How to use (sync) Apple Address Book with multiple accounts from Google?

Question

My impression is that by adding an "Exchange 2007" account to the Address-book does not work with Google Mail.

I tried to configure Google by using the iPhone method: exchange server on m.google.com but it doesn't seam to work.

I need to sync contact from 2 different gmail accounts (to be able to see and edit them as separated addressbooks)

Any ideas?

Answer 1

There are third party, paid, services available to sync multiple Gmail, Address Book and Exchange accounts. I can't speak to the effectiveness of any of them. I signed up for Soocial and then decided I didn't care if the two gmail accounts I use had out-of-sync address books -- I just sync one with my Address Book and iPhone now using the built-in sync manager in OS X.

• Soocial
• Sync'Em

Answer 2

You cannot use the built in functionality since it only allows one account and password. Apple's Mac Address book does allow three formats of contact exchange with a remote server and no hard limit on how many accounts may be added:

• Exchange 2007 - usually a paid server license is needed for this
• CardDAV - an open and free standard
• LDAP - another open and free standard

Sadly, none of these is supported per Google's discussion boards. Although many people have asked, I don't see any indication if or when they might allow or sell access to your data using one of these protocols. You will be good to go if this happens.

Until google enables one of these or Apple changes the Address Book, there is a workaround.

It's not nice, but you could learn and set up (or pay for) a server somewhere that will talk to your mac using one of these three standards and talk to google using their API. Kludges like this are sometimes fragile and slower than a direct sync but if your need is urgent enough, it might be worth the hassle.

Answer 3

Basically syncing to MS Exchange involves two different protocols. The full blown Exchange RPC protocol is what desktop clients use while mobile clients use the newer ActiveSync protocol.

The problem is that only iOS devices support ActiveSync, not Mail.app nor Address Book and Gmail does not support Exchange RPC protocol. So your only option is to use Google Sync for contacts, IMAP for e-mail and CalDav for iCal syncing.

EDIT: to sync multiple Gmails, first set up one Gmail as shown below, and then use some third party syncing application to sync the other Gmail account. E.g Soocial allows to sync 1 Gmail for free.

First open Address Book and go to Preferences. There click the Accounts button and select your (probably only) account there. Next, enable Google sync:

And enter your Gmail credentials:

After this your Address Book should start syncing to Gmail. It probably greets you with several collisions if you had contacts in both places, which you have to resolve manually.