[iPhone] Sync Google Contacts to iPhone (iOS 5 and above)

In iOS 3 - 4, we all had a method of syncing google contacts with our iPhone by adding the accounts as an exchange account, which synced all of our contacts, calendar and mail with our iPhone... But when we do the same in iOS 5/6, we experience the trouble of some contacts not syncing, syncing incompletely, or duplicate contacts being created.

I faced the same yesterday, with my uncle's new iPhone 4S. He had been an android user, and had almost 600 of his contacts on Google Contacts.

I googled ways to sync Google Contacts with iPhone, and found the method used for iOS 3 – 4. Then finally, I consulted Apple’s official website. On it, they had told the way to sync contacts and just contacts between Google and iPhone (as calendars and mails can easily be synced using the Add Gmail Account option in Add Accounts). So here is what I did:

1.       Remove any previous Google Accounts (for contacts) that you previously might have defined

2.       Go to Settings à Mail, Contacts and Calendars à Add Account à Other à Add CardDAV Account

3.       Fill in the following details:

a.       Server: google.com

b.      Username: (Enter your full Gmail Email Address here!)

c.       Password: (Enter your Gmail Password here!)

4.       Click Next

The setup will verify the settings and automatically sync your contacts. It may take 5 – 10 minutes if the contacts are in 1000’s…

Note that using this method will not create any duplicates as are created when syncing the old way…!

So ladies and gentlemen, this was it… Hope it helps you… Hearing comments will be appreciated…!