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How To Sync your BlackBerry Bold with a Mac (the only solution that REALLY works)

by Luca Filigheddu on January 22, 2009



How To Sync your BlackBerry Bold with a Mac (the only solution that REALLY works)
BlackBerry Bold
Image by edans via Flickr

After a month of intensive usage of my Blackberry Bold, I can definitely say the only issue I faced so far is the synchronization between the device and my Macbook.

Unfortunately RIM hasn’t released a Desktop Manager for Mac yet. They recommend to use PocketMac, a crappy software which never works.

The alternative used by most Mac users seemed to be “The Missing Sync“. The company behind it announced the full support of the Bold in November. As many Mac users, I bought (yes, bought) it immediately but after some weeks I realized it’s definitely a useless application which basically doesn’t work at all.

To be honest, the guys of The Missing Sync admitted some issues, in particular problems while trying to keep the address book in sync. In a nutshell, you cannot modify/add contacts on your device, but have to make all the changes/additions from your Mac. My feedback? Crap. It doesn’t work at all and it usually fails to sync some (many) contacts. I have over 3000 contacts and just a percentage of them are copied/synced to the device. I also tried the version 2.0 beta, but it neither succeeded in connecting to the device… fails.

So, is there any solution somewhere? Unfortunately the answer is: NO. At least, nothing that can be used through an USB cable or bluetooth. The only method I found to be successful is through Google. Yes, through an application called Google Sync, completely supported by the BB Bold.

screen-capture-505

By downloading this application, you have the ability to synchronize your Gmail contacts and Google Calendar items with your Bold (OTA, On The Air, that is by using your wifi / 3G connection). At the same time, by adding Google Synchronization to both iCal and Address Book, here is the perfect working solution to solve your problems.

Any change to your BB is synchronized with Google that, at the same time, is synchronized with your Mac apps. You can also make changes from your Google apps on the web or from your Mac and everything is kept up to date.

First of all, I highly recommend to export your Mac address book and import it into Gmail. Then install Google Sync on your BB and sync it for the first time. Booom (is this a trade mark for this word?!? :-) , your contacts are transferred to you BB then synchronized automatically every hour.

Please leave your comments down here and if you found out a better solution, please let me know. In the meantime, please DON’T buy The Missing Sync, I’ll get back to them to ask for a money back.

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Tagged as: Address Book, BlackBerry Bold, gmail, Google, Google Calendar, Google Sync, luca filigheddu, Synchronization

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  • awesome tutorial, it really helpful for me
  • augu2
    good post..
  • Name
    thank you so much. to hell with pocketmac. what a waste of my time it was. you helped me solve a big problem. thank you so much.
  • Sarah
    At this point, google sync is not working either. Does anyone have a good way to sync photos or music between mac and bb?
  • ------Messaggio originale------
    Da: Disqus
    A:Luca Filigheddu
    Oggetto: [lucafiligheddu] Re: How To Sync your BlackBerry Bold with a Mac (the onlysolution that REALLY works)
    Inviato: 18 Lug 2009 15:17

    NOTE: This comment is waiting for your approval. You may respond in the body with "Delete" to delete this comment, "Approve" to approve this comment, or "Spam" to mark this comment as spam. You may also reply with your response to automatically approve the comment and post your response at the same time.
  • it worked! thanks a lot!
  • patricia garate
    what about bbm pins? does that sync? and if you were to loose your phone and get a new one, how would you get all of ur info into your new phone?
  • SL
    This is awesome! Thank you so much. I am a mac user and an ex iphone user. I just switched to the blackberry (which i had before but just HAD to try the iphone). The iphone really sucked - aside for the bells and whistles - the typing situation is just way to difficult and you never get great at it. All hype. The ONLY reason I kept it for as long as I did was because I loved how everything just synced from my mac to my mobile me account to my iphone. Easy. When I heard about Missing Sync I figured this was my way back to Blackberry land. I just got the Bold and literally spent a full day trying to get the Missing Sync to work (pocket mac total waste of time.) After a million hours and a big headache- USB issue blah blah blah - i finally got the MS to work - only to realize it's not all that great. Luckily I was just using the demo - but regardless - don't bother unless you want to transfer files etc (which i do not). It's a product that's really an illusion and has way too many issues.

