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Nuevasync Still Better Than Google Sync

For a while Nuevasync has been the best choice for over the air synchronization of calendars and contacts with Google (including Google Apps). As a bonus, it has supported multiple calendar syncing since last month. (For contacts I've been using the iTunes data sync to Google Apps contacts.) With the recent announcement of Google Sync I decided to give it a shot expecting it to have better support than any third party sync with Google.

Since the iPhone supports only a single Microsoft Exchange Sync, I had to delete the existing Nuevasync configuration (after a backup!) and switched over to Google Sync. I was immediately disappointed on multiple counts:

  1. Google Sync did not retain my contact photos. It replaced them with the Google Talk photos for my contacts. (This is documented.)
  2. Google Sync lost all my birthday settings for contacts (since it is not supported by Google Contacts. (This is kinda documented if you read between the lines.)
  3. Google Sync supported only my default calendar and did not show the multiple calendars that I use.

The only positive was that it did sync. For a moment, I thought I would have to reenter all my contacts' birthdays (at least the ones I could remember) and forget about contact photos and multiple calendars. I then decided that Nuevasync was much better and went back to it. I also re-enabled the contact sync from within iTunes and to my relief it restored my original contact data including birthdays and contact photos.

Moral of the story: Nuevasync is still better than Google Sync.

Comments

mukund said…
Thanks! I almost moved to Google sync. Will wait.
leonghw said…
Hi...
I know this is kind of late, but "is nuevasync still better than google sync" for the 3GS?
Thanks in advance.
Regards, --hon-wai
Unknown said…
@Hon-Wai: The comparison was between Nuevasync and Google Sync. It's kinda independent of the device itself. Any device with sync support could use either one of the services to sync.
leonghw said…
Hi Arun:

Thanks for the quick reply. I also wanted to know if at this moment, "nuevasync is still better than google sync". Some months? have passed since the review and pressumably both solutions have evolved.
Thanks anyway.
Regards, --hon-wai
Unknown said…
@Hon-Wai: Sorry, I haven't done a comparison since earlier this year. I'm really happy with Nuevasync and trying out Google Sync again will mean wiping out existing data. Even with a backup, it take a while :-)
Otto said…
I just got an iPhone and set up Google Sync. I think your review now falls short.

1. It still will replace your photos, agreed. However, it now syncs photos both ways properly, so if you just go put your photos back, they'll replace the photos in your Google Contacts.

2. Google Contacts does support birthdays, and recently they added the ability to make a calendar (in Google Calendars) with your contacts birthdays and anniversaries and such. More info here:
http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/07/birthday-calendar-for-google-contacts.html

3. It does support multiple calendars. It's just not obvious on how to do that. More info here: http://google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=139206&ctx=sibling
Unknown said…
@Otto: Thanks for the update. Seems like I should give Google Sync a shot again.

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