How to find synchronization schedule of Address Book

Question

I've setup Address Book to synchronize with Google contacts. On the initial setup I can see the synch take place immediately, the Address Book is populated with the correct data. However, when I add a contact locally, within the Apple Address Book, it takes a undertermined amount of time to synchronize with the Google contacts (and vice versa: Google Contacts -> Address Book). The  record created within Address Book does eventually arrive but it takes somewhere between 5 minutes and a few hours. Within Address Book there is no force synch, there is no synch schedule to set, nor can I find a log anywhere that tells me how or when this is happening. I've looked elsewhere for something that might do synch or a scheduled task (it's not a cron job).
So my question is then: can anyone tell me what performs and determines the schedule of Address Book synchronization? Ultimately, I'd like to adjust this to a frequency that I set.
-zeek

Answer 1

The source sync file information for AB is kept here:
~/Library/Application Support/AddressBook/Sources
You also have a preference file for AB syncing:
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.AddressBookSourceSync.plist
You also have a ByHost preference file for AB syncing:
~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.AddressBook.sync******.plist
I'm not sure what you can do with that info. Even though the preference file has a timestamp and the ByHost file has date and time info, i don't see anything such as a time interval that can be changed. That may even be set by a different file. I don't have the technical knowledge to tell you.
For AB to send new info immediately (not knowing the time interval), quit AB and restart it. It should update all info. If not, uncheck the sync option in AB prefs, the recheck and reinput the username and password. That should create an immediate sync.
But I doubt that it will force google to update any changes. Maybe I'm wrong, so try it.
If you could change the time interval, it would probable be done with one of the preference files. The syncing login and setup is intiated in AB preferences to communicate with google. Google may not initiate the sync action, but I'm sure it has a time interval that the server will make changes.
I have used this in the past for Yahoo, and Yahoo's information said that syncing may not occur imediately and could take some time for changes to take effect. It's been a while since I used it, so I don't remember exactly what it said, but it was basically to the tune of "they will do it when they are ready".
So even if you could get AB to send changes every 10 seconds, it does not mean that google's server will update it immediately.
My experience with Yahoo is sometimes it would do the changes within 5 minutes and other times it took many hours for the change to take effect. So, it's not any different than you are experiencing with google.
I eventually quit syncing to Yahoo's site after I started using iCloud. After my email got hijacked through Yahoo, I just decided to removed my contacts completely since they can't keep it secure. Also removed everything from Google site. Tired of my AB being stolen and used for spam. That's the second time this year they got into the website account and stole my information.
I just keep contacts on my computer and iCloud now where I can better protect my information.