MrGroove,
I just bought a new iPhone but I can’t figure out how-to synchronize my email, calendar and contact list with my computer. Can you help please?
MrGroove get’s this question at least 2 or 3 times a week so he asked me to do a quick write-up with the details on How-To Sync your iPhone or iPod Touch Email, Calendar and Contacts.
Microsoft ActiveSync
The beauty of Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch is it’s ability to Sync wirelessly the Calendar, Contact list and Email via it’s 3G or WiFi connection. It does this using Microsoft ActiveSync. Problem is, most of us are outta luck since ActiveSync is only available if your Calendar, Email and Contacts are stored in a Microsoft Exchange server. Now granted, most Corporate email systems run Exchange however for home users like me, I don’t want my work email on my personal device.
Google Sync – Microsoft ActiveSync
One answer for you home users is to SYNC your Apple device with your GMAIL Calendar and Address Book / Contacts via the new Google Sync Service.
Features
Synchronize your contacts. Get your Google contacts quickly and easily to your phone. With Sync, you can have access to your address book at anytime and place that you need it.
Get calendar alerts. Using your phone’s native calendar, you can now access your Google calendar, and be alerted for upcoming appointments with sound or vibration.
Always in sync. Your contacts stay synchronized whether you access them from your phone or from your computer. Add or edit contact information right on your device or on your Google account on the web.
Before we get into the How-To. Please note the following:
- Setting up Google Sync will erase any existing contacts or calendar dates on your device so PLEASE back them up if you do not want to lose them.
- Google Sync via ActiveSync will not Sync your GMAIL Email. Google Sync only Synchronizes your Google Calendar and Contact List / Address Book. At this time, your GMail Inbox will need to be kept in Sync via iMap.
- For those of you who are already syncing your iPhone with your Corporate Email Server via ActiveSync, your outta luck. The iPhone and iPod Touch only allow you to setup 1 ActiveSync connection. You will need to choose between your Corporate Email or Google Services or do like me and just use GMAIL via iMAP on the iPhone.
1. First confirm your iPhone or iPod Touch has the latest firmware. 2.2 or higher is required. You can find your Firmware settings under: Settings > General > About > Version on your device. If you find you need to update your firmware you can do so easily with iTunes.
2. Tap the Settings application icon.
2. Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars >
3. Tap Add Account… >
4. Tap Microsoft Exchange
5. Enter the required information into the fields on this next page. The
- Email is simply the title of this connection, you can name it whatever you prefer (I named it Google).
- Server, you must enter m.google.com however you will only get this option AFTER you enter your username.
- Username must match your Google account information. Although the Google Instructions show a screenshot of “User@googlemail.com”. For 99.999% of us, this will not work since we all use “user@gmail.com”. So, just use your GMAIL account info.
- Password – Yeah… that’s your GMAIL Password
- SSL – On
6. Tap OFF for Mail (Google Sync won’t do Email. Use iMAP for GMAIL). Contacts and Calendars should be ON. Click Done.
All done!
Now that your device is synched, any changes made on the iPhone/iPod Calendar and/or Contacts Address Book will automatically update your Google Calendar and Contacts Address Book and vice versa (when internet is available to the device of course). VERY GROOVY INDEED!!!
Questions? Comments?
Tags: iphone, ipod-touch, google-sync, gmail, apple, activesync, exchange, email, calendar, contacts, address-book
Thanks for the help, I couldn’t get it to work. I was following the instructions on google but you’re right they did mess up, email@googlemail.com doesn’t work; you have to use gMail. Funny, but then again google is known for having horrible typos.
@maximafan23 – I’m glad the article helped your out!
Will this approach keep 2 ipod touches in sync? My wife and I would like to share a single calendar. So we are thinking of using a google calendar and buying 2 ipod touches but aren’t sure if it will work.
@Steve – Yes. There is no limit as long as you have the Credentials (Username and Password) for the Google Account. ENJOY!
I tried to follow the steps. but I don’t have the option of “server” to enter m.google.com. why?
@Diana – Hi Diana. YES, that’s a KNOWN issue. Please read STEP 5 bullet “2″ above. You must FIRST enter in your username BEFORE the Server box will show up…. Sorry if I didn’t make that very clear above.
Great blog found this via twitter im just adding to my blog now.
I have followed all the steps and it keeps throwing up a box that says Password Incorrect. I have gone into gmail and made a new password and that still is not working any ideas? Thanks for your help.
@justin,
I finally cracked ithe “password incorrect” problem
On the wifi settings on the Iphone and on the Ipod touch, there is a Proxy setting, which had defaulted to HTTP. I changed it to “AUTO” and it solved the probelem.
@justin – great find Justin. Thanks for the FYI! I’ll need to update the article to call that out. Thanks again *and welcome to the groovyPost community* !
@MrGroove,
hi i cant find the proxy setting where is it?
i hv the same problem too!
@justin,
Thank you – the problem appears to be fixed now (and I didn’t even have to enlist the help of my techno savvy partner!)
