How to sync Google calendar with Outlook. What new features will be available when you use a Gmail account in Mail and Calendar

One of the handy features of Outlook is the ability to share your calendar with other people in your organization or external users (outside your organization). To do this, your email box must be located on an Exchange server or in Office 365 / Exchange Online.

Share your calendar in Outlook 2016

Each recipient will receive an invitation asking them to add your calendar.

Users outside your organization will receive a URL that they can use to access your calendar. If you and the person you're sharing are in organizations that have a federated relationship through Office 365 or Exchange, the invitation will include an option to share your calendar in return.

Your calendar will then be displayed to the user in the General calendars section.

To publish the calendar on the Internet, click on the button Publish online, specify the URL of the WebDAV server, specify the time interval of the calendar that you want to publish, the type of access and the options for updating the calendar on the server (automatically, or only once).

If you want to give access to your calendar to all users, click on the Calendar Permissions button and to allow Default select the access level (by default, only access to Free/Busy time information is allowed). The default group corresponds to any user (everyone). You can change the access level by selecting the required permissions from the drop-down list.

On the same tab you can control access to your calendar. Here you can add a new user, or change the user's permission level when accessing the calendar (for example, you can allow a specific user to create, edit, or delete calendar items).

If you want to revoke shared access to the calendar, you need to select the name of the user you want to revoke access to on the permissions tab, click the button Delete And OK.

How to connect someone else's shared calendar in Outlook 2016

To connect another user's calendar, in Outlook, click the button Calendar at the bottom of the window. Right click on the section My calendars -> Add a calendar -> From the address book:

In the list of employees, find the user whose calendar you want to connect (the user or administrator must give you access to their calendar) and select it.

After this, the new calendar should appear in the list of shared calendars.

Share your calendar in Exchange using PowerShell

In Exchange 2007 SP1 and later, you can create a shared mailbox that can be used as a shared enterprise (department) calendar. You can create a mailbox using the following PowerShell command:

New-Mailbox -alias JuristDep -name "Legal Department Calendar" -database "Mbx1" -org Users -shared -UserPrincipalName [email protected]

After this, you can provide access to the calendar of the new mailbox for a specific user in the organization (let's say we want to provide full access):

Add-MailboxPermission JuristDep -User:"aapetrov" -AccessRights:FullAccess

Or read-only:

Add-MailboxPermission JuristDep -User:"JuristUsers" -AccessRights:ReadPermission

You can give access directly to the calendar folder in your Exchange mailbox:

Add-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity "JuristDep:\Calendar" -User aapetrov -AccessRights Owner

In the English version of Exchange, instead of Calendar, you need to specify the Calendar folder.

To change calendar rights for a user who has already been granted calendar rights, use the cmdlet Set-MailboxFolderPermission :
Set-MailboxFolderPermission -Identity "JuristDep:\Calendar" -User aapetrov -AccessRights Reviewer

How to request access to someone else's calendar

When connecting a shared calendar from the address book, a request to grant rights will appear automatically when connecting the shared calendar if there are no rights to it.

Recently I started using Yandex mail a lot (mail for a domain or Yandex.Connect). An unpleasant surprise was that although mail works via imap, Microsoft Outlook does not allow you to synchronize your calendar and contacts when connecting your Yandex account.

Since only mail without a calendar loses a lot of its value, not only for me, after searching and studying the issue, I decided to describe the solution found.

What is the root of the problem

Microsoft Outlook out of the box can only work with calendars in Exchange Server. Yandex Calendar, as well as many other online calendar services, use the CalDAV protocol by default and do not support the Exchange format.

Possible reasons for this discrepancy in standards:

• MS Outlook is aimed at business users who usually have their own mail server and, usually, this is Exchange
• Most software works fine with CalDAV: iOS, Android, Mozilla Thunderbird (with a plugin), etc.
• Online calendars are a much less popular service compared to mail, and therefore the relevance of the standardization problem is lower

Working solution

In general, the solution is to install a plugin in Outlook to synchronize the local calendar with the online calendar.

Of the several options I tried, I liked two of them the most:

• CalDAV Synchronizer
  • A simple extension that only synchronizes the calendar
  • You can synchronize different calendars
  • Easy setup. You can choose a simple setting from a list of popular online calendars, including Google and Yandex
  • Free and works without restrictions
  • Open source and 300+ stars on GitHub (for those who don’t know, this is already a decent indicator of popularity)
• OpenProtocolsConnector
  • A more comprehensive add-on that also lets you sync contacts
  • The setup is more complicated, since Yandex is not on the list of CalDAV providers (you need to go find the correct path to the online calendar yourself)
  • A license is required to operate. The personal home license is free but requires annual renewal.
  • There is source code for the CalDAV library on which the add-on works
  • Seems less popular than CalDAV Synchronizer

Alternative (non-optimal) solutions

• Export Google Calendar. In Google Calendar, it is possible to provide a public link for the calendar in a format that Outlook understands. But this solution has a number of disadvantages:
  • MS Outlook connects the calendar only in “read only” mode
  • There is no way to configure rights; anyone with a link will be able to read the contents of the calendar
• EVO Collaborator. If you google a topic with a calendar, then this extension will be in the first search results. I tried it, I didn’t really like it (maybe I just didn’t understand):
  • Instead of synchronizing an existing local calendar with an online service, the add-on adds a new local calendar for each service and synchronizes it
  • Costs 28 euros compared to free alternatives
• Quit MS Outlook:
  • I didn’t really consider the option, because even if we put aside the question of habit and convenience, the question of (non-)portability of our VBA macros and add-ons remains (you can call it a vendor lock)

Conclusion

In fact, the task of synchronizing Outlook and external providers is quite trivial. I assume there are other convenient alternatives, but the options described above seemed sufficient to me. If you know more convenient ways or solutions, then write in the comments.

