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Sync iCal, Google Calendar and the iPhone wirelessly

Google recently introduced Google Sync for iPhone, which allows you to sync Google Calendar with your iPhone wirelessly. Combined with BusySync, you can keep iCal, Google Calendar and your iPhone in sync wirelessly, without having to invest in MobileMe. And unlike the limitations in MobileMe, you can sync WebDAV calendars to your iPhone (like Holidays) as well as the Birthdays calendar, with BusySync and Google Sync for iPhone.

Following are step-by-step instructions for setting it up.

Configure BusySync to sync iCal and Google Calendar

In this example, there are four calendars in iCal: Home, Seattle Xcoders, US Holidays, and Birthdays. And there is one calendar on Google: john@google.com.

Three of the calendars in iCal appear under the SUBSCRIPTIONS heading. These calendars will not sync to the iPhone when using MobileMe, but they will sync to the iPhone when using BusySync and Google Sync for iPhone.

Next, open the BusySync prefpane and select the calendars in iCal you'd like to publish to Google, and the calendars on Google you'd like to subscribe to in iCal. Whether you are publishing or subscribing, the calendars will sync in both directions and the calendar events can be edited in both iCal and Google.

After selecting the calendars you wish to sync with BusySync, the calendars you subscribed to on Google will appear in iCal, and the calendars you are publishing from iCal will appear on Google.

You can now create and edit events on these calendars in iCal and Google and BusySync will keep them in sync.

Configure Google Sync for iPhone

Now that you've got iCal and Google syncing, the next step is to get your iPhone syncing with Google. Here are the instructions from Google's Mobile Help page.

• Open the Settings application on your device's home screen.
• Open Mail, Contacts, Calendars.
• Tap Add Account....
• Select Microsoft Exchange.

• In the Email field, enter the name of the account (anything you'd like).
• Leave the Domain field blank.
• Enter your full Google Account email address as the Username.
• Enter your Google Account password as the Password.
• Tap Next at the top of your screen.
• A new Server field will appear. Enter m.google.com.
• Press Next at the top of your screen again.
• Turn Calendars ON.

You've set up Google Sync for your iPhone. Synchronization will begin automatically if you have Push enabled on your phone. You can also open the Calendar app and wait a few seconds to start a sync.

By default, Google will only sync your primary Google Calendar with your iPhone. If you want to sync more than one calendar, there is an additional step:

Open the Safari browser on your iPhone and go to http://m.google.com/sync. Sign in with your account and select the calendars you want to sync with your iPhone. Once you've selected the calendars you want to sync, they will appear on the iPhone on your next sync.

You can now add and edit calendar events on your iPhone and they will sync to Google wirelessly, and from there they will sync to iCal via BusySync!

Note: If you're using Google Apps, you will need to enable ActiveSync for your Google Apps account before you can use Google Mobile Sync.

Summary

Comparing Google Sync for iPhone to MobileMe is not an apples-to-apples comparison, given all the added features that MobileMe provides. But if your primary interest is in syncing calendars between your iPhone and Google Calendar, then Google Sync for iPhone is a great alternative.

Google CalDAV versus BusySync

Google recently announced that Google Calendar now supports the CalDAV protocol enabling users to sync calendars on Google Calendar with iCal.

BusySync offers similar functionality for syncing iCal with Google Calendar. We have received many questions about how BusySync compares to Google CalDAV. Here’s a summary of the key differences:

	BusySync	Google CalDAV
Setup	Syncs calendars hosted in iCal and Google	Syncs only calendars hosted on Google
iPhone/MobileMe	Calendars sync to iPhone as read-write	Calendars do not sync to iPhone
iPhone/iTunes	Calendars sync to iPhone as read-write	Calendars sync to iPhone as read-only
ToDos	Supports ToDos in iCal	Does not support ToDos in iCal
Alarms	Syncs alarms created in iCal and Google; choice of popup, email or SMS	Syncs only alarms created on Google; popups only
OS Support	Leopard and Tiger	Leopard only

Read on for more details...

Setup
BusySync enables users to sync calendars hosted in iCal or Google. Once a source calendar is selected (in iCal or Google), BusySync automatically creates a corresponding destination calendar and keeps the two in sync.

BusySync can sync calendars hosted in both iCal and Google

Calendars synced from Google to iCal with BusySync appear in iCal as normal calendars.

BusySync calendars in iCal

Google CalDAV only syncs calendars hosted on Google, which means you cannot sync pre-existing calendars in iCal. To sync pre-existing calendars in iCal, each calendar must exported and deleted from iCal, imported into Google, and synced back to iCal.

Google can sync only calendars hosted on Google

Each Google CalDAV calendar will then appear in iCal under its own heading, adding unnecessary clutter to iCal.

