 14, 2009 at 11:07 PM
Joseph Skerjanec said...
I assume "synchronization" means a two-way street. My g-mail contacts will sync with my Blackberry, but not the other way. While waiting during some downtime, I deleted almost 50 contacts from my Pearl. When I synced with Google, it put the addresses I deleted back onto my Pearl. How do I ensure the street remains open both ways? Am I missing something I have overlooked?
February 15, 2009 at 8:44 PM
sillydino said...
No Joe, you are experiencing what we all are =( Please assist us in getting Google's attention on this. It's been months with no word.
February 15, 2009 at 8:49 PM
Joseph Skerjanec said...
sillydino,
I've posted this concern under "Things I don't like" on Product Ideas for Google Mobile here:
http://productideas.appspot.com/#8/e=cf
February 15, 2009 at 9:50 PM
Jay said...
February 15, 2009 at 10:50 PM
Jay said...
I was having tons of problems with this initially, see my comment from 11/19/08. but since then I have updated my Sprint Blackberry 8330 Curve from 4.3 to 4.5. Since then it has worked wonderfully.
Other people with issues out there, what OS are you currently running?
February 15, 2009 at 10:51 PM
sillydino said...
Jacob - I am running 4.5 on my Pearl 8100.
February 16, 2009 at 9:28 AM
Matt Rutledge said...
When can we see ToDo List synching from GMail to the Built in To Do list on the blackberry?
February 16, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Unknown said...
This is not sync. Synchronization implies a two way blending, not this one way madness.
Awesome concept, mediocre execution. Calendar and contacts are only one way. I've killed about 5 hours fixing my contacts and calendar. I'm not angry, not too disappointed. I was prepared for this and while I will uninstall the app I look forward to the finished product.
February 21, 2009 at 7:22 PM
RandomGyan said...
Hi guys,
I read up all the comments WHILE synching my contacts and was frankly scared to death (despite backups)..
However, since then, I have synched contacts successfully and I am not really seeing any of these issues..
I have tota 1193 contacts on my Curve 8300. I am running 4.5.32 BB OS
and 0.5.13 version of sync
I have all the contacts properly synched.
I can search with first name and last name..
I am not seeing duplicates - neither in Gmail nor in my BB..
Is this issue now fixed? or am I supposed to go and immediately thank god for the miracle..? :)
March 10, 2009 at 3:54 AM
Unknown said...
I was one of those that originally reported problems with contacts syncing. I now believe that they have been fixed. For the past four weeks or so, the app has maintained my contacts both on Google and on the Blackberry perfectly.
March 10, 2009 at 6:59 AM
arjuna said...
@RandomGyan & @CalvinHouse: I, too, was one of the early adopters that had horrible problems... lost all the contact info for everyone (except for names and emails) and was dumb enough to try it without a backup...
Since then, I emailed everyone and got phones and addresses and birthdays and such, plugged them all into gmail, cleared all the contact info off the BB (after backing that up to my hard disk) and then ran the synch.
Not perfect, but better. Starting with a clean slate seems to help, and making sure everything is formatted the right way, too. I have noticed a few phone numbers have disappeared over the last month or so, but I only notice it when that friend or colleague calls and shows up as a number (rather than a name).
I don't think it's fixed. It's improved some, but still not fixed. I hope that the Great Gizoogle keeps at it, as this could be a wonderful app.
March 10, 2009 at 9:01 AM
DaveD said...
I never experienced a loss of data or duplication of contacts. What I did experience was a duplication of data WITHIN contacts. For example, if I had Joe Smith's work phone in Outlook as (123)-456-7890, and he existed in Google Contacts as 1234567890, Sync appended 1234567890 to Outlook as Work 2, and (123)-456-7890 to Google. This created a mess of duplicated phone numbers, addresses, and email addresses because Sync interpreted them as new data (correct, but not elegant). It's taken me hours to undo what it did.
I too hope someone from Google will actually post something useful here and explain whether and how they intend to make this a robust app. I love Google apps but if they're not reliable they're more trouble than not.
March 10, 2009 at 9:09 AM
Unknown said...
i just downloaded google sync to my blackberry bold. it made the transfer but i think it added my contact list from google to my device. so i've had to delete a lot off my bberry and have duplicates on google contacts.
if i sync again which will it follow, the bberry or google contacts?
how do i make the sync automatic with final say to the device?
March 19, 2009 at 11:48 AM
Unknown said...
Calendar works perfectly. Contacts is a nightmare. Doubling of numbers and addresses for 700 contacts...and now tripling. I went through all gmail contacts to strip out the double's, started with a clean BB, and it's doubled them all again... I give up. Please let us know when a fix is out, Google.
April 6, 2009 at 9:34 AM
sillydino said...
Google has left blackberries in the dust. Read their FAQs. For instance, Blackberries are no longer officially supported for IMAP, they just want us to use the downloadable client (seriously?).
With google sync, there is a HUGE information gap. Why don't we have multi-calendar control? Why do they keep updating the app without fixing this common information destroying defect? When you read the release notes they make no mention of the known issues, and I think all of us know this _is_ an issue. It seems this blog was put up just to give us a place to whine and be ignored.
Hail android/iphone. They are the only platforms google seems to have eyes for anymore. Perhaps BBs should switch back to yahoo.
April 6, 2009 at 10:34 AM
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