The Holy Grail of Synchronization: combining Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone
The Holy Grail of Synchronization
2008/03/06: Google now official supports synching between Google Calendar and Outlook
Last updated: 2006/09/19
This is a guide for synchronizing Contacts (address book) and Calendars (schedule) across multiple computers and gadgets.
Common terms:
- synchronization – making the information the same on two different applications
- WAP/GPRS – wireless Internet access for mobile phones
- SyncML – a synchronization protocol
This is the setup I am trying to sync:
- Calendars
- Microsoft Outlook at work for professional scheduling
- Google Calendar for personal scheduling
- Contacts
- Gmail for email addresses
- Microsoft Outlook at home for contacts
- Gadgets
- Nokia 6682 for access to contacts/calendar on the go (or any mobile phone that has software to synchronize with Microsoft Outlook, ie: all of them)
- iPod for access to contacts/calendar on the go
ScheduleWorld wasn’t something I used before I tried to do this, but it is the glue that holds it all together.
Here is a beautiful drawing of The Plan. It was made with Gliffy, a web-based Visio clone.
This is how I want to sync it (follow the diagram):
- Contacts are sourced from my Phone + Outlook (at home).
- Calendar is sourced from Outlook (at work), Google Calendar, ScheduleWorld.
- I only want to synchronize my phone/iPod when I’m at home (so I don’t have to bring the USB cables back and forth)
- I don’t want to synchronize over WAP/GPRS (wireless data) because I am a cheap. My local wireless provider charges too much.
It should be easy to extend these instructions to your specific situation. If this isn’t your boat I also list some alternatives at the end of the article. If you have a specific question, post a comment and I’ll try to answer it. Sometimes the owner of ScheduleWorld pops by and gives suggestions as well.
But why?
- Why use Outlook? Isn’t Microsoft “Outbreak” the devil?
- I won’t be using Outlook for email. Outlook is a necessary evil if you want to do contacts synchronization since it is the only software that you mobile phone supports synching with.
- ScheduleWorld also supports Evolution/Linux and Thunderbird/Windows.
- What about Linux/Mac OS X support?
- Microsoft Outlook is fundamental to how I’m moving the data from my computer to my phone/iPod.
- You can replace Microsoft Outlook with Evolution or Thunderbird and still use it with ScheduleWorld.
- Why not source contacts from Gmail?
- You can’t automatically sync Gmail to anything.
- If you have a free solution for synching Gmail to Outlook then please post a comment.
- Gmail also adds any you’ve emailed to your address book automatically. Gets cumbersome.
- Why use ScheduleWorld?
- It’s there. It’s free. It automatically supports Google Calendar synching.
- The interface for ScheduleWorld looks like PHP iCalendar. You could run your own Funambol server instead, but it wouldn’t be as slick. No, Funambol isn’t a clever name for a new hemorrhoid cream. ScheduleWorld uses the Funambol server for SyncML interoperability and that’s it.
- ScheduleWorld is quite a large project and does a number of things outside of SyncML.
- Why don’t you sync email?
- I like using computers for email. My thumb gets sore.
- The approach I’ve outlined doesn’t sync email. I’d recommend using Mobile Gmail with a data plan to access mail on your phone and on any computer.
- Why don’t you use Remote Calendars and cut ScheduleWorld out of the loop altogether?
- I tried Remote Calendars and I found it a bit of a pain. It requires three other Microsoft tools installed (.NET, Office Something, VSO). It would still give me “Invalid URI” errors even though it was synching properly. Screw that. The Funambol Outlook plug-in is simple.
#1. Synching Phone to Outlook
I used a fresh install of Microsoft Outlook. I chose not to associate it with an email address or import data from Microsoft Outlook Express. You could use an existing install.
- Connect phone to PC.
- (Optional) Use Nokia/phone supplied software to BACKUP existing phone contacts.
- Use the Nokia/phone supplied PC Suite synchronization software to sync existing phone contacts to Outlook (also synching Calendar, Notes, To-do).
#2. Synching Gmail to Outlook (at home)
There are several solutions out there, but I recommend manually updating by downloading your Gmail contacts to a CSV file and then importing it into Outlook. More information on CSV files here.
- Login to Gmail and export contacts:
-
Contacts >> All Contacts >> Export >> Outlook CSV >> Export Contacts
-
- (Optional) I recommend loading it into Excel and hand-merging the contacts with the contacts you copied from your phone. Delete all the hand-merged and unnecessary contacts and THEN import the pared down CSV file into Outlook.This really is the best way. Every one of your friends has three different email addresses. You have to hand-merge them, and no program is going to do it for you (properly). It goes faster than you might think.
- Import the merged contacts into Outlook:
-
File >> Import from another program or file >> CSV (Windows) >> [Browse] >> Next >> [Contacts] >> Next >> Finish
-
- (Optional) Now comes the fun part. Sift through the Outlook Contacts list a few times and make sure the data is correct. Now is the time to remove duplicates, before they’re synched everywhere else. That person from the bar that time? Probably don’t need that number.
- Go take a break and have some cookies and a glass of milk. Watch something on TV. I think America’s Next Top Model is on. Then sift through the address book again.
- (Optional) BACK UP THE OUTLOOK CONTACTS! You won’t be doing anything with them, but if something screws up this could be an essential recovery point.
-
File >> Export >> CSV (Windows) >> Next >> Contacts >> Next >> outlook-backup.csv >> Next >> Finish.
-
#3. Synching Google Calendar to ScheduleWorld
- Log in to ScheduleWorld and click on Preferences.
- Scroll down to the Calendar Preferences.
- Enter your Gmail account name that is used with your Google Calendar.
- Click “Grant Access” to allow ScheduleWorld to connect to your Google Calendar.
- ScheduleWorld is in the process of registering with Google (2006/09/19), so by the time you try this there won’t be the same yellow warning text.
- You will be taken back to the ScheduleWorld Preferences page.
- Click on the “Automatically sync with your specific Google Calendar…” checkbox.
- Click on the “Find Calendars” button, wait, and then select the calendar you want to sync from the drop down box.
- Click on the “Test URL” to make sure you can access the Google Calendar.
- Click “Save” to save your calendar Preferences.
- Under “Standard SyncML Client Configuration”, take note of your ScheduleWorld server url, username, and password. Save it in notepad.
- Click on the supported clients link: http://www.scheduleworld.com/tg/syncmlInfo.jsp
- Download the Outlook client.
- NOTE: I had trouble getting the Funambol iPod synchronizer working, so we’ll use a different method (iTunes).
#4. Synchronizing Outlook (at work) to ScheduleWorld
- Close Outlook and install the Funambol Outlook plug-in at http://www.scheduleworld.com/tg/syncmlInfo.jsp
- Run the plug-in.
-
Start >> All Programs >> Funambol >> Outlook Plug-in >> Funambol Outlook Plug-in
-
- Input configuration settings for ScheduleWorld.
-
Configuration >> Edit >> Communication Settings >> [Input ScheduleWorld url, userid and password]
-
- At work I want to push the calendar to ScheduleWorld (one way sync) and I don’t want to sync contacts. You may want to do something else, like use File >> Recover (slow sync) for two-way synchronization.
-
Configuration >> Edit >> Synchronization Settings >> [unclick Contacts] >> [Calendar: Update remote data]
-
- Click Synchronize and wait
- .
- .
- Set up automatic synchronization.
-
Configuration >> Edit >> Scheduler Settings >> [Click activate] >> [Set the time period, I chose 12 hours]
-
I set up my Outlook at work to synchronize automatically every day at 5pm/5am (before my home syncs).
#5. Synchronizing Outlook (at home) to ScheduleWorld
- Close Outlook and install the Funambol Outlook plug-in at http://www.scheduleworld.com/tg/syncmlInfo.jsp
- Run the plug-in.
-
Start >> All Programs >> Funambol >> Outlook Plug-in >> Funambol Outlook Plug-in
-
- Input configuration settings for ScheduleWorld.
-
Configuration >> Edit >> Communication Settings >> [Input ScheduleWorld url, userid and password]
-
- At home I want to push the contacts (one way sync) and pull the calendar (one way sync). You may want to do something else, like use File >> Recover (slow sync) for two-way synchronization.
-
Configuration >> Edit >> Synchronization Settings >> [Contacts: Replace remote data] >> [Calendar: Replace local data]
-
- Click Synchronize and wait. A while. Got any more milk and cookies?
- Set up automatic synchronization.
-
Configuration >> Edit >> Scheduler Settings >> [Click activate] >> [Set the time period, I chose 12 hours]
-
I set up my Outlook at home to synchronize automatically every day at 6pm/6am (after my work syncs).
#6. Synchronizing Gmail with ScheduleWorld
The Gmail / ScheduleWorld synchronization isn’t automatic, but it does allow you to push your contacts from ScheduleWorld to Gmail. Instead of exporting from ScheduleWorld, you could simple export from Outlook (at home) to Gmail as documented here.
