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Hole-ee-shit… Laurence Hartje just sent in the best news of my life from Boy Genius Report. It appears that Google just added support of Google Calendar synchronization with Blackberry devices. For me, this is an adventure that started almost a year ago after I got my T-Mobile Blackberry Pearl (which I love), and it looks like there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
For folks that have looked into this issue before, you might have gone the route of using a SyncML client for the Blackberry connected to ScheduleWorld (but I didn’t like the SW interface or that they were getting a mirror of all my private information).
Additionally some of you may be using GooSync, but the solution is similar to ScheduleWorld in that some 3rd party server needs duplicates of all your data to sync it to your device and both these solutions cost money so far (not a huge show-stopper, just important to note).
To get the new Google Calendar synchronization working, first you want to visit http://mobile.google.com (from your phone) and scroll down to the bottom of the screen to the last application listed “Sync”:
Unfortunately it doesn’t look like the slick new Google Mobile Updater has the Sync app listed yet, so you have to install it manually at this time (my guess is that after the sync app has more time in the oven, it will get included in the updater).
After the Google Sync app is installed, you are prompted to run it for the initial sync:
In this step Sync will pull down your primary calendar and sync it with the Blackberry calendar application. From this point on the default settings for the Sync app are to sync “automatically” and 4 weeks into the future, along with a list of the calendars you want synced and how to resolve conflicts (Default is to let the server, Google, win over the phone).
In addition to that the Google Sync application is integrated into the Blackberry calendar application in the form of a “Sync Now” menu item you can invoke when working with your calendar:
My initial experience with Google Sync so far is that it works, which is a lot more than I can say for the other techniques I’ve tried and given up on. You really don’t understand how thrilled I am about this and I hope it helps some of you out there as well.
Happy Calendaring!
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December 14th, 2007 at 8:52 am
Now lets hope that Google adds contact syncing as well and then most people would have a free, personal alternative to Blackberry’s Enterprise Server offering.
December 18th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
This is awesome. I just tried it out and it synced with my google calendar perfectly. I was tired of using SyncML and ScheduleWorld when all I wanted was to sync my Blackberry with google calendar. Thanks for the info.
December 18th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Alex,
I’m glad it helped you out. I know *exactly* how you feel about the Calendar. I wanted to sync the stupid thing so bad but getting it to work well while maintaining privacy just hasn’t been possible (gcalsync never worked right for me).
Anyway, the skies have parted and we can be mobile happily again
February 9th, 2008 at 10:37 am
I have a question that probably reveals my ignorance of technical matters…
I just got a BlackBerry Pearl. I want to sych with Google Calendar, but I cannot afford the extra cost of web access for my phone. Can I sync the BlackBerry calendar and Google calendar through the USB connection to my desktop? If so, what do I need to do?
Thanks for any help.
Steve
February 11th, 2008 at 10:34 am
Steve,
Actually I think you can do that pretty easily if you use Microsoft Outlook (not Express) and use the Blackberry Desktop Manage to manually sync your device whenever you need to.
You will need to use a 3rd party utility that syncs your Google Calendar with Outlook though… I’ve used Companion Link and it works pretty well.
Then again that is a *lot* of work to just avoid the data plan for your phone and let it sync automatically and wirelessly… but that is the only option I know of at the moment to do it offline manually.
(the Outlook requirement is because the Blackberry Desktop Manager only syncs with Lotus Notes and Outlook I believe as far as desktop apps go)
February 26th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Google sync looked like my solution. My enterprise uses NotifyLink which is a complete disaster as a synching product to Groupwise. I synched to Outlook, exported my calendar as a csv file to get all my current entries into Google calendar. Loaded Google sync to my ATT 8800, I was a pig is S _ _ _.
Then… I realized that not all the entries that I was creating were synching. I gave my secretary full editing permission to my calendar (and asked her to keep a record of all changes while I test the syncing.) The initial tests passes. When we moved to “production”, I saw that some appointments that were created on Google calendar never synched to my BBerry, and some from my BBerry would appear on the calendar and then vanish from my BBerry.
Oh well, Sync needs to go back to Google labs. it’s not ripe yet…
February 26th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Junkie,
Even when you forced a sync you still didn’t see the events getting sucked down from GCal?
March 6th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I have Notes 8 at work, with syncs over air with BB calendar just fine (obviously). What I want is to svnc the BB ‘out’ to GoogleCal. So I’ve tried that (set 24 weeks and ‘handheld wins’ in options), and it says ’sync successful. *Most* stuff is in fact now out on the GoogleCal. Yet some things aren’t. There’s no obvious pattern as to the things that didn’t make it. Has anyone experienced this?? I’ve seen people say it works great, and seen alot that couldn’t get it set up, but no reports like mine of “some go, some don’t”…
March 6th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Mark unfortunately I didn’t have any hickups with the sync app, but my hope is that Google continues to make releases to it quickly as it’s a much demanded app.