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Your best bet to keep iPhone Contacts, Calendars and Notes synchronized with Gmail is to use Google Sync
Let's start with Contacts
Before attempting the follwing procedure, for more safety, please consider our tutorial
Backup iPhone Contacts
Sync iPhone with Google Contacts
- On your iPhone, go to Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars->Add Account->Microsoft Exchange
- Fill the 4 required fields as follows:
- Email: your Gmail address, for example your.name@gmail.com
- Domain: [ Leave this blank ]
- Username: your Gmail address again
- Password: your password for this Gmail account
- Tap "Next"
- A new field called "Server" appears. Fill it as follows:
- Server: m.google.com
- Tap "Next" again
- Select the Google services ( Mail, Contacts, Calendars ) you wish to sync
- Tap "Done"
- Tap "Keep on my iPhone", so that your existing iPhone Contacts and Calendars are preserved
Sync iPhone with Google Calendar
Unlike for Outlook, setting up iPhone Calendar to sync with Google Calendar isn't that simple, particularly when trying to perform this without any additional software
This tutorial provides a simple solution that works without installing any third party application
- On your iPhone, go to Settings->Mail, Contacts, Calendars->Add Account->Other->Add CalDAV Account
- Fill the 4 required fields as follows:
- Server: www.google.com
- Username: your email address, for example your.name@gmail.com
- Password: your password for this email account
- Description: Google Calendar
- Hit "Next" and you should be all set
Notes & possible issues
- iPhone 4 users: your iPhone Notes will show up in your Gmail Account with the "Notes" label
- Refer to this tutorial to Transfer existing iPhone Notes to Gmail
- Once the above procedure is completed, your iPhone will synchronize with Google Calendars every time you connect your iPhone to your Computer
- Your iPhone system must be 3.0 or above
To check your current iPhone version, go to Settings->General->About->Version
If you need to update your iPhone firmware, just follow these instructions - In case of any iPhone Contacts synchronization problems. On your iPhone go to Settings->Safari->Clear Cookies and restart the Contacts application ( if your iPhone supports multi-tasking, make sure you have actually closed the Contacts app )
- Depending on your iPhone version, some characters in the password may cause problems to set up a CalDAV account ( typically "#" and white spaces )
- If Gmail keeps asking for your Exchange password, the problem is that you don’t see the captcha. Visit this page to see and unlock the captcha
- If your iPhone Calendar events don't show up in your Gmail Calendar, make sure to set your Gmail account as your default Calendar (Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Scroll down to the Calendars section and under Default Calendar, choose Gmail)
If the problem remains, edit your Calendar settings for each of your events (Select an event, click Edit, Scroll down and click Calendar, under Exchange select Gmail, hit Done twice) - This solution allows to sync Gmail contacts with iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S
Mike Johnson
Founder and Editor of sync-iphone.com has a sincere desire to provide readers with honest and useful solutions for their iPhone
More about him on Google+
This information is good, but why does the OS4.1 not sync notes to gmail anymore? I didn’t even notice it not working until I needed it.
That’s correct.
As Apple states it “Over-the-air Notes syncing is not supported on iPhone 3G or iPod touch (2nd generation)” mainly to improve speed”.
If you synced your iPhone notes over the air, they are gone.
But if you synced them using iTunes, you can recover your iPhone Notes as follows:
– Connect your iPhone to your Computer ( iTunes should open up automatically. If not, launch it from Start->All Programs->iTunes->iTunes )
– Click your iPhone in the “Devices” section on the left
– Click the “Info” tab and in the “Other” section tick the Sync Notes option
– In the Advanced section, leave the Notes option unchecked
– Click the “Apply” button in iTunes lower-right corner and wait until iTunes syncs your iPhone
Hi, how do i see those notes from the iTunes after it is synced? Say if i am not going to use the iphone anymore but i have backed it up using iTunes?
Thanks
Hi xem,
Actually, the solution provided here does not rely on iTunes
Your backed up notes will show up in Gmail instead
Which is actually far more convenient, as they will be safe from any computer crash or system reinstallation
hi, plz could u help me. i followed ur earlier directives and have successfully uploaded all my contacts from my iphone 4 to my computer but itz a problem importing them to my gmail account. i am being asked a csv file but i can’t locate where this file is in my account. I am stock and desperate as i have deleted all the contacts in my phone already.
thanks
Dear Pam,
You can look for all .csv files on your computer as follows:
Press the Windows logo key + F
Type *.csv which will search for any .csv file on your computer
Maybe you’ll find the one you are looking for
I just got an iPhone 4 and have a Gmail account. When setting it up and currently, it gives me options to sync Mail, Calendars and Notes over the air. However, there is no option to sync Contacts at all. What is the solution? This is weird.
Dear Kevin,
This is because you tapped “Gmail” and not “Exchange” after the “Add Account” step
One more question…I just got my phone today – is there a way to get the notes I had in my old phone to sync with my new phone?
Dear Jess,
This tutorial will show you how to Transfer Notes from Old iPhone to New iPhone
I did everything you guys said on my iphone 4 but it is saying enter exchange acct password and i keep entering my email pw and it says incorrect
Hi, want to sync my gmail contacts and I don’t have the option- I keep seeing this advice, “Use the exchange option”, but it won’t let me, because I don’t know what to enter in the “Server” field- It says “Unable to verify account info”. Could you please help?
Dear Sherry,
In the “Server” field, try to enter m.google.com
If this does not solve the problem, check bullets points 3 and 4 in the “Notes & possible issues” above
I’m still not clear on the concept. I have an iphone 4 running ios 4.2. Can I sync my iPhone Notes with my my gmail account, via air or wifi?
If yes, how? If not, is there an app that provides a good alternative?
Thanks very much,
Howard
Dear Howard,
Unfortunately, Notes cannot be synced over the air or wirelessly anymore ( since late 2010 )
Regarding alternatives, this is a review we found in Google for “iPhones Notes Apps”:
TiPb
Feel free to share your impressions if you give them a go
Hey! I’m wanting to sync my gmail and exchange server with the same contacts. In other words I want to be able to be on my work computer in outlook and have my contacts, and then open gmail and have the SAME contacts… all of them in sync. Is that possible?
