[technomensch]

With all the recent 5.0 OS leaks/releases, I thought now might be a good time to revisit an old topic, hopefully answer a few questions, and crowd-source this for a positive solution within the BB community.

As most of us know by now, when a Gmail or Google Web Apps act is created in BIS, you are prompted if you want to enable Contact Sync. The BB then appears to go through what looks like a BES activation, with the message stating that synchronization is successful and wireless synchronization has been enabled.

Unfortunately, this has not exactly been the case.

I've been playing around with this particular synchronization feature for quite a while (several months in fact) and have yet to get it to work effectively/efficiently. After several trial & error attempts this morning, I thought I might have finally figured out the flaw, but could use some advice/assistance.

NOTE: Before doing this, I made sure to export a CSV version of my Google address book should anything break. I also backed up through SmrtGuard and Funambol. (I'd rather have duplicates at external sources than lose contacts altogether. Feel free to call me Marc the Paranoid Technomensch.)

****************
Approach #1
****************
- I have been using Google forever as my main contact source. But, after several unsuccessful synchronizations. I decided to try a different approach. I made Outlook my current default address book, just so I knew where everything was and had a back up of everything.

- Wiped my Address Book on the Device and sync'ed the Address Book from Outlook to the Device.

- At this point, if you have Facebook installed, it will connect your contacts with FB entries. If you do a two-sync back to Outlook, FB contacts will get duplicated because they now have avatar images. Do a Device-to-Outlook replacement so now you have a clean list in Outlook.

- I went into BIS and removed my Google Web Apps email address (thus losing my email filters). Then I recreated it.

- Went into the Address Book and enabled Wireless Synchronization (Changed No to Yes).

- Then did a battery pull.

- Theoretically, my contacts SHOULD show up in Gmail/Google Web Apps.

No luck.

Battery Pull Again.

Presto, contacts in Google Web Apps. BUT, not without some flaws:

Before starting this process, I was originally using Google as my main contact source. All the contacts were under the "My Contacts" group. When I moved the source of my contacts to Outlook, contacts were now placed in TWO different categories: the one I assigned them in Outlook and "My Contacts".

For those familiar with Gmail, you'll know that it uses Tags instead of folders. This results in duplicate messages when you connect using IMAP. Finally, after much testing, it would appear as though this is similarly true with this particular version of BIS/BES contact sync.

Specifically, it does not recognized Groups as Categories, or Categories as Groups. In other words, entries that are in two different categories became duplicated under "My Contacts".

So, I decided to take a different approach.

***********
Approach #2
***********
Remember, I said before I started all this I made a CSV of my original Google contact list?

- First I removed Gmail Web App from BIS again. The reason for this is because you cannot wipe your address book from Desktop Manager without disabling wireless synchronization. (another lesson I learned from trial & error).

- Opened DM >> Backup & Restore >> Advanced >> Address Book - All >> Clear

- In Google Web App, wiped out ALL contacts.

- Imported the original .csv file I created before this whole mess started.

"We have imported all 399 contacts found in the uploaded file.
180 contacts from the uploaded file have been merged with contacts already in your Google address book."

- Deleted ALL my Groups as all I was left with were "My Contacts".

- Still had duplicate contacts and some contacts were still showing up as "Groups".

So much for that idea.

***********
Approach #3
***********
- Wiped the contacts again on the device and Google.

- In Outlook, now that I know the possible cause of the duplication, I removed ALL categories from Contact entries.

- Synced from Outlook to Device.

- Went to Address Book >> Filter and deleted ALL categories.

- Went back into BIS and recreated Web App act.

- Battery Pull

- Logged out/in to Google Web Apps

- Missing Contacts and several duplicates.
-------------------------------------------------

As you can tell, just when I thought I had this figured out, it fell through.

Conclusions:

-While appearing indiscriminately, there is "some" cause results in "some", but not all contacts to be duplicated.

- Some are due to being in multiple Categories on BB, or Groups in Gmail.

