I just received an announcement email from Google stating that their service allowing the syncing of one’s calendar to Outlook is going to be discontinued.
Although I’ve never been the greatest fan of this app, or method of syncing, it was the only option I could find and it did the job. Now I’m left with nothing, short of abandoning Outlook entirely and embracing the online world. But I like storing my emails locally, and I like being able to see my calendar in Outlook, I prefer it to Google Calendar.
The only reason I need the syncing is to match up with my phone. But alas, as we’ve seen time and time again, once Google make a decision like this, little is to change.
See below the email sent out:
Important Announcement about Google Calendar Sync
Almost two years ago, we announced that we ended support for Google Calendar Sync. Starting on August 1, 2014, this app will no longer sync events between your Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar.You can continue to access all of your Google Calendar events at calendar.google.com or on your mobile devices. Follow these instructions to uninstall Google Calendar Sync from your computer.
– The Calendar Team
Update: From the comments below, here are some alternatives to look at:
A review of these and some other products can be seen here.
Update: If you’re receiving “error code 2016”, it’s because Google have cut you off as stated above.
Ah yes—got one of these as well. Guess it’s that time again where I need to revisit my consideration of migrating to outlook.com.
Google is becoming more and more like Apple. They want to control everything so that they can make more money. When I chose Android, syncing was a great option. Now they are ending it, trying to force me to use Google apps, which will cost me $5/month, which translates to about $50 in my country because of our currency.
Calender sync is such a simple and small software, yet they want so much money for it. I do not need the other services.
Google, I have lost trust in you. You are now just like Apple. First you stole my 32G SD card with Kit Kat, now calender sync, what next. Now that you have grown up, you are becoming a bully. Well, you are losing me as a customer.
There are other 3rd parties, but how long before Google puts an end to that? I am angry!!!
And as is typical with Google, they offer no alternative. Shame.
i got the same announcement by email today also
is it valid?
i can’t seem to figure out how to contact Google to see if is a valid announcement they sent out.
I like the outlook calendar interaction with the tasks/contacts functions and, living in France with a French smartphone package, as soon as I access internet when abroad things get pretty expensive if there’s no wifi. Is there another solution to sync the two calendars?
I’m still looking for an alternative sadly. Hopefully an independent will develop something.
I would have no doubt that Google during the planning and execution of this included sealing up holes for other developers. Maybe, someone will come up with a cheap solution so someone other than Google makes the money.
Same here! Got the announcement yesterday! Google even tries to stop their customers from complaining about it by only using an “do-not-repy” email adress.
I have to use outlook at work and google calendar was the easiest and only way to sync it with my android phone. Does anyone know if outlook.com can be used on an android phone? Then I could migrate the calendar to outlook – say hello to Microsoft – bye bye evil google!
Cheers
Matthias
Take a look at this s/w that achieves the required sync; http://goo.gl/KYxsy
Pro version will soon be free rather than $25.00 previously.
We already use an alternative in our office – Sync2 (http://sync2.com) – to synchronize our Outlook calendars and contacts with Google. Quite a good solution. Of course it’s not free, but you get synchronization of Google Contacts, Calendars and Tasks in one app, with some advanced features, such as one-way sync.
I am a bit confused. The app lost support last year. But we could still use it. How is the app going to stop working after Aug 1, 2014? It doesn’t seem like the App needs a google’s server to function? I thought the app is standalone. That means, unless there’re bugs, or google is able to remotely disable the App, it should still work after Aug 1.
Someone please clarify for me. Thank you.
I assume the app connects to certain servers and after that date the servers will no longer accept traffic relating to the app