For those who dont want to shell out the $99 for a MobileMe subscription, here’s a free alternative with support for push Contacts & Calendar on your iPod touch or iPhone, thanks to NuevaSync and Google.
(You’ll need the iPhone 2.0 software for this, if you havent upgraded already. Plug your device in and click ‘Check for Updates’ in iTunes)
NuevaSync is a new website which links Google Calendar and Contacts with their Exchange server, letting you sync your Google items with devices that support Microsoft Exchange.
First up, you’re going to need a Google Account (you’ll need a Gmail account if you wish to sync your contacts too.) if you dont already have one (Google Apps accounts work fine). You can sign up here.
Once that is done, NuevaSync reccommends you verify your account, by filling out a simple CAPTCHA.
For regular Gmail and Calendar accounts go to:
https://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha
For Google Apps accounts go to:
https://www.google.com/a/YOURDOMAIN.com/UnlockCaptcha (substitute ‘YOURDOMAIN’ with well, your domain!)
Read the rest after the jump 
So, you’ve got your Gmail account set up, and you’ve verified your account. Now, here’s the fun stuff.
Surf on over to NuevaSync, and create a new account. It only takes a second.
When you’ve verified your account, login to set your settings. We’ll start with Calendar. Click ‘Change’ next to the Calendar option, and choose ‘Google’ (or disabled if you dont want to sync your calendar). Click Change to confirm. On the next page, click the link to configure your account.
On this page, enter in your Google Account details (full email address, eg test@gmail.com) of the account you wish to sync with. All of your calendars will be synced to your device.
Click Save.
Alright, that’s the Calendar all sorted. Now, on to your contacts!
Head back to the status page on NuevaSync, where you’ll hit ‘change’ next to Contacts. Here, you can choose from your Google or your Plaxo contacts. I’m selecting Google for this guide. Again, you’ll need to fill out your Google Account info of the account you wish to use.
Save, and back to the status page; it should look something like this:
So, we’ve got the online part all worked out. Let’s move on to setting up your iPod/iPhone.
Tap ‘Settings’ from your home screen, followed by ‘Mail, Contacts, Calendars’, then ‘Add Account’.
Choose ‘Microsoft Exchange’ from the list of services (it’s the top one).
Under Email, put in the one you used for NuevaSync registration.
Your Username is the one you chose when you registered for NuevaSync, and same for the password.
For description, you can put anything (I decided on ‘NuevaSync’).
Tap ‘Next’.
Your device will now verify your account, and may take a couple of minutes.
After it has been verified, you’ll see a new field, “Server”. Enter “www.nuevasync.com” in here. (without the quotes)
When the next page comes up, make sure you turn off ‘Mail’. You can also toggle Contacts or Calendar if you just want to sync one of them.
Tap ‘Save’.
That’s it, it’s done! You can play around with your push/fetch settings in the Settings.app on your device as well.
Read on to Part two to find out how you can add your Mac into the syncing ‘loop’.
Footnotes;
- This will sync all your calendars, (except ones shared over your domain for Google Apps users), however they will all appear as the one calendar on your iPhone (eg. no colour coding).
- All of your existing contacts & calendars will be wiped from your iPhone, so I’d recommend you make a backup before turning on ‘push’
User
40 Comments
Overall this works fairly well, except for a few noteworthy exceptions:
- Multiple calendars in Google Calendar all show up as the same calendar on the iPhone.
- Luckily, it does sync events from all your Google Calendars, but you cannot create events in any calendar except your default calendar from the iPhone.
- It seems that you cannot delete events through the iPhone interface that were created in the Google Calendar interface. You can, however, delete events that were created using the iPhone.
Other than these issues, this is currently a slightly better service than MobileMe in terms of calendar syncing (in my opinion) simply because it can sync my subscription calendars wirelessly. Hopefully MobileMe will add this functionality (as well as some sort of Google Calendar Sync) in the near future. Alternatively, a native Google Calendar iPhone app would also be great.