Thanks!
Dear Nathan,
To sync gmail and Outlook contacts or merge gmail and Outlook contacts, try the Google Workspace Sync for Microsoft® Outlook
There’s a free version, just click “Try Premier Edition free”
We haven’t tested it, so feel free to share your impressions
Hi, thanks for this info! 😀 Now I’m using Exchange instead of Gmail account in setting. I’ve 1 question:
I try to delete all contact in Google and then I will upload all contacts from my iPhone to refresh the Google contacts. But I try to sync, and no contact uploaded on the server, it keeps 2 big groups on my iPhone: local data contact, and ‘in the server’ contact. Why? And how to copy contact from my iPhone to Google server without losing any field in contact? Thanks.. 🙂
My wife and I have a number of shared Google Calendars but they don’t all show up on my iPhone Calendar after setting it up the way you’ve explained. Am I missing something or does it have to be done another way? Thanks.
Dear Marc,
To sync shared Google calendars, proceed as follows:
– With your iPhone’s Safari, go to http://m.google.com/sync
– Sign in to your Google account
– Select the calendars you want to sync with your iphone
– Now, return to your iPhone’s Calendar and, Voilà! You have the calendars you chose to sync
I now use my Gmail through Microsoft Exchange on my iPhone… but doesn’t Microsoft Exchange cost money? Is doing it this way free??? Thanks
Dear Taylor,
Exchange costs money to your ISP, but it won’t cost anything to you, don’t be worried about that
Ok, so I have my notes selected with Gmail.
The options I have for default account are:
iPhone or iTouch
Gmail
I have notes in my Gmail. How do I get them to my iTunes?
Hi Sasha,
Unfortunately, iTunes does not allow to see or edit notes
All you can do is to sync them with Gmail or Outlook
Hopefully, a future release with integrate iPhone notes management features
Hi, I’m wondering how can I sync my local iPhone contacts to my Gmail account? I can only sync contacts from Gmail account to my iPhone.
Dear Wayne,
To sync iPhone contacts to Gmail, proceed as follows:
– Connect your iPhone to your Computer
– Open iTunes
– Select your iPhone in the “Devices” section on the left and click the “Info” tab
– Check the “Sync contacts with” option and select “Google Contacts”
– Hit Configure and enter your Google username and password
– Click Apply
This will upload iPhone Contacts to Gmail
but this method means that your contacts from the iphone overwrite the contacts in gmail. i tend to update my phone numbers on the iphone and email addresses on gmail. is there a way to have a two-way sync without using microsoft exchange which is not good enough as it does not contain all the contact fields. i hope so! thanks
Dear Joanna,
Try our Sync iPhone with Outlook two-way using Google Calendar Sync instructions and you should be just fine
I can syn contacts from Google to iPhone but can not syn contacts created from iPhone to Google. My phone has two sets of contacts: 1)ALL from my PC (i.e. personal contact), 2) contact from exchange server that syn with with non-personal contact. I want to use iTune to syn only personal contact with Google. Pls help.
All I want to do is be out and update my Google Calendar from my iPhone 3GS. I’ve just set calDAV up and it works really well.
It sends anything I input on Google Calendar to my iPhone.
However, if I input anything on the calendar on my iPhone when I’m out, it doesn’t seem to sync to my Google Calendar.
Maybe the 2-way sync costs?
Hi Ian,
Try to use Google Calendar Sync and select the “two-way” sync option
You should be all set
Thanks for the post
I am trying to do the same thing on my iPad but my iPad contacts are not being uploaded to my Gmail account. Is iPad instructions different than iPhone?
Dear JJ,
This shouldn’t be different, as, technically, an iPad is just a big iPhone
Hi, when I finished the setting, all Gmail contacts will sync to iPhone4, but those contacts I add on iPhone4 cannot sync to Gmail contacts. Therefore the sync seems that one-way only (Gmail -> iPhone4). Is there anyway to solve the problem?
Thanks!
Dear Kenny,
You may want to have a look at our Sync iPhone with Gmail two-way instructions
Dear Sir,
Thanks for your reply.
I saw the instruction and found that the sync seems only work with Outlook. Therefore I must connect iPhone to computer when I want to sync. Am I right?
regards,
Kenny
Dear Kenny,
With Google Sync you don’t need to connect your iPhone to your computer to synchronize it
You can sync your iPhone with Gmail over-the-air
Hi all,
Thanks for a great tutorial! One question, though: is it possible to set up your contacts (either in your iPhone or in Gmail) so that your contacts-app only shows your contacts with a phone number? It now also shows contacts that I only have an e-mail address from, which I don’t need.
Thanks!
Dear Jelle,
I searched on the Internet for such a solution
Apparently, it does not seem possible to have the iPhone display only contacts with telephone number
What you can do is to create a note containing contacts with only email addresses and remove them from your contacts list
The way to do this is to setup a group in Gmail for just those contacts with email (or any other parameter (ie, contacts you don’t want to sync with your iPhone).
Once you do that, check the checkbox next to the name of the contact you don’t want to sync. Then hit the “groups” button on the top or bottom of the Gmail screen. Uncheck the “contacts” box and hit “apply” from the same drop down menu and voila, it will sync only contacts you want to sync.
Hope this helps, I couldn’t find this online.
You don’t need to create another group at all
The contact with just an email add. that you don’t want synced to the phone has to be removed from “My Contacts” in Gmail, so that it comes in “All Contacts” but not in “My Contacts”
I had to do the same when I synced People in Picasa with “My Contacts” where there was no other info except the photo and the name
Hi,
I’m currently using the Exchange option to sync Mail, Contacts and Calendars in my iPhone 4 with m.google.com. Everything works fine except one thing
I cannot create any local contacts in my iPhone (which are not to be synced with the Google Exchange m.google.com). I tried many many times, and I even compared my iPhone settings with a friend who is using Google Exchange in the same way as mine.
When I create a new contact, it always gets synced to Google. But my friend’s iPhone allows an option to create a local contact inside the iPhone (not synced with Google). Do you know why? How can I resolve this? How can I create a local contact only inside my iPhone 4? Many thanks for your help!
