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

Saturday, January 24, 2009

: 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.

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.

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

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