- Some are due to having avatars brought in from Facebook

- Some I think might be due to just being linked to a Facebook Friend.

- Others, I have absolutely no idea.

- Merging contacts on Gmail will not remove the duplicates from the Blackberry.

- Removing the duplicates from the Blackberry do not appear to remove them from Gmail.

- Deleting the right duplicates from Gmail will remove them from the Blackberry without getting duplicated, but I have yet to figure out how to tell which is the "right" one.

I would continue troubleshooting through trial and error, but I've got to leave for work.

If anyone wants to pick up the ball and continue, please feel free. Otherwise, I'll try to get back to this when I get home tonight.

Bottom Line:

In the meantime, anyone who has a Gmail act that wants to sync their contacts with their BB address book, I'd recommend sticking with Google's own Sync software until we can work this out. At least that won't remove or mess with your categories or groups.

------------------------------
Sidebar: if anyone knows how to backup the BIS filters, please let me know. I really hate losing them every time I have to remove and recreate this email address on the BIS.

[diegonei]

Thanks for the effort! I gave up using that feature after the 2nd merge of contacts and 3rd device wipe...

I really hope either you or RIM can tell us what to do about this.

[lcohen999]

I know this is slightly off topic, however you seem to be having tones of problems with BIS Contact Sync.

I have held off for that very reason, Google Sync works perfectly well with 5.0 and has none of the problems. The program is tiny and works very well....

[zeromaru]

i have my main contacts source in my macbook pro Address Book.

i sync those to google, from time to time (im too afraid that leaving the sync on all the time will make a mess, so each time i want gmail to have updated contacts, i wipe the gmail ones, and resync).

when i first got my storm 2, i had contacts in gmail, and my macbook was not with me, so i setup the sync with gmail using bis, and it sent all my contacts without duplicates to my phone :P

the bad thing was that no pictures where synced, and if i sync from my mac, i have some more data, thats not available in google, and of course, nice pictures (the pics in gmail are lower res, and stay there, never go to my phone)

to bad i cant use Gmail as the main source, and sync wirelesly to my mac and my phone, like i do with calendars (using googlesync).

pd: googlesync for contacts worked as bad as bis contact sync in my case

[technomensch]

For those of you running 5.0.0.284 or lower, according to RIM's KB

Contact synchronization occurs every four hours and is limited to 10,000 contacts....Note: Google Mail Contact Sync is not supported on BlackBerry Device Software 5.0.0.284 and lower.

More information as it becomes available.....

[technomensch]

***********
Approach #4
***********

I decided to attack this from another angle.

- Logged in my Funambol Act, where I KNOW everything is up-to-date/accurate.
- Removed any duplicates there.
- Forced a sync from server-to-client to Outlook.
- Checked Outlook to see why "some" contacts 'might' have gotten duplicated.

FOUND:

Some duplicates the # like this (XXX) XXX-XXXX
While the other duplicate had the # like this ###-###-####
Some even looked like this ##########.

On Google, any SLIGHT difference will result in a duplicate contact.

Also, some had avatars, meaning those were the ones configured correctly for Facebook to find and the duplicate did not. The ones that didn't were typically the ones I erased.

- Exported address book again as a csv
- Wiped the contacts in Google
- Wiped the contacts in the BB
- Reenabled Wireless Synchronization
- Prayed.

Slowly, but surely, contacts started to drip into the Address Book.

One the first sync, on 21 contacts came in.

So I turned off wireless sync. Waited to get the error email saying that sync failed. Turned it back on. Boom. Another 42 contacts came in. Rise, repeat. After leaving it alone and being patient, I now have all 321 contacts from Google in my Address Book.

Approach #4 can be deemed a success. I now have a fully functional address book that is duplicated on Google.

But now that I've got it working, I need to figure out why and what is causing it.

[technomensch]

I'll be honest. I'm quite frustrated that I have to do this and report on it to the community. If RIM and Google are going to advertise this feature, I would have hoped that it would've passed their QI before it went public. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case.

