Yet another way in which having a Mac would make my life easier.

The cumbersome process I went through recently in syncing-exporting-importing-cleaning was too much like living in the dark ages.

Josh

I believe it says it will sync with Google every time you sync your iPhone, so even if you enable the option it not going to do anything until it sees an iPhone sync.

Ety

You need to sync your iPod (and enable Contact sync on your iPod itself) after enabling Google Contact Sync support in Address Book.

But again, I had this working, put it appears something (iTunes?) changed that FamilyID value after a couple of syncs, breaking the contact sync with Gmail.

chrisgeleven

At least, I think so... now I try putting a test entry in, I dont see anything. But the google option is there in preferences

Joe.Andersen

My relatively virgin MacBookPro just had the option once I rebooted - no iP* of any sort ever connected....

Joe.Andersen

There is a big catch with this method. It appears that after a couple of syncs, the FamilyID value in the plist file is changed back to the original value, breaking the hack.

Unfortunately, I think we are going to need an official update from Apple to fix this.

chrisgeleven

Well, shit, I've just come to realise also that you have to actually sync your iPod to use this hack. What a lot of rubbish.

Eris

For those of us without a working iPod, paste the following into a text editor and save it as ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iPod.plist

{ Devices = { red-herring = { 'Family ID' = 10001; }; }; }

Alternatively, you could probably add a brand new fake device with any such id and only the necessary Family ID key inside and it wouldn't mess with your real iPod's settings.

Eris

BTW, if I were to guess, it's that it does not work for pre-Video iPods, which, troglodyte that I am, I continue to use quite happily.

chasj

Did everything as instructed and nothing different happened. Changed it on both my ipods. No idea why.

chasj

If you were a Windows user, you could always use SyncMyCal.

whoisvaibhav

And so maybe I was wrong about the Mac making my life easier. Still, maybe one day we'll find a way.

Josh

@Eris:

Actually all you have to do is Sync, not necessarily with a iPod, doing your little hack on a brand new MacBook syncing to .mac made it work too.

goblyn13

Maybe we should all throw bricks through our nearest Apple store with a note: "I don't have an iPhone but I have a brick and I wish to synchronise it with your shop window".

Kent84

you can also just use textedit to edit the plist

Quine

alternatively, if you don;t like hacking your PList or Apples conditions, we've got a great sync tool that syncs GMail (and Google Apps Mail) with your OS X Addressbook.

check it out @ [www.soocial.com]

danielspronk

I highly recommend prefsetter for this kind of work. It's freeware rather than shareware.

sam1am

there must also be a command line call to set this?

vidarg

@danielspronk: @danielspronk:

You should precise Soocial is a closed beta for the moment ! Anyway if you happen to have an invite for me, I'd be happy to try it. christolet(at)gmail(dot)com

christofk

Well from the comments it sounds like this is a half-baked workaround.

Why Apple has introduced this feature in 10.5.3, but restricted it to iPhone syncer's... is just bizarre.

Oh well. Now that Google's Address Book Sync API is out, there are lots of developers, like the aforementioned soocial.com (SyncMan, GooSync, ABGMerge, Spanning Sync, BusySync, etc.) working on other ways to sync these two on a Mac.

Soocial: [www.soocial.com]
Syncman: [wateree.net]
GooSync: [www.goosync.com]
ABGMerge: [homepage.mac.com]
Spanning Sync: [blog.spanningsync.com]
BusySync: [blog.busymac.com]

Fofer

I followed all the steps above with no success, anyone got any advise?

Cambronator

That's Apple for you... nothing for free.

HeartBurnKid

10.4 offers you to synchronize with yahoo :)

monomyth

yea, im not having any luck with this

erifneerg

Interestingly my plist file had four or five serialized ³tree² branches ­ I changed them all and so far all seems well, anyone know why this is? As far as I know I only have the one ipod synced to my machine ­ and I ought to know since I work for Mr. Jobs (stay your arms, brick throwers!)

