Push email was not an option when I got my first iPhone. Unless of course you purchased Mobile Me, which I didn’t.
In 2009 Google announced it was offering push email by using Microsoft Exchange. This also included Calendars and Contacts info. However at that time you could only sync up to 5 calendars, which was not enough for me so I passed.
Recently there was some more publicity regarding push email and I found out that Google had increased the calendar sync limit to 25. So I decided to change over to push email.
Switching to Push Email, Calendars, and Contacts
When you go about this process of setting up, or in my case switching to, push email you have the option to include Calendars and Contacts. In addition, you can only set up one email account for push with Microsoft Exchange.
Here is a good reference video for the different features of Google Sync for your phone.
My Setup
Here is how I had everything setup before going to push email.
- iPhone email setup with IMAP to my Google Apps account
- My Google Apps Calendars were synced to Microsoft Outlook by using Google Calendar sync, which then updated my iPhone calendar
- My iPhone Contacts were synced with Microsoft Outlook
Not the best setup, but it worked for me for quite some time.
After reading through the steps to setup push email, calendars and contacts I realized that the biggest problem would be getting all my Outlook Contacts info into my Google Contacts.
Updating Contact Info Between Outlook and Google Contacts
Outlook and Google Apps contact data are not very compatible. They really don’t want you to switch your information from one to the other. I tried exporting the Outlook contacts and the Google Contacts to a CSV file so I could see what information was missing from one to the other, but the field names were completely different.
My intention was to manipulate the files and then upload the most recent, fully populated contact information to Google Apps Contacts. As I’m very good with Microsoft Excel, believe me when I say the effort required to do that was more time consuming than updating the info manually, which is what I ended up doing.
My Outlook Contacts information served as my master list because it contained names, addresses, phone numbers and email data. My Google Contacts mainly contained just names and email addresses since it was only used by my Google Apps email.
I printed out my list of Outlook and Google Apps contacts and then went down each list and manually and looked at the information I had in each program. Then I started copying back and forth, adding missing information and making sure everything was current in both contact lists. That took me three hours.
Making the Switch
Once I had all my updated contact information in Google Apps I made the switch to push email, contacts and calendars. This was relatively quick and easy given the online instructions for my iPhone. I did have to delete my current Google Apps email account on my iPhone before making the switch.
Push email, calendars and contacts is a welcome change. My Google Apps email is now received on my iPhone within seconds from the time it’s sent.
Now my iPhone calendar is synced to my Google Apps calendar. Any change made on a calendar in Google Apps it is reflected on my iPhone calendar. If I make a change to my iPhone calendar it is reflected on my Google Apps calendar within seconds.
I now have the option to show all calendars or a specific calendar in my iPhone calendar app. However changing which calendars are shown/hidden requires that I launch the mobile google sync site and toggle the different calendars.
And now my iPhone contacts are synced to my Google Apps contacts. Any change I make on my iPhone contacts are reflected in my Google Contacts, its all done over the air within seconds. Sweet!
The only problem I have now is that my wife complains about the “ding” noise my iPhone makes when new email arrives. Since I use my iPhone for an alarm clock it sets beside our bed and the “ding” noise can happen anytime during the night. So before going to bed I have to go into Settings>Sounds and turn off the New Mail sound.
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