How to sync computer with iPhone and iPad

[desertman]

Hello forum,

I have been asked to help a friend to sync her email, contacts, calendar, and music between her computer and her iPhone and her iPad. I have to admit that I'm not quite sure how to make this best.

She has in the moment a Windows notebook, an iPhone 4 and an iPad 3. She is mainly complaining that her email is "not really" synced between her devices. As far as I know she has only one Gmail email address. Her main calender application seems to be Calendar on the iPad and the iPhone. She might buy a MacBook but for now everything should be working with the Windows notebook.

How do I do this best?

Isn't is correct to say that even with a MacBook she could not use iCloud for syncing her Gmail email?

Thanks a lot for your input!

desertman

 

[swiftaw]

If you add her gmail account to all devices she will get the same email on all.

As for her calendar, is she using the calendar app to access her google calendar, or is she using an iCloud calendar.

Best thing to do is go to Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars and see what Accounts are listed.

If she is using iCloud for her calendar/contacts these can be synced to a PC by downloading the iCloud Control Panel for Windows.

 

[desertman]

If you add her gmail account to all devices she will get the same email on all.

... which means she has to use IMAP everywhere, right?

Is that the only way?

In my experience "normal" people have no problems with IMAP on their iPhone and iPad (because they don't know anything else) but rather big problems with IMAP on their computer (because they always had and still have POP and therefore have many emails moved into separate folders on their computer).

I switched on my own computer from POP to IMAP and found the transition not to be easy. Is this switch something that sooner or later everybody with multiple devices has to do?

As for her calendar, is she using the calendar app to access her google calendar, or is she using an iCloud calendar.

Don't know. She says she is using iCal and I don't even know if she at all uses iCloud.

Thanks for your answers, anyway. I know a little more now how to start this ...

desertman

 

[swiftaw]

Yes, if she wants multiple devices to be in sync, it has to be IMAP. iPhone/iPad is easy because it sets it up automatically once you tell it it is a gmail account.

On her computer it would require to manually enter the correct IMAP settings into what ever mail program she wants to use - or she could just use the gmail web interface.

 

[desertman]

... or she could just use the gmail web interface.

That's an interesting point. Would make everything else, of course, much easier. Never occurs to me as a possibility because I used an email client from my first computer days on. But I know that many "normal" people don't know anything else but web-based email.

 

[poppycao]

download an iTunes,then transfer your contents to iTunes,and sync your iphone and ipad.or,you can try a third-party software,iphone/ipad to conputer transfer.it can help u sync your contents conveniently.