Can I sync contacts between my device and Google (or some other service)?

piannetta

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Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

Hi there, I'm wondering if there's a way to sync contacts on my device with a service such as Google, so I can access and manage contacts from any device I have associated with the same account.

I'm using 9Folders to sync with my work's Exchange server which is where I have my contacts at the moment. 9 is great because it saves the contacts to the device so I can take advantage of things like Google Now and native reminders. I realised recently that Google Maps doesn't work properly because my contacts aren't in my Gmail account.

I know I can export the contacts on my phone and import them into Gmail Contacts, however, that's a one-off task and any changes I make to my contacts aren't going to be synced. Also, importing into Gmail is pretty dodgy, I've done it before and I get a lot of junk imported that doesn't even make sense.

It's a simple thing I'm trying to do, just can't seem to figure it out. Hoping someone has some good advice please.

Cheers,
Pete
 

B. Diddy

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Re: Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

Welcome to Android Central! The smoothest transition would be to have all of your contacts in Google Contacts and manage them from there, rather than on your Exchange server--is that possible for you at all? Or are you pretty much dependent on the Exchange server?
 

piannetta

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Re: Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

I'm pretty much tied to Exchange as this is where my work is. You're right though, if I wasn't tied to Exchange, Google would be the place to centralise everything to now that I think about it. That's a shame.

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muzzy996

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Re: Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

There are third party software packages that do the synchronization for you. It's a bit daunting to choose one though. While I make no claims that it will work for you since I only use it for calendar synchronization, take a look at gsyncit. It's $20 though, but they have a limited trial so you can test before you purchase. Their support seems pretty good (when Google changed policies earlier this year it affected how calendars synced and they issued a new version to address this giving the upgrade free to users who purchased within the past year).

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MaxBuck

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Re: Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

I'm not sure whether it's primarily Microsoft or Google to blame for the lack of synchronization between Outlook and Gmail, but it's a pain in the neck.

Google Calendar Sync used to be a good way to at least sync your schedule, but even that has now been eliminated (by Google). This lack of sync is a major failure of Android IMO. I've tried several of the third-party syncing programs and have found none of them to be very satisfactory.
 

piannetta

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Re: Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

Thanks for the tip, I can't find gsyncit on the Play Store though

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muzzy996

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Re: Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

Thanks for the tip, I can't find gsyncit on the Play Store though

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It's not an application on the phone end, it's an application that has to be run on a computer with Outlook installed and configured for the exchange account. The gsyncit application will then push the contacts and calendars over to the Gmail account. Not ideal having to rely on an application this way but it works for sure.

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piannetta

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Re: Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

It's not an application on the phone end, it's an application that has to be run on a computer with Outlook installed and configured for the exchange account. The gsyncit application will then push the contacts and calendars over to the Gmail account. Not ideal having to rely on an application this way but it works for sure.

Aah, my work won't allow that to happen so I suppose that solution won't work for my situation. Thanks anyway
 

plumcrazy

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Re: Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

luckily i use an exchange server with outlook cause i was never able to use any of those apps/programs to sync email and contacts on outlook.

This is one MAJOR fail on androids part in my opinion.
 

worwig

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Re: Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

Aah, my work won't allow that to happen so I suppose that solution won't work for my situation. Thanks anyway

That is a shame.
I have the same situation. I have all of my contacts on all of my personal devices on Google. At work I use Companionlink, to sync them from Google to Exchange. It works pretty well.

There are always going to be issues when linking Exchange with Google. Google contacts don't have anywhere near as many field as those on Exchange. In particular, Google ignores category fields. So information gets lost.
 

Bosbouer

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Re: Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

If you can export your exchange contracts (Outlook I presume) to an excel csv file, the "Excel contact" app from the app store will let you save them to the device . To transfer from device to gmail is seamless. As long as you do the updating on the device first, sync to gmail and then physically connect to the exchange server, the updated device details should pull through to the work contacts db. BUT your work IT folks may have blocked this route.
 

pappcam

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Re: Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

I'm quite confused on what's being asked here. I have a bunch of Google contacts and I also have my phone connected through ActiveSync to my Exchange account at work. My contacts display both my google and Exchange contacts. My calendar displays my google events and my Exchange events and I get both my Gmail and work Exchange email on my phone.

What else is required that would require a 3rd party tool to be used?

Sounds like the supposed shortcomings of Android are actually the shortcomings of your IT staff.
 
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worwig

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Re: Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

I'm quite confused on what's being asked here. I have a bunch of Google contacts and I also have my phone connected through ActiveSync to my Exchange account at work. My contacts display both my google and Exchange contacts. My calendar displays my google events and my Exchange events and I get both my Gmail and work Exchange email on my phone.

What else is required that would require a 3rd party tool to be used?

Sounds like the supposed shortcomings of Android are actually the shortcomings of your IT staff.

I believe.......
He has all/most of his contacts on his work exchange.
Those are synced to his phone, but not Google.
He is missing some features that you get when contacts are on the Google servers.

So I think he is wanting a clean and automatic Exchange to Google sync. But IT limits what runs on his work PC.
So I think that leaves him with something that runs on the phone, to sync Exchange to Google.

Maybe......
 

piannetta

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Re: Syncing contacts between device and Google (or some other service)

That's spot on

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