Enable Google Contact Sync Without an iPhone or iPod Touch [Mac OS X Leopard]

Category: Science/Tech | Posted by laraib 1453 days ago

Mac OS X only: Earlier today we reported that Mac OS's latest update to 10.5.3 included Google contact syncing to Address Book—if you've connected an iPhone or iPod touch to your Mac, that is. If you don't have an iPhone or iPod touch and unlocking this useful bit of functionality isn't worth paying hundreds of dollars for the device, a simple system tweak can turn it on for you.

Here's what you do:

If you don't have the Property List Editor installed, download the shareware PlistEdit Pro and install.
Open up ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iPod.plist and save a backup copy of it. Then, expand the tree to reveal "Family ID." Change that value to 10001, as shown above.
Save your changes. Launch Address Book and open the Preference pane. The Google contact sync option will be staring right at you.

If the name is any indication, this plist entry only exists if you've used an iPod with your Mac—and I have, on my test machine—so I'm not sure what happens for users who have never paired an iPod with their Macs. Feel free to let us know how it goes in the comments. Thanks, joshua ferris!