BethanyKapla

As others have mentioned, adding another fake "iPod" rather than editing yours is a better idea, as it won't get overwritten with the correct info later. A one-liner to do so: defaults write com.apple.iPod Devices -dict-add red-herring '{ "Family ID" = 10001; }'

CosmoStitch

@danielspronk:
Requires an invite code. Can I get one? stowe DOT boyd AT gmail DOT com. Stowe Boyd

JeremiahClymenus

@chasj: I have a 2nd Gen iPod and changing this hack worked for me. So...I would assume it works for any iPod. (I happily still use my iPod from 2002 on a daily basis. Original battery, too, baby!)

mozmac

I think the brick thing is funny. FUNNEEE!!
Sic semper tyrannis!!!

naxalite

Worked quite nicely (I deleted all the entries in Gmail before syncing). Company entries (marked as Company) without first or last name were listed without any name in the Gmail's list (though the entry had the name of the company). So I used the following script to set the last name to company name as a workaround:

-- my first script :)

tell application "Address Book"

set companyList to {}
set theEntries to every person whose company = true
repeat with theEntry in theEntries

set companyName to organization of theEntry
if (first name of theEntry is equal to missing value) and (last name of the the theEntry is equal to missing value) then
if companyName is not equal to missing value then
try
set last name of theEntry to companyName
on error error_message number error_number
display dialog "Error while change entry for " & companyName & return & error_message ¬
buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end try
end if
end if

end repeat

try
save addressbook
on error error_message number error_number
display dialog "Error while saving the address book:" & return & error_message ¬
buttons {"OK"} default button 1
end try

end tell

nkalvi

I am really disappointed in the fact they went about this in such a way...there is really only one reason, Android is coming! Just like many phones that were usable in iSync (and used it well...) seemingly fell off the map with Leopard, Apple is limiting exposure to outside options since the iPhone is the "best," option after-all...

I for one use GMail and have spent about 5k in Apple products since my first in college, but since I gave up my iPhone in hopes for a more open device in the near future (Android on HTC!), I got the option from past syncs, but it obviously doesn't work...

What sucks even more is the fact that the Yahoo Sync (albeit a shoddy sync in my experience) worked right away, even had some configuration options in the Yahoo account, if I remember correctly. Strange how Yahoo also got push for the iPhone (that sucked too, I know...but the effort was there)

I am really upset that Apple does this, we paid for the OS, for the Computer, and have the option, but because we have not purchased an additional piece of hardware we're locked out.

Please then make sure iTunes won't let us buy music unless we have an iPod...oh, wait but that makes money...

Upsetting...

ajmcjoseph

Fofer is correct this is sort of half baked (personally tested gen1 Ipod Nano - repeated syncs break the Family ID setting). As mentioned in earlier comments Spanning Sync's 2.0 public beta works great if you just want to make a Gcal+Gcontacts link direct to your Mac. Assuming you in turn want to get it on your phone it works so long as your phone is supported by Mac's iSync you will be in luck.

On a tangent I tried GooSync for wireless OTA syncing on my N95-4 but GooSync wanted to talk to the N95 with specific network settings that aren't user addressable AFAIK. I fell back to using iSync & bluetooth.

elvisinvegas

Another option is Syncman [wateree.net] . It's a commercial app but syncs Address Book with Gmail or Google Apps without any hacking required. It's also available now. And yes, I am associated with Syncman. ;-)

netnichols

Yeah, I'm not getting it to work either. I've tried both approaches (editing the existing iPod entry in the list and creating a separate one). I never get the "Synchronize with Google" option in Address Book.

My iPod is a shuffle, so I'm wondering if it might have something to do with the fact that it's not a video type iPod (along the lines of what chasj said).

Would someone with a video iPod mind posting (or emailing me) their entire Devices entry from com.apple.iPod.plist so I can do some experimentation?

Thanks!

-Gary

psulion

Gary, to get it to work, fire up the terminal, and do a

cd /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/Preferences/

then a

sudo cp com.apple.iPod.plist backup.com.apple.iPod.plist

then a

sudo nano com.apple.iPod.plist

remove everything, and copy and paste the following (from Eris post above):

{ Devices = { red-herring = { 'Family ID' = 10001; }; }; }

save the file, close and reopen Address book with iTunes open (have no idea if iTunes is necessary)

if that doesn't work, something is wrong

ajmcjoseph

That's basically what I had done, but for grins I tried again as you described. Still no luck. I'm thinking it's one of two things:

- My iPod is a shuffle and not a video or an iPhone
- I've never actually synced it with my Mac, just plugged it in to charge it.

Is anyone willing to post or email their com.apple.iPod.plist file (even if you haven't hacked it)?

