Sync iPhone Calendar with Google Calendar on Windows for free

Posted by Andy Atkinson on 10/22/2007

Syncing iPhone Calendar with Google Calendar on OS X is easier due to Apple iCal's integration with Google Calendar. GCALDaemon (free solution) or Spanning Sync ($25/yr. or $65 lifetime) automate bi-directional sync making the process even easier. What does Apple offer Windows users that want to sync to a web calendar? iTunes supports calendar sync only with Outlook on Windows (as of this writing). Contacts can be synced with Outlook Express, which is free, but Outlook Express does not support calendar features. Sunbird, a free iCal-based calendaring application with a Windows version, cannot by synced with iTunes.

Why not use Google Calendar on the web directly? Google offers an optimized Calendar version for mobile phones that makes creating and viewing entries faster (though events can't be deleted from the mobile version), however the native iPhone calendar application is useful when Wi-Fi or EDGE is not available (in certain buildings or outside EDGE service areas). A native application also offers notifications and integration with other local apps not available from a web application.

RemoteCalendars (open source solution)

RemoteCalendars is an Outlook plug-in that tries to do bi-directional syncing between Outlook (2003 or newer) and Google Calendar. I say try because I was never able to get RemoteCalendars to publish Outlook calendar events to Google Calendar (tested on two Windows machines), but it was able to pull Google Calendar data into Outlook, albeit sluggishly and with occasional errors.

RemoteCalendars is a COM-.NET Add-in for Outlook 2003/2007, written in C#. After installing this plugin, every Outlook user should be able to subscribe, reload and delete a generic remote iCalendar (RFC 2445) from Outlook 2003/2007.

RemoteCalendars has useful options, such as disabling local notifications for remote calendar events, and showing remote calendar events as private on the local calendar (useful for a personal calendar synced with work machine).

RemoteCalendars installs as a Outlook plug-in

I followed Jake Ludington's detailed installation instructions for RemoteCalendars and was able to install it on two machines. From there I was able to set up my Google Calendar. I recommend creating a new Outlook calendar to use with your Google Calendar, in case you need to delete the Outlook one due to errors or during testing.

The only installation tip I recommend is to check the version of the .NET runtime you have installed, paste this into a command window and look for a folder that starts with v2.0: %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\

After several tests on Windows XP SP2 and Outlook 2003 on two machines, I was not able to get RemoteCalendars to post events from Outlook to Google Calendar. Once events were pulled in from Google Calendar however, I had no trouble syncing iPhone with Outlook via iTunes. RemoteCalendars also made Outlook very sluggish and would occasionally freeze it. Documentation, translation, and stability for RemoteCalendars are lacking at this time, though the project is open source and may be a good option to try if you are willing to experiment and deal with some errors.

More RemoteCalendars resources

Plaxo toolbar for Outlook and Google Calendar sync (free or paid)

Plaxo tries to solve the problem of contact information being outdated, by allowing users to update their own contact information and easily share it with others. Plaxo will sync with many web sites and local applications for free, including Outlook on Windows via a toolbar download. A paid version ($50/yr.) offers even more features, such as LinkedIn sync and duplicate removal, though this TechCrunch piece states that Plaxo Premium may not be worth the annual fee.

Installation of the 3MB Outlook add-on is easy and a wizard will guide you through the steps to configure which Outlook file types you'd like to sync. Once logged-in to Plaxo, a Google account can be set up to pull in Calendar and contact information, which can be automatically sync'd with the Plaxo Calendar.

Plaxo installs as a Outlook toolbar

Now sync in all directions works as expected. I was able to test creation of an event on iPhone, sync it with Outlook via iTunes, then fire off a sync from Outlook to Plaxo Calendar, and finally fire a Plaxo sync to update my Google Calendar. There are several steps in this process, though fortunately it can all be executed automatically. In addition to the aforementioned benefits of being able to access an up-to-date calendar offline on iPhone, Plaxo Online is a free service with many sync points and a newer feature called Pulse that aggregates public data from many web services.

Recommendation: I'm recommending Plaxo to Windows iPhone users looking to sync with Google Calendar.

More sync options to explore

30Boxes calendar user? Don't want to create a Plaxo account but willing to spend a few dollars? Sync My Cal offers Outlook or 30Boxes sync on Windows for $25 (individual license).

SpanningSync recommends ScheduleWorld to sync Outlook and Google Calendar on Windows, though I have not tested this.

Finally, this tip should work the same for iPod Classic or iPod Touch (or any device that syncs with Outlook calendar, allowing users to sync and take their calendar on the go.

About the author(s)

Andy Atkinson works as a software developer in the Minneapolis area, with experience in desktop and web application development, and interest in iPhone and Android platforms. He has also been a hardware geek since he built his first computer. He runs Windows, OS X, and Linux, and is always working on getting more comfortable on the command line.

He founded Pain in the Tech in 2005 as a way to share tips and tutorials with friends and family, and evangelize great products and services to its growing readership. Site content has always been varied, so adding multiple contributors was a natural fit. By 2008, Pain in the Tech had 7 contributors. Site ownership was transitioned to Matt Thommes in 2008.

Comments

Note: Comments may be viewed by authors, but if you have a more specific question you'd like to ask them, please email andyatkinson@gmail.com.