Here's just a sample of my findings:

- Email addresses don't line up exactly.
- Google doesn't make a distinction between city/state/zip in their txt box. If you don't leave lines blank, they get put on the Address line.
- As mentioned previously, Groups vs. Categories doesn't work. Contacts in multiple groups and/or categories get duplicated.
- If there is the slightest difference between the two, even if it is the punctuation of the phone number or case sensitivity, the contacts appear to get duplicated.
- Facebook Names in BB do not get copied to Google because there is no line for them.

Here is what I would recommend:

Wipe everything from device and outlook/desktop/laptop.
Make Google your sole, single source for everything.

Make sure to install the BB AIM/Yahoo/MSN/Google Talk clients. If you do, and you have the Google Instant Messaging fields filled in, it looks like they copy over.

DO NOT group your contacts. This is, by far the second most frustrating thing about this process.

The #1 frustrating thing...Google won't sync the PINs either.

As I continue on this journey, I'll more findings. If you have comments, thoughts, questions, or suggestions, feel free to comment or PM me.

Wish me luck.

In the meantime, if I were you, I'd stick with Google Sync. Me. I'm going to continue to fight my way through the built in sync.

[digitalb0y]

Best of luck. Like others, this is why I've stuck with Google Sync. It works pretty flawlessly for me, and I have full, wireless, unsupervised sync between my Mac Address Book and BlackBerry via Google.

I've been doing it this way successfully since about January, and don't see the duplicates you're describing. There are fields that don't sync, but I can live with that. I don't need peoples' PINs in my Google contacts, for example. If I made heavy use of BBM, though, I could see where that would be annoying, as losing your contacts on your phone would cause you to lose all your contacts' PINs, even if you were able to recover every contact from Gmail.

For my needs, Google Sync does very well, but I would like to see them work out the issues within the Google plugin.

[technomensch]

I agree completely that the Google Sync Software serves its purpose and does it extremely well. I've been using it for over a year with no complaints. I hardly ever had to deal with any duplications and it did exactly what it needed to do. In other words, Google did their job right and did it beautifully.

BUT, I like the idea that RIM is trying to build this synchronization into their eco-system ever since I heard it being available in BIS 2.8. I have faith that they'll get it right and if helping to get it right means pushing through these potholes, then so be it. As long as I keep an extra backup on an extra, third-party server (funambol), I don't mind doing a little messing around with my contacts.

(Sidebar- with BBM 5.0, the PIN sync really isn't necessary, but it's more of a nit-pick that I'd like to make it all inclusive)

Anyway, since I started this endeavor, it is finally going swimmingly (so far).

Once I got the contacts settled in Gmail, it was just a matter of doing a little fine-tuning. I've been linking my contacts to the FB address book and, as of the moment, no duplication of contacts (now watch that I spoke too soon).

I'm also doing a little fine tuning on the BB, including moving City/State from Address line to the correct fields, removing excess content and lines from Notes, and a few other little things here and there.

Surprisingly, I don't have to wait for the morning to see how it is going because I am already seeing the changes made on the BB showing up in Gmail.

The only obstacle I see is that little tidbit from the RIM KB I linked to that it checks the Google server every 4 hrs. Whenever I did my "rise/repeat", it seemed to be a window much, much, much smaller than 4 hrs, like only a few minutes. Unfortunately, I can't get a feel for exactly how often it is checking, or when the updates are coming from. It involves me constantly jumping back and forth between laptop & BB and hitting F5 on the refresh. That's part of the reason I liked the Google Sync Software- I could manually force a sync anytime I want it to. Well, live and learn.

Tomorrow, my goal is to grab some of my contact's Screen Names and Birthdays from FB and import them into Google. Be interesting to see how those go from Google to the BB.

BTW, for those who haven't caught it, I'm on a 9700 using the latest .415 OS.

[technomensch]

I did just have another thought:

With the new APIs that Blackberry is going to be allowing for Contacts/Address Book access, what is going to take priority?

