Google ended support for Google Calendar sync and the application completely stopped working on 1 August 2014. You are no longer able to sync your Google Calendar with Outlook Calendar, thus, forcing you to switch to a single character.
It might be an easier option to just stick to one calendar, but there are still people who prefer to use both. So the need of syncing Google Calendar to Outlook still persists. You cannot get the syncing feature by any official means and Google doesn’t seem to be in any mood of rethinking the decision.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t have an alternative solution. Many third-party tools and services have sprang out that let you sync your Google calendar to Outlook and vice versa. In this Tutorial, we are going to introduce some reliable tools and services that will let your sync Google Calendar for Free!.
Calendar Sync
If you are looking for a robust tool that provides all the required features to sync Google Calendar entries to Outlook, then Calendar Sync is a great option. It is a free desktop client based tool that will let you sync your Google calendar to Outlook and vice versa. It is extremely easy to set up and offers many customization options.
It supports syncing to Outlook 2003 and above, and comes with an installer download and a .Zip download. You can get .Zip download if you have administrator rights issue, otherwise, the Installer will work fine.
Open the program and you will see all the settings that you can tweak. Here, under “Google Account” heading, enter the Email address of your Google account and the password. After that, click on “Sign in to Google” to Sign in to your Google Account and allow the Tool to access your Google Calendar data.
Below you will see the options of “Select Outlook Calendar/Google Calendar”. Here, you will have to enter the name of the calendar, you can click on Browse to browse the calendar in your PC and click on “Load Calendars” to load the calendar from your Google Account.
After that, you will see “Sync Settings” options. Here, you can specify how you want to sync your Calendar. You can sync Google Calendar with Outlook or Outlook Calendar with Google and even both at the same time. Now, just click on Synchronize and your calendar entries will be synchronized according to what you have selected.
Auto Sync Calendar
Calendar Sync also comes with the ability to Auto Sync calendar according to a predefined schedule. This is quite handy, as you will not have to manually synchronize entries whenever changes are made.
To Auto sync calendar, click on “Auto Sync” tab and check the option “Enable Scheduled Synchronization”. Below you will see two options to schedule Auto Sync.
In the first option, you can provide time in minutes after which your data will be synchronized. The variable is in the Minutes, so you will have enter data in minutes. For example, to set a schedule after every 5 hours, you will have to enter the value as “300” (60×5).
In the second option, you can schedule auto sync at a particular time of the day. Here you can mention Hours/Minutes/AM or PM. Just select the option which you prefer and click on “Save Settings” to start Auto Sync. Now, all new entries made will be synchronized according to the schedule you have selected.
SynqYa
SynqYa is a Web based service instead of a desktop tool. It might not be better than many other services and a bit confusing as well, but it is a web based app that doesn’t require any kind of administrator privilege to work.
The service is definitely free, but you will have to register first with the Google account which you would like to sync (you can provide any password you like while registering). You will also have to authorize the service to access google drive and Google calendar.
The service will provide you with an export Google Calendar link in the main interface. You can click on it and all your events in Google Calendar will be downloaded to your PC in iCalendar format.
You can then open the iCalendar file with outlook to load and sync with it. However, SynqYa will also make duplicate entries as the data from your Google Calendar is downloaded separately without Outlook entries in the view. So if you will have the same entry in both Outlook and Google, it will be recorded twice.
Overall, SynqYa might not offer the best service when it comes to syncing, but it can be better fit in certain situations, like lack of administrator rights or working in a company (strict) environment.
Paid Google Calendar Sync Tools
Although, above mentioned free tools are more than enough for many people, but if you are looking to get even better features and don’t mind paying for it, then we got some recommendations for you.
- CompanionLink: A reputable brand and supports multiple brands for calendar syncing.
- gSyncit: Supports multiple brands for syncing and it can sync calendar entries, notes, tasks and contacts.
- SyncMyCal: Supports more than one account to sync and comes with a robust auto sync feature.
Filed in . Read more about Google, Google Calendar and Outlook.