Last week I wrote about configuring my iPhone to sync with my Google calendar. To do that, I had given up my Exchange calendar at work. Well, I have found a way to do both.
I already have my iPhone setup to sync wirelessly with my Google Calendar and Contacts via Exchange Activesync and it works beautifully. Then I thought it might be a good thing if my phone does remind me of those 9:00 am meetings after all. First I thought well Google Calendar Sync should do the trick to synchronize my Google Calendar to my work Exchange calendar via Outlook 2007. It had been quite a while since I tested it, so I downloaded it and installed it. It unfortunately only allows you to sync to the default folder in Google. What I wanted was the ability to sync to a secondary folder. I setup a folder called “Work” on Gmail. Since I could not use the Google Calendar sync conduit to sync to it, I quickly got rid of it.
Then I downloaded and tested Oggsync Desktop 4.20 beta. It did work beautifully and it allowed me to specify that I wanted to sync my Outlook calendar directly with the “Work” calendar in Gmail. I was going to be happy with this, except that the free version is a manual sync. The paid (Pro) version is $29.95/PER YEAR! That is a bit steep I think. So, I synced manually a couple of times, then of course I thought it would be great if this was automatic so that I do not forget to sync.
I hopped on Google and came across Calgoo Connect. This does just what I want it to do. It can be set to sync as little as every 5 minutes. Perfect! Setup was extremely easy and painless. I installed it in an Windows XP VM on my Macbook Pro that runs Outlook 2007. It runs in the sys tray and syncs flawlessly in the background. I have it set to sync every hour, which should be good enough.
NOTE: At some point Calgoo stopped developing the plugin. However, it is still available and it stills works.
One thing to remember is when you set up a new calendar in Gmail, you need to configure it to sync on your mobile device. Do that by visiting http://m.google.com/sync on your phone. Then click on your phone and check the box next to the new calendar that you wish to sync. You can sync up to 5 calendars on one device.
Now I happily have both schedules on my phone that are automatically updated. Calgoo takes care of syncing my Outlook (Exchange calendar) to Gmail and then that is synced to my phone via Activesync.
Oh wow! That sucks. Is your goal just to get your Exchange calendar into GMail? Or are you shooting for getting it onto a mobile device?
Love the sound of the Calgoo Connect solution. When I went to install it though, a Calgoo account is required. No big deal, except… you can't setup an account on Calgoo anymore. Darn.
Google calendar sync does what Calgoo Connect must be doing for you. You cannot select which calendar it should sync with. But overall it does the work what is expected. Am I missing something here?
Suyog, the iPhone will only allow ONE Exchange account to be setup on the device. So, you either have to choose between your Gmail account (calendar) or your Exchange calendar. Doing it this way, you can have both.
Google calendar sync does what Calgoo Connect must be doing for you. You cannot select which calendar it should sync with. But overall it does the work what is expected. Am I missing something here?
Suyog, the iPhone will only allow ONE Exchange account to be setup on the device. So, you either have to choose between your Gmail account (calendar) or your Exchange calendar. Doing it this way, you can have both.