Syncing Outlook Calendar with Google

[peterc10]

Hi. I have a Nexus 5 phone and Asus tf300 Android tablet. On these I use Google Calendar from my Google account. At home I use MS Outlook 2007 Calendar on my PC. I then use Google Calendar Sync to sync my Outlook calendar with my Google calendar. All works very well and within a few minutes of making a change in one device it shows up in the other two.

Google have now told me they will cease supporting their Calendar Sync from 1 August (thanks for nothing Google - why break something that works???). So what I am now looking for is a piece of software for my PC that 2-way syncs my Outlook calendar with my Google calendar automatically, I would prefer not to use an app that sets up a separate Calendar file on my phone and tablet because that just adds another level of complexity (keep it simple if I can) and would probably mean that my Asus and Nexus would not sync until I switched on my PC.

Has anybody got any suggestions or recommendations that would do this please?

 

[Hook]

gsyncit seems to get good recommendaions.

Fieldston Software - gSyncit - Sync Outlook and Google Calendars, Contacts, Notes and Tasks

 

[jj14x]

I have a slightly different suggestion - why not create an outlook.com account, and let outlook (desktop) sync to your outlook.com account? On your Android device, you just have to choose to view your outlook.com calendar (instead of your google account).

Google Now works just fine with outlook.com calendar accounts. No reason (that I see, at least as of now) to have to use gmail calendar. Same thing with contacts too.

If Google can't offer this basic functionality for free (without insisting on a paid Google Apps account), well, there are others (like Microsoft) that offer it for free, and they work great! (no more "Contacts sync errors" etc either)

 

[peterc10]

I have a slightly different suggestion - why not create an outlook.com account, and let outlook (desktop) sync to your outlook.com account? On your Android device, you just have to choose to view your outlook.com calendar (instead of your google account).

Google Now works just fine with outlook.com calendar accounts. No reason (that I see, at least as of now) to have to use gmail calendar. Same thing with contacts too.

If Google can't offer this basic functionality for free (without insisting on a paid Google Apps account), well, there are others (like Microsoft) that offer it for free, and they work great! (no more "Contacts sync errors" etc either)

The trouble is that I do not use Google for my email account and I certainly do not want to use outlook.com either - in the battle of the greedy giants MS wins hands down over Google IMHO (beaten only by Apple). I use my ISP's facilities to host a web domain that is only used to give me a unique email address.

I have googled (ironic I know) how to sync outlook 2007 with outlook.com in this situation and it seems less than intuitive to say the least and involves setting up a new account in outlook 2007 linked to the email address for outlook.com. I simply do not want to do that - I am perfectly happy with my existing account linked to my real email address.

At the moment gSyncit looks the easiest, but I am just waiting for them to answer a question I emailed them earlier.

 

[renegad3]

Hi. I have a Nexus 5 phone and Asus tf300 Android tablet. On these I use Google Calendar from my Google account. At home I use MS Outlook 2007 Calendar on my PC. I then use Google Calendar Sync to sync my Outlook calendar with my Google calendar. All works very well and within a few minutes of making a change in one device it shows up in the other two.

Google have now told me they will cease supporting their Calendar Sync from 1 August (thanks for nothing Google - why break something that works???). So what I am now looking for is a piece of software for my PC that 2-way syncs my Outlook calendar with my Google calendar automatically, I would prefer not to use an app that sets up a separate Calendar file on my phone and tablet because that just adds another level of complexity (keep it simple if I can) and would probably mean that my Asus and Nexus would not sync until I switched on my PC.

Has anybody got any suggestions or recommendations that would do this please?

Where did you see that sync is ending 8/1/2014 ?

As far as I can see, it ended in 2013 for user other than for paid Google Apps users. The free version was discontinued a year ago.

I dont see anything that would prevent your current setup from functioning as it already does.

Here is the only thing I could find on sync being depricated.

 

[peterc10]

I got it from Google themselves, who emailed me on 8 July. They stopped supporting Google Calendar Sync (their free app) 2 years ago, but they continued to allow it to work but only until 1 August.