Example:
A contact's company. Will the priority come from Google's Address book, FB's Friend Profile, LinkedIn's Profile (when it becomes available), or something else?

With all these third-party software products connecting to the same device database, I wonder if they will fine-tune the Default Services to Default Line Items?

This realization just sent a chill down my spine.

Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions?

[digitalb0y]

I will be reading about your findings and like you, am curious to see how RIM evolves with this. Kudos for your persistence.

As a sidenote: I wonder if Google will ever stop putting as much effort into making things that enhance our BlackBerrys so much, as they start to gain market share with Android. Surely eventually Android will be king of mobile contact, calendar and mail syncing with Google products...

[digitalb0y]

And FWIW, I've had the same worry about the FB thing. FB already overwrites company fields I designate on the BlackBerry if I remember correctly, and that's just fine with me since my friends do a better job keeping their info current than I do, but surely it's not the wisest choice to give it priority to overwrite a Gmail address book? And what kinds of messes will we see with things winding up in the wrong fields as more apps and entities try to sync?

In the very early days of Google Sync, I got a lot of duplicates. I assumed it was an ongoing problem but I noticed it only happened once per contact at maximum, and the errors weren't multiplying with additional syncs. So in January, I took the time to go through every single one of my Gmail contacts and format them correctly, get rid of all the duplicates, and wiped the contacts on my phone. I pulled all the correct contacts down from Google and haven't had a problem since then. Since Google is the common syncing tool for so many different users out there (Thuderbird, Mac Address Book, BlackBerry and other smart phones, etc.), I think it makes sense to treat Google as a master and your own apps and devices as backups. I also send periodic backups to a webdav server so I won't lose anything should something go terribly wrong.

[technomensch]

I really wish I knew where to submit these findings as I find more of them. The problem is that we technically shouldn't even have .415 yet.

************************************************** ****

----------------------------------
Instant Messaging Screen Names
----------------------------------
* Install any, or all, of the following onto your BB device- Google Talk/AIM/Yahoo/MSN/etc...
* In Google's address book, add a contact's corresponding Instant Messaging Screen Name info
* On the device, go to the contact in the Address Book.
* View the contact.
* You'll see, if linked to a FB friend, the contact's Facebook name, but not their Screen Names.
* "Edit" the contact on the device.
* Now you can see the Screen names. Shame they only show up when editing a contact.

I'm guessing that since Facebook does show up, but these do not, that this is probably just a software bug with the API that I hope either BB or the IM services will fix soon.

----------------------------------
Birthdays
----------------------------------
* Enter a contact's Birthday in Google.
* Does not sync to Blackberry.
* Enter contact's Birthday in BB.
* Does not sync to Google.

While disappointing, until they map this field, it fails.

----------------------------------
Avatar icons
----------------------------------
* These never synced, even with Google Sync. Quite frustrating. Wish they'd fix this.

----------------------------------
Home/Work Physical Addresses
----------------------------------
* This one really confuses me.
- In Google, address is entered and formatted correctly.
- Sync to Blackberry.
- Entire address, including City and State, all show up on the Address line on BB.
- Remove address from Google
- Entire address correctly in BB.
- Let this sync to Google.
- It will look exactly the same as if you entered it in manually/by hand in the Google Address Book, but does not get messed up on device.

This is some weird field mapping and I partially blame Google for using an entire TXT box for the address instead of breaking it up into independently distinguishable fields.

For this, since it's easier to enter the addresses in Google (copy and paste from Funambol), I'm just going to bite the bullet and enter them there. I can always go back through my contact list on BB and cut/paste the city/state to the right field to fix the formatting later. Yes, I know there is probably a way to fix this through a text editor and CSV file, I've learned over the years that trying to use a shortcut can sometimes lead to more work than expected/needed. (This entire process is a perfect example of this fact).

[EnJaNir]

tech

I was playing around with this a little bit last night...and when push came to shove I just said F-it.