Dear LC,
I searched on the Internet about this, but unfortunately couldn’t find any immediate solution
Maybe you need to set up Google Sync in order that it keeps your contacts on your iPhone, which might allow you to prevent Google Exchange from syncing certain iPhone contacts
You’re just the best. U just bail me out. Keep more coming. Thanks!
Hello, and thanks for all the info.
My issue.
I have rebuilt my laptop. Now my iPhone will not sync with iTunes.
It wants to erase and sync to the new iTunes library.
There is nothing on iTunes at the moment, and that is OK.
I have all my music and books off on another drive and will take care of that later. I have music, books, playlists on the iPhone, and I don’t really care about them. I’ll reload it all later …
I am just concerned with my contacts on my iPhone. I want a one-way transfer to Gmail. I just want to make sure I have a record of all my contacts in case they get wiped out or lost.
I am paranoid, I know, but I have read about too many people losing all their contacts.
Assume I have a new dummy Gmail account with only one contact.
Will it really do put the contacts to Gmail?
Will it wipe out my contacts on the iPhone?
Will it put all the iPhone contacts on Gmail (and possibly the single Gmail contact onto my iPhone (along with all the others))?
Sorry for the questions, but I am not making any headway with my issues.
What I want to really do is the erase and sync that iTunes wants to do with my iPhone, and then restore the backup of the iPhone that I just did with iTunes.
I just want to make sure that my contacts are somewhere where I can get them, in case I have to enter all contacts by hand! Hope not.
Thanks in advance for any help
Bob
Dear Eagle,
Using Google Sync should definitely allow you to sync your iPhone contacts with Gmail with no trouble
Google products are definitely reliable and well conceived
Still, we cannot provide you with any guarantee on that, as we are not Google and you never know what can happen with a computer mishandling
If you want to be double careful, uninstall iTunes before syncing your iPhone contacts to avoid any unwanted synchronization from there
Hi there,
I’ve been browsing your site and appreciate all the useful info you’ve put together.
Great job!
I have a question I’m hoping you might be able to answer…
I have my gmail synching set up on my iPhone but I’ve been adding contacts directly into my iPhone when I’m away from home. These contacts don’t show up in my Gmail contacts. How do I get the new iPhone contacts to get copied over to my Gmail? I usually sync in iTunes but I currently have ‘Sync Address Book Contacts’ unchecked.
If I check the box to make it sync will it download my Gmail contacts and delete my iPhone contacts?
Is iTunes the best way to be synching with Google or should I be using an app like ‘Sync in a Blink’?
Thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
Catherine K
(iPhone 3G user)
Dear Catherine,
Using Google Sync‘s two-way sync should allow you to have the contacts added to your iPhone on-the-go be synced to your Gmail contacts
Hello,
I have been syncing my work email which is a Google Business Apps email account on my iPhone 4 with MS Exchange. Contacts, Calendar and Email has been working perfectly for 5 months, until today. I have deleted and restablished the Exchang account several times, Reboot the phone several times and connected the phone to iTunes to see if that would help. Nothing. When I re-established the account, it will verify the account but when trying to retrieve emails it will say “Cannot Get Mail – The connection to the server failed”. Thanks for any ideas or suggestions in advance.
Seems like a common issue with imap server
Visit this Google page
Enter your email, password and captcha
You should be all set
Hi there,
My problem:
I want my Google contacts on my iPhone 4. I just made the Exchange account, but nothing happend
I have been reading many Google forums, but there is no answer for my issue
If i go to my Gmail account on the PC, all my contacts are there, but no one on my iPhone (With my Exchange account activated).
please HELP!!
Dear Felipe,
Did you try Google Sync?
This should solve your problem
Hi,
You’ve given really amazing advice in the past I can see, so I thought I’d give it a shot. My iPhone 4 sync’d fine all the time, but now all the sudden my music library on my iPhone is totally gone — not one song. However, all my contacts/calendar info is all still intact, and my PC is fine too. Is there a way to return my music to my iPod (quickly, easily, like it’s just missing a setting to sync really quick to uncover it all again I hope?) I hate restoring my iPhone to original factory settings with iTunes with a passion. Takes forever and a donkey year that way. Well, thanks for whatever you may suggest!
Dear Brent,
If your computer is fine as you seem to say and if your iTunes library is safe on your computer too, you just need to sync your iPhone with iTunes and your music library should be back on your iPhone
Hi,
Is it possible to ‘view’ my notes in iTune backup file without the iphone connected with iTune? If yes, where can I locate the file?
Thanks
I am trying to help my dad with his new iphone. He wants to be able to synch his “notes” with my mom’s iphone “notes”. Is there a way to do this? Thanks for your great answers.
Dear She,
In order to merge iPhone notes from two different iPhone, you can try to synchronize both groups of notes with the same Gmail account and then synchronize an iPhone with that Gmail account.
Google sync doesn’t give the options of contacts, only notes, calendar and e-mail, so I had to use the microsoft exchange setup.
Now it won’t sync however as it says the exchange password is wrong. I’ve put in my correct password lots of times and don’t seem to be getting anywhere. I’ve logged onto my gmail through my computer and the account isn’t locked. Is this a common problem and is there a solution?
Thank you
Dear Heather,
Even though you entered your password repeatedly, I wouldn’t be surprised that the problem comes from there.
Make sure the caps lock key is not on.
If this does not solve the problem, try to recover your Microsoft Exchange Server password as per these instructions
I followed the instructions for setting up exchange of contacts between my iphone and my computer but where do I find them then on my computer. I still have my original list of just email contacts that were on my googlecontacts under my gmail account as before but not the addresses that I have on my iphone? Thank you, Sue Spencer
HELP! I thought I followed the directions to send the contacts from my iphone to Google. It did not happen until I connected my iphone to my laptop. Then I got duplicate addresses and lots of information deleted. When I started, I had nothing in Google contacts. I think that all of my original info is there. Can I somehow get it back into my iphone and get it to override the info there??? I just want the original info. I have a 3GS iphone, 32 GB, version 4.3.3. I just installed the latest version of itunes. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated!!! Many Thanks!!