I like using the ScheduleWorld approach because it will only synchronize contacts with email addresses. You can also use ScheduleWorld as an LDAP server for Gmail.
- Log in to ScheduleWorld:
-
Contacts >> Utils >> Download Contacts in Google Format >> [Save GoogleImportContacts.csv]
-
- Log in to Gmail.
- (Optional) Delete existing Gmail contacts.
-
Contacts >> All Contacts >> Select All >> Delete
-
- Import contacts.
-
Contacts >> Import >> [Browse to GoogleImportContacts.csv]
-
#7. Synchronizing iPod with Microsoft Outlook using iTunes
- Connect iPod.
- Open Outlook.
- Open iTunes.
-
Edit >> Preferences >> iPod >> Contacts >> Synchronize contacts from: Microsoft Outlook >> Calendars >> Synchronize calendars from Microsoft Outlook >> Ok
-
- Go to Outlook and look for “A program is trying to access” dialog box and choose “Allow access for 10 minutes” / “Yes”
- Wait, but not very long.
Your Microsoft Outlook contacts/calendars will be synced whenever you connect your iPod and run iTunes.
Known Issues:
- This is a Windows solution that requires Microsoft Outlook, but that is only because Outlook is the only thing supported by my Nokia 6682 cellphone.
- ScheduleWorld supports Thunderbird/Evolution.
- Manually synching your phone to your computer via Bluetooth / cable is pointless if you have a flat GPRS data rate. I don’t. You can directly sync your phone to ScheduleWorld over GRPS, and skip a bunch of steps.
- Gmail synchronization is manual, not automatic.
- ScheduleWorld only supports synching to (1) Google Calendar (but there are plans to support more).
- This solution is dependant on ScheduleWorld.
- May need Microsoft Office opened before autosync to iPod using iTunes.
Ideas for Advanced Users:
- Create a Perl WWW::Mechanize script to automate pushing contacts from ScheduleWorld to Gmail.
- Also synchronize Outlook and Plaxo.
- Also synchronize Outlook and LinkedIn.
- Connect to ScheduleWorld using SyncML with your cellphone
- Use your contacts on ScheduleWorld as an LDAP server for Outlook or Gmail.
- Run your own Funambol server instead of using ScheduleWorld. http://www.funambol.com/opensource/downloads.html
Let me know in the comments if you try any of the advanced ideas or if you come up with a better workaround. I’m especially interested in a free automatic way to sync Outlook and Gmail (couldn’t find one — maybe use ScheduleWorld contacts as an LDAP server?). An automatic way to sync ScheduleWorld contacts and Gmail contacts would also be good.
Other solutions
- One of the most elegant solutions I’ve seen to one-way sync Outlook to Google Calendar is to automatically send a copy of all your appointments to your Gmail account. I can’t find the link where I originally read this.
- You can use the same forwarding trick to forward appointments to your mobile phone.
- Two-way sync between Google Calendar and Outlook using SyncUp (Beta).
- Two-way sync between Google Calendar and Outlook using Remote Calendars. There is a guide here as well as a webinar.
- Two-way sync between Google Calendar and mobile phone over WAP/GPRS using gcalsync (free) or companionlink (pay).
- One-way sync from Google Calendar to Ipod using getcals.
- Manual one-way export from Outlook to any iCalendar (ie: Google Calendar)
- Tech-tag has several posts on this subject: Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, Post4
I hope someone else finds this as useful as I did. The guide is fairly long, but the individual steps are simple. These steps produce a setup I wanted, but it should be simple to create two-way syncs where I used one-way syncs in Funambol.
If you’re having questions or problems drop a line at the ScheduleWorld forums, or email support@scheduleworld.com.
Comments turned off on 2006/09/30 with the creation of the ScheduleWorld forums.
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[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. Full disclosure: I’m reviewing a new mobile phone I got for free from a marketing company in Toronto called matchstick.ca. They gave me a sweet package as well: […]
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. […]
Very nice guide!
Does two-way sync between Scheduleworld and Google Calendar work for your? I can only make it go on-way (Import to Scheduleworld).
Yup, ScheduleWorld and Google Calendar are two-way synching. My work calendar gets updated into ScheduleWorld and I can see it in my Google Calendar.
[…] I claimed earlier, that Calendar synchronization between Google Calendar and Scheduleworld only works one way. But yesterday I read in \Engtechs very nice guide to synchronization that it works two-ways, consequences were: I had to try again. At first my results were the same as reported earlier, none of the appointments I had in Scheduleworld would appear in Google Calendar. This however changed when I made a completely new appointment in Scheduleworld which appeared in Google Calendar after a sync. The entire problem was solved by adding a hyphen to all my appointments – and suddenly they all appeared in Google Calendar. This goes to show two points. First of all, that two-synchronization actually works between the two, making it possible to use Scheduleworld as a middleman for synchronization between Google Calendar and any SynML compatible device, like a cell phone. Second, that this service (in beta) has some weaknesses at the present, making it possible for some appointments to be left out. […]
Ego-searching: this is the #2 link on Google for “outlook google synchronize”
Nice guide!! The Gliffy diagram really helps me understand which direction you want everything to go.
I’m looking into ScheduleWorld, but it seems like it will only sync with one Google Calendar – I’ve created several in my account and can’t find any way to add the others. I’ll take this up with them as well, of course, but do you have any words of wisdom to add?
Kelly: I had meant to put that into the known issues, but yes, there is a problem with ScheduleWorld only supporting two-way synchronization of (1) Google Calendar.
Hopefully in the future they will allow more, and will allow at least pulling data from any iCalendar they can access.
In the mean time, you may be able to subscribe to iCalendars from within Outlook (which will then get pushed into ScheduleWorld). RemoteCalendars would definitely let you do that, although it begs the question of why use ScheduleWorld at all if you’re going to use RemoteCalendars.
Fantastic document, thanks!
Is anyone running into “Error 500 — Forbidden” when trying to sync Google Calendar to ScheduleWorld?
I get this error a few seconds after hitting “sync” in ScheduleWorld. After another few seconds I get another prompt saying “Success”.
The net effect, however, is that no appointments are synchronized in either direction.
I can Google Calendar sync to work fine if I start with a pretty bare ScheduleWorld calendar. But once I push all my Outlook calendar items to ScheduleWorld, the Google sync seems to choke.
As far as I can tell, there is no way to know which calendar item ScheduleWorld’s beta sync can’t cope with.
Ideas?
Is anyone running into “Error 500 — Forbidden” when trying to sync Google Calendar to ScheduleWorld?
I have seen errors, but with a error message. I’ve kind of given up on using my Google Calendar in favor of using ScheduleWorld all the time, so I haven’t been checking that stuff goes both ways as much as I did at first.
Try sending them a line at support@ScheduleWorld.com
The only thing I could find about unsupported calendar items is this, which doesn’t look like its directly related to your problem:
NOTE: The Funambol clients do not support exception dates (iCal EXDATE) for recurring events. Also, they do not yet have support for contact photos (VCard PHOTO).
this really amazing and useful
Hello everyone,
I’m the author of ScheduleWorld and the person responsible for some of the 500 errors early on. :-)
This was such a nice blog that I feel I should respond to clear a few things up.
1. ScheduleWorld uses the graphics from phpICalendar; that’s it. ScheduleWorld is written in Java.
2. ScheduleWorld uses the Funambol server for SyncML interoperability and that’s it. ScheduleWorld is quite a large project and does a number of things outside of SyncML.
3. The 500 errors were initially my fault. Sorry about that. To be honest I didn’t think someone would find out about my beta release (I just mentioned it briefly in the gdata API forum) and blog about it so quickly. All errors on my side have been fixed.
However, Google has informed me that their spam filtering may be preventing most of you from syncing a calendar with as little as 100(??) entries in it. I’m trying hard to convince them to be more liberal here and I hope they do. One particular user has over 29,000 (twenty nine thousand) events heh heh…
4. I have totally changed how you pick your Google calendar. No URLs are required now. Simply enter your username (email) and password. ScheduleWorld asks Google for the calendars you can read/write to and presents you a list (by title). The URL issue is taken care of for you automatically and perfectly. Soon I will enable creating multiple ScheduleWorld calendars so you can sync different Google calendars to different ScheduleWorld calendars.
Please email support@ScheduleWorld.com to discuss anything ScheduleWorld related. I’m away on vacation off and on for 2 weeks but will be checking email and working on ScheduleWorld when I can.
Thanks a _ton_ for blogging about ScheduleWorld. I really like the graphs and am on my way to download Gliffy.
Also, thanks to all of you keeners for trying out ScheduleWorld in its beta state and for providing feedback. You all rock, and I appreciate your enthusiasm. Support and feature requests from early adopters are given a high priority.
Cheers.
Mark, thanks for the comment.
