Talk to me like an idiot: iCloud, Google, Contacts

[darthastuart]

Okay.

So I put iOS 5 on my iPad 1 Tuesday night, Gold Master. The whole damn thing got wiped, which was fine with me, and I was able to restore from a backup from like February. Again, not a big deal.

At that point (February), I had synced my Google contacts to my iPad contacts and that's how I was syncing my contacts. So I have a bunch of contacts on my iPad 1 in the Contacts app.

Now I sync the iPad with iCloud.

Am I correct in understanding that my contacts are now syncing with iCloud, and NOT with Google anymore? Or are they somehow syncing with both? Is there a way to sync to both?

I've tried looking for some setting that would tell me whether or not I'm still syncing contacts with Google but I don't see anything under my gmail account in Settings on the iPad to indicate I can even sync contacts with Google anymore, even if I wanted to...unless it's some kind of autosync enabled by the fact that my gmail account is on my iPad?

Thanks in advance.

 

[NateDMB]

You are correct. You can double check in Settings > Mail, Contacts, and Calendars to see if your Google credentials are still there, but as long as you turned on iCloud syncing, you're all set. Then if the Google credentials are in fact still there, and you don't need them, just turn it off. Hope that helps.

 

[darthastuart]

This does help, thanks! I think I'll take the occasion to solidify my phone contacts around iCloud and keep my Google contacts more for e-mail use, which should reduce the junk on my phone at any given time.

 

[tzus]

'Talk to me like an idiot'

Hello Idiot!

 

[iphone1105]

'Talk to me like an idiot'

Hello Idiot!

Yeah best thread title ever..OP thumbs up

 

[TLewis]

Um, if you were previously syncing with google contacts, you should still be syncing with google contacts (not icloud).

Now, if you add icloud, you now have the ability to sync with icloud, but that doesn't change if/how you're syncing with other sources (like google contacts).

In all probability, you're now syncing with both google contacts and icloud, and any contacts you see are from google contacts -- icloud will have nothing unless you've manually added people there, or have contacts migrated from mobileme. (In other words, do not delete any google contacts unless you're absolutely, positively sure that you have a copy elsewhere -- and you do not have a copy in icloud unless you've explicitly done some work to put it there.)

 

[tardman91]

I personally switched my contacts and calendars over to iCloud last night. It took a couple of hours, but I'm loving it! I still use my gmail, I just disabled syncing of the calendars and contacts. I like iCloud better because it works seamlessly with all of my iOS devices. I have it working perfectly between my iPhone 4, iPad, and MacBook Pro. I could never get the 3-way Google Sync to work quite right. It's perfect with iCloud. If you are pretty much exclusively using Apple products, I would switch over to iCloud.

 

[archdelux]

I personally switched my contacts and calendars over to iCloud last night. It took a couple of hours, but I'm loving it! I still use my gmail, I just disabled syncing of the calendars and contacts. I like iCloud better because it works seamlessly with all of my iOS devices. I have it working perfectly between my iPhone 4, iPad, and MacBook Pro. I could never get the 3-way Google Sync to work quite right. It's perfect with iCloud. If you are pretty much exclusively using Apple products, I would switch over to iCloud.

Hi--just curious,since I am considering going from google to iCloud...why doesn't google work? It worked for me wi my iPhone and iPad and Mac...is there any advantage to syncing with iCloud?

I have iCal on my Mac sync with google and I have mail synced of course... My only question is contacts...does google adequately sync contacts between phone and iPad and Mac? I thought it did but I have occasionally come across problems in the past

 

[JRoDDz]

You sir, are an idiot.

 

[G37dude80]

I actually have both. I'm keeping my google contacts syncing and I imported those same contacts into iCloud. This is how every contact look like on my list.

One change and it updates both!

 

[archdelux]

I actually have both. I'm keeping my google contacts syncing and I imported those same contacts into iCloud. This is how every contact look like on my list.
Image

One change and it updates both!

Cool...but I'm still having a hard time understanding the goal of syncing both...wouldn't just having google syncing alone do everything u are doing with having both synced?

 

[Stangs55]

Idiot, setup Gmail as exchange and use it to sync your calendar and contacts.

Setup iCloud like normal but turn off mail, contact, and calendar syncing.

Dunno why this isn't standard practice for every gmail user...

 

[TLewis]

Idiot, setup Gmail as exchange and use it to sync your calendar and contacts.

Setup iCloud like normal but turn off mail, contact, and calendar syncing.

Dunno why this isn't standard practice for every gmail user...

That's a bit strong.

Actually, iCloud's contacts are better than gmail's, as you can organize your contacts into groups. While gmail may support contact groups, this isn't supported in the exchange interface, and you're only allowed one big pile of contacts.

