Sean Walther's Blog

Google Calendar Sync – Easy Calendar Backup

I run Microsoft Outlook 2007 as my main email / calendar application.  Say what you want, but I love it (I’m always open to suggestions if anyone has them).

The problem that I encountered last week, what happens when your entire calendar / datebook for the next year is lost to a computer crash?

How do you recover?

I introduce, Google Calendar Sync.  Yes, it’s meant to give you access to your calendar online, but a useful secondary feature is that it’s an online backup.

The Situation

My iPhone syncs with my Outlook calendar, my Outlook calendar syncs with my Google Calendar, and all data is shared.

Last week with my computer failure, I had to reinstall everything.  I knew having my email hosted at Google would make it easy to both access it while the computer was down, as well as let me sync up when the computer came back up.

I never realized how easy it would be to re-import all of my calendar information into outlook.  I thought it would be some combination of iPhone syncing (which has my full calendar) and exporting from Google Calendar.

The solution

After getting my empty outlook installed, I went to Install Google Calendar Sync.  It works in Windows 7 64-bit for me, even though Google says it won’t.  

It is an easy install, and seconds later my entire calendar was back in my Outlook!

I don’t have much to write, it’s just so easy.

The Conclusion

You have important data.  It is so convenient to have access to your calendar online, as well as on your computer, or on your iPhone.  It’s also a great way to backup and recover rapidly.

Tags: Calendar Sync, Google Calendar, Google Calendar Sync, iPhone, Microsoft, Outlook