Alternatives for iCloud for contacts storage

[Cerulean]

Greetings,

I have already moved my Calender from Outlook to Google Calendar. So my iPhone 3GS syncs to Google Calendar, and my Outlook pushes Calendar updates to Google Calender.

I would like to do the same with my Contacts, instead of having to maintain manual synchronization between my "iCloud" and Outlook contacts folders (because I don't trust iCloud with all my information -- could lose it all just like that, and can't synchronize between folders inside Outlook, or can't choose which folder to push out to iCloud instead of having an iCloud folder).

Any suggestions as to how I might be able to do this? I use Google Calendar Sync to push my Outlook Calendar to Google Calendar.

 

[shurcooL]

Personally, I think there is a higher chance of losing one's contacts due to lost phone, theft, or house fire, rather than a huge company with millions of dollars worth of resources (including professional backup, etc.) losing their client's important data.

That said, the only alternative to iCloud I know is Google Contacts, a part of Gmail. That's what I currently sync to. But it's also a cloud-based storage, which I'm not sure if you want...

 

[Cerulean]

Personally, I think there is a higher chance of losing one's contacts due to lost phone, theft, or house fire, rather than a huge company with millions of dollars worth of resources (including professional backup, etc.) losing their client's important data.

That said, the only alternative to iCloud I know is Google Contacts, a part of Gmail. That's what I currently sync too. But it's also a cloud-based storage, which I'm not sure if you want...

How are you synchronizing your Outlook Contacts to your GMail Contacts?

 

[shurcooL]

I meant I'm actually using Gmail Contacts directly. I don't use Outlook. All of my contacts are stored on Gmail, and my iPhone syncs to them via Google Sync. Note that you can export your Gmail Contacts to a local file, as a local backup of sorts.

 

[westrock2000]

I had an android (which saved all my contacts to gmail) before the Iphone and I was able to use iTunes to sync the contacts on my iphone to my google account. Which was awsome because I didn't want to have to retype all those contacts. Then when I plug in the phone to my computer at home it resyncs any changes on my phone back to google.

 

[Ruahrc]

Have you looked at fruux? I used them for a while before I got mobileme, cause they did safari bookmark syncing which the google services couldn't do.

 

[AQ_OC]

Best to just turn your contacts over to google. Everything seems to be able to sync with that source. I do calendars there too, so outlook is getting used a lot less these days. It is still good for notes. Some use it for email, but I have never been able to deal with the bloat it generates.

 

[tonyyy]

easy to do. since you already use google. export your contacts to google

setup a new mail under exchange.

when it prompts you for the server use: m.google.com

turn off mail, calendar etc and leave contacts turned on.

you should be able to edit/add/del contacts and it will sync back to google.

if you want to keep icloud then you will need to manual sync it back n forth.

there is currently no way to automatically sync icloud to google or another source.

 

[lamboman]

In your case, I'd just stick with Google, honestly. The only reason that one might claim that they "must" use iCloud is to take advantage of the custom labels for Siri, that's it.