Question
Any suggestions for a workaround to an Outlook calendar not syncing with Google Calendars?
Google lets you subscribe to a calendar using a URL - although when using an Outlook 365 Calendar link, events are copied over once, and then the syncing stops. This seems to be a relatively new issue and a Google community thread shows a handful of other folks frustrated with this lack of syncing.
Zapier is a thought but it would require several different zaps to ensure events that are updated in either platform copy over to the other.
Any suggestions for a workaround?
Thanks in advance!
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With the caveat that I haven't used Outlook 365 calendar, here are a few idea that came to mind.
First up, the low tech way (if you only need to see the events yourself) could be to add Outlook calendar manually to your computer and phone's calendar app. That's guaranteed to sync, though of course wouldn't get everything in one place and in a web app.
Fruux came to mind, though not sure it'd fit. It's billed as a tool to sync all your calendars and contacts, like the second half of Outlook/Gmail sync but without email, to be used as a companion to email-only services like Fastmail. But didn't see anything about syncing Outlook 365, just Outlook desktop where it's turning local data into a web feed.
cloudHQ differentiates itself from Zapier et al by focusing on syncing, and it says it can sync Outlook Calendar to Google Calendar, so that could be worth checking.
With Zapier, you'd end up needing 3 Zaps to sync everything: A Google Calendar new or updated event to Outlook, then a new Outlook event to Google Calendar, and an updated Outlook event to Google Calendar. Possible, but a bit messy.
Apps Script shouldn't be too hard to use, though I haven't used it much in several years. This guide got me using a few Apps Scripts, but not sure if anything's changed since then. Did you try the script yet?
Appreciate you sharing that Zapier piece.
I haven't given the script a run yet but will give it a trial shortly and keep you posted!
Oh cool! Would there be a way to essentially merge a Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar into a single feed to sync with 3rd party apps in Quantime?
Exactly! Right now, we integrate with both those calendars, and allow you to forward emails to create tasks within Quantime. Working on Trello integration, Slack integration and Chrome extension currently so tasks can be created/imported from anywhere.
Plus you can add a bunch of automations to have Quantime intelligently calendar things for you.
@brownmachine appreciate you chiming back in on this thread.
Apologies if I've missed a previous response - I don't recall exploring the tool before but it looks interesting.
I was exploring a workaround here for a colleague who prefers to work with Google Calendar's interface - would Quantime be a solution for that kind of sync?
Unfortunately not, both calendars would only be visible in Quantime, not in GCal.
Got it - unfortunately I don't know if this is going to be the best solution for this situation. The tool definitely looks interesting though and I plan to give it a deeper look. Thanks!
Looking for a better way to plan remote meetings across time zones, and keep up with events. What software is doing that best today?
Thanks for these suggestions @maguay!
As you mentioned, the manual option isn't ideal as this is definitely a web-app use case, and the lack of an Outlook 365 sync would be a deal breaker for Fruux.
I hadn't explored cloudHQ before but will definitely give it a look - the 3 step zap is not the preferred method right now :)
Several days ago, someone commented on the original Google Community thread (the last comment before the post was locked) and mentioned a Google Drive script that worked.
Unfortunately, this is a bit foreign to me; any insight into whether this is something a non-developer could easily implement?
This script worked for me.
https://github.com/derekantrican/GAS-ICS-Sync
It is a small script running in your Google Drive.
Direct link to script:
https://script.google.com/d/1BOk8MDLbLaHh6SwG1M1tsgNXjkcC-79LE0QoipRuTDxbO3fMVvqoROQD/edit?usp=sharing