Thanks,

-Gary

psulion

The reason I dont see why that would help is because by backing up your .plist and overwriting it, it should just work...

But now that I think about it, does the NEWLY created .plist file show in the finder as a .plist? because nano has put things into a weird format for me before. For instance, it may look like a .plist.doc, or a webarchive or something... You should check that...anyway, I just reinstalled leopard and couldn't get the option either until I used the "red herring" .plist hack...

not on that machine now, but honestly never syncing an iPod or iPhone should have nothing to do with it, as long as you have the Addressbook, a correct extension on the .plist hack and iTunes all opened up, you should be good to go

Good Luck!

ajmcjoseph

Okay, got it. I was editing the com.apple.iPod.plist file located in /Library/Preferences, not the one in my home directory (~/Library/Preferences). Once I hit the one in the correct location it worked as advertised.

FYI, no need to have iTunes running.

-Gary

psulion

I was thinking that seeing a com.apple.iPod.plist file from someone that had synced with a video iPod might yield a clue. I understand what you're saying about completely overwriting the original file though. Until you posted I wasn't aware that anyone had gotten the hack to work by creating a new "red-herring" file (as opposed to simply editing their existing com.apple.iPod.plist file).

The file is showing up correctly in Finder, and a "file com.apple.iPod.plist" also confirms that it's "XML 1.0 document text".

Not sure what else to try, as I'm currently at a loss as to why it's not working.

-Gary

psulion

Oh wow, I am pretty sure I edited the HD prefs, not my users...anyways, glad to see it's working. I guess that the com.apple.iPod.plist could exist in both, just not sure how iTunes would figure out which to use...

Anyways, glad it's working!

ajmcjoseph

For those having trouble give this guide a try,
[www.zaphu.com]

fdavis

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iPod.plist doesn't exist ... presumably because I do not have an iPod.

Topic should be adjusted, its a little misleading.

qcha0s

I activated the syncinc option with the hack Eris mentioned then I synced my SonyEricsson T650i with my Mac... and what happened? it also synced the contacts with Google Contacts :-D greetz

ShevantiPlatypus

!!! you have to enable contacts syncing in itunes first people. Then synce your ipod video or nano. isync wont do it. it is itunes, and then it gives you that fun little resolve conflict menu.

Alex

macmongrel

!!!WORKED FOR ME!!!
now, is there a simple hack like this to make ical sync with google?

EMoShunz

Worked for me as well, thanks. Will post back if the fix is only temporary.

nka

Okay, so there's one catch (at least for me). I do not have an iPhone or Touch (only a Shuffle), so even a sync of the Shuffle to iTunes does not trigger the Google Contacts / Mac Address Book sync.

Instead, I had to go in and register an executable entitled gconsync, which is the underlying mechanism that talks between Address Book and Google Contacts. It's located in /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GoogleContactSync.framework/Versions/Current/Resources.

After adding the "Family ID = 10001" hack noted above, I went in with Terminal and did:

- cd /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/GoogleContactSync.framework/Versions/Current/Resources
- sudo ./gconsync --register 1

After that I ran Syncrospector to initiate a manual sync and everything worked as advertised. I do not know yet if the sync will occur on a regular basis, or if I need to do something else in order for it to occur automatically.

-Gary

psulion

@psulion: Here is how to perform the sync on command whenever you like.
[www.zaphu.com]

fdavis

I also don't have an iPhone or iPod Touch, nor a .Mac account.

The original steps mentioned in the LH article worked to get the "Synchronize with Google" option. I checked it and entered my account info, but how do I get the contacts to actually synchronize between Address Book and Gmail now? I assumed it would happen when I opened Address Book. How are other people without iPods manually syncing their contacts using this hack?

DavidWizard

@DavidWizard: Follow the guide on zaphu.com, it addresses your issues.
[www.zaphu.com]

fdavis

Doesn anybody know if it's possible to turn on groups support for Leopard-Gmail sync?

I have far more than a thousand of contacts in my address book and I keep only part of that on my phone in the 'mobile' group, which I actually sync with mobile phone (iSync + Nokia E51).

The problem is that Leopard only sync this 'mobile' group onto gmail, too which isn't the way I'd expect it to work. Is there a way to set up Gmail as a different iSync device/instance?

prebrov

@prebrov: To my knowledge Google Contacts will not support Groups. Let me know if you find out otherwise.

fdavis