Your link made it clear that as of the end of 2013 Google were not allowing any new devices to set it up, but mine was already set up by then, so I was able to continue using it, until now that is. That means my present set up will fail to work from 1 August, if Google are to be believed.

And I am not going to pay $50 per year to use their new system, hence my question.

 

[jj14x]

The trouble is that I do not use Google for my email account and I certainly do not want to use outlook.com either - in the battle of the greedy giants MS wins hands down over Google IMHO (beaten only by Apple). I use my ISP's facilities to host a web domain that is only used to give me a unique email address.

I have googled (ironic I know) how to sync outlook 2007 with outlook.com in this situation and it seems less than intuitive to say the least and involves setting up a new account in outlook 2007 linked to the email address for outlook.com. I simply do not want to do that - I am perfectly happy with my existing account linked to my real email address.

At the moment gSyncit looks the easiest, but I am just waiting for them to answer a question I emailed them earlier.

While I'm not really sure whether MS is worse than Google, I do understand that it is a choice that the end user has to make

Just FYI - getting the desktop outlook client to sync with outlook.com (or hotmail.com) is really as simple as adding that account to the desktop outlook. Going forward, any entries you add to desktop outlook calendar are auto-synced to the web service (outlook or hotmail), and same thing with your android phone as well.

Similar to you, I have been using the Google calendar sync application on my PC, and about a month or so ago, I (somehow) got a feeling that Google wasn't going to support this too long, and I switched to syncing to my existing outlook.com ID.

I got the same Email you mentioned, and feel glad that I moved away. I do have a Google apps account (free - grandfathered in), but getting outlook sync requires me to pay up $50 a year, which I think is a little too much just to get sync feature. I know that GApps offers other benefits, but none that I need at this time.

I did consider gSyncit and a couple of other options, but couldn't bring myself to trust them (not more than I would trust MS and Google with anyway). MS and Google at least have their privacy policies and they do follow them. With gSyncit and the other options, you have to give them access to your google account (not just the calendar). While I don't have a reason to not trust them, I can't really bring myself to trust them either

Anyway, hopefully, it works as expected.

 

[peterc10]

I did consider gSyncit and a couple of other options, but couldn't bring myself to trust them (not more than I would trust MS and Google with anyway). MS and Google at least have their privacy policies and they do follow them. With gSyncit and the other options, you have to give them access to your google account (not just the calendar). While I don't have a reason to not trust them, I can't really bring myself to trust them either
.

Not to worried about that. They are welcome to know who I know and all my appointments. Nowadays there is nothing exiting or incriminating about any of them I am afraid. And, as I said, they can't see my emails because I don't get any in Google.

And have you ever read some of the permissions you give all those apps you install on your Android device?

Anyway I quite like gSyncit's privacy policy which just says
"Fieldston Software will not use, rent, or sell ANY of your personal information collected during the registration process for ANY reason other than to process your order request. Fieldston Software will not use ANY personal information for solicitations or junk email of any kind."
I wish Google and MS would make the same promise and keep it.

 

[jj14x]

Not to worried about that.

That will vary by user. Personally, I am worried about that

They are welcome to know who I know and all my appointments. Nowadays there is nothing exiting or incriminating about any of them I am afraid. And, as I said, they can't see my emails because I don't get any in Google.

So you are ok with gsyncit knowing your appointments, but not ok with microsoft knowing that... umm... ok...

It is not about whether I have something incriminating or not - it is a matter of privacy. (kinda like how a lot of folks don't like the Govt peeping into any/everything they do, even if they are not doing anything wrong)

And have you ever read some of the permissions you give all those apps you install on your Android device?

Why, yes... and that's why I use xprivacy and app-ops to deny permissions that I don't like. And till I installed these, I would intentionally stop installation if I didn't like the permissions requested.

Anyway I quite like gSyncit's privacy policy which just says
"Fieldston Software will not use, rent, or sell ANY of your personal information collected during the registration process for ANY reason other than to process your order request. Fieldston Software will not use ANY personal information for solicitations or junk email of any kind."
I wish Google and MS would make the same promise and keep it.