Dear Meg,
If all your correct contacts are in your Google Contacts, just delete all contacts on your iPhone and then synchronize your iPhone with your Google account
I have my google addresses being sync but the groups I created are not synchronizing, how should I fix this?
Imap or exchange? Which is best for contacts?
I sync calendars, email and addresses and have loads of info…
Imap keeps all info local and syncs regularly right?
Should I continue to use mobile me just for my addresses?
I still have a mobile me account and was trying to stop using it because didn’t want to renew but Apple is extending the subscription for an additional year… I’d like to stop but should I? I am asking because of my sync dilemma having to do with groups and a lack of customization of the entries such as adding additional phone numbers beyond googles limits…
Hi,
I have set up the iPhone 4 to sync contacts which works fine and gone through the steps to sync my Google calender. When inputting new data into the phone it doesn’t sync back to the Google calender but when I input a new event/data straight into the calender via the computer it appears on the iPhone. I don’t use Outlook and don’t want to if I can avoid it.
Is there any way that I can transfer new calender information to the computer by inputting it into the phone? As it is I can only get the info flowing the other way i.e. by putting dates/appointments etc into the computer and it does appear in the calender in my iPhone.
Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated.
Dear CJ,
Apparently, this is not possible.
Hi
I have a new i phone 4 and need to sync my old contacts from my 3gs to gmail, I have followed all of the steps and it seems to have worked but I cant see the contacts and now how do I sync this to my new phone?
thanks
i must be missing something
! i dont see no place in my Gmail that says notes and there was nothing on the fone wen i set this up relating to NOTES. PAHLEEEZ someone enlighten me! ðŸ™
Hello, I am trying to sync my iphone 3gs calendar to google in order to sync to Itunes and my ipad2. I have created the exchange email, and added the calDAV. Everything has been successful with the exception of the calendar. When i go to info tab on my itunes I dont have any other options other than to sync calendars with outlook and the only option is titled calendar as a selection. I also have the birthday application and that is not an option either. On my iphone I have the following calendars, From my PC – callendar, Exchange – my gmail account, Google Calendar – my gmail account, and other – Birthdays. I am having a really hard time – I accidently deleted them and had to do a restore from my itunes. Hoping I have given enough information to diagnose the problem and help me out. Thanks~
how can i link my outlook 2007 to my iphone 4 using a different computer then my own. is it possible to do this? i need my emails & calendar to be sent to my iphone. its my job’s email so i dont want to mix my personal stuff with my work.
Hi there,
Did everything in ur email and my gmail calendar syncs with my iPhone but not vice versa. Pls help! I followed all ur steps and repeated them twice but still no luck .
Regards,
Ophelia
hi guys. got some problems with syncing iphone4 contacts with my gmail. I want all my contacts on my iphone4 also be in my gmail contacts. Followed instruction on top with microsoft exchange and it was set-up no prob…however i am not seeing the contacts on my gmail…help..
I have a question. I had not cleaned up my google contacts before my iphone was synced. I have hundreds of email addresses I needed to delete. I now did so. Should I follow your instructions above and still keep contacts on iphone or should i delete the previous synced contacts??? HELP!!
Dear Allison,
If you sync your iPhone with your Gmail contacts, it will delete the unwanted contacts on your iPhone
Great tutorial – does it all apply to iPod touch? Thanks
Dear Dave,
Sure!
All tutorials for iPhone also apply to iTouch
I have an IPhone 4 and have setup an Exchange account as you specified and it works fine for both contacts and calendars. However, the contacts that don’t have standard Outlook phone number labels don’t get synced. i.e. John’s phone. Google has all these numbers just fine. What do I do?
I set up the sync through the exchange server. I have an iphone3g. The Iphone received the contacts via my gmail account but did not send the contacts to the gmail account. There was only a one-way exchange. Do you have a solution?
I am trying sync contacts from multiple GMail accounts. However, every time I try to enter the second GMail account, it keeps asking for the exchange password. Even though I put in the correct password, it doesn’t accept it. Am I only able to sync one Google account?
Dear Matt,
This problem is that you don’t see the captcha
Follow this link to display the unlock captcha
Hi, I’ve followed all the steps various times but when it seems to be all fine on the phone appears a small window where it is asked for the account password and even though it is punched in correctly, it keeps asking for it saying that it is uncorrect.
Any help on that?
Dear Luka,
Same as Matt hereabove
I’m trying to sync the different “groups” in my gmail contacts so that I can select the different groups on my iPad & iPhone. any suggestions? I currently have over 300 contacts all in 1 main list…
Dear Jason,
Some users provided very interesting solutions to these groups issues on this page
Perform a search ( CTRL+F or Command+F on Mac ) with the word “groups”
To: iPhone Expert,
Referring to your answer to Joanna above, I have set up as you suggested. I can syn contacts from Google to iPhone but can not syn contacts created from iPhone to Google. My phone has two sets of contacts: 1)ALL from my PC (i.e. personal contact), 2) contact from exchange server that syn with with non-personal contact. I want to use iTune to syn only personal contact with Google. Pls help.
To: iPhone Expert,
Referring to your answer to Joanna above, I have set up as you suggested. I can syn contacts from Google to iPhone but can not syn contacts created from iPhone to Google.
My phone has two sets of contacts: 1)ALL from my PC (i.e. personal contact), 2) contact from exchange server that syn with with work contact. I want to use iTune to syn only personal contact with Google. Pls help.
After i say Keep on my Iphone, a pop up says for me to put my password in for the exchange account and i do, but it keeps saying my password is wrong.. what password should i be using?
Dear Brad,
Please refer to the answer I provided to Matt on Aug 26th higher in this page
If you’re looking for a way to sync your Gmail contacts with your iPhone while maintaining your groups, you may want to try Contacts Sync With Groups For Gmail at the iPhone App Store. You can read about it at:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/contacts-sync-with-groups/id454390333?ls=1&mt=8
I tried this and everything seemed to go ok, but it’s asking me for an Exchange account password. I’ve tried typing in the Gmail password, but it doesn’t accept it. This keeps popping up every five seconds, so obviously it wants something else. Is this possibly a password associated with m.google? How can I fix this? Thanks for your help!
