How to synch the iPhone and Google Calendar

Google Calendar on iPhone

This post is a guest article from Tony of How to Computer. If you need advice on your computer, Tony is your go to guy. He'll sort you out in no time. Swing by Tony's site for tips about computers: building them, fixing them, and getting things done on them.

If you love your iPhone and your favorite personal calendar is that cool free one you get from Google then you certainly noticed a problem. While you can set your Gmail account to mobile and then set up your email application to read it this didn't work for your iPhone calendar. True, you could get Google Calendar to send notifications to your Gmail account, which could be read from your iPhone, but it just isn't the same as being able to use the Calendar app on the phone. Making changes to Google's calendar using Safari was problematic compared to using the regular Calendar app, but if you didn't remember to make the changes on your Google calendar than there could be a scheduling disaster. Fortunately, as so many people have pointed out there is an app for everything.

The iPlan synch

First is the easy part. Simply go to iTunes and load the iPlan app. The iPlan is a calendar application that will allow you to view your events pretty much however you wish to look at them. You can use this with a variety of other tools, but its chief claim to fame is the ability to synch with Google's calendar so you can see your events off-line. It has been around since summer of 2009 and costs $3.99. If you missed the launch of this app or if you like to wait until all the bugs are worked out before trying any application now is a good time to give iPlan a try. The easy part is making the purchase and loading the app onto your phone.

Getting your Google Calendar ready

If you haven't already set your Gmail to mobile you should do that now. Open your Google Calendar and select Settings from the options located on the upper right. Select Mobile Setup from the option bar in the left corner of the calendar setting's box.

Fill in the information then wait for the verification code to appear on your iPhone text screen. If you don't receive the code, there is an option to run further checks under the Status field which is the very first field in the box. You don't actually need the mobile access to be running to use iPlan, but if there is a communication issue with the phone or with your Google settings you will discover it here running this test.

Synching the Calendar

The next part is very easy. Open your Google Calendar and make a few entries labeled "˜test'. Then select the iPlan app on your iPhone, and look at the bottom bar. In the right corner, there is a menu button. Select this button and it will take you to the popup screen with three choices Go to Date, Google Synch, and Settings. Select Google Synch.

You should now be seeing the iPhone's light blue box message. It should say Synchronizing and it will say this for several minutes. When the waiting screen drops go to the iPhone calendar and find your test entries.

***There is a similar app called CalenGoo which performs similarly. CalenGoo is $6.99.

Photo Credits: daecon

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

This post involves: