Need advice about using iCloud & Google services

[tdx]

Hi everyone,

until now I've been using Google services (Gmail, contacts, calendar) with my iOS devices using the Google sync exchange method (not perfect but it works)
Yesterday after updating to iOS5 and iCloud I thought I'd try to make all these services play nice with each other. But to be honest I'm a little lost. Right now I can:
- Keep my gmail, contacts and calendar syncing through exchange on my iphone/Ipad, but then they have no ties to iCloud and do not show up on my MBP
- I can add my google contacts and calendar to the ical and contacts side on my MBP so that they show up there but then I end up with duplicate contacts in my IPhone and the gcal doesnt show up in icloud

So both solutions suck and I'm not sure what I'm doing worng. I just need a clean, duplicate-free system where my gcal, gcontacts and gmail will play nice with ical, contacts and mail in icloud, my MBP and my iphone/ipad. Is that even possible?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[9822737]

I would like to know an answer to this!

 

[RByers89]

If anyone finds a solution for this please post. Use a droid phone for work and would like.to be able to combine gmail with icloud on my mac.

 

[bgibbons]

Need to know why Icloud (home) and gmail calendars are separate on my devices

I use gmail and use my Ipad, Iphone and PC to update my calendar. Why are my calendar entries duplicated. One calendar is Icloud (home) and the other is my gmail calendar. If I turn off one some of my events do not show up.

 

[Arelunde]

The simplest answer is to transfer all your data to the iCloud account.

I had your situation when iOS5 launched - Gmail everything. I ended up with double and triple contacts, deleted contacts, a blank calendar (that was the last straw) and email all over the place.

If you want to keep the Gmail contacts, etc., don't use iCloud to sync any of the Gmail data. That's where the problems arise. Google stores your Gmail info in its cloud, so you don't need the iCloud backup. Make sure the contacts and calendar are NOT checked off in the iDevice's iCloud settings. Having Gmail fetch my pop3 (old) email accounts and forward that plus Gmail mail to the iPhone worked fairly well.

Messy stuff - that's why I consolidated to iCloud. So far, no problems. It seems overwhelming at first, but start with Gmail contacts - export them (after you clean them up in Gmail) in the iPhone fomat to a flash drive, add to iCloud from there.

The calendar takes some time, but because you can set up the repeating things easily, it's little more than what used to be done with paper calendars each January. I sent out my "me.com" email address as my new email - that's been a somewhat a pain, but worth it in the long haul.