Filed under: Internet Tools
Google Calendar CalDAV/iCal syncing now official
Although the plumbing has been in place since the summer, it's always nice to have an official announcement, and now we do: Google has gone on the record with its support for CalDAV syncing from iCal to Google Calendar. You can now gracefully sync your editable Google calendars with your (Leopard-only) iCal, keeping a local copy of those events in the cloud.Granted, both BusySync (which adds Bonjour-based iCal synchronization between Macs) and SpanningSync (which includes Address Book --> Google contact sync) have been handling this task with aplomb for some time, and they offer something Google hasn't -- a nice GUI for picking your sync options. That too has been addressed: Google Code is hosting the Calaboration sync setup tool, a basic checklist of calendars to add to your iCal setup.
If you are syncing your iCal and gCal data via Google's support for CalDAV, let us know how it's going.
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Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
Owen Evans said 2:04PM on 12-02-2008
James,
I have the same issue regarding using both Exchange and Mobile Me, but think I have solved it. I'm using a trial of Spanning Sync and it's working great so far.
Here's what I'm doing:
Sync personal GCal calendars to iCal using Spanning Sync
Sync personal iCal calendar and AddressBook contacts to MobileMe "cloud" using MobileMe System Prefs panel
Sync work Exchange calendar/contacts to iPhone over the air
Sync personal MobileMe calendars/contacts to iPhone over the air
I also use the Google Calendar Sync (link below) to synch my work Exchange calendar to GCal just so I have everything on Gcal, and then use the CalDAV access to put that in iCal so everything is also there.
When I first set things up I also synched my work cal from GCal to my iCal as well, but then when that synced up to MobileMe it also then went to my iPhone, so I had that calendar duplicated on my iPhone -- both from Exchange and from MobileMe (via GCal and iCal). Syncing my work calendar through Exchange directly to the iPhone is preferable since I can work with calendar invites that way (which you can't do if it's synced circuitously through MobileMe).
I'm planning to get a year of Spanning Sync after my trial runs out. Thought about getting the $65 "lifetime" subscription, but I have to think that within a few years all this syncing will be worked out and I won't need Spanning Sync anymore, so I'm going to make that bet...
Hope this helps!!
Google Calendar Sync:
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=98563
whitlock said 7:58AM on 12-02-2008
I've been using this feature for a while to sync my personal calendar on my Mac w/ my Google Calendar account. To sync my work Microsoft Exchange account, I installed the Google Calendar Sync program on my work machine (PC) and lock it (not shut down) at night so all of my calendars stay in-sync with Google.
It's nice.
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Craig said 8:06AM on 12-02-2008
Yes I'm using it and it works really well. I also sync my contacts between Address Book and Google contacts. And Google Calendar and Contacts to iPhone via Neuvasync.
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jason said 8:29AM on 12-02-2008
Anyone know a solution that will allow me to sync the iPhones cal with googles web interface and google web interface will the iPhone cal?
I'm on the road and would love two way sync between the two. I just take my iPhone and use computers for people I consult for to get acsess to goggles we calender.
Using the mobile version of googles web calender is missing features i need as well as I always dont want to use the full version of the web version as I prefer the iPhones Cal
thanks
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Tom Stewart said 8:34AM on 12-02-2008
I've been using this for a while now, and it's pretty good. Will have to check out the calaboration link, as it would be nice to have more flexibility with other calendars I keep on google. And for my ipod touch, I've been using Nuevasync (note, it's nuevasync, not neavusync as some have written above), and it's been flawless thus far. Great combination!
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andrew said 8:37AM on 12-02-2008
anyone figure out how to sync multiple google calendars with sunbird? as in: one google calendar account with multiple sub calendars.
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Carlos Eduardo Buarque said 8:48AM on 12-02-2008
I've been using CalDav for a while and it's ok. As someone said before, sometimes you get ''calendar unavailable'' but it's just restart iCal.
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Canestrini said 9:09AM on 12-02-2008
As Andrew was saying, but for iCal. iCal does the same thing, for every calendar that syncs from gCal they are put as subcalendars under for example "Google: Födelsedagar>Google: Födelsedagar". Annoying because thecalendar list becomes quite huge and irritating.
That is the only quarrel I have with this FREE service.
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Le Big Mac said 12:12PM on 12-02-2008
Yes, this is a problem too. . It would be much improved if they were at most grouped into a single category of "online calendars" (or something).
Scott Gardner said 9:30AM on 12-02-2008
The problem is that if you also sync with an iPhone and create an appointment on the iPhone, a new calendar is created in iCal (called Calendar). In comparing Spanning Sync with BusySync, I have found that BusySync is faster and (somehow) less problematic than Spanning Sync (many fewer conflicts).
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Tubby The Bull said 9:41AM on 12-02-2008
FYI: if you have your own domain name, you can set this all up using Google Apps for Domains (or whatever it's called now... http://www.google.com/a/). I set up my domain to utilize the Google/Gmail IMAP and CalDAV servers. Everything stays in sync between my multiple Macs and iPhone.
Free. Dreamy. Go get some.
Tubby
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julian said 10:31AM on 12-02-2008
I have used it for a while. I dont know why the calendars that sync with google do not sync to my phone... arg?
do you guys have any suggestions?
the mac google works fine and yeah i do get the errors sometimes
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Maxintech said 10:29AM on 12-02-2008
I've been using this for a while now. Minor issues sometimes.
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Matt said 11:19AM on 12-02-2008
I've been using Google Calendar as my "authoritative" calendar that my iPhone (using nuevasync) and my iCal (via calDav) on my MacBook both push/pull data to.
Keeps all of my calendars in sync no matter where I am or which interface is most convenient for me to review.
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jozue said 11:25AM on 12-02-2008
umm, Tiger? :(
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Tim said 12:01PM on 12-02-2008
I followed the directions to set up the synch between iCal and Google Calendar but a test event I created in iCal isn't showing up in the Google Calendar in the browser after I click 'Refresh'.
Any ideas on what I did wrong? I'm posting this here instead of Google Help because of the sheer volume of traffic on that site.
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Demon said 2:00PM on 12-02-2008
Been using it for some days now and it works like a charm.
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dai said 3:13PM on 12-02-2008
hey i have been dealing with this and google is still a long way from perfect .
Try using: www.plaxo.com
Great for address book and calender syncing cross platform and free, I dont think they do iphone yet. but it always has worked for me for a year at least.
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Tung said 2:30PM on 12-02-2008
I went to mobileme just for this reason. To sync my desktop cal with some sort cloud cal. Plus integration to my iphone is key. If google did that and contacts. I would ditch mobileme. Luckily im still under the 60 day trial.
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Nick said 5:16AM on 12-03-2008
Also Plaxo did nothing but screw up my whole address book. Seems to work for some but failed more than once for me. Use Google.
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