Sync Your Outlook and Google Calendar with Google Calendar Sync
If you rely on your Outlook calendar for some tasks and the Google Calendar for others, it can be annoying having to switch between the two. Today we look at Google Calendar Sync beta that allows us to share events between the two for easier organization.
Using Google Calendar Sync
This small application is straight forward and currently will only work with Outlook 2003 and 2007. Installation is straight forward following the wizard.
You will need to close any instance of Outlook that is currently open to complete the installation.
Now it is time to sign in and choose sync options and the amount of time between the syncs.
Sync Options
Choosing your sync options will be determined on how you want to share the data between Google’s calendar and your Outlook one.
- 2 – way Sync: Allows all events in your primary Google Calendar and Outlook calendar to be synced together. You can modify an event in either calendar and it will sync the same in both.
- 1 – way Google Calendar to Outlook: All events in your Google Calendar are added to your Outlook calendar. If you want modified events to show on both calendars you will need to update the Google Calendar. Any events modified in the Outlook calendar will not be shown in the Google Cal.
- 1 – way Outlook to Google Calendar: All events in your Outlook calendar will be added to the Google Calendar. If you want modified events to show on both calendars you will need to update in Outlook. Any events modified in the Google Calendar will not be shown in the Outlook cal.
It will only sync with your primary Google calendar and Outlook default calendar so no events from a secondary calendar yet but perhaps it will be available in future versions.
![sshot-2009-07-07-[21-11-09]](http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sshot20090707211109.png "sshot-2009-07-07-[21-11-09]")
Right click on the Taskbar icon to manually sync up the calendars, change options, or access additional info on the Google site.
It will work with XP (32-bit), Vista and I was able to get it to work with Windows 7 (64 & 32-bit editions) and according to the site it will not work with XP 64-bit at this time. Personally I have found this a great tool for easily sharing events without having to open a separate browser window and logging in to change data.
![sshot-2009-07-07-[20-48-57]](http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/sshot20090707204857.png "sshot-2009-07-07-[20-48-57]")
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That Can Be Really Handy
Any idea about how to sync the calendar also? I’m using this for calendar and soocial for contacts but i wanna have everything in one tool
I would relabel the use of this as ‘experimental’. It seems to work for me but when I uninstalled it there are problems. It blows out the default Outlook 2007 profile settings. It leaves the Registry settings for this in a ‘changed’ state and does not put the default back. Every time i run 0utlook2007 it asks me for the default problem no matter how many times I check the box to make the default profile stick.
Regardless of the beta label, it just makes good software practice to clean up after the customer removes your package. There are a number of unaddressed issues with this package in that regard.
FYI:
Microsoft Outlook 2010 (currently in technical preview) does NOT work with the Google Calendar Sync. Google has not said when they will remedy this.
This is all well and good, but when are they going to go ahead and add contact and task syncing? I know they’ve got some sort of Apps method of doing it, but it’s only for enterprise and educational users. I’m still looking for something to replace the formerly free Plaxo service.
As Xander Crews notes above, a key piece missing is a free piece of software to synchronize Outlook and Gmail contacts. Mysticgeek – can you work your magic and dig something up?
Google tasks only came out of beta today
(http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/.....abs.html).
I tried Google Sync but had too many issues with it. Found SyncMyCal through a web search and have been pretty happy with it. It’s not the prettiest interface but since it can be set to automatic, you never really look at it. One of the best features is the ability to be able to set up multiple sync “operations” to take categories or groups of categories in Outlook and put them in different Google calendars.
It also does contact syncing but I’ve a little less success with that. Also, the latest version is quite old — not sure if they’re keeping it up to date. And it’s not free.
But it’s done me and my wife well. She even uses it to sync her Blackberry: Outlook->SyncMyCal->Google->Google Mobile Sync->Blackberry. All automatic.
If you are using 2010, see my fix (very hackish) on my blog: http://tumblr.com/xju2lgdge
I have windows 2007. I keep getting the message that I have deleted 21 events do you want to continue, when I have not deleted anything. Is there a way to eliminate this. I keep saying no and the amount of messages keep increasing. There was one event from the calendar that appeared in the deleted box 6 times. Any clue on whats happening and how I should handle it?
Google Calendar Sync does NOT synchronise Outlook categories.
Especially annoying if you try to sync two Outlook installs via GCal. You can upload from Outlook to GCal – but when you download from GCal – all your Outlook categories have been stripped….
Also, Plaxo have started charging for their Outlook sync feature, after years of it being free, and never any talk of it being a beta/temporary offering – losing them even more of their diminishing customer goodwill.
why does it appear that if you have reocurring events in gcal that they dont appear in outlook but if you do it the other way i.e reocurring in outlook they will appear in gcal