How to Sync Google Calendar with Outlook and Smartphones Automatically

[Kris Kumar]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.jakeludington.com/ask_jake/20060818_how_to_sync_google_calendar_with_outlook_and_smartphones_automatically.html' target='_blank'>http://www.jakeludington.com/ask_jake/20060818_how_to_sync_google_calendar_with_outlook_and_smartphones_automatically.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"My big complaint about Google Calendar was lack of support for easily syncing calendar data with my smartphone. I use Outlook for my personal information management because it's still the only thing that puts all my data in one place the way I want it. Google Calendar's iCal export made manual syncing with Outlook possible, but I want to get all my calendar data from my computer to my phone automatically. RemoteCalendars solves this problem, making ongoing data sync simple after a convoluted setup process. Here's how you can sync your Google Calendar with Outlook 2003 or 2007 and automatically sync to your phone in the process."</i><br /><br /> <img src="http://www.smartphonethoughts.com/images/Kris-aug06-google.jpg" alt="User submitted image" title="User submitted image"/> <br /><br />If you use Google's Web based calendar for keeping track of your appointments then you will find this how-to guide useful. I must point out to our readers that this concept can be applied to the Yahoo calendar as well. Yahoo provides a free tool for syncing its Web based calendar with Outlook. ;-)

[supbro]

There's also a program written for the smartphone, called L-Dopa (i have no clue what that stands for), that goes straight from Google Calendar to your phone... no middleman, no computer necessary. The program is in alpha but has great potential:

http://l-dopa.sourceforge.net/

[snowroller]

Hi

I was wondering if this program lets you sync both ways? I thought it did, but I found out fast that it doesn't work for me. Anyone that got it working, or is it not an option with the program/Ical?

[Kris Kumar]

Folks: Please be careful with the application. I tried it earlier today. Thought I will be able to share my Exchange calendar with my wife. Was at work [yes on a Sunday :-(] and ended up wasting half an hour because somehow it managed to sync my empty Google calendar into Exchange and wipe out all my Exchange calendar entries, instead of the other way! 8O :evil:

I dived to reach out for my Smartphone, and yanked out the battery. Thank god the push system hadn't updated the calendar. I then removed the SIM card and manually synced the calendar entries from the phone to my Outlook. :roll:

[Mike Temporale]

8O Not good! Sorry to hear that Kris. I've seen some talk about people doing this (sharing calendars with wife/husband) over hosted exchange. I haven't tried it as of yet, but I'm planning to.

[Kris Kumar]

At this time I would recommend Yahoo Calendar and its sync tool. It explicitly lets you set up one way sync.

With this Google hack, I thought I was setting up one way sync, but I was wrong.