Background: at&t 9700 running .415
Device Mail Details: 3 emails (work/gmail/blackberry.net)
Sync Details: Contact/Calendar sync with outlook 07 via DM
Contact Data Details: All default outlook formatted (first last name, phone number are all +1 (xxx) xxx - xxxx, all address fields are 3 line (Street/City/Country), some have email(s), some have contact pictures etc. The point here is all data is stored in default outlook format.

1) All data on phone is duplicate of outlook and perfect
2) Deleted all Gmail contacts
3) enabled contact sync
4) h3ll broke out

Random contacts had double, triple, quadruple + ... duplicates

No pictures transferred
No birthdays transferred
Address fields got all mangled up (both in gmail and device)
Contact data and duplicates pulled various information. Some had some bits and pieces others had others, others had other data yet.

End of the day IMHO the way in which the BB stores contact information pairs perfectly with how Outlook does (matching independent multiline fields). Gmail contacts on the other hand use one giant predefined field to sort through the multiple field options. It just doesn't mesh well.

Side note rant: that is why you can't sort your GMail contacts by last name..ugh

If you want to do some troubleshooting together and if I have time let me know...otherwise I'm just calling this one a lost cause for now

[technomensch]

@EnJaNir

I was having the same similar problem until I made Google Contacts my defaults. I fixed the bad information on my phone and removed the bad information entirely from Google.

Once your phone and Google are clear, then sync to Outlook, with your phone overwriting existing Outlook formatting (after backing Outlook's Address Book to a csv first)

[technomensch]

Sidebar for ANYONE using Google Sync and planning to upgrade to a leaked OS:

- MAKE SURE YOU LOG OUT OF GOOGLE SYNC FIRST, BEFORE YOU RUN THE UPDATE.

After the update is complete, make sure you go Settings >> Advanced Options >> Default Services and set the default calendar to what you want it to be.

THEN, log back into Google Sync.

If you don't, you will end up with duplicate contacts when you "backup" during the process.

If you DO get duplicates, as long as Google Calendar is your only source:

- log out of Google Sync

- go into DM >> Backup & Restore >> Advanced >> Clear the Calendar.

- Log back into Google Sync

On the other hand, since I moved the BIS/BES Google Contact Sync, I had absolutely NO duplicates after the upgrade to .421 on my 9700.

You can take that for whatever you think it's worth.

[ADGrant]

End of the day IMHO the way in which the BB stores contact information pairs perfectly with how Outlook does (matching independent multiline fields). Gmail contacts on the other hand use one giant predefined field to sort through the multiple field options. It just doesn't mesh well.

Side note rant: that is why you can't sort your GMail contacts by last name..ugh

If you want to do some troubleshooting together and if I have time let me know...otherwise I'm just calling this one a lost cause for now

Smart move. Google contacts is broken in my opinion. The way BB and Outlook store contact information is the correct way to do it (PalmOS does it the same way and so probably does everyone but Google). Fortunately the BB supports USB syncing through its desktop software. One reason I would not switch to an Android device or a Pre.

[technomensch]

Well, I have to confess that I finally got fed up with the BIS-to-Google Contact Sync and went back to the Google Sync software instead.

Main Issue was not the duplicate contacts, but rather that the Address Box on Google becomes Address Line 1 on Blackberry. Separating address fields on Blackberry lead to duplicate addresses on Contact. This is not an issue as it appears as though Google has addressed this in their own custom Sync Software.

Also, the following DO NOT sync regardless of whether you are using BIS Contact Sync or Google Sync:

-Birthdays
-Anniversaries
-Screennames
-Categories/Groups

I do not know if these are Google or RIM issues, but I'd like to see them fixed.

[giorgosh]

Do you guys have Gmail Plugin working ok? Since i upgraded to OS5 i could not see it in my menu, therefore i decided to re-download it. However, I was prompted to replace the already installed version with an older one. As far as i remember, OS5 already had version 2.0.0.30 and the one downloading from BB site was 2.0.0.25. Since i wanted to re-enable the features i chose to overwrite, was prompted to restart device, however the GMAIL features have not appeared in the menu.

