copying contacts to icloud

[buya97]

I am new to this apple/icloud system. I got my 4s phone on friday and was able to copy my contacts over from my gmail account to my phone. Now I would like to back them up to the icloud, how to I do that? I have the contacts slider to on in the setting sunder icloud. Just an aside, they way i got the contacts on my phone (as was stated in the directions) was to setup an exchange account on the phone with my gmail name and just sync "contacts".

 

[gloss]

I did the same thing and all my Gmail contacts synced into iCloud instantly. Go to iCloud.com and log in to see what your contacts list looks like. If everything's there, you can then disable Google contact sync.

 

[ranny2]

I have the exact same problem on my iPad running iOS 5. They synced perfectly from Gmail, but won't sync up to iCloud. My calendar is syncing fine however.

 

[DefBref]

Using Gmail as exchange means there already in the 'cloud' anyway (just not Apples icloud) don't really see the point of moving across to icloud when you already have a fully functioning cloud email, contacts, and calendar via Gmail.

 

[gloss]

Using Gmail as exchange means there already in the 'cloud' anyway (just not Apples icloud) don't really see the point of moving across to icloud when you already have a fully functioning cloud email, contacts, and calendar via Gmail.

The only reason I've run into is that Google Sync doesn't support full-screen caller ID photos (of which I'm personally fond).

 

[merkyone]

i'm looking to move my gmail contacts to icloud too just so i'll have repetitive copies... anybody figure out how yet?

 

[buya97]

yeah that was the direction i wanted to go in, I wanted to have an apple copy of them. also the icloud editor for the contacts is a lot nice than gmail

 

[Razeus]

If you have Google, I see no point of using iCloud for Contacts, email and calendars. iCloud is pretty useless, especially if you use Dropbox.

 

[gtmac]

Using Gmail as exchange means there already in the 'cloud' anyway (just not Apples icloud) don't really see the point of moving across to icloud when you already have a fully functioning cloud email, contacts, and calendar via Gmail.

This is how I feel about my setup, Yahoo for personal and Corp. Exchange for work, icloud offers very little.

 

[iMrNiceGuy0023]

so coming from an Andriod device using a gmail account, I can set up an exchange account to retieve my contacts to my iPhone?

 

[goforaj]

Using Gmail as exchange means there already in the 'cloud' anyway (just not Apples icloud) don't really see the point of moving across to icloud when you already have a fully functioning cloud email, contacts, and calendar via Gmail.

The reason is also that Gmail doesn't support all the "labels" that the iPhone does. For example, if you have any contacts with phone numbers labeled as "iPhone", those simply didn't sync to my Google Contacts for some reason... This is also true for one of my friends who uses a separate number to text to. Since I labeled that number as "text", it also didn't transfer over, as Google Contacts didn't recognize that label. Annoying. I would expect it to just label it as a generic contact.

 

[bimmer10]

so coming from an Andriod device using a gmail account, I can set up an exchange account to retieve my contacts to my iPhone?

Thats right. And the best thing about this is that if you ever want to go back and forth between Android as I do, its a piece of cake.

 

[whsbuss]

If you are still going to use Gmail then you will need to keep your contacts up to date. Using iCloud @me.com mail still has a problem updating the mail.app badge when being read on other iDevices/iCloud web unless you open it.

All cloud services have some deficiencies.... its just what you are comfortable with. My main gripe with Gmail exchange/active sync is deleting emails only archives them.

 

[buya97]

is this maybe a work around this whole Gmail sync thing. Am I able to backup my contacts on itunes, then stop the syncing with the gmail server (which will delete the contacts on my phone), then go back to itunes and re-upload the gmail contacts but from here on out it will be on my phone permanently and not through a sync process. is that able to be done? (I'm assuming once I dont need the sync I can then upload the contacts to icloud)

 

[whsbuss]

is this maybe a work around this whole Gmail sync thing. Am I able to backup my contacts on itunes, then stop the syncing with the gmail server (which will delete the contacts on my phone), then go back to itunes and re-upload the gmail contacts but from here on out it will be on my phone permanently and not through a sync process. is that able to be done? (I'm assuming once I dont need the sync I can then upload the contacts to icloud)

Yes that will work. Be sure your iCloud.com contacts is empty so you don't get dups.