Updated: July 2018

To enhance the Gmail experience in Mail and Calendar for Windows 10 and Outlook 2016 for Mac, Google Account sync with Microsoft Cloud is now supported. This will allow you to use many of the features in Mail, Calendar, and Outlook 2016 for Mac that were previously only available to users with Outlook.com, Office 365, and Exchange Server accounts.

What new features will be available when I use a Gmail account in Mail and Calendar?

As new Microsoft Cloud features are released, they will appear in all accounts added to Mail and Calendar.

How do I enable these features in Mail and Calendar?

A dialog box appears in Mail and Calendar Update your Google account, which will ask you to sync your Google account with Microsoft Cloud. Click the button Yes and enter your Gmail email address and password. Mail and Calendar will take care of the rest.

We are gradually introducing this new feature. If you haven't seen the request to enable it yet, please wait a few more weeks.

Google to the Microsoft cloud.

Once you enable this feature, your Google account will sync with Microsoft Cloud. This means copies of your messages, calendar, and contacts will be synced between Google and Microsoft data centers. Storing your mailbox data in the Microsoft Cloud allows you to take advantage of the new Mail and Calendar features in your Gmail account. There will be no changes to your experience on Gmail.com or Google apps.

How can I disable this feature in Mail and Calendar?

After enabling this feature, the use of Windows 10 Mail and Calendar and data from Gmail.com will be regulated and

What new features will be available when I use a Gmail account in Outlook 2016 for Mac?

How do I enable these features in Outlook 2016 for Mac?

In Outlook 2016 for Mac, you'll be prompted to sync your Google account with Microsoft Cloud. Select Continue and enter your Gmail email address and password. Outlook 2016 for Mac takes care of the rest.

For a list of known issues, see Known issues syncing Google accounts to Microsoft Cloud.

If you're having trouble syncing your Google account to the Microsoft Cloud, see Resolutions for problems connecting your Google account to the Microsoft cloud.

Does syncing Gmail.com data to Microsoft Cloud affect Gmail.com and Google apps?

There will be no changes to your experience on Gmail.com or Google apps.

What happens after enabling this feature?

Once you enable this feature, your Google account will sync with Microsoft Cloud. This means copies of your messages, calendar, and contacts will be synced between Google and Microsoft data centers. Storing your mailbox data in the Microsoft Cloud allows you to use new features in Outlook 2016 for Mac in your Gmail account. There will be no changes to your experience on Gmail.com or Google apps.

How do I disable this feature in Outlook 2016 for Mac?

To stop syncing Gmail.com data with Microsoft Cloud on your device, you must delete your email account.

What terms apply to data from Gmail.com?

Once you enable this feature, your use of Outlook 2016 for Mac and data from Gmail.com will be subject to the Microsoft Services Agreement and Microsoft Privacy Statement. In addition, Google's terms of service and privacy statement will continue to apply to Gmail.com data.

If you use the Outlook email client, you've probably already paid attention to the built-in calendar. With it you can create various reminders, tasks, mark events and much more. There are also other services that provide similar opportunities. In particular, Google calendar also provides similar opportunities.

If your colleagues, relatives or friends use Google calendar, then it would be a good idea to set up synchronization between Google and Outlook. And we will look at how to do this in this instruction.

Before you start synchronizing, it's worth making one small caveat. The fact is that when setting up synchronization, it turns out to be one-sided. That is, only Google calendar entries will be transferred to Outlook; reverse transfer is not provided here.

Now let's start setting up synchronization.

Before we get into the settings in Outlook itself, we need to make some settings in Google Calendar.

To do this, open the calendar, which we will synchronize with Outlook.

To the right of the calendar name there is a button that will expand the list of actions. Press it and click on the “Settings” item.

On this page, check the “Share this calendar” checkbox and go to the “Calendar Data” page. On this page you must click the ICAL button, which is located in the “Private calendar address” section.

This completes your work with Google Calendar. Now let's move on to setting up the Outlook calendar.

Setting up your Outlook calendar

Open the Outlook calendar in the browser and click on the “Add calendar” button, which is located at the very top, and select “From the Internet”.

By setting up synchronization in this way, you will receive notifications not only in the web version of the Outlook calendar, but also in the computer version.

Additionally, you can synchronize your mail and contacts; to do this, you just need to add an account for Google in the Outlook email client.

Nowadays, almost every user has a Google account, since it provides a large number of advantages on the Internet, especially for users of the Chrome browser. The vast majority of computers have the Windows operating system installed, and the majority of users use the utility built into Windows for working with contacts, mail and reminders - Microsoft Outlook. A logical question arises: how can these two services be “friended” with each other? It is very convenient when it becomes possible to create events and activities in the calendars of other services via Outlook. In this article, we'll take a closer look at how to synchronize Outlook with other calendars. Let's figure it out. Go!

Outlook has a very convenient calendar. But sometimes you may need to synchronize it with others

First, it should be noted that synchronization will be one-way, that is, events from Outlook will not be synchronized with Google calendar.

Now you know how to synchronize Microsoft Outlook with Google Calendar and VKontakte. This is done very simply and quickly, and at the same time you significantly simplify your life. Write in the comments whether this article helped you and ask any questions you have about the topic discussed.