Does ACT 2012 Google Contacts Sync Work??

[UpinAK]

I have my finger on the trigger to upgrade to ACT2012 now that the first service pack is out. Primary reason is to be able to FINALLY have one contact manager for office, home, laptop and Android smartphone. I HATE Outlook with a passion that cannot be put into words. For the first time in 20 years I can now NOT OPEN OUTLOOK ever!!!

Can anyone share their experience syncing their ACT database to Google Contacts? I'm of the mind to just remove all my Google contacts from my PC and Android and then just sync everything first to Google Contacts and then let it update my phone. I only have about 250 contacts.

My ACT database is pristine, my Google Contacts are iffy at best. I'm concerned with screwing up my ACT database with a Google sync. 

Anyone done ACT/Google Contacts Sync and had their ACT database degraded?

Thanks in advance for sharing any experiences.

Cheers!

[GLComputing]

Google sometimes will merge unrelated contacts... and, if it does, you can lose them in ACT!. When you also sync Google to a phone, changes to contacts/activities can sometimes appear as new and then create duplicates.

Also, if you deal with contacts in other countries, it can mess the country codes in the phone fields.

I'm currently beta testing a new third-party solution for Android that seems MUCH more reliable. Should be out in a few weeks.

[UpinAK]

"Google sometimes will merge unrelated contacts... and, if it does, you can lose them in ACT!. When you also sync Google to a phone, changes to contacts/activities can sometimes appear as new and then create duplicates."

What do you mean by "unrelated contacts"? What I WANT to happen is a mirror image of ACT contacts with Google Contacts with Android phone contacts. That's why I'm thinking of upgrading to ACT2012, then wiping clean my Google Contacts, then doing a sync that brings ALL my ACT contacts to Google, which in turn will sync with my Android phone contacts automatically by Google.

Then..... If I use ONLY ACT2012 to work in, sync with Google every few days there should be no issue of having anything in Google that I don't want coming back into ACT. All syncing should be new ACT updates to Google Contacts and thus to my phone..

Is my thinking correct here??

[GLComputing]

Google sometimes merges record it thinks are duplicates ... sometimes it does this with records that don't match. It's pretty well documented around the web

Not sure that the ACT! Google sync has an option to only go one way ... so if they do get merged, you'll lose them in ACT!

[disey]

Keep me posted.  Sounds like something I could use.  If you have any other solutions, please let me know.

[pbuchtmann]

I have an android phone and use Companionlink to synch wirelessly on my own network directly to their app DejaOffice. Seems to work great and even allows for custom fields from ACT. Worth a look

[UpinAK]

I dream of a world where a man can enter contact information ONCE into a database and have it auto sync (with no errors and duplicates) and update not just by the one program, but every program...and when a change is made on my laptop, my office pc, my android or any web based Google Contacs device I can RELY on the integrity of the data."  Isn't this what technology is designed to do? Make us MORE productive.... not have to F### around with appliance apps and some other gimme your $69 bucks vendor to make my contact information usable. I'm finding my contact life getting 10 times more complicated than my 20 year old Dayrunner and my pencil was. Am I turning into a Ludite????

[disey]

ditto.  actually there must ba a solution.  Anyone?  

I think we can assume that gmail is not the answer.  How about Companion Link.  I am happy to pay extra if it will work.  Anybody using a system that works that they can recommend?

[GLComputing]

That's a nice dream .... until all manufacturers follow some sort of standard for tracking records, it won't happen.

I'm now using the beta of Handheld Contact on Android ... which, so far, is proving to be as reliable as the versions on iPhone and Blackberry. Should be released in the next couple of months

[nmk]

Hello - this posting it seems started a year ago.  I have the same problem.  I have outlook, google and ACT and a couple android phones.  I would like them to all sync - so any change in one place goes everywhere...  Did you ever find a solution?? and I have Act 2011 - will that be a problem??  Actually, I don't use outlook for contacts anymore - I just use it to have email downloaded on the desktop - so take that out of the equation.