Over time, you may update contacts in the program, on your phone or tablet, or on another PC, so the number of differences between collected contacts will grow.
Synchronization (or simply Sync) allows easy, accurate and reliable transfer of any changes to your contacts from EZ Contact Book to your smartphone, tablet or another PC, and back.
Sync eliminates the need to manually export, copy and convert contact data between apps, and reduces the risk of loss or distortion of the data due to incompatible formats.
You can edit any number of contacts, delete and create new, import from other sources and then apply all your changes at once to other PC's or connected mobile devices.
Sync uses your Google account as secure cloud storage. You may already use Google to keep your contact information. If so, E-Z Contact Book becomes an extension of the same information. If you do not have a Google account, you will need to create one to use this feature. You do not have to use Gmail or any other features of the Google account if you don't want to. To sync contacts between all connected devices or computers, they should be set up to connect to the same Google account. And of course, an Internet connection is required.
Syncing contacts through Google is as secure as accessing any Google services. All communications are encrypted, and your password is not stored. Only your Google account name is remembered by the program; the account password is not stored anywhere on your computer. You will need to enter Google password only once when you sign in to setup synchronization.
E-Z Contact Book and its creator have no relation with Google other than being a user of their services just like many people. E-Z Contact Book is not a Google product. Importantly, it does not transmit your contacts to any servers operated by the creator of E-Z Contact Book.
Click Allow, then close the sign in page.
E-Z Contact Book window will be locked while it is waiting for you to sign in in the browser. It will be unlocked once you have signed in, or in two minutes if you haven't. If this time is not enough, close the sign in page and try the steps again.
and menu option Data > Sync with Google Contacts are now ready to work.BEFORE YOU SYNC FOR THE FIRST TIME: If your email account has a linked recovery email, you should receive an alert email from Google informing you that your Google account was just used to sign in from Internet Explorer on Windows. This is normal and expected. Google also provides a link for you to verify your activity (button CHECK ACTIVITY). Log in to your Google account using the link from that email, and confirm that it was you who has just logged in. If you miss this step, Sync may not work, and you can receive a 403 (Forbidden) error.
Alternatively, Google may send you a text message with a confirmation code to verify it is you who just have signed in.
If you don't want to use Sync anymore, or change your Google account that you use for synchronization, or otherwise de-authorize the Sync operation on your computer, select menu option Settings > Log out from Google Contacts.
To remove access to Google Contacts from E-Z Contact Book in your Google account:
Detailed instructions on how to setup Sync contacts with Apple devices:
Sync contacts on your Android phone or tablet is even simpler than on Apple devices: you just have to add your Google Account to the Android phone or tablet, and your contacts will sync automatically. See this link for your reference.
For mobile devices that do not support multiple groups, you may need to check the option "Enable support for iPhone/iPad" in the Settings. See explanation below in the Special instructions and limitations section.
Sync has three modes - Manual, Semi-auto and Auto. In Manual and Semi-auto modes you have to click menu option Data > "Sync with Google Contacts" to synchronize. In the Auto mode changes are synced automatically by timer interval.
When you click "Sync with Google Contacts", the program will compare all the contacts from its local database with those in your Google account, and collect all the differences.
In the Manual mode the program will not resolve the differences automatically, but show them in the "Resolve differences" window. You can review the differences and decide how to resolve them (apply either to the local database, or Google).
The Manual mode is the default option when you first install the program. It is recommended when you start using Sync, and have lots of differences between your contacts in the program and Google account. Once you resolve all initial differences and gain enough confidence in Sync, you can switch to Semi-auto or Auto mode. This will save you valuable time.
In the Semi-auto mode, all most recent changes will be applied automatically in both directions. By "changes" we mean that:
While in Semi-auto mode, E-Z Contact Book reviews the changes that have occurred since the last sync and applies them to the database and to Google account as appropriate. The only time you may still need to resolve the differences manually is when you make changes to the same contact from both sides without syncing. In this rare case, both changes may be important, so only you can decide which one to keep. E-Z Contact Book shows you the changes side-by-side, so that it is clear which change to apply, or to merge both (apply to both local and Google contact).
