iCal / Google Calendar sync?

July 24, 2006 4:41 PM

It's been months now and I still can't find a synchronization solution for Google Calendar / iCal (or palm desktop) / Palm Pilot. The very fact that it's taken so long is making me suspect that there's some technical issue that makes it actually not possible. Is this correct? Is there a solution out there to sync (push data both ways) my google calendar with my palm pilot?
posted by Envoy to computers & internet (8 comments total)

Oh, it's possible: you'd have to export the calendar of choice to a pdb in the Palm calendar format. This probably means calendar -> xm / screen scraping -> palm format -> pdb.

Pbd's aren't difficult to use (though it's been a few years since I did any Palm programming -- that was mostly to put usenet threads in a pdb for a Palm newsreader; what you'd need to do would be almost exactly the same (but with calendar entries instead of newsgroup posts)). if you can't find it, I suspect this is something you'll have to program yourself or underwrite. Programming it yourself isn't too difficult -- there are available cross compiler for Palm , and even free (or at one time free) IDEs. Underwriting would mean finding a Palm programmer and offering cash or donations, possibly in concert with other X Calaendar and Palm users.
posted by orthogonality at 4:49 PM on July 24, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

er, XML.
posted by orthogonality at 4:52 PM on July 24, 2006

Maybe I'm missing something, but you can do it, according to Google, manually.

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=37118&topic=8566

1) Go to "Settings" > "Import Calendar."

2) Click "Browse" and choose the file that contains your events, then click "Open."

3) Select the Google Calendar where you'd like to import events, then click on "Import."


And vice-versa. So are you saying you need it to be automatic on HotSync.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 5:08 PM on July 24, 2006

They have some good tips here, including one application and an innovative solution:

Windows users can sign up for the free service at airset.com, which syncs Palms with its own calendar. Then just set up your airset calendar to subscribe to your Google Calendar(s). Works like a charm. Right now the feeds from Google Calendar (or any other external source) to airset are only updated once per day, but the site says it's working on a "refresh now" button.
posted by ifranzen at 5:09 PM on July 24, 2006

Er, I somehow missed a question-mark off the end.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 5:10 PM on July 24, 2006

There is no simple way. I have seen posts on some message boards about 3rd party apps that are in development, but there has been nothing released so far. It's frustrating, and to me shows Google's inability to cross their t's and dot their i's. I'll add it to the list of things that google should do. Like exporting contacts from gMail in vCard format. Good luck!
posted by blue_beetle at 5:21 PM on July 24, 2006

I've been trying to find a good solution for the past week, and I haven't seen anything yet. There isn't even a good two-way sync solution for iCal/googlecal yet (once this is in place, Missing Sync should take care of the PDA).

orthogonality writes "Oh, it's possible: you'd have to export the calendar of choice to a pdb in the Palm calendar format."

This isn't necessary. It's currently possible to export Google calendars in iCal format, import them into iCal, and sync iCal with your palm device. Unfortunately, this isn't a two-way solution, and requires manual reconciliation of new entires.

AmbroseChapel writes "Maybe I'm missing something, but you can do it, according to Google, manually."

Again, this isn't a good two-way solution. You can easily import/export calendars back and forth between the programs/devices. The part that's missing is an application that reconciles the two calendars, merging them in a single calendar containing all events in both original calendars without any repeated events.
posted by mr_roboto at 5:22 PM on July 24, 2006

"There isn't even a good two-way sync solution for iCal/googlecal yet..."

If a lone screenshot is any indication, the recently released-into-beta SyncBridge appears to do multi-way synching between iCal and Google (among others).
posted by celkins at 5:34 PM on July 24, 2006