Along with the upcoming articles on backing up files, hard drives and photo editing workflow, I thought I’d share some other daily workflow tips on how I keep everything in sync. I’ve been using Gmail since 2005 and Google Apps in the last year and frankly, I didn’t need another email address and as I’ve written about it before, you really can’t beat Gmail’s interface or usage of filters and labels.
Apple advertises MobileMe as a way to keep your mail, contacts, and calendar information in the “cloud” and uses push technology to keep everything in sync across your iPhone, iPad, Mac, PC, and the web automatically. Google sync does the same thing but doesn’t come with the $99/yr price tag. Instead they offer this service for free, and doesn’t seem to completely destroy possibly months or years of contacts. There is a LOT of reports all across the web that when synching with mobile me for the first time ALL your contacts will get messed up! Of course you should ALWAYS back up your data before you do any syncing, but for those who have forgotten in the past – you’re in for a mess of work afterwards. If you only have a few contacts between your phone numbers and email contacts, maybe it’s not a big deal but I have over 500 contacts that have very organized information, photos attached to their contact card and notes to help with smart filters. I’ve personally experienced (as well as my friend David, who shared his story with me) only seeing numbers in all my text messages on my iPhone after one sync. After you spend hours cleaning up the mess and relinking numbers to names, MobileMe works well – but why do all this extra work when Google Sync does all of this WITHOUT messing them up. Why can’t Apple do the same, with their own native devices?
Here is a video explaining Google Sync:
For people that still have @mac.com addresses (or anything else for that matter), Gmail allows you to import email addresses and even better, allows you to still reply as that email address. The import options can be found in the settings menu under Accounts and Import:
If you’d like to have a Google Apps account and import your mail (preserving information such as sent dates and sender/recipient data, as well as the folder structure used by email programs) from a host site onto Google, you can use their Google Email Uploader which has steps for both Mac and PC.
So now you have all your email coming through Gmail or Google Apps. Here’s how to sync it to your iPhone. The iPad will use the exact same steps.
1. Open the Settings application on your iPhone’s Home screen.
2. Open Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
3. Tap Add Account…
4. Select Microsoft Exchange.
5. In the Email field, enter your full Google Account email address. If you use an @googlemail.com address, you may see an “Unable to verify certificate” warning when you proceed to the next step.
6. Leave the Domain field blank.
7. Enter your full Google Account email address as the Username.
8. Enter your Google Account password as the Password.
9. Tap Next at the top of your screen.
9a. Choose Cancel if the Unable to Verify Certificate dialog appears.
10. When the new Server field appears, enter m.google.com.
11. Press Next at the top of your screen again.
12. Select the Google services (Mail, Calendar, and Contacts) you want to sync.
13. Unless you want to delete all the existing Contacts and Calendars on your phone, select the Keep on my iPhone option when prompted. This will also allow you to keep syncing with your computer via iTunes.
If you want to sync only the My Contacts group, you must choose to Delete Existing Contacts during the Google Sync install when prompted. If you choose to keep existing contacts, it will sync the contents of the “All Contacts” group instead.
Synchronization will begin automatically if you have Push enabled on your device. You can also open the Mail, Calendar or Contacts app and wait a few seconds to start a sync. To select which calendars to sync to your Apple device, follow the steps below:
Open the Safari browser on your device and go to http://m.google.com/sync.
Sign in with your account and select your device from the list of devices you’ve set up for Google Sync.
Bookmark this page so you can return to it easily. If you use Google Apps, click on this link for slightly different steps.
Now you can synchronize both your Mac’s desktop Address Book and iCal through their preferences. If you use Mac’s Mail app at all, you should know that Gmail is added with ease by setting up its access to IMAP in Apple Mail 3.0. I personally have tried the Address Book option and got a lot of duplicates and messed up contacts. Of course you should ALWAYS back up your iCal and Address Book through their Export to Archive options before trying any of this. But if you want a really smart and cheap way to sync your desktop applications to your Google Emails, I’m going to have to recommend Spanning Sync. Here’s a video to show why as well as some features listed below taken from their site:
Spanning Sync can not only simplify the initial setup of Google Sync but will also keep your Mac in sync with Google—something Google Sync doesn’t do.
Stay Organized Across Multiple Macs
If you’re lucky enough to have more than one Mac, keeping your data organized can be a challenge. But Spanning Sync makes it simple to organize your calendars and contacts: just sync all of your Macs to the same Google Calendar account.
So whether you’re using your Mac Pro at work, your iMac at home, or your MacBook on the go, your calendars and contacts are always up to date. And since Spanning Sync is licensed per-person not per-computer, you can install it on as many Macs as you like without paying more.
iCal Sharing Has Never Been Easier
Need to set up a shared iCal calendar for your group? Spanning Sync makes it easy. Just create and share a Google Calendar, then sync it with iCal on your Mac. Changes made in Google Calendar show up in iCal—and changes made in iCal show up in Google Calendar.
Their interface is simple and it honestly takes seconds to set up. I’ve included some sample screenshots below:
Spanning Sync offers a 15 day trial period, a $25 year subscription or a $65 one time purchase that never expires and will work with any upgrade they offer. Remember, Spanning Sync is licensed per-person not per-computer, you can install it on as many Macs as you like without paying more. I recommend giving the trial a run to see if you like it and if you do, you can save $5 right away on either purchase if you use my referral code here: AJA9TK.
5 comments