Outlook Google Calendar Sync – bring your appointments into accord

To manage appointments and reminders, many users prefer to use Outlook or Google Calendar, depending on the type of device they are using. The two programs are often used simultaneously, but this can quickly lead to chaos if you don’t keep both calendars up-to-date. One way to remedy this is with synchronisation, for example with the Outlook Google Calendar Sync tool, which merges the events of both calendars. 

There are various ways to see appointments from both Google and Outlook without having to have both calendars open at the same time. By exporting and importing, for example, you can transfer the current status of one calendar to another. If you also want to change and extend these appointments, you can synchronise your calendars with each other by using a third-party application. In this manner, changes take effect in both. It is also possible to subscribe to your own or public calendar (e.g. that of sport clubs) and their dates. This allows you to include them in your weekly and monthly planning.

Here we will explain how to set these three different linking methods for your Outlook and Google calendars.

When you import a calendar, you receive a snapshot of the calendar results at the time of import. This also means that the imported events are not automatically updated when you make changes in the original calendar. However, this also means that the imported events are not automatically updated when you make changes in the source calendar. Importing appointments is therefore a good synchronisation method, especially if you want to add fixed appointments to your calendar, such as birthdays, office hours, and so on. To import the Google calendar into Outlook or another calendar, you must first export it.

To import your Google Calendar using the Outlook desktop app, start by opening the client. Find the tab labelled “File” and select the “Open and Export” option.

Click on “Import/Export” to open the assistant for importing and exporting files and settings. Select the option “iCalendar – (ICS) or vCalendar files (VCS) import” and click “Next.”

After importing, you will find the Google calendar in the "Other calendars" section, where you can call it up and view it at any time.

To insert the exported Google Calendar file, click "Add Calendar" and select "From a file" from the menu that appears.

In the Import menu, select the exported Google Calendar file by using the browse function. Here, you can also set which Outlook calendar your Google calendar should be imported into if you have different calendars in your Outlook. Confirm the import process by clicking on "Save" to import the calendar.

To provide your own Outlook calendar with the latest data from your Google calendar, you can simply subscribe to the Google calendar. If you have the individual address of another person's calendar, you can also subscribe to their calendar. In this way you can, for example, integrate the calendar of your partner, work colleagues, or an association of which you are a member. Now you have all appointments at a glance and won’t miss any meeting or event.

If you subscribe to a calendar, it will be linked to your calendar. Basically, it's like subscribing to social networks. As soon as the owner of a calendar you have subscribed to changes or adds something to his calendar, this is also shown in your calendar.

Basically, subscribing to the Google calendar with the Outlook Web App is very similar to subscribing to the desktop app: first, of course, you have to find out the necessary iCal address of the Google calendar before logging into your Outlook account. There you switch to the calendar view as with the desktop client and click on "Add calendar." Then, select "From the Internet" from the options above.

In the next field, insert the iCal URL of your Google calendar and specify the desired name.

Now, you can retrieve your subscribed Google calendar at any time and also view the appointments entered there in Outlook. However, you cannot enter your own appointments in a subscribed calendar.

To synchronise Outlook and Google calendars with each other, you can also use a separate program. For this, there are some free programs such as the open source software Outlook Google Calendar Sync as well as various paid solutions such as Sync2. We will show you an example of synchronisation with these two.

Your Google calendar is now connected to your Outlook calendar. To test this, enter an appointment in your Google calendar. This appointment should also appear in your Outlook calendar shortly afterwards. Pay attention to the time you have entered in the "Synchronisation interval" field.