Once Sync is complete, you will see a summary report as follows:
In the Auto mode, any local changes (additions, updates, deletions) will be applied to Google account immediately. The program also periodically checks for any changes in Google contacts, and applies them automatically to the local contacts.
This option is recommended when different users update contacts frequently, and you want to always see up to date information on all synced PC's or other connected devices. Practically, it is about the same as if you would use a shared database on the network.
In the Auto mode, it is unlikely you'll ever see the "Resolve differences" window as the time interval between synchronizations is minimal.
Occasionally E-Z Contact Book will need your attention to resolve conflicting changes between the local data and Google. You will see a screen like the one below:
There are two types of "out-of-sync" conflicts - unmatched contacts and contacts having differences. Unmatched contacts are those that are in your local database but not in Google contacts. These contacts may have been added in the program or deleted in Google. They appear on the left side of the list.
You have a choice to either delete local contact or add (copy) it to Google contacts. You can do that using the red and green buttons on the right or by using the context menu options. You can select several contacts and resolve them in one click.
Those contacts that were deleted in E-Z Contact Book will not appear in the "Unmatched" list. Once you made the conscious decision to delete the contact in the program, it will be automatically deleted from Google during Sync.
Contacts having differences will be shown side by side, and you can review the differences for each contact and decide what to do:
To resolve differences between individual fields (highlighted in pink), use left and right green arrow buttons. Once the last difference is resolved, the contact will be updated and will disappear from the list. You can also update all the data fields from left (local) to right (Google), or right to left using blue underlined options at the bottom. You can select several contacts and update them all using the context menu. This process is very similar to resolving differences in import.
If you use the Auto sync mode, you are unlikely to see this screen because all changes to contacts will be applied automatically. In very rare ocassions, if the same contact was modified from both sides, you may need to resolve the conflict.
You should be aware of a few quirks of using Google contacts on different operating systems.
It is a known limitation that Contacts in iPhone, iPad, Mac OS X do not support multiple groups and they can only be synced with Google group "My Contacts" (which is always present, and cannot be deleted). For this reason you need to check the option Enable support for iPhone/iPad in Settings > Preferences > Sync with Google Contacts. This option will copy all your contacts to the default group My Contacts, regardless of the actual group they belong to. You may also need to use this option with non-Apple products that do not support multiple groups. But for most Android phones and tablets, you do not need to check this option as they support multiple groups.
Another known limitation of iOS devices (iPhone/iPad/iPod touch): when a Birthday in E-Z Contact Book does not specify the year of birth, the contact on the phone or iPad does not show a Birthday at all. The only way to see the Birthday in these devices is to enter a year (even if it is not the actual year of birth). Birthday in Android phones/tablets is always shown without year, whether it is specified or not.
Mac OS X Address Book may have problems synchronizing with Google, depending on the Mac OS X version and Apple updates - see discussion on possible solutions in the Apple forum. The issue is resolved in the latest Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks.
All data fields available in E-Z Contact Book are supported in Google Contacts, but some of the Google-specific fields or data attributes are not yet available in E-Z Contact Book. For example, some phone types (Main, Home Fax, Google Voice, Pager, Custom), or website (Profile, Blog, Custom), as well as the number of data elements are limited.
Also, note that Group type (Personal or Business) in E-Z Contact Book is not transferable with sync from one PC to another because Google does not have the corresponding attribute for a group. So you would have to manually set the desired Group type on the connected computer after the initial sync, or after you add a new group.
If you use Gmail as your email provider, you may notice that some new contacts suddenly appear after Sync - contacts that you have not added either in E-Z Contact Book or in other devices. The reason is that Google may automatically add new email addresses along with contact names to your contact list. You may need to disable this behavior in Gmail settings by selecting the option "I'll add contact myself". See how to do it in Google forum, or here.
Sync preferences :