Each Google CalDAV calendar appears under its own heading in iCal

iPhone
Calendars synced with BusySync will sync to the iPhone as read-write calendars, whether syncing the iPhone wirelessly with MobileMe or syncing via USB with iTunes. Changes made to events on the iPhone will then sync to iCal and Google Calendar.

Google CalDAV calendars do not sync to the iPhone at all when syncing an iPhone wirelessly with MobileMe. And Google CalDAV calendars sync as read-only when syncing an iPhone over USB with iTunes, prohibiting the ability to edit events on the iPhone.

iPhone Syncing	BusySync Calendars	Google CalDAV
Wireless/MobileMe	read-write	—
USB/iTunes	read-write	read-only

Incidentally, the same limitation applies to WebDAV calendar subscriptions in iCal (like Holiday calendars) -- they will not sync to the iPhone. But BusySync will allow you to work around this limitation as well to sync calendar subscriptions to the iPhone.

Connection Errors

Google's servers are frequently unreachable due to maintenance or network errors.

BusySync handles this situation gracefully and continues to attempt to connect to Google in the background without interrupting the user.

With Google CalDAV, if the server is not reachable, a modal dialog is displayed in iCal that you are forced to respond to. If you're syncing with Google CalDAV every minute, the error alert will appear every minute. The only way to get it to stop is to quit iCal. Very annoying.

Google CalDAV connection errors cause obtrusive alerts in iCal

ToDos
iCal supports ToDos, but Google Calendar does not.

BusySync supports ToDos in iCal. The ToDos will not sync to Google (because Google doesn't support them), but the ToDos will remain intact and editable in iCal.

Google CalDAV does not support ToDos in iCal. If a ToDo is created on a Google CalDAV calendar in iCal, an obscure error message is displayed and the ToDo is deleted!

 

ToDos cannot be created on Google CalDAV calendars

Alarms
BusySync syncs alarms created in both iCal and Google. And message alarms in iCal can be mapped to popup, Email, or SMS alarms on Google.



BusySync's Alarm syncing options

Google CalDAV syncs alarms created on Google but not alarms created in iCal. And it only syncs popup alarms; Email and SMS alarms are not synced.

Tiger
BusySync supports both Leopard and Tiger.

Google CalDAV is only supported in Leopard.

Summary
BusySync offers a more robust and full featured syncing experience than Google CalDAV. The lack of iPhone syncing in Google CalDAV is a show stopper for most; not to mention the lack of support for ToDos, one-way alarm syncing, and Leopard-only requirement. The best thing Google CalDAV has going for it is its price — free. But as the saying goes, you get what you pay for.

How to sync iCal calendar subscriptions to MobileMe and the iPhone

iCal allows you to subscribe to shared calendars, like holidays and sports schedules, but these calendar subscriptions don’t sync to MobileMe and the iPhone. This tutorial explains how you can overcome this limitation with a little help from BusySync.

Subscribing to calendars in iCal
iCal allows you to subscribe to calendars by selecting Find Shared Calendars from the Calendar menu.

This directs you to Apple’s web-site where you can choose from a wide variety of calendars to subscribe to.

When you subscribe to one of these calendars, you’re actually subscribing to a read-only “.ics” file on a WebDAV server.

Once subscribed to a WebDAV calendar, it shows up in iCal under the Subscriptions heading.

Subscriptions don’t sync to MobileMe and the iPhone
Unfortunately, iCal subscriptions do not sync to MobileMe. And, if you’re syncing your iPhone wirelessly through MobileMe, the subscriptions will not sync to your iPhone. iCal will only sync local calendars listed under the Calendars header, and will not sync any of the calendars listed under the Subscriptions header.

You can work around this limitation with BusySync. Following are step-by-step instructions on how to do it.

BusySync Publish and Subscribe
BusySync is a background app that allows you to sync iCal calendars with Google Calendar, and sync calendars with others on your LAN. It uses a publish and subscribe model similar to iCal, with a few key differences:

• Calendar subscriptions can be read-write, as well as read-only.
• BusySync calendar subscriptions appear as local calendars, not subscriptions.

Since BusySync calendar subscriptions are considered local calendars, iCal will sync them to MobileMe and the iPhone. So, the trick is to setup all of your WebDAV calendar subscriptions through BusySync.

Following are instructions on how to use BusySync to sync WebDAV calendars through Google Calendar. Similar instructions for using BusySync to sync WebDAV calendars over your LAN or with another user account on your Mac are at the end.

Subscribing to WebDAV calendars on Google Calendar
First, you need to subscribe to the WebDAV calendar on Google Calendar by entering the calendar URL. If you’re already subscribed to that calendar in iCal, right-click on the calendar name and choose Copy URL to Clipboard. Then delete the calendar from iCal.