I’d love Contact and Calendar sync for free but giving my password to them makes me uncomfortable.
So… does the first sync take a really long time?
Hi Ted - my first sync took about 2 minutes - but I have barely any events or contacts.
Hi - Can I sync my Gmail account with this too?
Sorry Derek - not just yet. However, NuevaSync have plans to add IMAP support so soon you’ll be able to add push gmail to the mix as well.
I was going to talk to a friend of mine this evening about exactly something like this needing to be setup. It’s rather unfortunate that even though Apple and Google are “buddy buddy” that google hasn’t done much of anything for the new phone. saving me one button press to search google isn’t really that great. I can’t wait for this to get more robust.
So, I hate to be cynical, but what is in it for them? How do they plan to make this worth their while?
I keep getting told that the exchange account verification failed, and I’ve tried numerous times. Is anyone else having this problem?
Maybe I’m missing something, but I’ve tried this several times today and I’m not getting it to work. The account appears to verify, I follow the instructions exactly, but in the end my calendar remains empty. Any suggestions?
Making Push & Fetch for Google Calendars Work for 2.0 Users
from ModMyiFone.com by chriscoyne
After talking with an Apple Representative today, I was asking more about how to use Push and Fetch features. Especially, for Google calendars to sync to the iPhone calendar.
The rep said, he did not know, and thought it was for Gmail only.
Well, with a little investigating myself I figured it out. It works great. Thought I would share.
1. Go to settings and select, Fetch New Data
2. Turn on Push
3. Scroll down to Advanced
4. Select advance and select your Gmail Account
5. Tick if not selected already Fetch
6. Close Settings
7. On your computer, sign in and go to Google Calendar
8. On the bottom left select - Manage Calendars
9. Select Mobile Setup
10. Enter your details and select to get activation code
11. Note: Use Explorer or Safari not Firefox
12. You will recieve an SMS with code insert and save
Thats it. Now test for yourself. set an event on the iPhone….it will be Pushed to the Google Calendar.
On Google Calender….Set an event and it will be Pushed and or Fetched to the iPhone. Also, you can set Alerts to remind you. They Pop-up on the computer while your working and Popup on the iPhone as a SMS to remind you of events.
I will have to call Apple back to tell them how it works… Haha !
Try it out. I will be doing a Review of Google Mobile App soon. It should be your Favorite App after you getting it working right.
Don’t have a Gmail account? Go to Google Gmail and create an account in settings set it to be IMAP not POP.
All the Best, Chris
OK, nevermind… finally got it to go. Upon iPhone setup, I had to enter email, Nue login and password. Let it tell me it couldn’t authenticate…
then hit cancel.
then it give the option to enter the “www.nuevasync.com” as the server. It took after that. weird.
Hi, I’m from Nuevasync. Some answers :
The ‘Exchange server verification failed’ thing can be ignored. Unfortunately Apple
chose to implement a kind of auto-magic configuration scheme where they attempt
to guess your server DNS name from your e-mail address. In our case (and I suspect
pretty much all cases) this guess will be wrong. For example if your e-mail address
is ‘foo@gmail.com’ it will try to connect to ‘gmail.com’. This won’t work and
in fact gives an SSL cert error because the cert there is for ‘mail.google.com’.
If you just tell the iPhone to ignore the SSL error, it will then get the message
that ‘gmail.com’ is not a great place to be connecting to for sync, and will allow you
to enter the correct server : http://www.nuevasync.com.
On deleting calendar events on the device : we believe this should work. If it doesn’t
e-mail us at support@nuevasync.com and we will investigate. (I just tried it myself
and it worked as expected).