Interesting that they restrict that promise to "information collected during the registration process only" - and are restricting their use of that only for solicitations or junkmail. I assume you have read the rest of their policy, and ensured that they extend this promise to the information they can/have-to access to sync your calendars...

Again, I have nothing against gSyncit. Just sharing my 2 cents. As long as you are comfortable with gSyncit (as it seems you are), it should be fine.
Cheers

 

[peterc10]

So you are ok with gsyncit knowing your appointments, but not ok with microsoft knowing that... umm... ok...

That is not what I said or meant. I have, after all been using various versions of Outlook for over 20 years. In truth I am not worried about any of them knowing my appointments or contacts. If I was I would not use any contact or calendar app on my laptop, phone or tablet, because they all need that sort of info to function.

It is an inevitable fact of life that the apps we all like to use nowadays only function as we want them to if we let them know all about us. If we get too hung up about that sort of thing then we need to go back to paper and the typewriter, or maybe even invisible ink.

And I trust private organisations, who are bound by strict laws (at least here in the UK), with my personal information much more than I do governments, who can do what they want without my consent.

I have my answers back from gSyncit (and on a Sunday to!) and I am going to try their software, which I see as no worse than most of the stuff I already have with regards to privacy. So it is probably time to call an end to the debate, which has stretched much further than I was expecting. We don't want Godwin's law to kick in do we?

 

[jj14x]

Thanks Hopefully, Google will bring out a more elegant solution for syncing contacts/calendar. It is sad that Microsoft (and other smaller companies) have solutions for this rather critical need on Android, and Google doesn't.

 

[peterc10]

Thanks Hopefully, Google will bring out a more elegant solution for syncing contacts/calendar. It is sad that Microsoft (and other smaller companies) have solutions for this rather critical need on Android, and Google doesn't.

Google does have the solution, its part of what they call Google Apps for Business. But they want me to pay $50 per year to use it! Hence, I suspect, why they are withdrawing their free solution.

 

[jj14x]

Google does have the solution, its part of what they call Google Apps for Business. But they want me to pay $50 per year to use it! Hence, I suspect, why they are withdrawing their free solution.

True - but since the typical Gmail user doesn't need the GApps for Business, it really is overkill. I guess I'm still hoping to see if they will push out some tool for the average desktop outlook user.

Having said that, since Google would rather have folks use Google docs and sheets and other Google software (versus MS Word/Excel/Outlook etc), it is likely they won't. ugh...

Oh well, hopefully they won't block Android from being able to use an outlook.com calendar/contact list as primary source.

 

[peterc10]

gSyncit has been downloaded, paid for, installed, set up for calendar and contacts and checked to make sure it works. All done in 45 minutes.

First impressions are very good. Very easy to set up. Appears as an add-in in Outlook where I can control everything. Intuitive to use. Worked first time. Two way syncing with newest change taking priority.

One duplicate only in each of contacts and calendar. Easily deleted in Outlook or Google and then appears in the other very quickly. I like the idea of having a setting to confirm deletions (in both Outlook and Google) before they happen. Saves embarrassing errors with clumsy fingers on my phone.

All in all well pleased with this so far. And $19.99 seems a fair price for what you get.

So Google Calendar sync and Contact Sync V4 both now deleted and not being missed.

Thanks for everybody's help.

 

[mystvearn]

Hi. I have a Nexus 5 phone and Asus tf300 Android tablet. On these I use Google Calendar from my Google account. At home I use MS Outlook 2007 Calendar on my PC. I then use Google Calendar Sync to sync my Outlook calendar with my Google calendar. All works very well and within a few minutes of making a change in one device it shows up in the other two.

Google have now told me they will cease supporting their Calendar Sync from 1 August (thanks for nothing Google - why break something that works???). So what I am now looking for is a piece of software for my PC that 2-way syncs my Outlook calendar with my Google calendar automatically, I would prefer not to use an app that sets up a separate Calendar file on my phone and tablet because that just adds another level of complexity (keep it simple if I can) and would probably mean that my Asus and Nexus would not sync until I switched on my PC.

Has anybody got any suggestions or recommendations that would do this please?

Thank you for making this thread. I was just about to make the same thread

True - but since the typical Gmail user doesn't need the GApps for Business, it really is overkill. I guess I'm still hoping to see if they will push out some tool for the average desktop outlook user.

Having said that, since Google would rather have folks use Google docs and sheets and other Google software (versus MS Word/Excel/Outlook etc), it is likely they won't. ugh...

Oh well, hopefully they won't block Android from being able to use an outlook.com calendar/contact list as primary source.

Unfortunately, most people who are based in institutions use Google Calendar for meetings/appointments, and head over to Outlook (not the web free version) for mail. Hence syncing is a huge priority. It is a lot easier to access google calendar compared to outlook. It also has more features than outlook calendar as well.

I went from casual google calendar to heavy user, bought rainlendar, which is fine. Then noticed that my institution uses outlook. I need to tell people I'm engaged if they want to setup meetings. Hence syncing in outlook is only there is a backup and notification purposes.

gSyncit has been downloaded, paid for, installed, set up for calendar and contacts and checked to make sure it works. All done in 45 minutes.

First impressions are very good. Very easy to set up. Appears as an add-in in Outlook where I can control everything. Intuitive to use. Worked first time. Two way syncing with newest change taking priority.

One duplicate only in each of contacts and calendar. Easily deleted in Outlook or Google and then appears in the other very quickly. I like the idea of having a setting to confirm deletions (in both Outlook and Google) before they happen. Saves embarrassing errors with clumsy fingers on my phone.

All in all well pleased with this so far. And $19.99 seems a fair price for what you get.

So Google Calendar sync and Contact Sync V4 both now deleted and not being missed.

Thanks for everybody's help.

Can I know if this app can work on multiple devices with one-off purchase? Something like rainlendar. I have it on 3 PC's, (work, home, laptop), but I am the only user. I am not using all pc's at the same time, but I need it there as I add stuff there. Is this gSyncit the same? Also, if it is like rainlendar, does it autosync between apps, meaning if I update on PC 1, will PC 3 be automatically updated?

Thanks

 

[peterc10]

I am afraid that we have all been spoilt by Android apps and their ability to install on lots of devices. This one uses a more old fashioned PC based charging system.

Go to gSyncit's site and you will see that $19.99 buys you a licence for one installation only. However, they have confirmed to me that I can swap it when I swap my PC and sure enough the software does have a "deregister on this device" button.

If you want it on three you can buy a volume licence at $15.99 for each device. If your 3 PCs are all syncing Outlook between them anyway do you need it on all three? Or do you have a different Outlook calendars on each? By the way they do not list MS Exchange as being compatible, so if you use that it may not work at all.

I am impressed with the software. Last night I put an new appointment in my Outlook and within a minute it was on both phone and tablet. gSyncit has a setting that allows syncing each time an Outlook file is changed.

 

[jj14x]

Unfortunately, most people who are based in institutions use Google Calendar for meetings/appointments, and head over to Outlook (not the web free version) for mail. Hence syncing is a huge priority. It is a lot easier to access google calendar compared to outlook. It also has more features than outlook calendar as well.

While using outlook.com vs google calendar is strictly a user's choice, I am curious - what feature do you see in google calendar that is not there in outlook.com calendar? And why do you think accessing google calendar is easier than accessing outlook.com calendar?
(not arguing with your choice - just trying to understand your findings - I've used both, rather extensively, and found them to have pretty much the same functionality - except for "free syncing to outlook desktop application", that outlook.com does for free)

 

[mystvearn]

While using outlook.com vs google calendar is strictly a user's choice, I am curious - what feature do you see in google calendar that is not there in outlook.com calendar? And why do you think accessing google calendar is easier than accessing outlook.com calendar?
(not arguing with your choice - just trying to understand your findings - I've used both, rather extensively, and found them to have pretty much the same functionality - except for "free syncing to outlook desktop application", that outlook.com does for free)

Public Holidays is one thing-better implemented from google's side. Football calendar. Default calendar app is another. Meetings at different time zone. Another thing, google will work. My institution email client is not that robust with some downtime which I can say occurs about once a month. When the email client is down, even if it is outlook, then my calendar goes down with it. For me, that is a disaster since I am dependent on calendar for work.

