iCloud and Google Contacts...

[Daniel Corrêa Lobato]

Why not learn to do seeing how the competition did?

I am a life-time subscriber and I ended up buying the license of
another tool that does the synchronization (2-way!) between Google and
iCloud for contacts. They have an iOS and a MacCOS version of the
tool.

That's sad :(

[Evans Thompson]

It took me a long time to get a system worked out.  I had terrible troubles with MobileMe and don't trust iCloud that much more.

I've now switched to using Google as the "hub." I interface with Address Book and Calendar on my Mac and then let Spanning Sync sync to my Google account.  The key is setting up your iOS device as an "Exchange" connection.  Google explains it here: http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=138740

As long as you choose your contacts and calendar, they'll stay in sync.  You can use the mail option, too, or you can create a separate IMAP account on your iOS. Don't choose iCloud for calendar or contacts.

When you combine it with a Google backup solution like Spanning Backup or Backupify, you have the best of all possible worlds.

I use this setup to keep 2 Macs, 2 iPads, an iPod touch, and Android phone all in sync, and I've never had the problems I did trying to let Apple manage everything.

I've setup similar arrangements with family members, and they love it, too.

Although I'd love to get rid of Spanning Sync (one less thing running), it's the key to keep the Macs happy.