@jenny & @justin – Where is this setting exactly? Can you be more specific? @kwok appears to need help finding it…
Hi, any idea of how to syncronize more than one google calendars? I only get to see the “Personal” one.
Thanks!
Anna
@anna, Yikes…. Last I played with this I seem to remember it’s only possible to SYNC a single Google Calendar with your iPhone and that is the one which is tied to the Google Credentials you enter. You can however SYNC multiple mailboxes however using IMAP to add multiple mailboxes to the iPhone. Sorry Anna…
Hi, I think I have the same problem as Anna. My son has a calendar I can see in my google calendar (shared), but I can’t see these on my iTouch. I’m not really syncing to more than one calendar, just trying to see everything on my iTouch I see on my computer.
Thanks
@Julie,
Yeah… Unfortunately Google has not enabled that type of functionality yet from their service. The iPhone/iTouch allows multiple Mailboxes (via iMap) from GMAIL but only 1 calendar. Sorry.
That being said, WELCOME to the site!
Wow! That was fantastic – thanks so much! It saved a lot of re-typing….
@deb rizzi,
Thank you! That was really easy! Really appreciate this
@GirlBug,
Excellent! Your VERY welcome! Welcome to groovyPost!
Thanks for the post, any thoughts on how to set up an iphone using the corporate exchange server settings?? Do I need administrative access to the exchange server in order to facilitate this option or can I simply be an administrator on the pc with the proper administrative settings?
@Bugsy Towns,
Hi Bugsy and welcome to groovyPost. The install is actually quite simple as long as you know the Address for the existing Outlook Web Access or OWA. For instance, the address at Microsoft is https://owa.microsoft.com.
Just follow the same steps above only instead of entering in the Google address for the mail server, enter in the address for your OWA server on the internet.
Admin rights is not needed on your PC (since it’s not involved) or Exchange since this is all happening on your device. Some companies however do have policies against personal devices connecting to corporate mail systems so you might want to check with your IT guys before you try it out (or risk it!!!).
Thank you, works great and super easy to setup.
@jaie,
Excellent and welcome to groovyPost!
I can’t get past the password. Please help. I’m using Ipod Touch 2nd Gen OS 3.0. I’d like to sync my google calendar.
Hi,
I know what is the problem now, I change my emaill address [abc.123@gmail.com] to [abc123@gmail.com], <= without a dot, and it works now!
@henry,
Excellent! Great info as well. That’s one thing to remember with GMAIL. GMAIL ignores all Periods ( . ) in the email address. This is a tip to remember in the future. Test it out. Send yourself an email to a.b.c.1.2.3@gmail.com and you will get the email. I use this at times to have multiple accounts on a system however still using a single GMAIL account.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!!…Love my iTouch, but I have been having such problems getting things to synch!!
This works great and SOOOO easy to understand!!!
Thanks again!
@Brenda,
Excellent! Thank you for the feedback.
I get it to sync google to Ipod touch but NOTHING goes over to the Google calendar. Any Idea’s what I did wrong?
@Steve Lankheet,
What about the other direction? Do changes made on the google calendar show up on your iPod Touch calendar?
Yes I can add to google calendar and it goes across to ipod touch OS 3
@Steve Lankheet,
If updates are being pulled down from Google then Authentication is working. There must be something else going wrong. Google JUST upgraded the Google SYNC server – http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-sync-now-with-push-gmail-support.html so you should try to remove the existing SYNC account and re-create it.
BTW – It now supports MAIL as well as Calendar and Contacts so it’s a good time to RESYNC anyway.
Hi there.
Can you please help. I have asked this question of many IT specialists in my area and no-one can give me an easy, straight answer.
I have an iPhone (updated version 3.0).
I have Outlook 2003 on my desktop at the office (large corporate with all the bells and whistles on Exchange Server)
I have Outlook 2007 on my personal laptop/
My work Outlook syncs to my phone and updates automatically.
My personal Outlook on my laptop only sync’s when connected with the cable.
How can I get my laptop to sync automatically?
I would really appreciate your help with this frustrating dilema.
Thanks so much!
Loren
@Lauren,
What email is configured on your personal Laptop? I assume this is your Home email address? Yes/No? Which email provider is it? Yahoo Mail? GMAIL? Hotmail? Verizon Mail? etc…
Also, what is it you want to SYNC? Email/contacts/calendar – all 1 or 2?
Worked like a charm on my iTouch! Great directions!
@Mike,
No problem! Thanks for the feedback!
I can’t make it work! I follow all the instructions here, just like I followed all the instructions on the Google website. I use my @gmail.com address. Everything seems like it works, until I actually go to the calendar on my iPod Touch and there is nothing there! It worked using the program Nueva Sync, but I’d rather not have to use some outside program… I want it to work on its own. Any ideas?
i have other calendars combined with my calendar on google how do i get those to work when people share calendars with me
You can subscribe to calendars via the internet share address on the calendar using your iphone. Do a search here on groovypost for how-to subscribe to an internet calendar.