 

[peterc10]

Sorry, but I don't recognise any of those problems or faults on my Outlook 2007 software. My calendar, contacts and emails are all stored on my PC and can be accessed with or without web access. Obviously without web access I cannot pick up any new emails (who can?) or sync with Google. But I can view all emails, and answer them (although not send) and view and alter my calendar and contacts.

I find the Google based apps on my phone and tablet much more limiting.

If you are storing your emails, calendar and/or contacts on a remote server, as it seems, then I doubt that gSyncit will work for you.

 

[jj14x]

Public Holidays is one thing-better implemented from google's side. Football calendar. Default calendar app is another. Meetings at different time zone. Another thing, google will work. My institution email client is not that robust with some downtime which I can say occurs about once a month. When the email client is down, even if it is outlook, then my calendar goes down with it. For me, that is a disaster since I am dependent on calendar for work.

Just to be sure we are on the same page, I'm referring to an outlook.com account (not the same as the desktop outlook client that you may use with your exchange server, as it seems you are).
But as peterc10 stated, it should work even if your server isn't available (if you are using outlook desktop client, you may need to enable the Cached Exchange Mode in outlook to get offline access when you can't connect to the server).

Regarding the holiday calendar and time zones, I think Microsoft has had those nailed down rather well for ages (ever since outlook 2003 was launched)

Regardless, what really matters is "use whatever works for you"

 

[GrenW]

gsyncit seems to get good recommendaions.

Fieldston Software - gSyncit - Sync Outlook and Google Calendars, Contacts, Notes and Tasks

That's what I use for my personal phone. Works well and with one calendar you can use the free version.

Work phone hooks up with our Exchange server and does it all flawlessly and free through the email app although I did pay a few quid for Nine (exchange email app)

 

[peterc10]

That's what I use. Works well and with one calendar you can use the free version

But only for up to 50 entries in Calendar and Contacts. So no real use for me.

 

[mystvearn]

Just to be sure we are on the same page, I'm referring to an outlook.com account (not the same as the desktop outlook client that you may use with your exchange server, as it seems you are).
But as peterc10 stated, it should work even if your server isn't available (if you are using outlook desktop client, you may need to enable the Cached Exchange Mode in outlook to get offline access when you can't connect to the server).

Regarding the holiday calendar and time zones, I think Microsoft has had those nailed down rather well for ages (ever since outlook 2003 was launched)

Regardless, what really matters is "use whatever works for you"

Sorry for the late reply. Was away. My institution uses outlook. not the outlook.com, but a version of that. There is a web client and I can use the desktop client (which I prefer) compared to the web client.

I managed to setup the holiday feature as mentioned. One annoying thing about outlook's holiday calendar is that it tends to put the calendar as another calendar and not just coloured bars in google. This makes the viewing screen smaller and slightly confusing since you need to see both calendars now. I have no idea why microsoft does not combine both calendars and just use colours like google. In S Planner, it does combine calendars and colour codes it.

Outlook has a migration tool for importing contacts and emails from google but does not import the calendar which is a drag

 

[peterc10]

I suspect you are using the version of Outlook for MS Exchange. AFAIK gSyncit does not work with that version. It is designed only for the stand alone desktop versions.

I have only ever used those versions so can't help you with your problems. Certainly my Outlook 2007 will do all of the things you say yours will not. I only have one calendar and it includes birthdays showing in different colours for example.

 

[GrenW]

gsyncit works with MS Exchange (I use it as our exchange server forces security protocols if syncing direct to my phone)and the free version syncs unlimited calendar entries as long as its with only one calendar.

The 50 limit is on tasks and contacts so is perfect for me.