    This google sync is perfect! Now i can sync my contacts from my computer which syncs to my google account which syncs to my blackberry and vice versa. Same goes for the calender. Perfect solution and it doesn't cost you a dime!
  • lisa
    THANK YOU for finally putting in one place what I've had to comb the internet to read in different places. And please do post if you ever find a cleaner solution. My concern is for the privacy of my address book in a google setting.
  • Mariam
    Dear Luca,

    I was very excited when i read your post, as I have been suffering with syncing my bold to my MAC. I have several points though that I need some guidance in:

    1. I went to the ical and address box and it doesn't give me the option to sync with google? So, how can I sync with google in a 2 way sync for free (As I read that there is this thing called spanning from MAC"

    2. If I have contacts in my BB, will it also sync to the google contacts and address book ?

    Thanks !
  • D
    spanning sync is the program to get. pretty cheap $25 and that will sync your address book and ical to your google account which will then sync to your bb. any changes made on your mac, google or bb will sync to the others :-)
  • HK
    Any advice on syncing the "Storm" to the Mac?
  • Yes, give it back to the shop and get a bold! :-)


    ------Messaggio originale------
    Da: Disqus
    A:Luca Filigheddu
    Oggetto: [lucafiligheddu] Re: How To Sync your BlackBerry Bold with a Mac (theonly solution that REALLY works)
    Inviato: 29 Gen 2009 20:25
  • HK
    Nice..... I can't type on the keyboard with my fat thumbs and hence the Storm. Seriously, do you think it will work?
  • I think yes.
    ------Messaggio originale------
    Da: Disqus
    A:Luca Filigheddu
    Oggetto: [lucafiligheddu] Re: How To Sync your BlackBerry Bold with a Mac (theonly solution that REALLY works)
    Inviato: 2 Feb 2009 21:40

    HK <hiklein@sympatico.ca> (unregistered) wrote, in response to luca filigheddu:

    Nice..... I can't type on the keyboard with my fat thumbs and hence the Storm. Seriously, do you think it will work?

    Link: http://www.lucafiligheddu.com/2009/01/how-to-sy...

    --
    You may reply to this email to post your response. To turn off notifications, go to your Disqus settings at: http://disqus.com/settings/notifications/


    Sent from my BlackBerry®

    Luca Filigheddu
    +39 393 9386510
    luca.filigheddu@abbeynet.com
  • I had the exact same experience with Missing Sync. I bought it about a week after they issued a press release stating that their product was now Bold compatible. The product flat out doesn't work. I had to perform the same workaround you describe - basically trash Missing Sync from my computer and go with the free Google Sync. I would avoid anything from the Missing Sync folks as the product just flat out didn't work for me.
  • greg
    GREAT, It works very well and it is quick.
    Thanks.
    Greg
  • ChrisW
    The alpha version of Missing Sync for BlackBerry 2.0 seems to work ok with the Bold.
  • krzys
    me,

    you don't need any BB Desktop. You just sync your BB directly via OTA with Google with the help of GooSync. And you can access Goole from your Mac, iPhone or whatever browser.
    So you always have a reliable backup that is always in sync (as long as you keep it in sync).

    It is much wiser (in my opinion) to have one copy on a mobile and second one in a cloud.
  • me
    it's worth noting that BB desktop 4.7 is really flaky running in parallels/windows, I couldn't get it to connect to my BB8830 via USB or BT.

    BB Desktop for Mac is rumored out in the first half of the year.
  • krzys
    Luca,

    Have you looked at GooSync? It keeps BB (or Nokia) in sync with Google.
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