Have you got any suggestions?

[technomensch]

@giogosh,

First, log into your BIS and copy/save any filters that you have.

Second, after you've installed 5.0, remove and readd your gamil account through BIS.

Regretfully, all this does is readd the Gmail plug-in as a separate mailbox icon. RIM has yet to make this plug-in work with the actual "messages" itself. In other words, if you archive through filters on gmail, you'll still get them in your Messages Inbox, but not the Gmail Inbox icons. But, you'll get the archive/tagging features under the new gmail email icon.

[giorgosh]

Well it doesn't.. Can you please tell me what version u got? I got .25 and i think it does not support OS5

[rob7100g]

Well, I have to confess that I finally got fed up with the BIS-to-Google Contact Sync and went back to the Google Sync software instead.

Main Issue was not the duplicate contacts, but rather that the Address Box on Google becomes Address Line 1 on Blackberry.

Me too. I discovered this just before Christmas when I tried to print my list of who's been naughty and who's been nice. All the addresses in my Apple Address Book had everything in one line.

The best part of this plugin for me is being able to search remote emails on the Gmail server.

-- Robert.

[KristyKay5]

I found this thread very useful and I'm hoping based on all of your experiences, you can suggest a plan of action for me.

I recently bought a Blackberry Curve 8530 and the Sprint store transfered the contacts from my old phone to this one. (My old phone was not a SmartPhone - just a simple little thing - phone numbers only.) I then set up my Blackberry Curve 8530 to access my Gmail account and to synchronize my contacts. I didn�t like the way it synchronized. I didn�t want everyone that was in my Gmail contacts to be added to my phone so I stopped the synch and cleaned up my the contacts on my Blackberry (i.e. removed the people I didn�t want).

Currently everyone in my contact list on my Blackberry only has phone numbers, e-mail addresses, ringtones and pictures. Most of these people also exist in my Gmail contacts with additional information. I�d like to add the addresses and any other info that�s in GMail so I'm trying to figure out the best way to do this. BIS or Google Synch? I want GMail to remain the authoritative source for my contacts. I�ve been exploring various forums and have some questions:
� What contact group does Google Synch and BIS use? I think I read somewhere that Google Synch uses My Contacts. Is that true and is it the same for BIS?
� Gmail Contacts don�t have the address broken down into fields (Street, Street 2, City, State, Zip, etc.). Is there a way to format it in Gmail contacts so that it synchs properly using Google Synch? What about BIS? (I can�t understand why Google doesn�t break it down into fields. It completely baffles me!)
� Which contact �wins� if it exists in both places? I want to prevent information from being deleted or duplicated.
� When it synchs using either Google Synch or BIS, will I lose ringtones and/or pictures that I have associated with each contact on the Blackberry?

I�ve seen numerous posts about contacts being deleted, duplicated, etc so I want to try and do this smartly. It sounds like Google Synch is the better option, at least right now. I'm starting to think it may make the most sense to wipe out my contacts on my Blackberry and then synch, assuming all of the phone numbers and e-mail addresses on the Blackberry are also in GMail. Does that mean I'll have to go back and re-associate pictures and ringtones once the synch is done?

I'd appreciate any suggestions/helpful tips you have.

[technomensch]

� What contact group does Google Synch and BIS use? I think I read somewhere that Google Synch uses My Contacts. Is that true and is it the same for BIS?

Both Google Sync and the BIS use the "My Contacts" group. Essentially "My Contacts" are any contacts that you've added to your address book, regardless of whether they are in a group or not. Unfortunately, there is 'currently' no native way to specify which groups do and do not sync with the Blackberry through either BIS OR Google sync.

� Gmail Contacts don�t have the address broken down into fields (Street, Street 2, City, State, Zip, etc.). Is there a way to format it in Gmail contacts so that it synchs properly using Google Synch? What about BIS? (I can�t understand why Google doesn�t break it down into fields. It completely baffles me!)