I’ll update sometime this weekend to fix my factual inaccuracies :)
[…] (No, I didn’t make or write this. Please don’t email me. Check out //engtech » The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld.) […]
Thanks.
Mark Swanson,
Thanks for your app. Here are a few quick observations about Gcal to ScheduleWorld sync.
I must have encountered the Google limitation on the number of entries you mentioned. Not all of my entries made it over. However, the missing ones are not chronological.
The reminder values don’t appear to migrate. My default is 10 min, and I have many other values. But the ones I have checked appear to come over as 1 minute.
The sync button looks like text in my browser (ie6). At first I was not inclined to click it.
I did not see an option to control one/two way migration. It made me nervous that your reminders times would sync back to Gcal as one minute or that the missing appointments in ScheduleWorld would be deleted in Gcal (but they did not, thank goodness).
Thanks,
JFW
Thank you for sharing this information. Syncing Google Calendar with Outlook seems to be what everybody is searching for these days. Funambol/ScheduleWorld looks very promising.
Hello folks,
1. Alarm support is in. It passes all of my unit tests to/from ScheduleWorld/Google.
2. A silly typo broke the mechanism where I was querying Google for your calendars. A few of you noticed this and reported it (thank you). Fixed.
3. The ‘sync’ button is a text label, yes. It was done that way so folks wouldn’t use it – I was just showing it to a few people. It needs to be changed and I’ll do it shortly. I may change the location and make it more obvious.
A few days ago I had around 150k lines of Google ‘internal server error’ stack traces in my logs. Now there are none so it seems Google has been busy successfully addressing issues on their side.
Cheers.
I created a very basic (and probably ugly) perl script to sync scheduleworld and google calendar:
#!/bin/perl
use WWW::Mechanize;
my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
$mech->get (“http://www.scheduleworld.com/tg/cal/day.jsp”);
$mech->submit_form(
form_number => 1,
fields => {
j_username => ‘[put_your_username_here]’,
j_password => ‘[put_your_password_here]’,
continue => ‘http://webview.ScheduleWorld.com/mail/?ui=html&zy=l’,
rm => ‘false’
}
);
my $content = $mech->content();
$content =~ /todoFeeds\/(.+?)\.rss/;
my $calID = $1;
$mech->get (“http://www.scheduleworld.com/tg/cal/sync.jsp?cal=” . $calID);
Ok, you can now create multiple ScheduleWorld calendars and map them 1:1 to multiple Google calendars and sync them individually. The appropriate DOM elements should all have IDs so the above perl script could easily be modified to sync any (or all) of the Google/ScheduleWorld calendars.
STATUS: No more errors in the logs. All attributes to/from Google gdata/ScheduleWorld iCalendar formats are passing back and forth correctly. The one exception is alarms. Google only supports a simplistic ‘display’ alarm type that needs some work to map to/from ScheduleWorld’s full iCalendar alarms. I’m still on vacation so this will take a bit.
Cheers.
Mark, thanks a lot for posting updates on this page. Completely unexpected and greatly appreciated :)
no mention of synching with .mac or ical on a mac though.
i used to use ical on my mac and loved it but hated not being able to update from anywhere but my mac. i published a copy regularly to the web but that wasn’t the same.
i imported all my previous ical calenders to gmail and now I just keep my gmail calenders (love the multiples for different family members, dogs, bills, birthdays) up to date. I then subscribe to them via ical so I have the same stuff on my laptop now, here i use a widget to show me my day and any upcoming events. then when i synch up my ipod (nightly) i get my all my calenders there too. works for me.
Very useful indeed! I successfully synced my 6680 to google calendar via scheduleworld and syncML. However, I noticed a problem when an all day event was created in google calendar and then synced to scheduleworld. I live in the GMT-8 time zone and I keep on getting time shifts of -8 hours from the all day events. This doesn’t happen to events that have definite times. Any ideas?
[…] linking outlook, google calendar, ipod, phone, etc […]
Paulhwa (all-day events):
Hello,
I’ve tried to reproduce this but cannot. In Google calendar I have:
1. created a non-recurring all-day event, sync’d to ScheduleWorld, displays fine.
2. created a recurring all-day event, sync’d to ScheduleWorld, displays fine.
I can think of two possibilities:
1. You have different timezones configured in your Google and ScheduleWorld calendar. Perhaps one is set to GMT, the other to -8 ?
2. Google made some adjustment between the time you tested and when I tested ?
One thing that I do note is that when I create all-day events in ScheduleWorld and sync to Google there was a bug that displayed the all-day event as taking up all available space in that day instead of at the top of the calendar (all-day slot). This has been fixed.
Please feel free to email me and we can run a couple of tests.
Cheers.
A very comprehensive guide indeed and very clear in understanding.
I am not sure whether I will be applying any of this, but will surely let my fellow users from Windows world know that there is clear guide that they can refer to.
BTW, it would be good to see the same article written with Linux users in mind … what you say :)
I’d love to write it with Linux in mind, except there’s one small problem. This all hinges on using Microsoft Outlook for synching to your phone/iPod. So it’s Windows only.
What we need is Funambol clients for unix/mac and then the same steps would work.
[…] Hét probleem van iedereen met meerdere computers, mobiele telefoons, PDA’s en andere electronische organisers: hoe houd je al die apparataten gesynchroniseerd? Bij engtech staat een uitgebreide uitleg van een mogelijke oplossing voor het synchronizeren van Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod en een mobiele telefoon met Funambol / ScheduleWorld. […]
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech (tags: sync calendar google mobile gmail outlook howto contacts email ical ipod mail microsoft nokia palm phone) […]
Nice guide! But is it really worth all the effort? How long does it take?
It only takes about 25 minutes to follow the guide and get everything running.
To write the guide took a little bit longer. :)
Quick Linux comment:
I’ve been working with the author of SyncEvolution for quite some time and it’s extremely well supported. You can sync Evolution on Linux to/from ScheduleWorld simply by using SyncEvolution (sourceforge -> Sync4jEvolution).
Cheers.
[…] This approach involves using ScheduleWorld (SW) – a free web service (at the time of writing) – as the middleman between gCal and Outlook. For step-by-step instructions, refer to a detailed guide on this approach. Note, however, that you no longer need to copy your calendar’s Private iCal Address to SW as SW automatically pulls your calendars via your gCal User ID and password. Also note that SW does not automatically/periodically sync with gCal (though a script to do that seems to be available). […]
Soon you will not have to click the ‘Sync Google’ link as this will be taken care of for you automatically. I do not mind losing the advertising in this case. I will be releasing details shortly.
Cheers.
Thanks for making that change Mark.
In the end I think you’ll see a massive increase in users when people find out they can automatically sync Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar.
It really is the one feature that *everyone* is looking for.
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. […]
[…] Then I happened across EngTech’s superb blog and this excellent article which describes how to use ScheduleWorld as a synchronisation hub (using SyncML) to synchronise anything to anything in any direction and put an end to all human suffering (well almost). […]
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech Calendar, Contacts synchronisation between Outlook and Gmail/Google Calendar (tags: Gmail Google Calendar Howto Sync Outlook) […]
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[…] James, It’s actually a very common request that sadly doesn’t have any easy solutions. I started with gmails help Import Contacts Then this O’Reilly Google Hacks entry on creating your import file. You sound like this would be easy for you but I’m putting it here in case others need help. At this point you should have an update contacts list on Gmail. Moving forward you’ll want to sync up not just contacts but calendar entries (maybe, if, like me you like most of the web apps Google do). To do both an more check out The Holy Grail of Synchronization for a good overview of how to do this using Scheduleworld. Kimmy and others helped another visitor in this Calendar Sync thread too. Lastly to synch up two Outlook machines (such as home and work or your’s and your partner’s) I recommend Plaxo as it does a good job of eliminating duplicates, tracking contacts (who also have Plaxo accounts), notes,journal and calendar entries across all linked machines in the background. USe it carefulyl though, you can easily spam your entire address book with "update me" requests. Hope this helps. ~ Steph […]
Holy Grail? at the centre of that lies Lotus Notes! dont talk of the holy grail until you can liberate the Fortune 100. Right or wrong its the dominant C level messaging platform.
make an extensive synch programme work that caters here and you will be rewarded!
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech […]
Has anyone found a way to automatically sync contacts in gmail with any other Address Book?
Also, doesn’t Funambol have a syncML server and couldnt that sync directly with a lot of mobile phones?
The Holy Grail of Synchronization
How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld.
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech (tags: calendar cellphone contacts tools mobile gmail outlook howto google sync) […]
Update: ScheduleWorld is now using Google’s enhanced security features (authsub). This means you no longer have to trust ScheduleWorld with your Google password!
You can find the details about this wonderful feature here:
http://code.google.com/apis/accounts/AuthForWebApps.html
Also new: ScheduleWorld now lets you paste the private XML URL directly if you like. This enables corporations using Google’s hosted accounts feature to work correctly.
