After spending the last two days trying to figure out a way to sync my contacts I’ve given up. I just don’t think that there is an easy reliable way to sync Gmail Contacts with Apple’s Address Book. This sort of amazed me because of how seamlessly Google Calendars integrates with Apple’s iCal. I did run across an Apple script that had the potential to do what I wanted. But if tell short. ABG Merge essentially compares the csv file you export from your Gmail contacts with your OS X Address Book. Any contacts not present in the Address Book program are imported. Any contacts in the Address Book, but not in your Gmail contacts are added to the csv file. The updated csv file is then uploaded back to your Gmail account. If only it was that easy… 
The whole process was a little dirty. The Apple Script has a ton of windows that pop up throughout the process which gets a bit annoying. I was able to get my contacts imported into the Address Book, but was never able to get any syncing to take place. The Apple Script actually crashed on me two times and I just gave up. I ended up deleting everything in my Address Book to try to find a cleaner method.
Like I said before I couldn’t find anything that would sync Gmail and Apples Address Book. I decided that a simple import would be good enough for now. To accomplish that I busted out Address Book Importer. This neat little piece of software imports csv files into Apple’s Address Book. Additionally, Address Book Importer allows the user to choose how the data in the csv file will be mapped to the fields in Address Book. This worked great! I ran into one small hiccup though. Gmail insists on exporting the first and last name into a single field withing the csv file. Address Book expects the name to be split into first and last names. To fix this I just resorted to manually editing the Address Book entries.
Overall I was bummed that I couldn’t get my contacts to sync. Although its nice having my contacts imported into the Address Book, syncing would have been the optimal solution. I guess that Gmail just doesn’t play well with OS X. If anyone reading this has an eloquent way to sync Gmail and Address Book contacts I’d love to hear about it!
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this is a pisser,
i am trying to use os x stuff with gmail; for everything.
i am currently testing out the gmail notebook.
but on my mac i am using Soho notes and i do not think that there is a syncing anything there for google notes…
I really love the flexibility of having my data online and accessible from any computer. The biggest problem is that you can’t access your stuff when you don’t have internet access. In this day and age that isn’t that often. But when it occurs its a pain.
I wish Google and Apple would team up and conquer Microsoft Office. Get Apples iLife/iWork suites to sync up with the appropriate Google services. Maybe this is around the corner since the two companies partnered up for the iPhone and Google Maps.
What a coincidence. After writing this comment I ran across an article that says that “Apple and Google are doing more and more things together.” Maybe iLife/iWork syncing is right around the corner :)
that would be a great idea.
i am still in the initial stages of trying the online portion of gmails office type programs, but it is a very cool idea.
Google’s online office programs are pretty sweet. The only downfall I’ve run across is that at times they can be a bit sluggish. I don’t know if its my cable modem being weird or if its their interface. Its nothing major, but once you get used to the responsiveness of desktop applications its definitely noticeable.
yeah, the whole online app thing is cool, but it is always going to be hampered by the product or the connection.
i am trying out their notebook and really like it.
hmm… also as far as syncing goes, are you doing boot camp at all?
there is a way to sync your mailbox with gmail, i will get the info as it was in maximum pc, my old fav mag…
I have parallels installed, but find myself rarely using it if at all. I was going to install bootcamp, but the only Windows XP disc that I have is SP1. I need an SP2 disc. I tried slipstreaming it, but couldn’t get it to work.
you need a good slipstreaming guide…
i got it too work first time out and have had no issues with it at all since…
works well..
now if i could just get the updates to work.
Thats probably the problem. Any chance you still have the link to the guide that you used still laying around?
any luck with that?
Not lately. I’ve been hoping that the developers of Spanning Sync will release an app for it :)
If you have a Blackberry, you don’t have to sync your Gmail contacts. Just use your Blackberry like you would a computer and go to your Gmail link, then scroll down to contacts and voila, they are all there, just like if you were setting at home with your feet up on a chair smoking a big cigar.
Hi Nick, thought you might be interested in an app I’ve recently released called Syncman ( http://wateree.net/syncman ). It does full bidirectional synchronization between Address Book and Gmail.
Hope you don’t mind the plug, but you do say “if anyone reading this has an eloquent way to sync Gmail and Address Book contacts I’d love to hear about it!”. ;-)