My work email is a Google-hosted account. The two-way sync with the contacts does not work well. I repeatedly “clean up” the contacts on my computer and something must be happening via syncing that makes them revert to the problematic version . . . I have it set up as Exchange, have read all these notes, etc.
Is there a fix? I’m going a bit crazy?
Or even a way to wipe clean and re-sync with the iphone contacts (which are NOT messed up) trumping what’s on my computer???
Thanks much.
i can not transfer my iphones contact to gmail account after setting in phone in microsoft exchange
This may be too early to ask this question but thought I would try anyway. I’ve presently using a Droid but switching to the iPhone 4S and I wanted to know if the text, pics, contacts, etc backup using this method as they do with my Droid. Everything backs up to google. I have it set so it automatically backs up all above, calendar etc without me doing anything. New to iPhone and learning as fast as I can. Thank you in advance. Excellent site as well.
Dear Emily,
Yes, your iPhone will sync with everything if you use Google Sync
Went to AT&T store with questions about my IPHONE! BIG MISTAKE! The woman deleted my email off of my phone and added it back on. When she did that ALL OF MY PRECIOUS NOTES were deleted from my phone! She said not to worry they were on my gmail account and tried to WiFi them to my phone but it took forever and I had to leave. She said the 3G network would continue to send the notes to my phone. When I got home NO NOTES! I am desperate to get them back on my phone. Help please!
Dear Michelle,
Did you try to sync your iPhone with Gmail as per the current page instructions?
Wanted to confirm I am reading the comments above correctly. I am trying to sync my gmail contacts with my iphone is a two-way over the air sync. I setup my gmail account as an exchange account and selected mail, calendars and contacts to be sync. Mail and calendar works just fine both ways. I can add an invite in gmail and it appears on my iphone and can add an invite on my iphone and it appears in gmail. The issue I am having is around the contacts. I can add a contact to gmail and it appears on my iphone, but if I try and delete or add a new contact on my iphone it never syncs to gmail. With this two way sync of contacts only work if I plug my iphone into itunes each day and let it sync?
Thanks,
Mike
Please advise how to merge contacts between iphone and outlook 2007
(have input over 1000 contacts in iphone and kept some old contacts in outlook 2007)
Dear Ksw,
This is the tutorial that you need Sync iPhone with Outlook
I’m hoping someone can help me with this…
I’m trying to be able to set calendar alerts both online using google calendar and on the iphone 4s (not sure which calendar program to use on the iphone) and have the two sync, while also being able to display (and sync) multiple gmail calendars on the iphone.
I’ve tried doing it using the Google iphone app, but that doesn’t allow me to set alerts on the iphone.
I’ve also tried using the calendar app that comes on the iphone, but that won’t display multiple gmail calendars.
Any thoughts, suggestions or solutions?
Thanks,
Jay
Dear Jay,
This other post Sync iPhone with Multiple Google Calendars should help you solve this problem
May you please help me sort out my problem. I owned an iphone 3G and recently I bought an iphone 4…I want to transfer my contacts, messages, notes to my iphone 4 however syncing it from my pc using itunes did not work. only music transferred. in lieu of this, would you please help me on this, what would i need to do? Your help will be highly appreciated. Thank you so much.
Dear Archie,
This is the tutorial for you Transfer iPhone Contacts Calendars Email to Computer
I have an iPhone 4S. I had Companion Link for my Droid and am using it for the iPhone. Every items works on syncing except on deleting a contact from the iphone it is placing the contact under other contacts from my contacts. When I sync in companion link on my pc, cl does not delete the contact on the pc since it is in other contacts (per companion link tech support).
Hello, once I follow the instructions to setup the sync, how do I retrieve my contacts or calendar? Can I do it through my gmail account? Thanks for the clarifications.
Dear Tera,
Your contacts and calendar will be on both your iPhone and in your Gmail account, you don’t need to retrieve them more than that probably
I have tried doing what you said to do to sync my calendar, contacts, and notes with google. The contacts synced. However, on the “info” section of iTunes where I selected “sync with google” instead of “sync with Outlook” for the contacts, when I click on the dropdown for notes and calendars, the drop down that says “Outlook” has no other choices – so I can’t tell it to sync to google for those two – which is probably why the notes and calendar are not syncing. Help!!!
Dear Mel,
For your Calendars and Notes, your best bet is to use Google Sync, not iTunes
I been trying to sync my Contacts from my Gmail Account to my iPhone 4S and when adding a exchange account to sync, it keeps asking me to ‘Enter the password for the Exchange account “Exchange”‘ why is this and what is it? I have been using my password from my gmail account but it won’t work.
can anyone help me please
Dear David,
This question has been answered to another visitor called Matt earlier in these comments
Type CTRL+F and enter Matt
Hi, our office has just acquired iphone4 phones, we sync’d all contacts just fine…..now they want to delete the gmail accounts and just have our office email accounts on them….if I delete the gmail (exchange) email will that also delete the contacts?
Thanks
Hello!
I just followed all of the directions previously stated above. It says that I will be able to see my notes when I log onto gmail.. under the “notes” tab. I am logged onto Gmail.. Where is the notes tab? Can I access my notes on gmail, isn’t that what this tutorial was about? I am so confused. Please let me know how I can view my notes on gmail! I really need to back them up.
Thank you so much for your time
Stefanija
hi! really hoping you can help! i am using the new iphone 4s and am unable to see my ‘accounts’ in notes even though i have turned notes ‘on’ in my email settings for the gmail accounts i want to sync. accounts button does not even appear in the notes app. please help!
Nadia,
I just had a similar problem, but with the iPhone 4. I’m curious if you ever found a resolution. The accounts button is complete gone in both the settings and the notes app.
In the past, I’ve use IMAP to sync my notes w/ Gmail. Today I noticed that my recent notes were not in Gmail. The last one shown was November 20th. I turned off the Gmail notes sync and then turned it back on. All the notes I made since November 20th were instantly deleted. As a warning to anyone else who notices their newer notes not syncing with Gmail, email them all to yourself before you do anything else.
