How To: Sync iPhone Contacts with Google Apps

So I have decided to write an article on something that I battled for an hour today (maybe two but i’ll never admit it)! I have my Google Apps account on my iPhone set to sync my contacts between my iPhone and Google. However, I was finding that many of my Google contacts didn’t have all the information that were on my iPhone… such as a phone number! This wouldn’t be a huge deal except that I have started using Google Voice.

NOTE: You must have a Google Apps account for this to work. Gmail alone will not do it. That is for another article

Step by step, the best way I have found to sync contacts between your iPhone and Google Apps.

1. Back up your iPhone with iTunes! Seriously, I won’t be held responsible for those of you who ignore this warning. Do not proceed with the following steps until you have backed up your iPhone.
2. Go to your Address Book on your Mac and delete all of the existing contacts. I wasn’t using Address Book actively, so if you are, you will want to export the contacts first, save the file to you hard drive and then delete them. This is to make sure that everything is clean and not dirty contacts get caught up in the sync.
   
3. Next, plug in your iPhone to your computer (hopefully you’re on a Mac!) and update your sync settings by setting your contacts to sync with your Address Book. Confirm that you contacts are in Address Book and that the data is accurate.
4. Now that you have your iPhone contacts synchronized with Address Book on your Mac, you should export them as a vCard.
1. While in Address Book…
2. Go to Edit > Select All
3. Go to File > Export > Export vCard
5. Make sure to turn off Google contacts sync for you iPhone if you currently are using it.
   
6. It is time to import your contacts (vCard file you saved) to your Google contacts. You don’t have to delete these unless you just want to. Google has a pretty good duplication merge tool.
1. Login to Google Apps Mail.
2. Select Contacts from the left side.
3. *Using new contacts interface, click the More option at the top and select Import.
4. *Using old contacts interface, click Import from the top right.
5. Browse for the vCard file you saved and upload it.
6. Find and merge duplicates.
7. Edit contacts to your hearts content!
7. When you attempt to turn contact sync on/back on for your iPhone, you will be prompted to delete your iPhone contacts. Select YES, you want to delete your iPhone contacts from your phone. Your contacts will be added back assuming that you followed the above steps
8. Now, go to your iPhone and add your Google Apps Exchange account, or edit your current account by turning the contact sync on. Either way, make sure contact sync is turned on!
9. It will take several minutes to load your contacts from Google, but you are done.