Simply view the ScheduleWorld HTML preferences page and scroll down to the calendar you want to sync with Google. I hope the options are self-explanatory. If not, please email support@ScheduleWorld.com and I’ll help you asap.
Also new: I was having trouble with how Google was handling some recurrence data, and some other minor issues. These have all been fixed.
Cheers.
Update: I seem to have made an error. AuthSub does not support hosted accounts yet. Google’s response about when AuthSub should work is “in the very near future”.
http://www.mail-archive.com/google-calendar-help-dataapi%40googlegroups.com/msg01112.html
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. Posted by schedge Filed in Uncategorized […]
I seem to be having some difficulties with the whole sync process. Still – compared to the alternative (remote calendars) it’s much better. I had an issue initially getting events duplicated. I think it started with some day-events from Outlook propagating to Google (didn’t seem to appear in SW at all), and then back to Outlook as new events and so on – ended up having hundrends of events from a handful, so resorted to deleting my outlook calendar altogether and starting from scratch.
Later had some issues with deletions in Outlook not getting sync’d to google. I think they did get deleted in SW but not google.
The latest issue is that some events I created in Google do get sync’ed to SW but Funambol plugin doesn’t pick them up unless I do a slow sync…
Also had an odd problem with the plugin failing and had to uninstall and reinstall…
All in all, it works – but not terribly reliably for me. I seem to need to have manual control over it. Looks to me like the main issues are to do with Funambol plugin rather than anything else. The SWGMail looks spot on (apart from reminder times)
Hello Yoav – and others having difficulties,
I did have some issues with the Funambol plugin and the Funambol server in general. In the past few days I have released patches that seem to address the issues you mention. As I posted yesterday, I fixed a number of issues wrt Google sync as well. At the moment all problems should be resolved. If not, _please_ email me; I’ll get to it asap.
Note: folks who were syncing with Google with a configured username/password will have to go to the preferences and sign up with the new method which doesn’t use a password. Since I no longer need anyone’s Google password I don’t even want them in the system.
Cheers.
*** MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT ***
Since engtech was so nice and created a great diagram I’d like to announce here first that Google autosync is available now.
What does this mean? It means you can directly sync Outlook/BlackBerry/Evolution/etc.. directly to/from Google. You do not have to log in to the HTML client and manually click ‘Google Sync’ anymore.
Bonus: Since ScheduleWorld is the proxy for Google autosync your ScheduleWorld calendar/WebDAV/freebusy information is also kept in sync.
Simply go to your preferences page, enable Google autosync on your primary calendar and click ‘Save’.
Cheers.
Sorry to slightly offtopic – but Yahoo always had a very good sync tool. I am still surprised Google doesn’t offer something similar? Thanks for the massive writeup! ;-)
Would it be possible to sync Yahoo Calendar to ScheduleWorld?
[…] evbart is looking for a way to automatically sync Gmail contacts with other address books […]
[…] Mark Swanson of ScheduleWorld has announced (giving us the scoop, no less!) that ScheduleWorld now supports automatic synching of GoogleCalendar. […]
wrt Yahoo calendar: I used to sync with Yahoo! calendar via their mostly broken CVS capability – but they changed the format and that no longer works. I contacted Yahoo! about syncing and I never received a response. They seem more focused on providing proprietary solutions like their existing Outlook sync capability.
I’d love to be wrong, and would support Yahoo! in a heartbeat if there was a way. If anyone knows of a way to get this done please email.
Also, someone previously commented about a Lotus Notes client. There is one available from Funambol but I suspect it’s alpha. If someone feels like scratching that itch the initial start seems to be available …
Cheers.
I just wanted to compliment you on your Gliffy-made plan, it really is beautiful! Gorgeous work, I imagine with some extra gradients and antialiasing it’d look fit to be asmooth piece of art, with the pink “fluffy cloud” like silk embroidery around its core.
evbart – I’m also anxiously awaiting for the ability to sync the GMail addressbook. As soon as Google releases the gdata API library for gmail contacts I’ll sync to it. I already tried via GreaseMonkey but GreaseMonkey kept crashing…
Cheers.
Hey, great article! However I just use Outlook at the office (because we only have PCs here) but at home, on my Mac I use Mail and it integrates very well with its surrounding apps and online services.
Wow…. everything is so complicated, and is way too troublesome. I like MS Outlook, as much as I enjoy Google’s apps, but integrating them together is like putting two postively-charged protons together…. and you know, the end result may be unbelieveable.\
——-
Edit to remove gratuitous link to homepage. Please only include links if you have something to say about this article, or something relevant. Otherwise I’ll have to mark it as spam, which means Akismet will start thinking of all your posts as spam, and your comments will be auto-banned from any blogs the use Akismet.
(I’m not being draconian, he was linking random words in the post to his blog)
This seems to be a very useful service, I was just looking for something like this!
However, I tried to sync my cell phone (SonyEricsson K500i which supposedly syncs with SyncML) but the phone fails to connect to scheduleworld. I have double checked the settings, but I’m not sure if I’ve done it right. Can anyone reading this who has succeeded explain how to set up the account on the cellphone correctly?
Or it could just be that the scheduleworld server is overloaded right now, as it seems to be very slow…
I’ve been working on a similar in house solution with Horde / Kronolith and Funambol
and unfortunetly I’m at a standstill with 3.0.7 because it’s crashing Outlook.
I will continue with Funambol though to see if the updated 3.0.11 release would
fix this problem.
It’s a great concept though using a web based application as a client hub.
This post is on the front page of Digg, del.icio.us, and lifehacker.com at the moment and ScheduleWorld is getting hammered like crazy. There’s been about 12,000 page views, so even assuming only 10% of the people are trying it out that’s probably still around 1200 new users today alone.
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech […]
Hello, I stumbled over this blog and it kept me reading on.
I made also similar experiences with syncing multiple outlook/thunderbird clients with plaxo and windows mobile.
I have a suggestîon to another workaround:
Check out “sugar crm” http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/ it’s Open Source under GPL and comes with a very good outlook plugin
which enables one to sync contacts,tasks and shedules. Since sugar crm is written in PHP, the advanced programmer may probably also get the outlook plugin to work with other services. (Maybe something for Mark Swanson?)
Oh… wait, it’s not sugar crm but vtiger the open source fork of sugar crm, sorry.
Here is the download section of vtiger: http://www.vtiger.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=30&Itemid=57
As one may see it comes with both outlook and thunderbird plugins.
Holy smoke! Digg, del.icio.us, lifehacker.com! So _that_’s why. 600+ port 80 TCP connections, ~200 in ESTABLISHED the rest in TIME_WAIT or CLOSE_WAIT. Its just starting to let up after about 10 hrs. I’ve never seen a gig of logs roll over so quickly :_)
There were a few timeouts for folks signing up when the load got really heavy (sorry folks), but that’s all I noticed in the logs as far as errors. Oh, one strange Google date was sent my way. Logged for analysis. I’ve already priced a hardware upgrade and have started that process.
Thanks for the notes about vtiger; looking into it now.
More Google calendar sync enhancements coming soon (based on the feedback and analysis of today’s … stress test).
Cheers.
I don’t have anything to say. I just wanted to be comment #69.
[…] read more | digg story […]
I just started using this process this evening (sept 18, 2006). However, I am having the same problem as Yoav had. Everytime I sync, all of my items in outlook that reoccured (however many times and whenever in the past) reduplicate as well as plant themselves on new days starting with today. For example, I had some items that were scheduled for partial days back in April. After syncing, they now also show up for this week and the foreseeable future in outlook.
Please help! Thanks.
Ok, I _just_ did another release. It contains new duplicate detection and conflict resolution for exactly this case. Future syncs to/from Google will not propagate duplicates. Please try again.
Great article dude! I learn a lot :)
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech (tags: hacks outlook gmail calendar 2do) […]
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech […]
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech (tags: gmail calendar outlook) […]
I finally updated the instructions for setting up ScheduleWorld with GoogleCalendar.
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld […]
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech (tags: toread) […]
[…] Although still quite dependent on Outlook, the writer of this Engtech article has a similar setup to me, and explains how to get all your devices on the same page, relatively smoothly. […]
How to: synch Google contacts and calander with Outlook on multiple devices
Wow, there’s mobile and there’s MOBILE. This guide falls under the latter category and although it’s a solution to a specific problem, it’s very modular and can be used as much as or as little as you need. The anonymous author of //engtech wrote up…
[…] I found this blog entry documenting a third party sync utility, tying in two copies of Outlook, Google Calendars, and cell phones. […]
[…] Synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone […]
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. […]
This sounds like an excellent solution. I really want to try it out.
