Full FeedHow to sync iCal and Google Calendar
Google added support for CalDAV back in July. But now they’ve improved that feature, which means syncing between iCal and Google Calendars is easier than ever.
To set up syncing between iCal and Google, first make sure you actually have a calendar set up with Google. All you really have to do is log in to Google Calendar.
Now start by downloading Google’s tool, Calaboration. After unzipping the tool and launching it, sign in to your Google account.
The window now displays all calendars that are set up with your account. Check the calendars that you want access to in iCal and click Add to iCal.
Calaboration now makes sure that iCal isn’t running and does all of the hard work setting up CalDAV accounts in iCal. When you next launch iCal, your Google calendars will be fully synced and editable.
If you’re scratching your head as to why you’d want to sync to a Google Calendar, then consider this. You can keep track of your personal (public) schedule and let friends, family or anybody, really, have access to that information on their computer. Now you’ll never have to tell them (again and again and again) when you’re working; just update your Google calendar and save yourself from the headaches. And thankfully, setting this up is pretty painless as well.
First, log in to Google Calendar and go to Settings. Click the Calendars tab and find the calendar that you want to share and click on it’s label. Towards the bottom of this page are a few calendar addresses.
Now you have to choose between a public or private calendar. Public calendars are searchable through Google, so it’s your call as to whether you want strangers finding your calendar with a search. You can make your calendar public in the Share This Calendar tab and use the first set of addresses.
If you choose to stay private, just use the private address. This will give you control over who has access to the calendar. You can share your calendar with people by clicking the HTML button and sending them this link.
If they have a Mac (and thus iCal) it can automatically be synced to their computer. Copy the iCal link and send it, along with the following instructions, to anyone you wish. Feel free to use my generic template if you like.
I’ve set up my schedule so you can view it on the internet. If you’d like to have my schedule available and constantly updated on your Mac, it’s pretty easy. Just copy the following address and do the following.
[Insert your iCal link here]
- Open iCal
- Click Calendar in the menu bar followed by Subscribe
- Paste the link that I sent to you here
- Click Subscribe and OK
- All done
This process will add a new calendar under the Subscriptions section in the sidebar. After clicking Subscribe, you can change some values, such as the calendar name or label color, but the default values will work fine.
This is a great way to share a schedule with friends and family. And best of all, it’s not that hard.
Product [Calaboration]
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The Google calendar link for iCal worked for about one day and then broke itself—while I continue to access the Google functions on the same Mac via the standard browser user interface.
If this POS software only works for a day and then inexplicably breaks with stupid ‘authentication’ errors, then it’s worthless.
on December 11, 2008 at 10:16 PM - LINKI’ve noticed that if you leave iCal open for a relatively long time (days) that this may stop syncing, but it fixes itself if you quit and relaunch iCal. It’s not perfect, but it is free.
on December 11, 2008 at 10:19 PM - LINKNo, it doesn’t ‘fix itself’ and the problem was not with leaving iCal ‘open for days’. The Google calendar iCal access method breaks and there is no useful diagnostic information for tracking the problem.
The whole thing is incredibly stupid because none of the calendar objects are permanent. Once the connectivity to Google is broken, I get sick of the stupid access error messages and delete the Google access account, all of the appointments simply disappear from iCal.
If there is no option to make the appointment objects persistent in iCal, then the so-called integration is worse than useless.
on December 11, 2008 at 10:24 PM - LINKOk, I’m sorry, I thought you were referring to a different problem. I just opened up iCal and experience the same problem that you’re describing. It was never like this before. Sounds like Google is having some issues. I bet this will clear up in a day or so.
on December 11, 2008 at 10:31 PM - LINKSeems like a lot of people are having this exact problem…
http://groups.google.com/group/google-calendar-help-bugs/browse_thread/thread/1b1e6cb6710673ba/3fcf461f5668a908#3fcf461f5668a908
on December 11, 2008 at 10:42 PM - LINKIndeed. If we had made the mistake of promoting this access method to Google calendar to our customer base, Google’s operational mistake would now be costing us plenty. Is it any wonder that VARs, integrators, and consultants are very, very cautious when recommending any form of ‘cloud computing’ unless there is a way to maintain persistent access to data.
At least with Google’s email, there is the IMAP access method, which allows users to maintain offline copies of their messages.
The same data persistence is absolutely essential for calendar client software.
on December 11, 2008 at 10:54 PM - LINKI completely understand your reluctance for cloud computing. I always worry about what happens when my connections drops. I can say though, that this worked nearly flawlessly for me until literally 30 minutes ago. iCal actually does keep an offline copy of all of my Google Calendars (I sync, or did sync, two). It’s interesting that this was not the case for you. All I can do is hope Google fixes this.
on December 11, 2008 at 11:01 PM - LINKJust one more update. I probably shouldn’t say this, but syncing with iCal is again working for me. Now that I’ve said it, it will probably break again in a few minutes.
on December 12, 2008 at 07:37 PM - LINKI have discovered a great way to sync Google calendar with iCal. Here is the link on the Archived section of Google calendar help: http://tinyurl.com/8mc4zo You need to sign in to access these archived discussions. It’s under “Discussions > Users - How do I? (Archived) > Sync Google Calendar with iCal (Two-Way). It really does work without glitches.
on January 19, 2009 at 05:35 PM - LINK