When Apple first released OS 2.0 and 3.0 for the iPhone, people were able to sync their devices with the Google servers, easily allowing them to access and edit their contacts and calendars. However, when they updated to 3.1, Apple broke the sync, leaving thousands in the dark. After finding workarounds, people were again able to sync their systems, and the world was a better place.
However, after releasing 4.0 on June 21st, Apple, yet again, broke this new workaround, leaving people without the possibility of syncing their iPhone, iPod Touch, and/or iPad to their Google Calendars. After losing all of my calendar information (which has really hurt my productivity), I started to mess around with various settings, finally finding one that, once again, lets me sync my GCalendar with my iPhone. As a nice person, I figured that I should help you out, as I am sure that this is a common problem.
To resync your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, simply do the following:
- On your device, go Settings
- Navigate to Mail, Contact, Calendars – Add Account – Other - Add CalDAV Account
- Once in the CalDAV settings, enter the information from the following picture (your username ad passwords should be the ones that you use to access your Google account):
- Tap Next
- Navigate to your device's Calendar
- Click Calendar at the top left of the screen
- Unselect all but the one under the 'www.google.com' header – if you do not do this, you will be able to see events from your GCalender, but not be able to add any.
- If you have multiple calendars on other accounts, simply add them the same way. If you have muliple calendars on one account, go here and select the ones you want on your iPhone. Then, when entering an event, you can pick the calendar it goes on at the bottom of the event editing screen.
At this point, your system should be set up. I would recommend checking with some test events, but everything should connect (it might take a few minutes to transfer from one device to the Google server, and vice-versa). If you add, alter, or delete any event on either your device or your Google Calendar, it should update quickly on the other. Even if you are in airplane mode, when you reconnect, all changed events will show up.
This workaround worked very well for me, and I hope that it works well for you too. If it doesn't, let me know in the comments, and I will try to find out why. Other than that, see you all next time Apple updates their software.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - k
Ok it works if you have one main calender but if you have multiples it wont recognise them thru the CalDAV account
2 - barga
There should be two under the google tab, is that the case for you?
3 - k
No just the one under google tab. I have five or six calendars in google all synced with my Ical on desktop just fine. I noticed OS4 has a setting that allows you to accept mail/ nots/ calendar etc in the same account which works the same. So I went back to your method but still no success
4 - k
BTW does SSL make a difference?
5 - F
Thank you! It worked perfectly.
6 - barga
K, Use SSL, but it should be automatic, I found something that might work for you, let me know if it worked (if it does, might edit to include this):
1. Expand the “Server Options” section to expose the Account URL setting.
2. For Account URL, specify “https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/[Google Calendar ID]/user”. Note that it’s actually “/user” there at the end, not your user name. The Google Calendar ID in brackets is visible in Google Calendar by going to the settings for a calendar and looking toward the bottom of the Calendar Details tab. You’ll see some funky junk like “asdfjklasdfjklasdjklasdjkl@group.calendar.google.com” or similar. That’s the Google Calendar ID.
7 - barga
F, no problem
8 - SLEEPER
i did this and i'm getting a blank "new event" for everyday for the whole year.
none of my events in google calender are syncing over.
any clues?! thanks for the help
9 - barga
FYI, You need to set it up each time for the group URL thingy, however, there is a downside, while it will show all, I am not sure which one it will update if you add (have yet to try it myself). Please let me know when you test it what it does
10 - barga
Sleeper, I would delete your current attempt and try again. The only reason to get that would be that your GCalendar actually has that setup currently
11 - barga
another FYI, you can, apparently, when adding an event, pick the calendar at the bottom. This should let you add it to the Calendar you want.
That is it for tonight, K, let me know if these worked for you. See you in the morning
12 - Travis
I just sync my calendar and gmail setting it up as an exchange account - directions are listed on google calendar under sync - sync with iphone
Seems pretty easy and with OS 4 you can have more than one exchange acount - which before you could not. Mabye I am not understanding the issue you all are having but this is what works for me
13 - barga
Travis,
Have you tested it. does it allow for multiple calendars as well as the editing and adding to multiple ones under the same user name?
It wasn't for me
14 - barga
K, last night I found this, which should fix your problem with no additional steps needed
15 - Diane
I'm with Travis - I didn't have any issues with OS4 and I have sync set up with Exchange.
16 - barga
Congrats on that Diane, glad to hear that it works for you,
From my research, quite a few people are having problems with that, which is why I posted this.
17 - Sisco
Ok, what if you had your iphone calendar synced with your google calendar AND your girlfriends calendar, so that you guys can see each others events. How do I set that up?
18 - barga
Just do this twice, and select both from the selection screen
19 - Tee
This worked great. Thanks so much. I was able to sync my iPhone and my iPad! Yippee!
20 - barga
no problem, I am happy that it worked well for you
21 - bunz
Thank you Thank you! Not having my 12 calendars was crimping my style!
22 - MadDog
DAMN! That worked PERFECTLY! My problem is that I have 2 calendars (right now) in Google Calendar, but did NOT want to sync the Default (the user@gmail.com), which is what Exchange forces. By picking out the specific calendar code from the "Embed This Calendar" in the Calendar Details absolutely did the trick!
Thanks!
23 - barga
no problem, glad that you got it all working
24 - MadDog
Hmmm ... now I have a different problem. This worked great for my iPhone, but I can't get the calendar to show on my iPad. The settings for CalDAV are exactly the same but my iPad calendar is blank.
The calendar is perfect in Google Calendar, but I have to be missing something here.
Any ideas would be great.
25 - MadDog
Never mind. I just discovered that I need to keep the Exchange calendar ON, and then in Calendar, I get a button called "Calendars" on the top of the page that lets me select which calendars to display. With Exchange OFF, the button's not there.
Interesting, because on my iPhone, I have Exchange Calendar OFF, but it still shows the "Calendars" button in Calendar.
Weird.