gCal/iCal Sync

September 27, 2007 4:44 PM

I'm looking for a way to have iCal open automatically at a specific time, sync with my Google Calendar, and then preferably close (doesn't have to close). I didn't see anything in iCal prefs. Any ideas?

Similar questions have been asked before. I don't necessarily need a free two-way sync between gCal and iCal, as I think that'd be too much to ask (Suggestions would still be ok). I just need a way to schedule my iCal at a certain time each night to sync up w/ my gCal so anything added in gCal will go gCal-->iCal-->iPhone. Craziness, I know. But sometimes I need to add events into gCal for various reasons. Ideas?

posted by jpcody to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Have you tried Spanning Sync? It's not free, but it really makes this sort of thing seamless. You don't even need to bother with "opening iCal at a specific time", because it runs as a background service that periodically syncs your gCal and iCal both ways.
posted by melorama at 4:47 PM on September 27, 2007

You could use Aurora, setting iCal to launch at whatever time you want. I think, but am not sure, that you can set iCal to auto sync on start up. That would do it.
posted by dobie at 4:59 PM on September 27, 2007

What I did was set the computer to shut down at 2:00 AM in energy perfs in the system perfs. Then I went to accounts in system perfs and told iCal to open at start up via login items. I scheduled the computer to start up at 6:00 am. The syncing occured at start up by default when the iCal launched itself.

I am pretty sure if you have subscribed to your Google Calendar then syncing should occur automatically when the app opens. iPhone picked up my changes when I plugged it into the machine. I think if you leave it there over night it will automatically launch iTunes and sync up the phone at start up.

You also have to make sure that you tell the computer to login to your account at start up- so it doesn't sit there waiting for you to login.

If you want to get more creative with the start up times you could mess around in automator and have it launch iCal at a certain time each day; mess around with it some more and you can tell it to shut down also.

If this isn't clear enough let me know.
posted by bkeene12 at 7:02 PM on September 27, 2007

I use GCALDaemon, a free program for automatically syncing b/w gCal and iCal. I then use Lingon (also free) to schedule when I want the sync to occur or to have it update continuously. Mine automatically syncs the two in the background every 10 min., but to see new changes in iCal I need to restart the program.

This has worked well for me once I got it set up (especially considering its free). It helps in installing and configuring these to have some experience with the Terminal and unix-style commands, but the directions on the GCALDaemon website are pretty good.

[I'm using OS 10.4.10 and iCal 2.0.5]
posted by lorenzism at 7:28 PM on September 27, 2007

Plaxo does syncing between gCal and iCal automatically. It may not be ideal for you, but it works well for me.

Looking at my account and sync logs, I know that it periodically updates and pulls from gCal when there's something to sync. I'm not 100% how it works on the iCal side, but I know for sure that whenever I open iCal it's up to date. I sync between gCal, iCal at home and iCal at work. It's also free for the basic setup.

The one annoyance I have with it is that it doesn't transfer alarm settings.
posted by ursus_comiter at 8:45 PM on September 27, 2007

This may not be exactly what you're looking for, but it might be close enough. You can set iCal to automatically pull your gCal info, just like RSS.

Log in to you google calendar and click on "manage calendars" down on the bottom left. Then click on "share this calendar" right in the middle of the page. On the next page, go to the "calendar details" tab near the top. At the bottom of this page you will see "Private Address" with different feed buttons next to it. Click on the one for iCal then copy the web address that is displayed. Now open your iCal and click on "Calendar" in the menu bar. Choose the option to "Subscribe" and paste the address in that space. It will prompt you about which types of events you want to view, and how often you want it to refresh.

From there your iPhone should pull from iCal automatically.

Hope that helps you!
posted by cp7 at 6:21 PM on September 28, 2007