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SSpiro

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 30, 2007
604
17
Atlanta, GA
Just switched from android to a new iPhone 6+. Love it so far.. my ONLY struggle has been contact management.

Here is where i'm coming from and a full explanation of where im at and where im trying to go:
  • I manage all my contacts in Outlook.. 2200 or so contacts that i manage through my PC laptop.
  • When i was on Android, i used gSyncit to sync from outlook to gmail. I had no issues, other than some contacts would go missing at times. I had it automated so it would sync once a day from outlook to gmail.
  • I then installed (again on android) CamCard to start scanning in business cards, and turned on Gmail-> Outlook syncing so that the contacts created in the app would go in to Outlook. This was handy, but created some problems - as in, gmail likes to save all emails for anyone youve ever emailed, so i would get a dump of 500+ junk email addresses from craigslist ads and bullsh!t stuff ive emailed over the years. Ive learned that cleaning these out of gmail is a NIGHTMARE. I've since disabled this feature because it made a mess. But, it made camcard useless for me.
  • I got the iPhone a couple days ago. I installed gmail to use as my email app, and synced contacts from gmail app. Ive now learned that gmail now uses two main groups for contacts. My Contacts (frequently used) and Other Contacts (all others). They ALL sync with Android. BUT, with iphone only "My Contacts" will sync. So my phone only has 50 or so contacts out of 2200. One could manually select what contacts they want to sync over to the phone.. but, with 2200 contacts, thats a nightmare. Ive been googling for DAYS about how to automate this process but find nothing. What a nightmare. So glad im dumping google.
Here is what i need to accomplish:
  • Be able to wirelessly, automatically sync contacts from Outlook to my iphone. I dont need google to do that if there is a better way.. But the key here is wireless and automatic. If i have to plug in to itunes and click a ton of stuff, ill never do it and itll get too out of control
  • Be able to use camcard, and sync from iphone back in to outlook. Again, wirelessly and automatic.
HELLLLLPPPPPPPPppppppppppppppppp
 

SSpiro

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 30, 2007
604
17
Atlanta, GA
Update.. I turned off gmail contacts (which removed them from the phone). Then i manually synced via itunes from outlook to get all my contacts on my phone.

Now i just need to figure out the automated part of iphone <-> outlook.
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,604
28,366
In the Settings app under Mail, Contacts, Calendars add your Gmail account, but NOT as mail.

When you are presented with the list of mail types to add, press "Other". You'll get another screen that shows you Mail, Contacts and Calenders and will allow you to enter one of whatever type. You want Contacts. Setup either as LDAP or CardDav depending on what you want to use.

That will pull over all your Google contacts (but not add your email account to the default Mail app). Since you've already added some contacts be aware that you may end up with duplicates. Further note that you can tell the phone which account you want to use for Contacts. Either "On My Phone" or Google. If you use Google then any new contact you generate will go to Google and then be able to sync with your other devices. And vice-versa.

Hope that helps.
 

SSpiro

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 30, 2007
604
17
Atlanta, GA
In the Settings app under Mail, Contacts, Calendars add your Gmail account, but NOT as mail.

When you are presented with the list of mail types to add, press "Other". You'll get another screen that shows you Mail, Contacts and Calenders and will allow you to enter one of whatever type. You want Contacts. Setup either as LDAP or CardDav depending on what you want to use.

That will pull over all your Google contacts (but not add your email account to the default Mail app). Since you've already added some contacts be aware that you may end up with duplicates. Further note that you can tell the phone which account you want to use for Contacts. Either "On My Phone" or Google. If you use Google then any new contact you generate will go to Google and then be able to sync with your other devices. And vice-versa.

Hope that helps.

This is huge, thank you!

Now - The other question as it relates to cleaning gmail up. Anyone have any tips? My google contacts are a MESS thanks to the way google organizes them. Quite honestly, if i could bypass google, i'd be okay.
 
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Reactions: eyoungren

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,604
28,366
This is huge, thank you!

Now - The other question as it relates to cleaning gmail up. Anyone have any tips? My google contacts are a MESS thanks to the way google organizes them. Quite honestly, if i could bypass google, i'd be okay.
This is something I'd do from the website. They have tools. You can tell Google to search for duplicates and then consolidate your contacts.

You'll want to go to contacts.google.com
 

SSpiro

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 30, 2007
604
17
Atlanta, GA
This is something I'd do from the website. They have tools. You can tell Google to search for duplicates and then consolidate your contacts.

You'll want to go to contacts.google.com

Thanks.. my issue isnt the duplicates, but rather the way they classify and file the contacts. So only about 50 of my contacts will sync because the other 2200 contacts are filed as "other personal contacts" which google wont sync. I have to move them over manually, contact by contact. Its a nightmare..
 

eyoungren

macrumors Penryn
Aug 31, 2011
29,604
28,366
Thanks.. my issue isnt the duplicates, but rather the way they classify and file the contacts. So only about 50 of my contacts will sync because the other 2200 contacts are filed as "other personal contacts" which google wont sync. I have to move them over manually, contact by contact. Its a nightmare..
I'm not too sure what's going on here, but you could try this.

At contacts.google.com, export your contacts in a format that your iPhone will read (VCard or .csv or whatver the iPhone uses). Email that to yourself and then open the attachment. The contacts will import directly to your iPhone.

I am not having this issue at all and I have a pretty oldschool setup. Entourage 2008 on a set of PowerPC Macs and Outlook 2011 on the one Intel Mac I have. All are synced up to my Google account via Address Book.

Another thing to try perhaps is on the website changing the category your contacts are in from "Other Personal Contacts" to something else that will sync. Don't know if you can do that though. Just speculating.
 

SSpiro

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 30, 2007
604
17
Atlanta, GA
Dang - got excited about that, and got it working - but our company requires a passcode, which i have ZERO interest in.. Is there another way to sync?

This is beyond annoying.
 
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