How to Sync Your Android Phone to a Mac or PC

Filed under: computing, macbook, Mobile

There's no iTunes for Google Android phones, but we've found ways to sync your media, contacts and calendar to any Android device.

Handset Manager for Android Based Phones

Google's Android phones are pretty good for playing music and checking your calendar—provided you can get your music and calendar on to the phones in the first place. When T-Mobile announced it would partner with doubleTwist Corp. to include the doubleTwist syncing client with some of its Android phones, they highlighted a major problem with the Motorola Droid, Google Nexus One, and their ilk: they don't have official syncing software like Apple's iTunes.
Some Android phones have their own solutions, but vanilla Android doesn't offer much out of the box. For example, the Motorola Devour and HTC Hero offer some syncing options that the standard Android build doesn't. But even though they give you some syncing solutions, not everything is covered. Since Android is fragmented into several versions and models, we've devised tips and solutions that should work with most Android devices.
Getting Started
If you're just getting started with your Android phone, you'll be forced to set up a Google Gmail account. Use it; don't neglect it. It might seem a little unreasonable to have to use a new e-mail address just to use your phone, but trust us—it's easier than the other options. First up, open a Gmail account and sync everything you can with it. You'll want to sync your contacts, your calendar, and whatever else you can to your new account. Google's flurry of services—Maps, Buzz, YouTube, and more—all tie seamlessly with Android's interface, so using them all with a single account from your phone makes your Android experience much richer.
Media
For syncing music, videos, and pictures to your Android phone, doubleTwist is your best choice. doubleTwist imports iTunes playlists and automatically reformats almost any kind of non-DRMed media into the right format for your phone. The software itself is a little bland, but it makes it easy to put your media on your smartphone. Read the doubleTwist review for more information about syncing your media, but remember that iTunes-purchased videos won't sync to your phone (it's that pesky DRM.)
Of course, you can also drag and drop files onto a microSD card. But dragging and dropping files won't let you keep your playlists or help you convert video files. doubleTwist can help you with both of those.
E-mail
If you really want to embrace Android, you have to embrace Gmail. The Android Gmail client is simply more feature-rich than any other e-mail option. If you're not going to use Gmail as your personal e-mail, you'll have to manually set up your e-mail using POP3, IMAP, or Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync, which is supported by almost all Android phones. Select the general Email icon from the app selection screen and input your details there.
Contacts
After you've set up a Google account, you can import your contacts. Access your contacts by tapping Android's Contacts icon. To get your contacts into the Google account, you'll have to export them from your existing software as a CSV file. You can also import your contacts from Outlook, Outlook Express, Yahoo Mail, or Hotmail by exporting them to a CSV file. In Yahoo, for example, click Contacts, then Tools, then Export, and select the Yahoo CSV option. To import the CSV file, open Gmail on your PC (not your phone!), click the Contacts tab on the left-hand side, then click the import button. Select the CSV file in Google from wherever you stashed the CSV file on your PC.
Calendar
All Android phones support Google Calendar, Google's online calendar program. Many also support Microsoft Exchange calendars. If you use a different calendar program, you'll have to sync it over to a Google calendar to see it on your phone.
Syncing from Microsoft Outlook
Google provides an official app that can sync your Outlook calendar to your Google Calendar and vice versa. However, if you have a version of Outlook older than 2003, then the best you'll be able to do is export calendar items to a CSV file and import them to your calendar manually. To do this, select the File tab in Outlook and click "Import and Export." Select "Export to a file", pick Comma Separated Values (CSV), and select the calendar you want to export. Then, go into Google Calendar, click the Settings tab, click Import Calendar, and select the CSV file you exported earlier.
Syncing from iCal and Mozilla Sunbird
Google provides easy-to-follow directions if you want your Google Calendar to sync with Apple's iCal or Mozilla Sunbird.
Syncing from Microsoft Entourage
Recent versions of Entourage allow you to sync your calendar with iCal, but not directly with Google Calendar. Go to Sync Services under your Preferences in Entourage and select "Sync to iCal." Once you do that, follow the iCal to Google Calendar instructions.
Notes and Tasks
At this time, there appears to be no way to sync Notes or Tasks from Outlook and Entourage to Google. Third-party software company Mark/Space promises that their Missing Sync for Android will add Notes syncing in a future release. If you know of a workable solution or a program that effectively handles this, please add it in the comments below.
"Everything" Solutions
Software like Mark/Space's The Missing Sync for Android and CompanionLink for Google can help you sync lots of data…for a price. Both cost $39.95 and can sync most of your info. However, we would recommend trying all the free solutions above before spending $40 on a product.

The Best Syncing Software and Our Favorite Android Phones for Each Carrier

doubleTwist 2.6

Free
doubleTwist is as close as you're going to get to iTunes for Android phones; it collects all of your media in one place and lets you sync it easily to your device.

Motorola Droid : Closed Front

Motorola Droid (Verizon Wireless)

$199.99-$559.99
The Droid is still our favorite Android phone overall, thanks to its fast processor and sharp 854-by-480 screen, which can show the full width of desktop Web pages.

Motorola CLIQ

Motorola CLIQ (T-Mobile)

$149.99-$399.99
Motorola's MotoBlur interface and a solid keyboard combine to make the CLIQ an excellent phone for social networking fans.

HTC Hero (Sprint) : Angle

HTC Hero (Sprint)

$179.99-$329.99
HTC's "Sense" UI overlay puts plenty of information at your fingertips, and makes the Hero an unusually user-friendly Android phone.

Motorola Backflip (AT&T) : Front

Motorola Backflip (AT&T)

$199.99-$349.99
The Motorola Backflip is the first Android device for AT&T and has one of the worst phone designs we've ever seen. We know Motorola, AT&T, and Google can all do much better than this.

(from internet)