Sync N97 with Google

Here’s the tip on configuring the N97 to synchronize Contacts and Calendar with Google. This is done using the Mail for Exchange phone application. It is included in the N97, but it is not installed by default. You need to trigger the phone to install Mail for Exchange (or MfE in short).

1. Go to Menu, Apps.
2. Start the Settings Wizard (Sett. wiz.).
3. If you’ve never run this wizard before, there will be a startup screen or two to skip through. Otherwise, just click on E-mail setup.
4. Click Start.
5. Select Use my e-mail address.
6. Okay, you need to enter an email address here. It doesn’t really matter which account (you can delete it later). However, Gmail accounts apparently don’t work, at least not for me, because this wizard tries to be smart and pre-selects some options when it recognizes the email domain.
7. Next part is the crucial thing. Make sure you choose Mail for Exchange.
8. The rest of the steps don’t really matter anymore.

The phone will install Mail for Exchange, and you will find it in the MfE folder (in Menu -> Apps). The next step is to configure Mail for Exchange.

1. Start the Mail for Exchange application.
2. Click Options, then Edit profile.
3. In the Connections screen:
   Exchange server: m.google.com
   Secure connection: Yes
   Access point: Internet (or whatever you fancy)
   Sync while roaming: No (since roaming data could be costly)
   Use default port: Yes
4. In the Credentials screen:
   Username: Put your google username here (no need for @gmail.com)
   Password: Your password
   Domain: gmail.com
5. Configure the Sync schedule as you need.
6. In the next couple of screens, turn on synchronization for Calendar and Contacts only. Do not enable synchronization for Tasks. Although Google Calendar recently added Tasks functionality, the synchronization with MfE still doesn’t work. (Enabling it will make MfE sync fail completely.)

Configuration in Mac OS X

First, you need to make a simple “hack” to get iSync to work with Google. You don’t need to do this if you already have an iPhone sync’ed with your Mac, because iSync would already have been setup to work with Google. If you don’t, then here’s what to do:

1. Go to ~/Library/Preferences.
   cd ~/Library/Preferences
2. Convert the com.apple.iPod.plist to text format.
   plutil -convert xml1 com.apple.iPod.plist
3. Fire up your favourite editor to edit the com.apple.iPod.plist file.
4. Copy the following section and paste it just below itself. This is make sure that the changes you are to make won’t be overwritten the next time you sync your iPod.
   <key>000A11744C5AB712</key>
   <dict>
   …
   </dict>
5. Change the numbers between the <key> … </key> in the copied part slightly, just to make it different from the original. Also, the important bit, is to change the number in <integer>…</integer> after the <key>Family ID</key> to 10001. E.g.:
   <key>Family ID</key>
   <integer>10001</integer>
6. Convert the file back to binary format.
   plutil -convert binary1 com.apple.iPod.plist

That’s the fix to get iSync to synchronize your Address Book. Now, you need to configure Address Book.

1. Open up Address Book.
2. Go to Preferences, there’s now a new “Syncrhonize with Google” option. Enable it, and enter your Google account information when prompted. You need to enter the “@gmail.com” part for your account name.
3. Now, go to iSync item in the menu bar (not the iSync app), and click Sync Now.

For the calendar synchronization:

1. Open up iCal.
2. Go to Preferences, Accounts pane.
3. Click the + button to create a new account. Enter a description, your Gmail username, password.
4. Expand the Server options, and enter Account URL in this format, replacing username with your Gmail username: https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/username%40gmail.com/user