Ninth Division [9D]

Google Calendar Sync on iPhone

Posted on 10. Feb, 2009 by Andy in How'd you do that? | 3 Comments

Yesterday Google announced a new service called Google Sync for many devices.  Most importantly to me, it now supports syncing multiple calendars on the iPhone.  Gone are the days of having to plug in my iPhone to update my calendar on the iPhone/Mac.  Unfortunately, getting this working, wasn’t so easy; yeah, yeah I know it’s in beta but most of everything Google puts out is in beta.  Here is how I got it working…

BACKUP YOUR iPHONE!!!

Also – if you currently use Microsoft Exchange Services for your email/calendar/contacts and you want to keep it that way – you are out of luck.  I am really sure if it is a limitation to the iPhone or Microsoft Exchange or a combination of both, but you can only  connect to Exchange Service at a time.  Not only that, you cannot have any other Calendars than what is synced with the the Micorsoft Exchange Server.

0 – Read over the Google documentation.  Essentially, Google has setup a public Microsoft Exchange server (or some server running ActiveSync) that sync with Gmail: standard, team, education, editions.  This includes Google Apps for your domain!!  In fact NinthDivision.com uses Google Apps for your domain.

• Start here – Google Sync for iPhone
• Setup – Setup iPhone or iPod Touch
• iPhone device

Okay – there are all the articles that Google has.  At first pass nothing worked.  I am not sure what I did wrong, so I went through the instructions again and then only Contacts were synced. Here is what I did to get the rest working.

1 – Login as the Admin for your Google Apps for your Domain.  You can do this from your desktop, not the iPhone.  At your control Panel select SERVICE-SETTINGS, then go down to MOBILE.  Now enable “Google Sync”, then Save.

2 – After backing up your phone/ipod go turn PUSH notifications on.  If you are like me, you probably had it off because didn’t use it.  Google Sync uses the PUSH notifications – of course.

3 – Go through the Setup iPhone or iPod Touch instructions.  I named my email account googlesync@google.com – just for reference.  Which ever you select (Calendar / Contacts) will be completely removed first before the sync begins.  This is why it is stressed to backup your iPhone first.  Backing up is usually done by default on a sync, unless you have it disabled.

4 – Here is where it got tricky and required some digging.  To enable the Calendar you have to open up Safari.  The initial instructions are to goto:  m.google.com/sync.  Well, that only works (i guess) if you have a @gmail.com account.  Not if you are like the rest of us and use Google Apps for your Domain. In Safari on your iPhone, you need to goto this URL instead:  https://m.google.com/sync/settings/a/YOUR-DOMAIN/iconfig/.  I found reference somewhere in the Google forums, I wish I could give some credit the person but I am now unable to find the topic.  Maybe someday it will work by going to m.google.com/sync/ but until then, use that URL.

5 – Now just select the calendars you want.  I noticed mine said they were read only, but that wasn’t true.  I have been able to create events on my iPhone and they go straight up to my google calendar.  If I remove it on Google Calendar it is removed on my phone – almost instantly.

Also if you are looking for a good Google Calendar/Contact sync from your Mac to another Mac – I use SpanningSync.  I love it!  Now EVERYTHING is completely synced.  My iPhone using Google Sync and my Macbook and MacPro using SpanningSync.  You might be asking, why not use Google’s Calendar syncing thing instead of SpanningSync – well it completly sucks.  I am not going to go into it, but just save yourself time and check out Spanning Sync.  Heck if you like it, you can save $5 by referring me using this number - DWJ9RS.

I hope I didn’t leave anything out.  If so – please comment below.

Tags: calendar, google, iphone