This was, by far, one of the most confusing elements of my experimentation. Basically, if you use Google Sync, Google synchronizes the fields with BB properly. If you use BIS sync, you get what you talk about above. My recommendation is to fix it in your Google Contact list, make sure the contact list is accurate, up-to-date, AND BACKED UP!!!!!! Then, use the Desktop Manager to wipe your contacts off the BB, and use Google sync to populate Address Book. Wish there was a better way, but that's the best (@ the moment).

� Which contact �wins� if it exists in both places? I want to prevent information from being deleted or duplicated.

I remember seeing this answered somewhere in Google's own docs, as well as a request for Google to offer the ability to allow the user to decide which one wins. Duplicate contacts are the baine of contact and calendar synchronization, but is usually due to incompatible formats, users with middle names on one but not the other, different titles, abbreviates, etc.... For this reason, I try and avoid them at all costs by starting from a clean slate.

DO NOT user Google's automatic tool to merge ALL duplicate contacts. It's a horrible tool that completely destroyed my address book, requiring hours to fix. Instead, use the merge individual contacts together tool; that one works nicely.

� When it synchs using either Google Synch or BIS, will I lose ringtones and/or pictures that I have associated with each contact on the Blackberry?

I don't know about ringtones because I don't have mine custom set. However, I do know that I have lost my pictures when I go through this initial process. BUT, once you get it up and running/working, and you set your pictures, they should stay on the phone (but will not sync to Google and I don't know why). Personally, after wiping it, I reconnect my address book entries with their corresponding FB contact in the FB BB app, so it pulls the picture from there.

Which reminds me, YES, if there are any contacts not associated after this process, you will need to do it manually.

In other words, set aside a good afternoon to set it up once. BUT once it's up and ready to go, you'll be extremely happy.

I�ve seen numerous posts about contacts being deleted, duplicated, etc so I want to try and do this smartly. It sounds like Google Synch is the better option, at least right now. I'm starting to think it may make the most sense to wipe out my contacts on my Blackberry and then synch, assuming all of the phone numbers and e-mail addresses on the Blackberry are also in GMail. Does that mean I'll have to go back and re-associate pictures and ringtones once the synch is done?

Funny, I think that's what I was suggesting. :P

Seriously though, if you're worried that your BB has information that Gmail doesn't, use the BB Desktop Manager, and back up the address book to Outlook first (which you really should do anyway). Then, export the Outlook Address book as a CSV file and import it into Gmail. And finally, clean up the duplicates.

I'd appreciate any suggestions/helpful tips you have.

You might also want to look into soocial.com.

I don't use them to sync with the Blackberry, but I do use them to keep my:

- Google Hosted App/Domain
- Gmail
- Hotmail/Live
- Yahoo

Contacts all up to date. I found it to be a much nicer interface to clean up the duplicates/merge them; and like the way it keeps multiple could service in sync via the cloud instead of my BB. It also appears as though they seem to have nailed down the formatting of the contacts to sync with Google's Contact list. Perhaps one day when I have the time, I'll try the synchronization software because the client is based on an open-source project that I <3 using SyncML.

You can be sure that I'll be adding to this write-up once BIS 3.0 comes out within the next few weeks.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask. Sorry for the delay in my response as I've been busy lately.

Marc K.
@stayinginsync
stayinginsync.info

[josh47]

I've done a bunch of research but haven't found anyone address the problem I'm having. I have a 9630 on Verizon running 5.0.0.484. I'm using BES to connect to my work Exchange and BIS to connect to my Gmail.

My problem is I'd like to get my work contacts via BES and my personal contacts from Gmail without duplicates. I've tried using Google Sync and here's what happens: My google contacts are synced to my blackberry, which are then synced into my work outlook, which are then synced back to my blackberry in duplicate. So in the blackberry address book I see the same entry twice, one saying "Synchronize Using [email protected]" and the other saying "Synchronize Using Desktop".

Does anyone know how to fix this duplication? Let me know if I've left out any important details. Thanks!