Hi Alex, Until and unless Google implements structured contact name storage, this will be an unsolvable problem. If you have a contact in Google named "Smitty" and you sync it with something that syncs to the Mac, then the sync software *must* choose which name field to put "Smitty" into: first, middle, or last, since, more reasonably, Apple utilizes individual fields for title, first, middle, last, and suffix. If that contact already existed in Address Book and the sync software guessed wrong, then you get a duplicate.
It's for this reason that we created Contacts Cleaner and Calendar Cleaner. If you "clean" your contacts with Contacts Cleaner and then ensure that all other sync points have the same data, then your syncs with Google should be fine. Hope that helps. -- Larry Hendricks [email protected] http://spanningsync.com On Feb 18, 1:08 pm, alexmoss <[email protected]> wrote: > Larry -- I have had similar problems w/ other products, trying to > understand if I can use SpanningSync and get better results, is SS now > updated to fix these issues. Specifically: > > I use AddressBook (Snow Leopard 10.6.2) and Google Contacts, and also > a Moto Droid. I have ~3,800 names in AB. > 1. *Many* have what you describe as Google's name parsing challenges: > 2 first names, first initial and middle name, unusual prefix (e.g. > "Honorable", which Google insists on making the 1st name and dumping > the real 1st name into Middle Name field), etc. etc. Google creates > many many duplicates of each and every one (sometimes up to 20 dupes > of each "non-standard" name.) I cleared Google, deleted AB and > restored fr AB backup, and started over. Always get same prob using > native AB-Google Contacts sync. > 2. So, I switched to a product called Syncman, which does much better, > but not good enough. Now, I sync *only* 1-way, fr AB to Google > Contacts, not back. Now, most names are ok, but the order is bizarre: > any name w/ out a full postal address from AB appears in Google listed > in "First_Name Last_Name" order, whereas those contacts that *do* have > full address info are listed as I want = "Last_Name, First_Name" > order. I can live w/ either sort order, but having a mix when imported > into Google (and then to my Droid) makes it really hard. > > Also: I have *many* contacts that are email-only, i.e. no postal > address. I cannot afford to risk having these deleted in AB by Google. > > Yes, I reset SyncServices, at various points during these various > tests of various methods. I have the same effect whether doing a 1-way > sync into an empty Google Contacts list, or 1-way sync into a pre- > existing Google Contacts list. I'm not ready to try 2-way yet, though > ultimately that's what I want, until I'm *highly* confident that > Google won't destroy my AB (again). > > None of this has to do w/ SpanningSync, yet. Question: can your > product do better, have you resolved these kinds of issues? > > Thanks very much, > Alex Moss > > On Feb 3, 8:39 pm, Larry Hendricks <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Hi Paul, > > > The one time when I see this is when the following conditions are > > true: > > > * The contact already exists in Google without the address before > > syncing. > > * The contact has a name that doesn't fit Google's name parsing > > algorithm. This could be a contact that has only one name, two first > > names, etc. Contacts Cleaner (part of Spanning Tools for Mac) can flag > > these (even the free version). > > > The problem arises because the two contacts don't get linked to each > > other properly and eventually Google sends the contact with no address > > which is interpreted as a command to delete the address on the Mac. > > > We could probably confirm that possibility if you send a > > troubleshooting report to [email protected]. > > > Thanks! > > -- > > Larry Hendricks > > [email protected]http://spanningsync.com > > > On Feb 3, 6:22 pm, pkasin <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > I have been using sync for quite a while and I noticed that some > > > addresses entered in Address Book are not being synced to Google (even > > > though they are in groups selected to sync). In addition, I have > > > tried "Replacing Data on Google" and selecting contacts and even > > > Starting Over - to no avail. > > > > Another issue that I've now noticed is that my Google contacts don't > > > seem to have address (Street address) fields showing up - only City/ > > > State/Zip. > > > > Is there some change that Google made? > > > > Paul -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Spanning Sync" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/spanningsync?hl=en.