 

[Beachball8]

Say I've successfully set up iCloud for 3 devices:

1) iPhone
2) iPad
3) Windows 7 Laptop

So now my contact list is totally the same on these 3 devices. Adding a contact on one device will automatically add that same contact to the other two devices. Deleting one contact on one device will delete that same contact on the other two devices. Sweet.

Question: what happens when i do a clean format of my laptop next week? Will all 3 devices end up with no contacts or will the laptop repopulate with the full contact list?

How does iCloud know which of these scenarios i want?

 

[TLewis]

Question: what happens when i do a clean format of my laptop next week? Will all 3 devices end up with no contacts or will the laptop repopulate with the full contact list?

How does iCloud know which of these scenarios i want?

I assume it's the same as MobileMe: new installations are populated from the cloud.

 

[VydorScope]

Okay I perfer not to be considered an idiot unlike the OP, but I do have an idiot level question I guess!

Anyways... I have an Android phone with all my contacts/cal on Google. I would like to keep them there, but what would the advantage be of adding iCloud? I know someone mentioned groups, would I be able to use groups then with my iCloud sync'd contacts with out messing up the Google ones that are linked? What about the relationship stuff that Siri uses (i.e. "Call my wife") where would that live?

Thanks!

 

[tardman91]

Question: what happens when i do a clean format of my laptop next week? Will all 3 devices end up with no contacts or will the laptop repopulate with the full contact list?

How does iCloud know which of these scenarios i want?

I would assume it would just repopulate from the cloud like said before. Technically you're not "deleting" them individually from your laptop, you're wiping the whole thing. I imagine when you go to set it up again, you'll just download whatever contacts are "in the cloud."

 

[rwilliams]

That's a bit strong.

Actually, iCloud's contacts are better than gmail's, as you can organize your contacts into groups.

I don't think he meant any harm - the OP said talk to him like an idiot, so he referred to him as idiot. But I agree with you on iCloud's contacts - they're much better than Google's. Google would do all kinds of weird things with your fields and it became a mess. iCloud keeps things exactly the way you entered it.

 

[reebzor]

I want to know how to sync with both. Can someone please walk me through how you do that?

I am currently syncing with gmail, but I want all of my contacts in Gmail, iCloud and all my devices. halp?

 

[h00ligan]

This is the problem. Even if you copy them to iCloud and have unified contacts. When you create a new contact it's in one location or another. you have to keep them up. There's no way I can see to do it automagically.

 

[redmamoth]

Apply seriously need to sort this out and allow you to sync with both. Untill then it's no iCloud for me, apart from my own contact card which i've learned needs to be on the phone or in the iCloud for Siri to remember my relationships...

 

[Azzin]

Maybe I'm missing a trick here, but I have my personal & business hosted by Google (Apps) and added to my iPhone and iPad, so when I add one on my iPhone it then appears on my iPad (& obviously vice versa).

So...why would I want to sync with iCloud as well?

They're already in the (g!)Cloud, so what's the point?

 

[TLewis]

Apply seriously need to sort this out and allow you to sync with both. Untill then it's no iCloud for me, apart from my own contact card which i've learned needs to be on the phone or in the iCloud for Siri to remember my relationships...

Eh? You can already sync with multiple contact sources, like google and icloud. This is an iOS4 (not iOS5) feature, too.

Contacts with the same first and last names (or something) are even automatically linked by default (in iOS5??), and editing the "unified" contact (as opposed to the individual google or icloud contact) will change ALL of the linked contacts. Example: http://www.tipb.com/2010/07/06/ios-4-feature-linked-contacts/

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They're already in the (g!)Cloud, so what's the point?

1. icloud gives you usable contact groups on iOS. While google contacts may "support" contact groups elsewhere, they're not supported on iOS.
2. Someone said that you need to use icloud contacts for proper siri operation, as supposedly google contacts could not properly handle relationships (e.g., wife, sister, etc.).

 

[h00ligan]

Ok so you can edit a unified contact. Can you create one on both at the same time?

Not that I can see, but maybe I'm missing it. The point is. If I am out and get someone's contact info. It has to go to gmail. Even if I was interested in transitioning it wouldn't be a flip the switch, for anyone who has been using email more than a few days.

 

[blueenigma]

Ok so you can edit a unified contact. Can you create one on both at the same time?

Not that I can see, but maybe I'm missing it. The point is. If I am out and get someone's contact info. It has to go to gmail. Even if I was interested in transitioning it wouldn't be a flip the switch, for anyone who has been using email more than a few days.

Precisely what h00ligan wrote! In settings, you must designated which account new contacts (or calendar events) are assigned to, and new contacts/calendar events will ONLY be assigned to that account. In other words, if you bump into an acquaintance and add their information to your iPhone, that information will be stored locally, in Gmail, or in iCloud, depending on the designation you set up. Once it's stored, you'd have to manually input that information to any additional desired location. In that sense, there is no true sync between iCloud and Gmail's cloud service.