Mac OS X has a built-in method to sync its Address Book and Google. Open OS X’s Address Book.app and look in the preferences and you’ll see something like this:
You’ll notice it has a “Configure…” button. Don’t be fooled, it doesn’t do anything useful except let you enter your Google login information.
My experience with OS X’s built-in syncing is this: it’s not very good. It doesn’t follow any particular schedule that I can find, information is often duplicated or just plain screwed up.
(Update: Paul Straw reminded me that hidden away on a page in Google’s support is a note that says “Contact changes are synced when the iPhone and iPod Touch are synced, plus hourly on Mac OS X 10.6.” That’s the theory, at least. It didn’t seem to work that way for me.)
Most of this is Google’s fault. To begin with, Google’s contact list has no concept of “first” and “last” names. You just get a “name” field. I’m sure that sounded good to an engineer who spent too many hours behind a computer and not enough time in the real world, but despite people asking for changes for years, it hasn’t happened (last I checked).
I had my contact info screwed up too many times, or, even better, sometimes the sync seems to just stop happening altogether, even though the option is still set.
So I stopped using it.
Enter SpanningSync
SpanningSync has offered OS X and Google sync for several years, long before Apple built it into OS X. Yet they still exist. How can they compete with free? Easy: their solution doesn’t suck. It will sync calendars as well as contacts (although I don’t use Google Calendar so I can’t speak to that). They give you several options for how often you want to sync: 10, 30, or 60 minutes, or daily, or weekly.
Most importantly, they have this option, which is worth cost of the program all by itself:
In case it isn’t clear, this means “Sync my changes from OS X to Google, but don’t let Google’s damn dirty data corrupting ape hands anywhere near my Mac.”
The only reason I care about Google contacts is for Google Voice, and I make all my changes/additions/corrections through OS X’s address book, not Google, so this is the safer method for me.
Support Support Support
Here’s another important difference:
If you use OS X’s built-in contact sync, and something goes wrong, here’s who you should contact at Apple:
HAHAHHAHAHAHA… yeah right. Good luck with that. Might as well dial “1-800-google” and ask for them to help.
If you’re using SpanningSync and something goes wrong, you contact SpanningSync support. I bet you can even guess their email address. Here’s a hint, their domain name is “spanningsync.com.” They’ve been very helpful each time I’ve contacted them.
(In case you’re wondering: yes, it supports Google Apps as well as regular Google accounts.)
Cost
As you might have guessed, it’s not free. The service costs you $25/year or $65/lifetime. I grabbed the $65/lifetime deal a couple of years ago and have already saved money on the deal.
You can save $5 (on either plan) using this link (which is my referral code and pays me $5 too using their referral program.
If you have an objection to saving yourself $5, feel free to buy it directly through their store.
Bonus Tips and Suggestions
If you are a MobileMe subscriber, use their free Backup program to backup your address book data every day.
Make yourself a weekly (at least!) calendar reminder and do a manual export of your Address Book (Address Book » Export » Export vCard and Address Book » Export » Address Book Archive… — yes, I do both). Your address book data is almost as important and irreplaceable as your pictures.
Get Spanning Sync’s Contacts Cleaner and run it before you start syncing anywhere. It will identify potential problems, help you merge duplicates, and make you taller. Ok, not taller. But definitely smarter. It’s only $5. The same $5 you’ll save if you signup through this link. They have other tools available but I haven’t tried them so I can’t vouch for them.
Referral Codes
Someday I’ll write a separate post about this, but since it applies here. I’ll mention it: I’ve noticed that many people have an irrational hatred/distrust of referral codes unlike anything I’ve seen since the early days of Internet hysteria over “cookies.”
I understand that people are afraid that they aren’t getting unbiased information, but anyone with a brain can tell the difference between someone whose website is littered with more referral programs than your average NASCAR vehicle, and someone who says “You know, I use this program, it’s worked for me, if you use this link, it helps me and/or you at no cost to you.”
If you honestly think that I’m misrepresenting my opinions on that hope that maybe, just maybe I might someday earn back the purchase price of this software I bought, then you probably shouldn’t trust anything I write.
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