It is really not pleasant when you read that your iPhone will sync with Google calendars, and that iPhone software version 3.0 will allow you to have up o 25 calendars at a time, to find out that it actually doesn’t work as you think it might.
The instructions from our friends at Google are simple enough – use MS Exchange, add in your account details and you are good to go… but must first enable mobile devices in your Google dashboard (obviously this doesn’t apply to a personal Google account, only a business or academic one). In the instructions it lovingly tells you all will be well, but doesn’t mention what to do if all is decidedly unwell.
Every time I have tried to do this, I have managed to get my main default calendar only. It doesn’t matter if it is iPhone 2.0 or 3.0… still the same. And still the frustration mounts!
Having upgraded to version 3.0 today, I was fired up and ready to try a final time. Not easily put off when facing defeat, I tried for three hours, all to no avail. What a waste of time. I then read some other blogs and came across a third party service – www.nuevasync.com – and since it is free, decided to try it.
Lo and behold, after typing in the right details to Nuevasync, my iPhone shows ALL of my calendars, not just the general one. Glory be!
Now, if Nuevasync can do this, I’m pretty sure it is possible for Google to do it. I don’t see why we need a third party in the loop here, but for goodness sake, nobody let Nuevasync go out of business!
I now get to see all of my calendars in iCal on my phone, can add events and they sync to the main google calendar, add others, and have others add to my diary (yup, it’s a preference setting for work based calendars)… it ALL works as it should.
If you are as frustrated as I was, go to the Nuevasync web site, sign up for a free account and edit the settings. You’ll be running in about three minutes where before you were plodding.
Just be a little careful with your contacts and email though – if you enable these through Nuevasync, you *will* lose everything off your phone when the first sync happens. Be sure that you have got everything you need backed up, or in Google… or both!
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Hi. Thanks for this article. I have been using Nuevasync for a long time now. I just updated to 3.0 and now I cannot get it to work. My Nuevasync account looks good on their website and I have all the data in my phone correct.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Suzanne
I had the same problem with nuevasync – here is the latest copied from their website:
Service Overloaded by iPhone 3.0 Update
Apple’s highly anticipated 3.0 firmware release is causing us some operations problems right now. Large numbers of devices have been updated within a short time period, and it appears that after the update the sync code in the phone triggers a ‘resync’. This puts extra load on our service which is currently running at maximum capacity. We’ve enabled load throttling measures which should ensure it remains working, but unfortunately not all devices will be able to sync until the load spike passes.
UPDATE: We’ve deployed some hardware upgrades tonight and service is now back up and running normally. We’re expecting to be able to handle the load peak forecast for Thursday morning as the remaining iPhone users update their devices.
Posted by David Boreham at 11:44 AM
Thanks both for your comments. I am so new to Nuevasync it is scary… I must be one of those who introduced the ‘spike’… sorry!
As far as I can see it appears to be working as it should… not sure why Suzanne was getting a problem, but thanks to CP for pointing out some of the issues.
Thanks. This really does work and has reduced my frustrations with gmail considerably.
I just setup NuevaSync for my iPhone today and it works perfectly, but then again, so does Google Sync. In fact, I went back and forth between them several times trying to see any difference…there are none. The calendar number limitation has been lifted from Google Sync and the only real difference is the addition of real push Gmail from either a Gmail or Google Apps account with NuevaSync. I’ve been using a regular IMAP Gmail account for email on the iPhone and GPush to notify me of mail instantly, so that plus either the free NuevaSync or the Google Sync work just fine. That said…push email is probably worth the $25/yr, but more than likely Google will add push in the next few months.