As far as I understand, there is no easy way to get these notes back if you haven’t done a recent backup on iTunes.
I was under the impression that the iPhone simply pushes the notes to Gmail as a back up rather than the other way around.
As a test, I made a new note today after turning sync back on. The note appeared in Gmail. When I then turned off notes syncing, all of my notes were removed from my iPhone.
This seems broken to me as Google Sync is often mentioned as a preferred way to backup notes. I would think that third party applications / protocols should be able to remove something created on the iPhone using a native app without as least asking especially considering the data on the device was newer.
Any advice?
Thanks!
Dear Dominic,
Our Backup iPhone Notes instructions describe the procedure to transfer iPhone Notes to Gmail
Let us know if your problem remains
Thanks for posting these instructions! They worked perfectly for my Google apps account.
I Have An Iphone 4 i set everything up to try to get my gmail through the microsoft exchange thing but it says enter exchange password but i dont know what the passwors is because it isnt my email password
Dear Jesus,
Look for the answer I provided to Matt higher in these comments
I screwed up, deleted my Exchange account because I didn’t know what it was and now my Gmail account won’t show any of my emails. I’ve added the exchange account again and I’ve tried removing it and re-adding it, but it doesn’t work.
Dear Patrick,
Try to restart your iPhone maybe
I got a replacement iphone 4 bc i lost mine, i was wondering every since i update the phone it will not alloy me to add and other iphone 4 ppl to my contacts and it has a +1 in front of all their numbers?
Dear Brittany,
It’s hard to say
Try to sync your new iPhone with Gmail, it should import these information
I just purchased an iphone 4s and am having trouble syncing my contacts & calendar from my iphone 4 to the 4s. I plugged in my 4 to sync everything in itunes then plugged in the new 4s to the same itunes account thinking that everything would just transfer over but it didn’t. I was able to get my apps but nothing else. Now I can’t even turn on my old iphone4 to get my contacts because I was going to just re-enter them all by hand into my new phone….what should I do? Is there a certain button or something more I need to do to ensure everything was backed up? When I plug the 4 into my computer it wants to restore it but if I do this and didn’t back it up properly won’t I lose all my data? PLEASE HELP!
Dear Brittany,
What you can do is to:
Prevent iTunes from syncing iPhone
Then, Transfer the contents of your iPhone 4 to iTunes
Finally, Sync your iPhone 4S with iTunes
i’ve followed all the instructions etc etc
when i add something to my gmail calendar it shows on my phone
but
when i add something to my iphone calendar it doesn’t show on my google calendar
help … what am i doing wrong?
i’ve synced synced and synced again!!!???
Nice job here, for all I’ve read. Congrats on your work.
I could not find, however (and did not try it, afraid of losing data) mentions about syncing solely my Google calendar into IPhone4. Is it possible, without mixing Contacts and Mail, which I would like to keep independent?
Thanks for any help on this.
Dear Mauro,
Sure
When you create the Exchange account, simply switch off Mail and Contacts and they won’t sync
Still can’t get my iphone contacts to get to my gmail …. I can only go from gmail to iphone.
I figured this would be simple, but it’s not working. I can’t sync my wife’s contacts with her gmail account… she has iphone 4. I don’t want the same contacts as her b/c she has friends i’ll never call, she has business contacts that I’ll never call. Same goes for me. So now I have already sync’d my contacts with my gmail account… I have 3GS. We both use the same computer to update, sync, store music and all that. That shouldn’t make a difference, should it? When I tried syncing hers, I got the notice “Syncing with “Google Contacts” will change more than 15% of your Contacts on this computer.” I pressed “Allow” figuring the reason it popped up was b/c she has contacts listed multiple times b/c of silly reasons. Then I got a message about resolving several issues and here is where it got real confusing. I had to resolve the issues by selecting either the contact from “my iphone” or from “her iphone” b/c either the numbers were listed under different categories “other” vs “work” or something like that. So why did it even bring my iphone into the situation when both phones are linked to different gmail accounts? I tried to sync hers but I don’t see anything on her gmail account. I checked my account and they’re not on there as well, my contacts are but not hers.
Dear Ray,
If the instructions on this page don’t work for you, you might have a better time using Google Sync
omg i was trying to sync contacts foe 4 days and this link helped me so muchh thank u like forreal . now i actualli have all mii 422 contacts in less then 1 min…god bless you ..smart people… im jus another retard from perth amboy Simoes in da house yeeeeerrr..krush them bluuueeezzzz alll day a lll niiiteee…
I am trying to do something maddeningly simple but it’s taking forever:
-I have had the iPhone 3G (not 3GS) for ~3 years and have been syncing it with my old PC
-I just got the new iPhone 4S
-I have a new iMac and want to manage everything from there
-Ideally, I want to transfer everything from my 3G to 4S, including apps, texts, notes, pictures I took using the 3G, and, most importantly, contacts
-But I will settle for copying the contacts only!
I’ve tried syncing address book contents using iTunes (and using the merge function), but no contacts end up in my address book.
Is there any way at all to circumvent iTunes to get all the contacts on my 4S? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrew
Dear Andy,
Sure
Just use this solution Transfer iPhone Contacts to Computer / New iPhone Without iTunes it does not require iTunes
I have set up both ways to test. Using Gmail as an Exchange account for mail, calendar and contacts and setting up using Gmail account for mail and calendar and Exchange for contacts. In both ways, if I add a contact to my iOS device, the contact does not show up in Google contacts. If I add a contact to Google contacts on my computer, the contact shows up in iOS device. I have both an iPad running iOS5.1 and an iPod Touch which runs iOS 4.2.1
I have followed the instructions twice, but i keep getting a message that says my password for “Exchange” is incorrect. This is my correct Google password. What is wrong?
Thanks.
Dear Anne,
Check the answer provided to Matt
Hi,
I have iCloud on my Iphone 4S and on my old 3GS, everything synched perfectly fine without me having to connect to my computer. However, I have a gmail account and I am trying to sync the calendars, but it only goes one way. When I put something on my calendar on my computer, it syncs to my phone but not vice versa. Can you please help me have them sync together. Thank you.
