How to Sync Google Calendar and Contact with your Blackberry and Multiple Computers
If you’re like me, you have multiple (such as “Work” and a “Personal”) computers. With multiple computers comes the daunting task of managing multiple sets of scheduling and contact information. I have posted before about how I was syncing multiple calendars using my Blackberry. In that scenario, I was manually syncing my calendars back and forth via Blackberry Desktop Manager. I grew tired of the manual sync, and found it easy to forget the sync if I was in a hurry. I also noticed that my Intellisync folder would periodically corrupt if I left the Desktop Manager running when I set my laptop to Hibernate.
Preparing your Calendar and Contact Data:
I decided that it was time to get things a little more automated. In order for this process to be as painless as possible, you need to determine which calendar currently holds ALL of your appointments. In my case (and because of my previous settings), my work laptop was the most up-to-date listing of all my appointments.
If you currently don’t have a single copy that contains all your appointments, I would suggest one of the following solutions:
- If you currently have calendar entries in BOTH your blackberry and one copy of Outlook, install Blackberry Desktop Manager, and use this program to sync data between your phone and one desktop calendar (Outlook 2003 or 2007). You can then easily use the calendar on your desktop (in Outlook) to clean up any duplicates.
- If you have calendar entries in multiple copies of Outlook, install the Google Calendar Sync program on the desktops, and allow them to synchronize using your Google Calendar as the intermediary.
- If your Calendar entries are all over the place, setup Blackberry Desktop Manager on only ONE computer. Sync all the calendar items between each copy of Outlook via Google Calendar Sync, then sync the up-to-date calendar on the one computer with the Blackberry via Blackberry Desktop. Once that is done, Google Calendar Sync should be able to sync all the calendar items to the other computers.
You’ll notice that I left out Contacts. Your best bet with Google Contacts is to manually import them into Google Contacts.
Here is a quick overview on how to get your Contacts into Google Contacts:
- Sync your phone’s contacts into Outlook via the Desktop Manager.
- Export all the contacts you have in Outlook to CSV.
- Import the CSV file into the Google Contacts website.
- Export contacts from any other copies of Outlook to CSV files.
- Import the CSV files from other installs to the Google Contacts website.
- Manually edit your Google Contacts to consolidate them and remove duplicates.
I know this first part is somewhat painful, but it really sets the stage for a clean automatic sync.
Preparing your Blackberry:
The last thing you want from your automatic sync is a jumbled mess of duplicate entries. Based on my past experience with the Google Calendar Sync for Blackberries, it seemed important to ensure there was nothing pre-existing on the blackberry as this is what caused headaches for me when I first attempted to install it. As such, your best bet is to wipe your blackberry to clear out your calendar/contacts. Yes, this is drastic and painful as well, but trust me it will save you some headaches! To wipe your Blackberry, follow the steps in my eHow Article: How to Reload or Upgrade the Factory Default Operating System or Device Software on your Blackberry.
Configuring the Automatic Sync:
On your Desktop/Laptops:
Ah, the fun part! If you haven’t already done it, install the Google Calendar Sync on every machine that you want to share your Google Calendar. Make sure to set your sync options so that you sync “2-way”, and have the sync run in after a short period of time (so that it will sync calendar items automatically without you having to remember). Personally, I setup the Calendar Sync to run every 30 minutes, as this seems to be a good balance between the sync process and the times of day that I generally work on my calendar.
On your Blackberry:
Open up the web browser on your freshly wiped Blackberry (remember, no cheating and trying to use a blackberry with pre-existing calendar items)! Enter the following URL (http://m.google.com/sync) into the browser to be taken to the Google Sync for Blackberry web page. From there, download and install the sync client (this is fairly straightforward). Once the sync client is installed, configure it with your Google calendar credentials, set the sync to “Automatic”, and select sync of both your calendar and contacts.
Configuring Contact Sync:
With the Google Sync for Blackberry client installed, you will now have your contacts automatically syncing between your Blackberry and Google. Thus, any changes made on your Blackberry, or within the Google products will be synchronized automatically. Unfortunately, Google has not built contact syncing into the desktop calendar sync client.
You have a couple of options for syncing your contacts:
- (What I do:) Install the Blackberry Desktop Manager on each Computer that I wish to have a copy of the contacts on my Blackberry. Changes to my online and desktop contacts are merged each time I perform a Desktop Manager sync, and then the Blackberry Sync client pushes those changes to Google.
- You could also export your contacts to CSV files, and then import them on each computer.
- Bonus: For those of you that currently have your own domain hosted on Google Apps (i.e. Google Apps Standard or Premier), Google is in the process of creating a desktop sync client that works with email, calendar, and contacts.
I know this has been a long read, but I’m hoping it will help you get started with the wondrous world of automatic calendar syncing. As always, feel free to Contact Me if you have any questions! I’m curious to know if any of you are using any other methods for syncing all your computers with your blackberry. Comment and let me know!
Like this posting? You will definitely enjoy getting my free technology tips and tricks sent straight to you as I write them! No spam, and I will never give your email address to any other company!
Related posts:
Question, my Google events will sync to my BB. But my BB events will not sync to my Google calendar. My BB also syncs to my work email (Lotus Notes). My BB does give me a message that reads “Another sync client has been adding events to the BB calendar. To avoid duplicates Google sync will not keep these dates up to date.” Any suggestions?
Reply
MW2ML Technology Reply:
December 4th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
Meg,
In what order did you set up all the sync clients? In other words, did you setup your Lotus Notes sync prior to installing the Google Client? Also, are you syncing your Notes email wirelessly, or through the Desktop Manager?
Rob
Reply