How-To: Android + Mac Syncing (Mail, Contacts, Calendars)

[antikryst]

This is a first draft... hopefully this How-To gets approved and moved to the main How-To listing.

As a first time Android user with just a Mac (no Windows for me), I had to scrounge the net to get things to work. Hopefully this tutorial will make Mac users look at the Android platform as a really good alternative to the iPhone. Full 2 way syncing with Apple's native applications and no extra software needed!

Feedback would be most welcome.

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iCal Syncing With Google Calendar

Get Started with CalDAV - Google Calendar Help

Only Apple iCal 3.x (on Mac OS X v10.5+) supports CalDAV sync.
To set up CalDAV support for Google Calendar in Apple's iCal, follow these steps:

1. Open Apple iCal, go to Preferences and then the Accounts tab.

2. Click on the + button to add an account.

3. In the box that pops up, enter a description for the account and your Google Account username and password.

4. Under Server Options, add the following URL:

https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/...
Replace 'youremail@domain.com' with the email address that you use to log in to Calendar. Make sure to include the '@domain.com' portion (which is @gmail.com for Gmail users) in this section.

5. Leave the Use Kerberos v5 for authentication option unchecked.

6. Click Add.

7. Under the Delegation tab, select the calendars you'd like to add to iCal by checking the boxes next to them. You may need to hit refresh to get the latest list of calendars.

8. Add your email address to your Address Book card by selecting Add Email. You'll be prompted to add your email address only if your address is not already in your Address Book.

You won't be able to invite or email guests to Google Calendar events within iCal if your address is not in your Address Book.
Your Google Calendar will now appear in iCal's list of calendars, and changes you make to your Google Calendar in iCal will be reflected when you sign in to Google Calendar.
Event information will automatically refresh every five minutes. You can change this interval by opening the iCal > Preferences > Accounts menu and selecting a new refresh interval under the 'Refresh calendars' drop-down. Keep in mind you can also force a refresh by selecting a calendar and pressing the Apple and R keys at the same time.
Calendars that are checked but disabled have already been added to iCal - you can remove them from within iCal.

To Import Existing iCAL Events to Google Calendar:

Originally Posted by jettrue

You can import .ics in google calender.

INSTRUCTIONS: How to 3-Way Sync the iPhone, iCal, and Google Calendar - Calendar Help

I did this, but I then after importing the .ics into google calendar, I then got rid of my local calendar in ical, then I only use my caldav google calendar on my computer's ical. I now have two way sync between google calendar and icalendar.

Address Book Syncing With Google Contacts

Source: OSX 10.6.3 (Snow Leopard) Address Book help.

1. Choose Address Book > Preferences, click Accounts, choose On My Mac in your list of accounts, and then click Account Information.

2. Select the “Synchronize with Google” checkbox.

3. Read the advisory information and then click Agree to continue.

4. Enter your Google account name (such as you@gmail.com or, for Google Apps customers, you@yourcompanyname.com) and password, and then click OK.

You can sync only one Google account.

When the account name and password you entered are confirmed, the dialog disappears. You can close Address Book preferences now if you want.
Click the Sync menu in the menu bar and choose Sync Now.
To add the Sync menu to the menu bar, open iSync, choose iSync > Preferences, and then select “Show status in menu bar.”

Apple Mail Full IMAP Syncing With Gmail

This tutorial is for adding your Gmail (or multiple Gmail accounts) to Mail.app and fully having it in sync. Read emails on your Gmail (web or Android) will also be marked as already read on Mail.app. Sent messages from an Android will also be in the sent box of Mail.app. This tutorial also has Mail.app store messages for offline viewing.