I have my gmail calendar synched to my iphone 4s calendar. How do I prevent entries in my iphone calendar from showing in gmail calendar? I only want the gmail calendar to show on my iphone, but not vice versa.
My gmail contacts on my Verizon iPhone4s was synced just fine but now I’m noticing some of my contacts are being shuffled – some info for some contacts are from other contacts. Why is that? What is the fix?
hi i m using new Iphone 4S, i have created the exchange account wit gmail and it is showing in my settings and contact list also. but the last option
Tap “Keep on my iPhone”, so that your existing iPhone Contacts and Calendars are preserved.. did not featured on my phone.. i cannot see any of my iphone contacts in exchange list. please help me…
Hi. Thanks for your advice.
When trying to sync the contacts – it keeps saying that my password for exchange is incorrect – I have tried a number of times, but it says that same thing. Any other way or work around? Thanks
Dear Akshay,
See the point about Captcha in the notes section
#1: I just got a new Iphone 4S and synced my contacts to the new phone from my old 3GS. When the phone numbers populated there were no () or -, therefore when someone calls me, it just comes up a number even though they are in my contact list. How can I correct this.
#2: On the same sync, all my calendar events did not transfer over. Please help !!!
Thank you
Dear Carol,
This is apparently a bug with iOS 5
Try to downgrade to iOS 4 if you can, which should fix the problem
Otherwise, wait for a fix of iOS 5
I followed the instructions to sync contacts from iPhone TO Gmail – it is set up and there are no errors BUT I do not see any of my iPhone contacts in my Gmail account?? HELP …..
How do I sync existing Notes in my iPhone 4 with my new Gmail account.
Dear Nevin,
You just need to follow our tutorial Sync iPhone Notes to Gmail
Hi,
I’ve set up Gmail synching and it’s working swimmingly. One thing though: how can I synch all my previous, i.e.: “On My iPhone”, notes to Gmail?
Thanks in advance for any help given,
Gennaro
Dear Gennaro,
Please refer to our this page Copy existing iPhone Notes to Gmail account
Hi,
I am impressed by your steady patience in helping others ! 🙂
I went through the whole page, but could not find the answer to this question :
– Is there a way to keep contacts into groups (sor far just a big list) ?
It seems that the only information that are synchronized are the ones that appear in the basic form of Gmail contacts (names, phones, emails, addresses, notes… and pictures which is already great !).
Thanks
Philippe
Dear Philippe,
Unfortunately, Gmail Groups are not available on iPhone as of today
Hello There,
I have recently purchased a samsung galaxy s2, i want to transfer my contacts and notes from my current iphone4 to the new phone, i tried settting up a gmail account etc, in the manner you explained above, however, my contacts and notes are not appearing in my gmail at all
Many Thanks
Hello Again
I managed to work out
What i was doing wrong, I had to sync itunes with google rather than windows contacts, Just one more problem, although some people have raised the issue and you have explained i am still a bit confused, how do i get my notes from the iphone4 onto my gmail in order to transfer them onto my new phone,
Thanks
Dear Atikur,
This page will help you Transfer existing iPhone Notes from iPhone 4 to Gmail
hello again
just one more thing, is it possible in any way to transfer my sms messages to my new phone
Thanks
Dear Atikur,
Sure
Just refer to the second part of this post Transfer SMS from old iPhone to new iPhone
Hi
I want to use my gmail account through microsoft exchange server. I tried to follow the steps above, but i keep getting prompts that i have an incorrect password and therefore wouldnt set me up.
I have two gmail accounts. One worked and the other didnt?
please can someone advise?
Dear Megs,
Just refer to the point about Captcha in the Notes section
Hi,
I am a brand new iPhone user. I set up my Gmail account on my iPhone 4s when prompted as one of the initial steps in the beginning. This of course did not transfer my contacts, only the emails. I found the info on your forum very helpful and used Microsoft Exchange to successfully transfer my contacts to my phone. My question is when I view my Mailboxes on the phone it lists Gmail and Exchange as two separate accounts even though they are essentially the same thing. I understand why they are listed separately but my hope is that one can be deleted. As it is now it I am getting double emails coming through to the phone. It’s just annoying and unnecessary. Can I use Exchange only for Contacts so that Exchange doesn’t show up as a mailbox? I hope I have made some sense. I’m very confused and any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!!
Dear Kate,
Just delete one of the two accounts from Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars and you should be all set
When in Itunes, I try to sync my GMAIL contacts available on the iPhone4, its keeps on asking for my Google id again and again. Cant proceed to the next step.
What wrong is happening here?? pls advise
Dear Vivek,
Just refer to the point about Captcha in the Notes section and you will find the answer to your question
I am relatively new to iPhone. I am brand new to the Google Calendar. I have sync’d the calendar with my phone and most of it is there. I am missing 1 calendar out of the 5 I have set up online. I have already deleted the account and started over once, but it didn’t help.
Dear Traci,
These are the instructions to Sync iPhone with Multiple Google Calendars
Dear Traci,
These are the instructions to Sync iPhone with Multiple Google Calendars
I sync with Outlook and naively assumed that notes in Outlook would sync with notes on my iphone. Of course it’s more complicated than that. Notes don’t just sit in Outlook or iphones, they sit in email accounts (huh?! why?). Anyway, after trying to find notes I’d written on my iphone in my Outlook folder after syncing, I discovered that my iphone defaulted notes to my gmail account (I never told it to do that – Google did). I have now changed it to default notes to ‘On my iPhone’ (why on earth wasn’t this the default setting all along?!). But all notes I’ve written are now sitting in my gmail account, not, therefore, in Outlook… but then when I add my gmail account to Outlook (I don’t really want to do this since it crashes Outlook thanks to the millions of duplicated emails in Gmail – and I only want the bloody notes), the gmail account doesn’t appear in Outlook notes after all that.
The easiest ‘fix’ would have been to move notes on my iphone from the gmail account to ‘On my iPhone’ (which is where they should have been in the first place – and of course logically still are). But I can only Print or Email each note (and not as an attachment, but as a concatenated load of unreadable rubbish in each email).