I am having trouble in Schedule world when I go to preferences and add my google calendar username and then click on “Find Calendars” I get an error message: “Error: Access Denied: missing Google session token.” What does this mean? It is occurring on all of my web browsers – Safari, Firefox (mac and PC) and IE.
Thank you for your reply, Mark. I tried again this morning. However, I’m still having issues. The problem I’m having in Outlook (in addition to the duplication of scheduled items on the same day, which is still happening also) is that any items I have that were set to recur at a previous time now set themselves for today and into the future. A couple of examples: my mother’s birthday, which is July 31, is set to recur yearly, but after I sync it shows up today (Sept 19), recurring weekly. Other items that may have occcurred for a couple of days or a couple of weeks in the past also pop themselves in continuously without end.
Did I miss something special that I need to do with new release? I have the outlook plug-in 3.0.7. I want it to sync in both directions so I can keep Outlook, Google Calendar, and my Blackberry all the same, regardless of where I entered an appointment.
This is my first attempt at synchronizing calendars, so I may be missing some basic, but essential, information.
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech (tags: sync calendar outlook gmail Google) […]
missing Google session token – this means you forgot to click the ‘click here’ to grant ScheduleWorld … button – which redirects you to Google’s site where you can grant ScheduleWorld access to your calendar.
Based on feedback I should simply do that redirect for you automatically. It will work this way soon.
Note: this is an enhanced security process that enables you to grant ScheduleWorld access to your calendar without giving us your password.
Cheers.
Min – I have unit tests for every single property to/from Google. Apparently I need to flesh them out a bit more.:-(
I will work on both of these issues until they are resolved. Stay tuned.
Cheers.
Thanks for working on it, Mark. Would it be an issue on the Google end? I thought it was an issue between Outlook and ScheduleWorld because it’s when I use the Outlook plug-in that everything goes wacky.
[…] y Windows Mobile!!! Comparte este post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it! Posted: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 11:04 AM por cesarfong Archivado en: WindowsMobile […]
I’m not sure.
Google uses a combination of XML and the icalendar open standard (rfc 2445) – it may be likely that I am confusing when to use which for recurring events. Some careful testing will resolve this issue shortly I’m sure.
Cheers.
This thing is great in theory, but has major issues when syncing with outlook:
1) recurring calendar entries ignore the end by field and the dates get mixed up
2) clicking on ‘update remote’ actually updated my local calendar which i really did not want to do and caused me quite a headache – i almost had a heart attack when my work calendar was destroyed
3) clicking on ‘update local’ actually updated my remote calendar which caused another huge headache.
make SURE you backup before playing around with this.
Mark,
What might this be?
14:20:18:772 [ERROR] – processItemStatus: server sent status 508 in SYNC
14:20:18:772 [ERROR] – Error #508 in source calendar
14:20:18:772 [ERROR] – Error in syncing:
14:20:18:782 [INFO] – Calendar sync completed with errors
14:20:19:152 [DEBUG] – Enter restoreSlowSyncBackup method
14:20:19:162 [DEBUG] – Exit restoreSlowSyncBackup method
14:20:19:172 [INFO] – Logged off from Outlook
Hi Mark,
I am having the same problem as noted in comment no 5. Basically my outlook syncs fine with ScheduleWorld but doesn’t push it to Google Calendar. If I manually add an entry in ScheduleWorld it appears in Google Calendar fine. If I modify an entry in ScheduleWorld to include a ‘-‘ in front of the description, it will then go to Google Calendar.
So my question is do I have to modeify all my calendar entries to include a ‘-‘ to get the syncing to work? Is there a way around this as I would like to include my historical stuff which I do not want to have to go and modify.
What about if I want to sync with ScheduleWorld in Outlook (exchange) a calendar that is not my own? For example, a team mailbox that has been given access to me along with others. I would like to sync this to my ScheduleWorld calendar so I can view my exchange calendar remotely via ScheduleWorld.
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KC – Sorry to hear your problems with the Outlook sync. I haven’t had time to test those options yet. I’m going to make this a priority and support this asap.
Eric – The server was too busy :-) Please try again.
Announcement: new release 1:00AM
Duplicate problem was reproduced and fixed.
Recurring events issues are resolved (I ran out of time to test the ‘end by’ field. Tomorrow…
AutoSync Outlook Google lastModified issue is mostly fixed. However, I still have a subtle issue to resolve. I should be able to resolve this for the release tomorrow night.
Cheers.
Zoggy – wrt the Exchange issue this isn’t possible yet. I have started the preliminary work on a MAPI-based Exchange connector that is more powerful than the WebDAV based alternatives (so it will work with Exchange 5.5, and 2007). No ETA atm.
Cheers.
Alas, the same thing is happening to me still. I tried “update local data” with the Outlook plug-in, but nothing was added to Outlook (I deleted everything out of Outlook when it went haywire last time). I tried “replace local data.” This time info was added to my calendar, but with the duplicates and recurring items all over the place.
Is there still a problem or am I just missing something else that I should’ve done?
Thanks for all your heard work and quick responses!
I am having trouble installing the funambol plugin for Outlook. I’m wondering if it’s because I don’t have administrator rights. Anyone have a clue?
Not having administrator rights can often be a problem with installing software.
Perhaps the cause of duplicates/frustration for some folks is the Funambol ‘replace/update server/local’ options. I’ve not tested those.
I’m configuring a new server to help with the load, then I’ll get to this issue.
Cheers.
I’m still having the issues with recurring events and some events being moved to today. Do I need to download the funambol plug-in? It looks like the same one, 3.0.7, but you say you’ve done patches, are these to SW or Funambol? Thanks.
Also, we store our events with mutiple categories, do you support this?
Oh, I’m using Normal for the funambol setting on both computers in outlook. Not sure if others are using the same settings when they get duplicates/errors.
Google sync update:
Google is having problems. Perhaps that’s why their service is still beta :-)
I have logged two bugs with them that are causing a lot of problems for folks:
1. Google is unable to parse some valid iCalendar timezone definitions.
2. Google fails with ‘Internal Error’ for reasons yet to be determined.
Google’s response so far is, “Thanks for the nice bug report”. No eta on a fix and they haven’t contacted me for further testing or diagnosis. It seems we will all just have to wait on Google atm.
Wrt Funambol, perhaps I was unclear in a previous post. I have not modified any version of the Funambol Outlook client.
New server status: The new machine is up and running, and mostly configured. I’m on track for the ~midnight switch the evening of Septembre 21.
Cheers.
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech […]
Cool. That should speed things up. Are the Google issues related to the duplicates/recurring items? I disconnected my google calendar from SW. SW has my correct calendar info in it, but it still covers Outlook in a million items when I try to sync the two.
[…] […]
For posterity:
1170 diggs, link here
[…] » The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. # […]
Hello Min,
Please email support@ScheduleWorld.com as I’d like to go through a few tests with you and capture the detailed logs of your syncs. I simply can’t replicate your issue.
Thanks!
[…] The original article that got Dugg […]
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech (tags: The Holy Grail Synchronization: How to Microsoft (multiple locations), Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and phone Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech ! 2006 apple application apps Article backup blog calendar cell computer computers desktop online office Data lifehacks iPod iCal mobile of software sync Services service Schedule web2.0 resources howto How-To guide gtd Gmail geek development PC outlook PDA tech tips tools toread tutorial useful utility work with productivity PocketPC Google Pocket Play Email Synchronize) […]
[…] A small case study on viral. I write an article about a web service called ScheduleWorld because it can do something I want to do: synchronize all my apps with Google Calendar. The owner and I were no way involved before I wrote about it. I wanted to do something, found his site by search, found it could do what I wanted, and wrote a guide about it as link bait for my blog. […]
[…] Tons of comments on the Holy Grail of Synchronization, as usual. […]
If you want a good way to synch Outlook to Gmail for email I wrote a tutorial about it here: http://cnxn.ca/GmailMirror.html
Mark
01:29:34:250 [INFO] – Preparing synchronization of calendar…
01:30:31:406 [ERROR] – processItemStatus: server sent status 506 in SYNC
01:30:31:406 [ERROR] – Error #506 in source calendar
01:30:31:406 [ERROR] – Error in syncing:
01:30:31:406 [INFO] – Calendar sync completed with errors
01:30:31:421 [INFO] – ********** TASKS SYNC ************
01:30:31:421 [INFO] – Synchronization URL: http://sync.scheduleworld.com/funambol/ds
01:30:31:421 [INFO] – Preparing synchronization of task…
01:31:51:687 [ERROR] – processItemStatus: server sent status 506 in SYNC
01:31:51:687 [ERROR] – Error #506 in source task
01:31:51:687 [ERROR] – Error in syncing:
01:31:51:687 [INFO] – Tasks sync completed with errors
01:31:51:734 [INFO] – Logged off from Outlook
Any idea what this means? I have been getting this error message every time I sync.
