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Syncing Gmail contacts with Mac (OS)

Aha… now that I have posted about Gmail contacts and iOS, it seems that some of us are having questions about syncing with Mac OS… Well, here is a brief post about this.

OPTION 1 – Synchronize with Google 

Open the Contacts App and go to “Preferences”. Go to “On My Mac” and you will see the following window:

 

SyncWithGoogle

 

Select “Synchronize with Google”, you will need to accept the terms and conditions and then authenticate your account. Note that, this method will bring all Gmail contacts under All Contacts (which includes everybody you have emailed) and they will be pushed to your Mac OS X address book. If you want to keep your Gmail and iCloud (for instance) or any other account separate from each other, then the next option is for you.

OPTION 2 – Separate Accounts

If you want to keep your Gmail contacts separate, then go to the “Preferences” in the Contacts app and follow these steps:

  1. Open the Accounts category.
  2. Click + and select CardDAV
  3. Type your full Gmail address for the User name and authenticate your account
  4. Under server enter “google.com” and click “Create”

If you do not want to sync your Mail, Notes or Calendars, make sure they are not selected. After you do this you will have your Gmail contacts under a new account in the groups list.

Enjoy!