Contact Syncing

Overview

Our sync engine runs continuously in the background, detecting changes across all your connected accounts and propagating updates in real-time. Whether you edit a contact in Google Contacts, Outlook, or iCloud, TitleDock ensures those changes appear everywhere within seconds.

How sync works

TitleDock uses a sophisticated merge algorithm that intelligently combines contact data from multiple sources:

• Delta detection — We track changes at the field level, so only modified data is synced
• Timestamp-based merging — When conflicts occur, we use timestamps to determine the most recent change
• Smart field mapping — Contact fields are automatically mapped between different platforms (e.g., "Mobile" → "Cell Phone")
• Relationship preservation — Links between contacts, groups, and notes are maintained across syncs

Supported platforms

TitleDock currently supports bi-directional sync with:

• Google Contacts — Full sync including contact photos, labels, and custom fields
• Microsoft Outlook — Personal and work accounts, including Office 365
• Apple iCloud — Contacts from your Apple ID, synced across all Apple devices
• CardDAV — Any CardDAV-compatible server (Fastmail, Nextcloud, etc.)

Configuration

Connecting accounts

To connect a new account, navigate to Settings → Accounts and click "Add Account". You'll be prompted to authenticate with your provider using OAuth, ensuring your credentials are never stored on our servers.

After connecting, TitleDock will perform an initial sync to import all existing contacts. Depending on the size of your contact database, this may take a few minutes.

Sync frequency

By default, TitleDock syncs every 5 minutes. You can adjust this in your account settings:

• Real-time — Changes sync immediately (requires webhook support)
• Every 5 minutes — Default setting, balances freshness with API limits
• Every 15 minutes — Lower frequency for accounts with strict rate limits
• Manual only — Sync only when you explicitly trigger it

Conflict resolution

When the same contact is edited in multiple places simultaneously, TitleDock applies the following resolution strategy:

1. Compare timestamps for each modified field
2. Apply the most recent change for each field independently
3. If timestamps are identical, prefer the "primary" account (configurable in settings)
4. Log the conflict for review in your activity feed

You can also enable "Manual conflict resolution" to review and approve changes before they're applied.