506 means I was rebooting the server. It seems for a couple of minutes one of the class files was bad and was causing problems. If you see this again please email support@ScheduleWorld.com.
Cheers.
*** NEW UPDATE ***
Hello Folks,
A number of fixes are in for Google/Outlook sync as well as a new feature for auto-detecting and handling of cell phone character sets is in.
Important: If you were having duplicate issues, or issues with some events not showing up you need to reset your ScheduleWorld calendar. If ScheduleWorld is NOT your master calendar (Outlook/Google/Cell phone/Evolution/etc.. is your master calendar) then just delete your ScheduleWorld calendar and sync. All will be well. You can do this by:
1. Go to HTML day view, click preferences
2. Find the calendar you have wired up to Google and click the button that says, “Delete events and todos”. This delete action will not propagate to any other system.
If ScheduleWorld is your master calendar simply:
1. export your calendar (day view, click ‘Download’ (top right under the preferences link). If you don’t see ‘Download’ you need to go to the preferences page and enable WebDAV.
2. start everything fresh by deleting all of your Google / Outlook / ScheduleWorld / etc. calendars and then import your saved ScheduleWorld calendar (day view, click ‘import’).
CHARACTER SET ISSUES: If someone has a K600i, K700i, K750i or other phones that don’t support UTF-8 (ISO-8859-1 only) please try to sync contacts with non-ascii characters. This should work now. It has always worked with other phones that support UTF-8. Please email support@ScheduleWorld.com to report success or fail with this.
Thank you.
[…] Mark from ScheduleWorld posted another big update in the comments. I’m cutting-and-pasting it here to make sure people see it. *** NEW UPDATE *** […]
Mark –
Thanks for the response. Please do let me us know when the outlook plugin has been fully tested, i would really like to use the program.
KC
[…] 그러다가 오늘 Google에서 관련 자료를 찾다가 원하는 기능을 해주는 프로그램과 사이트를 발견했다. (관련 링크) […]
[…] Not sure how it happened, but I ran into The Holy Grail of Synchronization – how to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol, ScheduleWorld. I took the time to dig deeper, largely because I’ve been wanting to sync Outlook with Google (and Google with iCal) for a while now – and I’m still using Outlook 2000, which keeps certain syncing tools out of reach. […]
*** NEW ANNOUNCEMENT ***
A few minuts ago I did another release.
Please note: anyone syncing with Outlook simply must use 3.0.7 of the Funambol client. No earlier version will work, and it is impossible to support different versions of this client.
I’m really pleased with this release because:
0. The ‘Replace Remote Data’ option in the Funambol client now works perfectly with ScheduleWorld, and it works perfectly if you have the Google autoSync option enabled.
In a nutshell, if you want ScheduleWorld and Google (autoSync option required for Google) to look exactly like your Outlook calendar simply use the ‘Replace Remote Data’ option. It will work.
NOTE: This can take a __LONG__ time if autoSyncing with Google. The process for ‘replace remote data’ is:
A. delete all events on ScheduleWorld (and Google with autoSync enabled). Google is _very_ slow at deletes and can take up to 5 seconds per event! So if you have 500 items you have some waiting to do…
B. The initiating client (F.E. Funambol Outlook client) then copies all of its local items to the server (which get copied to Google if autoSync is enabled).
1. I found and fixed a duplicate issue for recurring events. Finally this issue can be put to rest.
2. Because #1 is fixed, you can safely use the Funambol (or any SyncML client’s) SLOW sync capability. With Funambol, simply select
File-> Recover (slow sync) and select calendar. Use slow sync to get your SW/Google/cell phone/ipod/evolution/etc.. calendars initially in sync as this makes sure every single event is compared and added/updated during the sync process. (Remember to switch back to normal sync).
Thanks to everyone for all of your feedback on the Outlook sync issues. Also, thanks for folks with K600/700/750i devices for responding and confirming the charset issue is fixed.
Cheers.
Note: I’m still working with Google on some problems they are having with ‘Internal Errors’. Google’s Java API also isn’t handling some redirect requests from the Google servers and I’m working on that as well. If you notice any other issues please email support@ScheduleWorld.com
[…] Pero gracias a este post parece que tenemos solución a esos problemas. El post además nos explica, paso a paso, cómo sincronizar calendarios y contactos entre varios sistemas (Google, Outlook) y aparatos (Nokia, iPod). ¿El secreto? Usar ScheduleWorld. […]
Google sync issue : strange Id/recurrence delete (sometimes an event was deleted on Google and would not be deleted on SW, and the sync would stop even though it wasn’t finished.) FIXED.
Google redirect issues. I still haven’t heard back from Google on this, but I have implemented redirect support myself to retry commands. I will know shortly (from the logs) if this works or not.
The only other issue is that Google servers are having ‘Internal Errors’. Will tackle that next.
zzzzz…..
Do you know if funambol plugin for Outlook is compatible with outlook 2007 beta2? thanks
[…] […]
I just found a weird bug – My calendars are both configured for Monday to be the first day of the week (Sunday is on the right, not the left). All of my appointments uploaded from Outlook appear within my Google a day late, but things like birthdays are on the right date.
I’m confused!
Okay, a correction … not all of the appointments are ahead a day, just a few recurring appointments.
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. « //engtech Sistema para sincronizar Google calendar, Gmail, un cliente de correo y nuestro móvil. (tags: sincronizacion email tutorial agenda howto calendario) […]
Mark,
Thanks for the update. A couple of things, I am having the same problem as Diddle. In my case it seems most (but not quite all) all day appointments are a day ahead. I tried changing my Google calendar to start on Monday, deleted everything from it and ScheduleWorld and resynced but got the same result.
I also received an error in the sync log :
10:50:30:732 [ERROR] – Server Failure: server returned error code 511
10:50:30:732 [ERROR] – Error in syncing: Server Failure: server returned error code 511
10:50:30:732 [INFO] – Calendar sync completed with errors
10:50:30:802 [DEBUG] – Enter restoreSlowSyncBackup method
10:50:30:802 [DEBUG] – Exit restoreSlowSyncBackup method
10:50:30:832 [INFO] – Logged off from Outlook
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: How to synchronize Microsoft Outlook (multiple locations), Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone with Funambol / ScheduleWorld. works sometimes, my 2-3 days’ experience (tags: productivity tools) Filed under: Links | Tags: No Tags. […]
I’m also experiencing the same problems as Diddle and Mark,
my calendars are set to timzone +1 gmt (and monday as first day of week).
but almost every event gets duplicated in Google calendar.
in other words, this could have been a nice sollution for keeping everything in sync, but right know it’s useless :(
well I loved the information that you have given, but I didnt see the part were it states how to synch a moblie phone as yet. So please can you clarify that for me on thid topic
Jerian
Hi Jerian,
That’s section #1. My phone comes with software that sync to Microsoft Outlook, so once I’ve synched Outlook (at home) to ScheduleWorld, my phone is automatically synched when I plug it into the computer.
[…] […]
[…] One nice thing about scheduleworld is that it can be your clearinghouse for information…there is a great diagram here about what you can do with it. […]
RE: Yahoo – I use Intellsync 4 Yahoo to sync 1 Outlook calendar to my Yahoo calendar. It works great.
Will address other comments shortly.
For now, I’d just like to note that Google seems to have set their quota limits too low and a number folks are failing to sync. I have made a case for Google to increase their quota limits. I will post here if Google fixes this.
Cheers.
Just a quick GMT timezone comment. Java provides me a bunch of GMT timezones. I think it would be better to use the UnitedKingdom/London timezone. For example, can anyone tell me what the difference is between GMT and GMT0? I simply can’t reproduce the timezone problem in EST. I will investigate further.
Cheers.
hay mark
thanks for the great work
ive been using funambol pluging two way sync to gcal and by the log it seems to work fine but nothing happens in outlook, then ive noticed that it does sync from outlook to gcal but not the other way.
does it have to do with number of events ? using recuring events with no end date would have to do with it ?
i would happy for some help
Mark,
Thanks for all of your hardwork! Would it improve things if we turned off the automatic google sync while we sync the first time? Especially for thos of us with a couple hundred events.
You should create a forum for discussion and to announce updates on Scheduleworld.
For now I’m holding off on trying to do any more syncs. I think last time I got a ‘511’ error. I’m looking into a few products to snyc my PST files directly over my LAN and I’ll continue to use Intellisync for Yahoo.
Thanks again.
Hello folks,
Wrt two-way sync: this really does work fine for most folks. Google even seems to have fixed their timezone bugs. However, perhaps a previous error or because of Google’s QUOTA bug you may still be seeing a 504/506/511 error.
What might work is to wait a day for the QUOTA to reset and do a slow sync.
Outlook client -> File -> Recover (slow). This will send the rest of the events to Google until an error occurs. A lot of traffic occurs, but the previously inserted (into Google) items will not be inserted again (saving on the quota restriction). Rinse, repeat until you are fully sync’d and you can sync normally. Please comment here or email support@ScheduleWorld.com if this does not work. It should…
I’m not sure what else to do but wait for Google to fix their broken quota limit.