# OggSync at 11/30/2007 10:47 am cst

Another solution is OggSync which is a native Windows plugin.

# Jari Vanha-Eskola at 12/14/2007 10:24 am cst

How about a sync tool that would automatically sync or publish Sunbird/Lightning calendar to iPhone? iTunes plugin?

It's really unbelievable how Apple just forgot everybody who doesn't use Outlook.

# John at 12/26/2007 3:59 am cst

Lest you forget, Microsoft owns part of Apple... Go figure

# LouN at 1/10/2008 4:32 pm cst

Also try SyncJe for iPhone, wireless contacts/cal/notes sync. (Can sync with Outlook also)

# Jeremy at 1/15/2008 7:30 pm cst

also gsyncit at daveswebsite.com. Works great, and will sync multiple calendars....

# Håkan Reis at 3/20/2008 12:08 am cst

Well there is a better solution than these now. I say better but not good. Google them selfs now offer a 2-way (or 1-way if you like) sync solution to outlook, (http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=89955&topic=13948&intention=13946)

With this and iTunes you woul get it half the way. But I am amazed there are no support to at least subscribe to iCal directly on the iPhone. I mean how hard could it be?

# coder at 3/28/2008 6:26 am cst

http://probedeep.blogspot.com/2008/03/email-calendar-and-contacts-to-mobile.html

# Conrad at 6/11/2008 11:33 am cst

I am not willing to pay any money and dont want to make an account for anything so the only one is remote calendars. I have Outlook 2007 on Windows Vista 32-bit, yet the toolbar does not show up in Outlook when i install Remote Calendars. I have tried what google offers, the program that supposedly sync GCal and Outlook, but with that my events don't show up in Outlook.

# David Boreham at 6/18/2008 3:41 pm cst

If/when you have the iPhone 2.0 software, you will be able to use Nuevasync to do over-the-air sync with Google (calendar and contacts). Configure the iPhone's 'Exchange sync' capability to point to the Nuevasync server.

# J.P. at 7/17/2008 11:20 am cst

Saw David Boreham's post and tried his Nuevasync suggestion. I updated google calendar and the changes were reflected on my iPod Touch's calendar app and then did the opposite. Both worked very well. Thanks!

# Jon at 7/21/2008 7:46 pm cst

Bloody Brilliant, cheers David Boreham... Nuevasync does it beautifully, and here I was thinking I'd need to Jailbreak and find some app to do it! Thank goodness it was that easy... creating new events etc from phone updates on my Google Apps Calendar straight away... and best of all it displays ALL my calendars, I don't even need to specify which ones, feeds etc (though I guess for some it might be handy to so you can choose what to display) Anyway great stuff :)

Jon

# Bill Rafferty at 7/25/2008 11:36 am cst

Was wanting to sync my gCal with my new iPhone and found the NuevaSync here. Works flawlessly! Thanks so much.

# Joe Doyle at 9/9/2008 1:57 pm cst

Nuevasync is just a fantastic find. Well done David Boreham

# ChefJoe at 9/28/2008 7:15 pm cst

For those wondering about lightning/sunbird sync I've been playing around with how to do this from multiple computers and have it all wind up on my ipod touch.

Nuevasync is great for getting the data to the phone. I'm finding the most universal way to get nuevasync loaded from my windows computers is google calendars/gmail contacts. I've been feeding mozilla lightning/sunbird from google calendars using the "provider for gcal" add-in. To get my contacts up I have tried both Plaxo free accounts and am currently trying out zindus thunderbird extension to get my thunderbird account into gmail contacts. There are pluses and minuses to both Plaxo and Zindus but at least Zindus does 2-way contact sync.

# Dhanesh at 10/5/2008 1:18 pm cst

The Plaxo solution is awesome. Works like a charm. Will stick to this until Apple grows up.

Thanks! -D

# Luigi Semenzato at 11/20/2008 1:13 pm cst

I've been using Nuevasync. It does it right, period. I see little point in looking at or discussing anything else. If anybody thinks that Nuevasync is not doing it exactly right, speak up now.

# jeremy at 11/20/2008 9:14 pm cst

the problem with nuevasync is it uses msft exchange, and i already have 1 exchange account setup for my school. So this is not an option for me.

Why cant Apple come out of the box to sync with Google calendars? I'd expect more from them.

# John Bates at 1/2/2009 5:37 pm cst

I like Plaxo a lot. I was a subscriber already, but thanks for helping me realize that this solution works for this problem. I have a lot of contacts to manage, and I like Plaxo for that, too. Thanks. JKB

# Apreche at 1/4/2009 2:43 pm cst

So far there is still no solution for me.

I don't have a Mac, so I can't use spanning sync.

I don't have Outlook, so I can't use any of those options that require it.

I have my iPhone Exchange account configured to read my work e-mail. That prevents me from using Nuevasync. Also, I don't like the idea that my Calendar goes from Google to Nuevasync's server, and then to my phone. I want my data to go directly from Google to me, nobody else in-between.

The whole thing sucks. I say it's Apple's fault. Why not more than one Exchange account? Why not support for calendars from other sources? Obviously this is a feature in high demand.

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