1. Logon to your Gmail account (via web browser)

2. On Gmail: Go to Settings > Labs > enable “Advanced IMAP Controls”

3. On Gmail: Go to Settings > Labels > UNCHECK ALL LABELS except for Drafts, Sent, Trash, Spam

4. On Mail.app: Go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Click the + to add you Gmail Account

5. Enter your Name, Gmail Address, and Password. You can also do this for custom Gmail domains

6. After step 5, you will see your Gmail along with the enabled Labels above on the sidebar. The next few steps will clean up the sidebar and integrate Gmail to Mail.app

7. Select the newly created Gmail folders on the sidebar on Mail.app then go to Mailbox > Use This Mailbox For > Drafts/Sent/Trash/Junk (choose the corresponding selection for the specific folder you are highlighting)

8. Once step 7 has been done, folders below will be unified with the main Mailbox heading

9. On Mail.app: Go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Highlight the Gmail Account > Mailbox Behaviors > CHECK Store sent messages on server, Store junk messages on server, Move deleted messages to the Trash mailbox, Store deleted messages on the server

10. On Mail.app: Go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Highlight the Gmail Account > Advanced > Check Enable this account, Include when automatically checking for new messages

11. On Mail.app: Go to Mail > Preferences > Accounts > Highlight the Gmail Account > Advanced > Keep copies of messages for offline viewing > Select All messages and their attachments

[antikryst]

any mac users try this out yet? would really appreciate feedback on ease of use, accuracy, areas for improvement, etc.

[digitalgoddess]

Originally Posted by antikryst

any mac users try this out yet? would really appreciate feedback on ease of use, accuracy, areas for improvement, etc.

How did this work for you, and how did you come to these conclusions?

Thanks,

-D-

[antikryst]

Originally Posted by digitalgoddess

How did this work for you, and how did you come to these conclusions?

Thanks,

-D-

it actually worked great for me.... i now get full syncing for contacts, email, and calendars without the need for a cable or any third party sync software apart from whats already on android and what comes bundled with any (new) mac.

i actually got it working first before i decided to try and write this how-to.

[jettrue]

version 4.0.2, the setup is different, and I can't seem to get it to work. Researching now....

[jettrue]

Originally Posted by jettrue

version 4.0.2, the setup is different, and I can't seem to get it to work. Researching now....

Oh, haha, you have to create a google calendar first.

It's even easier in 4.0.2, you choose "google" from the drop down menu, and you only enter email address and password, and the rest is auto filled.

[antikryst]

Originally Posted by jettrue

Oh, haha, you have to create a google calendar first.

It's even easier in 4.0.2, you choose "google" from the drop down menu, and you only enter email address and password, and the rest is auto filled.

glad you got it working... just checked and i was using 4.0.2 as well and was just about to reply that it worked for me as is....

did you get the mail and address book syncing to work? feedback on the tutorial would be great so i can add more polish.

[jettrue]

Originally Posted by antikryst

glad you got it working... just checked and i was using 4.0.2 as well and was just about to reply that it worked for me as is....

did you get the mail and address book syncing to work? feedback on the tutorial would be great so i can add more polish.

Yes, thanks! I already used the imap gmail on my mac, so that was a no brainer.

What do you do for syncing your music and photos? Do you use a third party program?

[antikryst]

Originally Posted by jettrue

Yes, thanks! I already used the imap gmail on my mac, so that was a no brainer.

What do you do for syncing your music and photos? Do you use a third party program?

still havnt tried syncing my itunes since the samsung android im using now couldnt do usb mount to my mac although from my research... the options are

1. salling music sync (salling.com)
2. double twist

for iphoto + itunes... the only option i know as of now is missing sync. used this for mac + palm (old palm os not palm web os) and its not that good. it works but its not excellent. they already have a version for android which supposedly does iphoto syncing too.

should get my nexus one in a week plus a few days... should be able to try these options by then.

it would be great if you could share your experiences with syncing options for itunes + iphoto here

[jettrue]

Originally Posted by antikryst

still havnt tried syncing my itunes since the samsung android im using now couldnt do usb mount to my mac although from my research... the options are

1. salling music sync (salling.com)
2. double twist

for iphoto + itunes... the only option i know as of now is missing sync. used this for mac + palm (old palm os not palm web os) and its not that good. it works but its not excellent. they already have a version for android which supposedly does iphoto syncing too.

should get my nexus one in a week plus a few days... should be able to try these options by then.

it would be great if you could share your experiences with syncing options for itunes + iphoto here

I've downloaded doubletwist, it can sync my playlists and photos. That works for me; anyway, I don't want ALL of my music on my phone... my car has an SD card slot, so all of my music is already in my car, and I don't listen too much at work, and if I want to, I'll just listen to my podcasts (created playlists for them), and listen to Pandora.