Next, on Google Calendar, in the Other calendars section, click the Add link and choose Add by URL.

Then paste the URL in the Public Calendar Address field and click Add.

The calendar subscription will show up in the list of Other calendars in Google Calendar.

Once the calendar is subscribed to on Google Calendar, you can now sync it to iCal with BusySync.

Open the BusySync prefpane, and select the Google tab. A list of calendars that exist in iCal will appear on the left, and a list of calendars that exist on Google Calendar will appear on the right. Check the US Holidays calendar on the right to subscribe to it.

A few moments later, the calendar will appear in iCal under the Calendars header, as if it were a local read-write calendar.

And this calendar will sync to MobileMe and the iPhone.

If you don’t use Google Calendar, you can achieve the same results with BusySync on your LAN, or with another user account on the same Mac, as follows.

Subscribing to WebDAV calendars over the LAN
For this example, we have two users -- Mary and Fred. Mary is syncing with MobileMe, and Fred is not. Therefore, Fred will subscribe to the WebDAV calendars in iCal, and republish them on the LAN with BusySync. Mary will then subscribe to Fred’s calendars with BusySync, where they will show up as local calendars. Note: Fred and Mary can be on separate computers on the LAN, or separate user accounts on the same Mac. The process is the same in both scenarios.

In iCal, Fred subscribes to the US Holidays WebDAV calendar and it shows up under the Subscriptions header.

Next, Fred publishes this calendar over the LAN with BusySync by opening the BusySync prefpane, selecting the Publish tab, and clicking the US Holidays calendar.

Then, Mary subscribes to this calendar by opening the BusySync prefpane, selecting the Subscribe tab and clicking Fred’s US Holidays calendar.

A few moments later, the calendar will appear in Mary’s iCal under the Calendars header, as if it were a local read-write calendar.

And this calendar will sync to MobileMe and the iPhone.

iCal, Google Calendar, BusySync and MobileMe

Apple recently released MobileMe and we've had lots of questions about how to use it with BusySync.

The primary interest in MobileMe is the ability to sync your Mac with your iPhone wirelessly. If you want to use BusySync and MobileMe together, following are some common scenarios of how to do it.

Using BusySync on a LAN and MobileMe to sync with an iPhone
You may use BusySync to sync with others on your LAN while using MobileMe to sync with your iPhone wirelessly. In this example, Fred and Mary are syncing calendars over the LAN via BusySync, while simultaneously syncing with their iPhones through their individual MobileMe accounts.

Using BusySync on a LAN and MobileMe to sync with a Mac at home
You may use BusySync to sync with others on your LAN at work while using MobileMe to sync with your Mac at home. In this example, Fred and Mary are syncing calendars over the LAN via BusySync, while Fred is also syncing with his Mac at home via MobileMe. (Note: You may also use BusySync with Google Calendar to sync with a Mac at home.)

Using BusySync, Google Calendar, MobileMe and an iPhone
You may use BusySync to sync with Google Calendar while using MobileMe to sync with your iPhone. In this example, Fred and Mary are syncing calendars remotely through Google Calendar, while Mary is also syncing her iPhone via MobileMe.

The next question you might ask is, "why do I need both BusySync and MobileMe, can't I just use MobileMe to sync calendars"? The answer is, "it depends".

If you just need to sync calendars between your own computers (like your Mac at home and your Mac at work), then MobileMe is probably all you need. But, if you want to share calendars with others, you probably need BusySync.

Here's how MobileMe and BusySync differ when it comes to syncing calendars:

All or None
MobileMe syncs identical copies of all of your calendars across multiple Macs. This works fine for an individual with multiple computers. But it is not ideal for a group of users who wish to selectively share calendars. It forces everyone to use the same MobileMe account, thereby granting all users access to all of your MobileMe info (email, iTunes purchases, keychains, etc.).

BusySync allows you to choose which calendars you want to share so you can make some public while keeping others private. In addition, you can share calendars on your LAN, while simultaneously syncing with Google Calendar.

Read-Only vs. Read-Write
MobileMe allows you to Publish calendars that others can subscribe to with read-only access. BusySync allows you to Publish calendars that others can subscribe to with read-only AND read-write access, with password protection.

Web Access
Both MobileMe and BusySync enable you to access your calendars with read-write access on the web. MobileMe provides web access through me.com. And BusySync provides web access through Google Calendar.

Better Together
If you've got an iPhone that you want to sync wirelessly with iCal, MobileMe is a great solution. If you need to share calendars with others on a LAN or sync with Google Calendar, BusySync is a great solution. And if you need to do some combination of the above, MobileMe and BusySync work great together.

You'll find more info on the BusySync FAQs.