Google Calendar Sync - Failed Synchronicity

A while back I tried out a few software options that are intended to sync Google Calendars to Outlook (article is here). Well on March 5 Google released their own version. It is appropriately named Google Calendar Sync.

So I decided to give it a try. Before I started, I could envision gSyncit and Google Calendar Sync trying to sync at the same time and completely screw up my calendar duplicating everything. So I uninstalled gSyncit, and installed Google Calendar Sync.

Install was a breeze. I input my Google username and password, and was presented with three options. Sync Google to Outlook, Sync Outlook to Google, or 2 way. I decided to start with I would just sync Outlook to Google. I would prefer my Google cal to be screwed up than my Outlook on (Google is personal, Outlook is work. Screwing up my toys is fine, but screwing up work is bad).

So then came the big moment, I told it to Sync. It said "Loading Google Calendar Events" and some little green arrows did a little dance, and then it was done! Or so I thought. When I hovered over the icon, it told me "last sync completed: 9:12". So I pull up my Google Cal, and alas, it didn't work.

I surf around and figure out that it only syncs events and appointments, but not meetings. Well, that's goofy! Everything on my Outlook is meetings! After some research I discover that you need to tell Google that your work e-mail should be associated with your Google Account. You do that by going here: https://www.google.com/accounts/ManageAccount and click on edit. From there you can update your e-mail addresses.

And then another attempt at hitting Sync. It told me "last sync completed: 9:25". And my Google calendar remained empty. I shut it down, and started it back up. At that point it actually gave me an error message stating WHY it wasn't syncing. It told me I needed to connect to the internet. Whoa, I guess all that time I had spent looking through the less than useful docs on the net and surfing Google and checking my Google Calendar I actually was NOT on the net? Wow. I am guessing it's a firewall issue. I am behind a pretty tight corporate firewall. Google Chat doesn't work here either, so I guess that shouldn't surprise me. After quite a bit more searching I could not find the port that the little syncer actually uses. So I don't even know what to tell the folks over in the networking department what ports to open.

Not only that, but while researching the port, I discover that you are only allowed to sync ONE calendar. You know how in Google you can have TONS of calendars and view them all together? Well this tool only syncs the 'main' calendar. Which is NOT the one I would want synced to Outlook, I would like it to sync the calendar named 'Work'. Go figure.

In the end I decided it's a bust. It says it last synced at 9:35, but it didn't. And now all of a sudden half of my appointments in my Outlook are... gone... again. Anything that was before today is gone. If it was a recurring set that was setup before today, it's gone. So that's about half my appointments. I don't know if Google Calendar Sync did it, or if gSyncit did it on it's way out the door.

Either way, this post comes to an end. I think I have an appointment, I'm not sure, since neither of my calendars says I do, but I'm pretty sure... I wonder what the meeting is for... or where it is...