Syncing Work Gmail and Outlook Calendars

October 20, 2020 10:32 AM

How can I get my (work) Gmail calendar to show on my (work) Outlook calendar (they are the same email address)?

For work, I have a single email address but two inboxes and calendars: one in Outlook, and one in Gmail. Outlook is my main calendar, but for Reasons, I use the Gmail calendar to create certain events. Events created on the Gmail calendar do not show up on Outlook, so I have to duplicate the event in Outlook so it blocks my Outlook calendar.

I'd like to get my Gmail calendar to sync with Outlook, so that I can see appointments from my Gmail calendar in Outlook.

Things I've already tried:
- importing the Gmail calendar to Outlook: this worked, but only brought over items one time and didn't update as new events were added to Gmail
- adding new account to Outlook via desktop app: this didn't work at all because the associated email address is the same, so it simply duplicated my Outlook calendar
- subscribe to Gmail calendar via Outlook web app: didn't seem to work at all


For security reasons, I likely won't be able to use a 3rd party service like Zapier or ITTT to solve this problem.

Anyone else run across this issue? Thanks in advance for your help!

posted by too bad you're not me to Technology (5 answers total)

I use a little program called Outlook Google Calendar Sync. I've had luck doing the things you describe.
posted by Dmenet at 11:34 AM on October 20, 2020

I use an app called Gsyncit to synchronize my work Outlook calendar with my Gmail calendar. You can set whether the sync should be two-way (so a change on either calendar automatically gets reflected on the other) or one-way (so, for example, changes on the Gmail calendar would get synced to Outlook, but changes on Outlook wouldn't get synced to Gmail).

(This used to be possible just using Outlook and Gmail, no intermediary required. It's been years and I'm still annoyed that they removed that functionality. Harrumph.)
posted by Lexica at 12:46 PM on October 20, 2020

I did this not long ago, and I *think* this is what worked for me.

--In Google Calendar, find the calendar you want to see in Outlook and select "setting and sharing"

--On that settings page, scroll down to the bottom; I'm pretty sure it was the "secret address in iCal format" that I used to set up a new calendar in Outlook. It shows up under "other calendars" and then I had it overlay my main work calendar so I see them in the same window. It updates and adds items in Outlook when I make changes in Google Calendar.

It's read-only, so you can't edit the Google items in Outlook but if you just want to read them, this should do the job.
posted by oakroom at 12:51 PM on October 21, 2020

@Lexica, thank you SO much! I have been trying to do this for weeks. @too bad you're not me, thanks for the post.
posted by reksb at 3:00 PM on October 21, 2020

G Suite Sync, which is a Google product, syncs enterprise Google Apps accounts directly to Outlook and it's round-trip.
posted by MattD at 3:58 PM on October 21, 2020