Why oh why do developers make everything so damn complicated? I’m now in tears and contemplating burning my iphone, my PC, my wifi hub and every other baffling complexity in my once simple, peaceful pen and paper world.
I have Microsoft Exchange set up and running for email and calendars, but all my contacts are only on my iPhone 4S in “All on My iPhone” group. Nothing in Exchange Contacts since nothing is on Gmail. How can I do a transfer of contacts from iPhone to Gmail? My computer runs OSX 10.4.11 and iTunes does not recognize the iPhone as a device.
Thanks for any help.
Dear George,
Using Google Sync will allow you to transfer iPhone Contacts from iPhone to Gmail
Hi,
I’m been perusing the questions above and havent seen the following question answered..only the reverse of it.
I currently want to sync the calendar on my iphone with Google Calendar, so that I can use Google Calendar as a back up option, instead of iCloud.
So right now my Google Calendar is blank because I haven’t added anything to it. My iphone calendar is chock full of events and I want to transfer them over to Google Calendar.
I’ve followed the instructions from Google for setting up Google Sync on my iphone and yet my Google Calendar is still blank when I refresh the page. Shouldn’t it update the calendar with all the events on my Iphone calendar?
Thanks so much for your help! This site is an amazing resource.
Dear Ash,
I’ve just added a solution to Transfer iPhone Calendar to Google Calendar in the Notes section
Hi there,
I am trying to sync all my iphone contacts to gmail so I can then transfer my contacts to my new android phone.
I have set up the gmail exchange account and tried to sync via iTunes (selecting sync with google contacts). However, no contacts with phone numbers have appeared in my gmail account. What am I doing wrong?
I am using an iphone 3GS, itunes 10.6 and a PC running Windows Vista.
Dear Paul,
Did you make sure you installed Google Sync and follow its setup instructions?
Help please. A little over a week ago, my iPhone 4 started not syncing with my gmail (had synced email and calendar just fine since over a year ago) and I got the error message stating that my password was incorrect. I have tried everything. I deleted the account, added it back, deleted again, changed my password, reset, everything . . . I keep reading about the Captcha on different sites, but every time I go to the link – it brings me to a screen that says “Additional verification step” but the only thing there is a continue button (this happens whether I am already logged into my gmail account or not). If I hit “continue”, I am taken to a screen that says “This verification will expire in 10 minutes, so return to your device or application to resume your sign-in” – yet, nothing changes when I try to sign in. Can anyone help?
Dear Andrea,
Make sure to go through the verification process on a computer, not from your mobile
Thank you for your easy assistance!! I have been trying to get the contacts to sync for a while. Very easy steps!
Another question: is there a way to either have google group addresses (like “family” and there are 9 family addresses to send out email; or “work” and the 14 people at work I email with) to transfer from google contacts to iPhone 4? Or do you know does iphone4 support that, and if so, how?
Thanks
Dear Scott,
The ability to sync iphone with groups of google contacts is unfortunately not supported natively
You may find applications that allow this, though
I think that I missed “contacts” when setting up my gmail account on my iphone. Now, contacts that I add to gmail via the computer do not sync to my iphone. I tried to set up the account, but of course, it is already set up. Is there a way to edit my existing gmail account to sync contacts, or do I need to delete and start over?
Many thanks!
Dear Sydnee,
You should be able to sync your Gmail contacts to your iPhone by simply turning them on in your Gmail account settings on your iPhone
If the problem remains, just delete the account from your iPhone and set it up again
So, I am moving my wife to an iphone 4, she had a google android phone hated it couldnt run it, biggest issue was when did the sync for her gmail all 1700 contacts came in and jumbled with her phone contacts. does the iphone keep the email vs phone seperate? i dont want to waste my time and change phones with her and have her get the same issue, any help would be appreciated prior to me switching this
Dear Chris,
On the iPhone it is not possible to separate the phone numbers from email or other contacts.
What you can do though, is to create a group for email only and another for phone contacts, then add the relevant contacts into each group
I have one problem with my IPAD 1, 3.2.2
I want to sync my notes with my gmail, but i could not make it. I tried to create the account with microsoft exchange, but i receive just CALENDAR, CONTACTS, EMAIL-that’s all.
If you could solve it. please help me.
Dear Inc,
Make sure to have a look at our Sync iPhone Notes Tutorial
i use my yahoo account for google calender, and try to sync google calendar with iphone using CalDAV, but doesn’t seem to work. Can somebody give me an advice?
Thanks
Hello,
I have followed the procedure to synch my iPhone with Gmail using the Mic Exchanger and it somehow worked in the past.
I was trying again yesterday to help a friend that got a new iPhone5 with iOS6 but she constantly gets error saying something about either her wrong password or impossible to connect to server.
I then tried to add a second gmail account to my mobile and i experienced the same problem.
Could someone tell me what I have done wrong or what could be the cause of such problem?
My best regards Daniele
Hi, I have been searching for help with my gmail calendar syncing. I have an iPhone5 and have all my calendar appts/info on my iPhone calendar (the standard factory calendar) and want to sync it with my gmail calendar. The fear that I’m having is that I have NO INFO ON MY GMAIL CALENDAR and am hesitant to sync thinking that the gmail calendar will overwrite my iPhone calendar through the sync and I will lose all the info and end up with a blank calendar.
All I basically want is to be able to import all the info I have in my iPhone calendar into my gmail calendar and to continue being able to enter appts into the iPhone that will auto sync into the gmail calendar. my major concern comes when the notice pops up asking me if I want to “keep local calendar data on my iPhone”
I already have my gmail account setup for email syncing, but do not have the calendar, contacts, or notes options selected.
Hi. I’ve just deleted my google account on my iphone 4s which was set up with ‘gmail’ not ‘exchange’ and followed your instructions here to sync iphone contacts with google contacts. The account created ok, but the contacts haven’t synced and when I open up the account in the mail app the account doesn’t have any mail, and says it can’t contact the server. I’ve rechecked over everything I wrote for spelling mistakes and checked other internet apps for connectivity. Not sure if this a problem at the google server end or mine. Any advice would be great Thanks