Wrt a forum: is there any good forum software available for free and in Java (so I can run it in a protected environment)?
Cheers.
I’ve got about 4500 calendar events and I’m getting the 511 error even with a ‘slow sync’. None of my events are making it to the ScheduleWorld or Google calendars. I must have too many.
Get some forums!
JForum is a powerful and robust discussion board system implemented in Java:
http://www.jforum.net/
Re: too many calendars: I talked to a Google Calendar engineer and I warned them about a month ago that I have users with upwards of 29,000 (twenty nine thousand) events in their calendar. He only mentioned that they were rate limiting to prevent DoS/spamming the system. I’m dissappointed with the current quota limits. I’m sending another email now…
Thanks for the tip about JForum! I’m investigating now.
1:11AM. So tired…
Cheers.
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Mark, let me know when and where the official forum is and I’ll update the post and put a new news item on the front page.
Oh, and you might want to consider setting up http://scheduleworld.wordpress.com and use it as an official news announcements blog.
If you want I could set it up for you and then pass the admin rights over to you.
Holy Grail? Howabout just a regular old grail…
There is one simple thing that I can’t seem to get working – perhaps all you brains out there can help. I just want 2-way sync between Outlook calendar and Google calendar without creation of duplicates. This solution does not seem to show this.
I tried RemoteCalendars which was roublesome. At best, it was creating a bunch of duplicate events everywhere. At worst it was doing nasty things like wiping my whole Outlook calendar.
I then tried the GCal ScheduleWorld Funambol Outlook solution. This lets me go updates one way or the other nicely, but no full 2-way sync.
Does anyone out there have this regular old grail working?
Hi mporch,
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you followed my instructions a bit too close to the letter. Entirely understandable.
When I was setting this up, I wanted one-way syncs because of how I use the programs. That isn’t the default setting!
With the Funambol client for Outlook, instead of using “Update/replace remote data” use “Normal”.
I’ve updated the guide to make this more apparent. Please let me know if there’s any other ways I can clarify it.
yeah – used normal. doesn’t work.
Mind posting the logs? (Outlook Plug-in >> Help >> View logs)
mporch:
“This lets me go updates one way or the other nicely, but no full 2-way sync.”
Updating both ways is a two way sync.
It seems ScheduleWorld isn’t doing what you want. I can’t be sure why but maybe it will be helpful if I guess: only newly added/updated items are being synced. If I guessed right, the solution is to to a full 2-way _slow_ sync. Or, you could use the Funambol Outlook client’s ‘replace server’ or ‘replace local’ – but don’t use those unless you are sure what they mean.
To do a full 2-way _slow_ sync (which makes all events on both calendars appear on both calendars) simply use the Funambol Outlook clients File -> Recover (slow) sync (calendar).
There’s only one thing that can go wrong at this point: Google’s ERR_QUOTA bug. In a nutshell, Google is preventing folks from doing a slow sync if more than X events are exchanged because of a quota limitation. I have pleaded on behalf of anyone wanting so sync Google calendar for Google to increase this limit, but they have not responded. I encourage anyone who wants to actually use Google Calendar to post to blogs and the google forums about this problem and ask that it be fixed.
Cheers.
engtech: I humbly accept your kind offer wrt
http://scheduleworld.wordpress.com
Thank you.
[…] The howto on ScheduleWorld that got Dugg […]
Hi guys,
I’m closing the comments on this post as there is now a site for Mark to interact with you guys directly.
If you’re having questions or problems drop a line at scheduleworld.wordpress.com or email support@scheduleworld.com. You can also use the ScheduleWorld forums.
[…] Engtech wrote this post on how to sync a lot of calendar applications: […]
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[…] Some guy has a really nice page and flowchart showing how he’s got his PDA, Phone, Outlook at home, Outlook at work, Google Calendar, and iPod Contacts/calendar alll syncing to the same beat, automatically. He, bravely, calls it “The Holy Grail of Synchronization“. […]
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How To Use Plaxo to Sync across Applications and Platforms
The new version of Plaxo (Plaxo 3.0) was announced some weeks ago, with syncing capability across multiple applications (e.g. MS-Outlook, iCal, Google Calendar, etc.). Syncing includes contacts, – which is what Plaxo was doing initially – notes, ta…
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[…] or on your pc! Step 1: Get BitPim. Get that information sync’d over to your Outlook. Step 2: Get your Outlook sync’d up to your Gmail. Voila, contacts consolidated with phone numbers and e-mail addresses all available over the web! […]
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Nokia E65 synkroniseret med Google kalender og Outlook vha. Scheduleworld
Efter at jeg erhvervede mig min Nokia E65, og skrev lidt om min nye bedste ven :-), så er jeg blevet spurgt om ikke jeg kan uddybe lidt omkring kalenderprogrammet Scheduleworld og hvordan jeg har sat det op på telefonen og også hvordan det spiller s…
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[…] So I am basing my procedure on this great article. […]
[…] and access Gmail on Mozilla Thunderbird. HowTo: Use Gmail over IMAP and tag your mail, too. HowTo: Sync. Micr. Outlook, GCal, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone. HowTo: Encrypt and sign Gmail messages […]
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[…] unidirezionale da gmail e non verso) con Outlook. Per ottenere questo ho anche provato la soluzione descritta qui (basata su Funanbol e ScheduleWorld). Molto elegante ma la sincronizzazione dei contatti non ha […]
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I use SyncMyCal for sync between outook cal and google cal. For sync between my SonyEricsson K800i and Google cal/Outlook contacts I use MyPhoneExplorer.
Well, SyncMyCal costs a few USD but it’s sure worth it!
MyPhoneExplorer is really great, freeware, and syncs with most of SE’s phones (not the symbian ones). The great with MPE is that it also syncs sms and photos.
An other free agenda sync I found out works as follows;
PDA to Outlook, Outlook to Plaxo.com account (free account) Plaxo account to Google agenda. unfortunately the syncs are doubled and the system puts back deleted events still stored in Outlook or my PDA. Anyone any ideas?
Hi,
I use gsyncit. It is a wonderfull nifty synching tool. Try it.
http://www.daveswebsite.com/software/gsync/
Silvester
Great write up. In my mind, the topic of sync’ing contacts, calendars deserves it’s own blog. Hence, I launched salescontacts.blogspot.com.
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GCALDaemon (what a mouthful) may be of interest to you:
http://gcaldaemon.sourceforge.net/
GCALDaemon is an OS-independent Java program that offers two-way synchronization between Google Calendar and various iCalendar compatible calendar applications. GCALDaemon is primarily designed as a calendar synchronizer but it can also be used as a Gmail notifier, Address Book importer, Gmail terminal and RSS feed converter.
Can you update this for an iPhone?
Can I really acheive this with my own funambol server? It can sync with outlook or directly with my mobile phone, but can it also sync with google calendar?
Plaxo is a far better solution. It has a toolbar for Outlook and Thunderbird that syncs with Outlook, Gmail and Calendar, Yahoo, MSN, Hotmail, AOL. That covers about 99.9% of people.
If you have an iPhone or Smartphone, then you can sync everything everywhere.
Here are step-by-step instructions on Syncing Everything Using the Plaxo Toolbar.
[…] server in the sky that is free, so you can get Outlook up there with the Funambol plugin. See InternetDuctTape.com for a hilarious explanation of how complicatin it is to get Outlok, Google, a Nokia Phone and an […]
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Hi there,
thanks for your article that has helped me to an incredibly straighformaward installation (especially since ScheduleWorkd has improved their service since you wrote the article).
I know have a little issue with the funambol client: how to set-up the proxy server with only ‘username’ and ‘password’ fields ?? I haven’t seen any URL entry for the actual proxy server.
Probably a trivial question but we’re monday at work (hence proxy) and I can not play with my new synch tool !
Thx,
Nicolas.
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: Keep your contacts up to date on your iPod and everywhere else using this tutorial. […]
[…] I’m not the only one. This whole process has been far more complicated and time-consuming than […]
Hi,
Does anyone know how to sync Outlook/Google/mobile with a paper calendar? ;) That would be very useful for me :).
Peace
M.
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Sync overkill…
If you want to see a really big Outlook sync concept, go the internet duct tape blog. It’s basically everyone with everything. Slightly overkill, but interesting. ;-)…
[…] and access Gmail on Mozilla Thunderbird. HowTo: Use Gmail over IMAP and tag your mail, too. HowTo: Sync. Micr. Outlook, GCal, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone. HowTo: Encrypt and sign Gmail messages […]
We just launched KiGoo, a free tool that allows Google users to fully manage (create, read, update and delete) their Calendar and Contacts from MS Outlook.
Also KiGoo manage the Free Busy information of your Gmail contacts for appointments if they shared their FB status.
Currently we support Windows XP and office 2007.
You could download it from http://www.getkigoo.com
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http://electronics.shoppingreviewer.com
[…] and access Gmail on Mozilla Thunderbird. HowTo: Use Gmail over IMAP and tag your mail, too. HowTo: Sync. Micr. Outlook, GCal, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone. HowTo: Encrypt and sign Gmail messages […]
calgoo connect now allows google calendar and contact sharing/synchronization
[…] Outlookiin, mutta tämä ei nyt ole siis mikään optio. Eipä muuta kuin googlettelemaan. Ensimmäisistä löydoksistä nousi melkein tippa linssiin. Eihän tämä voi olla näin […]
[…] Other options include Google’s Calendar Sync Program for Outlook, but it only works with the latest software versions (wouldn’t work on outlook 2k for me at the office). Yet another method that I’ve used in the past involves schedule world and you can read more about it here: http://internetducttape.com/2006/08/11/the-holy-grail-of-synchronization-how-to-synchronize-microso… […]
Sorry I asked… hahahahhaha My head hurts now.
[…] HowTo: Sync. Micr. Outlook, GCal, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone. […]
Try this…
Calendar/Contacts
Sync iphone contacts/calendar to google contacts/calendar using Nuevasync. Then use Google Calendar Sync on your work PC (the one with Outlook) to synchronize your outlook work calendar to Google Calendar to 3 way sync your calendar over-the-air.
Email
Forward your Outlook email to your gmail account – set it up as a rule in Outlook – I would only do this if I used a VPN.
Tasks
Use Zenbe iphone app to sync tasks to the zenbe website which is synced 2-way immediately, and accessible through a webbrowser.
[…] auf diesem Artikel machte ich mich also ans Werk und stelle hier das Ergebnis der Konfiguration vor, welche im Ganzen […]
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: Keep your contacts up to date on your iPod and everywhere else using this tutorial. […]
Wow Cool !
Super Man
Nice Site
Try this:
http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955&topic=13948
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: combining Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mo… […]
Where can I find a complete and current list of all of the makes and model cell phones that this syncing functionality will work with?
hey all; thanks for the tips in here, but i find this to be way too complicated and for all the work there are aspects that simply don’t work or don’t work well enough to dedicate days to figuring it out only to have it not work the way i want.
i finally figured that my life would be so much easier and more productive – and i can sync everything i want now in a snap – if i just threw down the $40 for missing sync. they just updated it and it’s amazing how well it works. i like knowing that if i ever lose my phone or it dies, all of my contacts, calendars, notes, photos, etc. are backed up and restorable.
i think this is one of the best things about the missing sync that they don’t tout enough on the missing sync website. plus, there’s full support and free updates. well worth the $40 rather than going through all of this crazy stuff with no guarantee it will work.
i can’t tel you how much time i wasted trying to get free ultilities and hack-arounds, like this page demonstrates. i’m sure my $40 will pay for itself just to have all my syncing done and peace of mind knowing it will be ok.
Maybe you’ll be interested in Gdrive (called like that by Olipo, http://olipo.net, click ‘go’ and choose the plugin called ‘Gdrive on Gmail’).
It’s in beta but it works perfectly for me.
[…] Google Calendar – You can backup your google calendar and contacts the same way by synchronizing to your calendar and contact management app at home (iCal and Address Book on my Mac for example). There’s a great Mac app called Spanning Sync that automatically syncrhonizes your google calendar and iCal, unfortunately the contacts synchronization has to be done manually (or sync contacts automatically with the new Spanning Sync v2.0 Beta – thanks Charlie!). You can also download your calendar data by subscribing to you Google Calendar’s feed (here is an example with iCal). Other options include Google’s Calendar Sync Program for Outlook, but it only works with the latest software versions (wouldn’t work on outlook 2k for me at the office). Yet another method that I’ve used in the past involves schedule world and you can read more about it here: http://internetducttape.com/2006/08/11/the-holy-grail-of-synchronization-how-to-synchronize-microso… […]
thanks for this post, I need any tips I can get. Outlook Track-It has been great for my followup functionality on outlook. it’s a small plug-in for outlook that simply reminds you to follow up to emails. it’s saved me a few times in the short time i’ve been a fan of it!
I have been trying to use Funambol (my.funambol) as a central hub to “push” calendar and contacts:
– my PC (Vista) running Outlook (2007) with Funambol plugin, set PC -> Server only
– other PCs running Outlook with Funambol plugin, set PC Device only
I note that within a sync or two, all recurring calendar appts on the main PC are duplicated (or more!) on the server and all the other PCs and Blackberry. I can shut down the plugin on the main PC, reset the server calendar and recover the blackberry, and as soon as I restart the plugin, the server gets duplicates again. The appts on the main PC are correct.
I have been trying to use Funambol (my.funambol) as a central hub to “push” calendar and contacts:
– my PC (Vista) running Outlook (2007) with Funambol plugin, set PC -> Server only
– other PCs running Outlook with Funambol plugin, set PC Device only
I note that within a sync or two, all recurring calendar appts on the main PC are duplicated (or more!) on the server and all the other PCs and Blackberry. I can shut down the plugin on the main PC, reset the server calendar and recover the blackberry, and as soon as I restart the plugin, the server gets duplicates again. The appts on the main PC are correct.
[ Please ignore the duplicate posts – a piece was being cut out of the middle (between the “” characters). ]
I have been trying to use Funambol (my.funambol) as a central hub to “push” calendar and contacts:
– my PC (Vista) running Outlook (2007) with Funambol plugin, set PC -> Server only
– other PCs running Outlook with Funambol plugin, set Server -> PC only
– Blackberry running Funambol jal, set Server -> Device only
I note that within a sync or two, all recurring calendar appts on the main PC are duplicated (or more!) on the server and all the other PCs and Blackberry. I can shut down the plugin on the main PC, reset the server calendar and recover the blackberry, and as soon as I restart the plugin, the server gets duplicates again. The appts on the main PC are correct.
Thanks for the info! Great solution to my problem (Synching outlook contacts to phone, google via the internet).
[…] and access Gmail on Mozilla Thunderbird. HowTo: Use Gmail over IMAP and tag your mail, too. HowTo: Sync. Micr. Outlook, GCal, Gmail, iPod, and mobile phone. HowTo: Encrypt and sign Gmail messages […]
Now Google has an effective sync solution to sync your calendar and contacts with everything (even your iPhone).
http://www.google.com/sync/index.html
Most of the google solutions aren’t too good. For example, the Outlook tool only syncs the primary google calendar to the primary Outlook calendar. I however need sync to different calendars based on category, exactly what scheduleworld does.
oh, and about the duplicates: I had that too, and it was the reason for me to stop using scheduleworld. looking at goosync now. I hate syncing lots of devices…
I like knowing that if i ever lose my phone or it dies, all of my contacts, calendars, notes, photos, etc. are backed up and restorable.
[…] The Holy Grail of Synchronization: combining Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, Gmail, iPod, and mo… Synchronisatie van Outlook en Google Calendar (tags: InternetStuff Organisatie) […]
[…] Although you may use others servers, I will you the ScheduleWorld one. I found this solution on this page. Although discussing sync with outlook, shows the path to the Holy Grail: How to get a […]
Used to use scheduleworld when it was free, now they charge some USD 30,– per year.
[…] ScheduleWorld at Internet Duct Tape, not evaluated AKPC_IDS += "2096,";Popularity: unranked [?] […]
[…] little while ago, I came across this blog entry at Engtech, describing how to use a service called ScheduleWorld to act as a central agent between […]
[…] then there’s this blog post. Wow, […]
[…] and can be used as much as or as little as you need. The anonymous author of //engtech wrote up a very detailed guide for synching up Google contacts and calendar items with multiple Microsoft Out…; if that’s not enough, the information is synched to an iPod and mobile phone as […]
This is definitely useful information if you want to keep your contacts update and organized. Thank you!
This is an interesting article. I need to start using this information for myself.
Nice blog. I’m glad I found this information cause I needed the help.
[…] Calendars (trop compliqué), GCalSync (ne fonctionne que dans le sens GCal vers E61), solution ScheduleWorld + Funambol (ne marche pas très bien, notamment pour les évènements récurrents… la faute à Google […]
To synchronize your Google calendar and contacts with your Lotus Notes, you can use Awesync (www.awesync.com).
Also, with Awesync and Google calendar you can sync your Lotus Notes calendar and contacts with iPhone/Android.
Nice blog. I’m glad I found this information cause I needed the help.
Thanks
This is an interesting article. I need to start using this information for myself.
Thanks
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Limit one per person
This is definitely useful information if you want to keep your contacts update and organized. Thank you!
Nice post! thanks and keep on sharing here!
wireless internet is simply the best though sometimes the signal fluctuates depending on the weather condition ‘