The #1 problem we have at present is google locking our users’ accounts with the
‘captcha required’ error. This requires visiting a page at google to un-lock the account
(sometimes several times unfortunately). We are working on an implementation of OAuth
that we hope will avoid this issue. When the user’s account gets into this state
basically no syncing happens at all, but we have no way to flag this to the user
on their iPhone. So as far as they are concerned, we are just sucking, and not syncing
We run a script at regular intervals that finds the affected users from our server
logs and sends them an e-mail. Hopefully we can get past this problem in the next day or so.
Er, let’s see… ok on the cynicism part : we deployed the site to test and showcase
our sync protocol code. The idea was to be able to show interested OEMs that it
works, and works on a large scale. Running the service for free for a bunch of users
was therefore in our interest because it adds value to our sync code.
However, since the iPhone launch we have picked up a large number of new users.
Clearly we don’t have the resources to run the service for an infinite number of
users for free. Beyond that I really don’t have answer on the business model.
We are focusing on fixing bugs and making the service scale right now.
There is no plan to charge for the service in the immediate future.
About e-mail : we have been working on e-mail support, however that work has
taken a lower priority to dealing with the various issues that have arisen with
the existing service since the iPhone 2.0 launch. Once we clear that backlog
we will get back to work on the e-mail support. In the meantime you have e-mail
with IMAP.
About giving us your password : this won’t be necessary once we have our
OAuth code in place (in a few days, we hope).
Does the first sync take a long time : no, a few seconds, unless you have the
dreaded Captcha Required problem, see above.
Lastly : why don’t we support multiple calendars on the iPhone ? Well we simply didn’t
realize that they existed. We’re researching how they work and hope to get that feature
deployed soon.
I think I answered all the un-answered questions. Please send any more questions to
our support alias. I may re-read here later, but I might forget. There are quite a few
forums (fora?) and blogs now that we need to keep track of.
you guys have a pretty awesome thing going on here. Keep up the good work and keep it free!!!
I have tried to set up NuevaSync for iphone 2.0 with no luck. Do you have any updated suggestions? Thanks.
What about all the fields that are on the iPhone but not on Google Contacts? How will that work out? Anybody have any idea?
Anyone figured out how to connect Outlook 2007 to NuevaSync? That would be awesome, and bring you the full MobileMe experience…
Now I have to use Google Calendar sync to get stuff from Outlook to Google, and the Nueva to get it from Google to iPhone.
This setup would better:
Outlook 2007NuevaSyncGoogleNuevaSynciPhone
I guess the question really is: how do you make Outlook 2007 connect over the Exchange ActiveSync protocol?
@Maurice -
You are restricted to the fields defined by the Exchange Server. You don’t have access to several thing, some of which include the “Other…” field for phone numbers/e-mails.
Wow! Google Calendar 2-way Push for my iPhone.
Thank you so much!
Servers seem to be pretty busy, but I can understand it.
Please keep up with the program!
As a quick official update, OAuth support is in place. We believe this will eradicate the dreaded capctha bug. Initial reports are very good.
this would be great if I didn’t already have an exchange account set up for mail2web push… Any way of getting around the ‘only one exchange account allowed’ message? How are people getting push gmail as well as calendar and contacts? I’ve tried forwarding to yahoomail for push with less than stellar results…
blair,
NuevaSync is going to release E-Mail-pushing very soon. So, no need for to use mail2web then.
This is it! Thx…
The only ting I/we need RIGHT now is;
1. Support multiple calendars on the iPhone - its simply a bigtime must! (I have 4 calanders in one right now with Nuevasync.)
2. Email support - its simply a must!
3. Tasks support - can wait.
Has any been able to synch contact groups?
I have groups set up in my google contacts but it doesn’t copy the groups over in my iphone it simply puts them in all contacts.
Thanks,
Sanjay
Easy way to export gCal ICS files
The Google System Blog featured a great tip for exporting an ICS version of all your Google Calendars so that you can use them on your desktop with iCal or Sunbird or another desktop calendar program.
Simply visit https://www.google.com/calendar/exporticalzip and the resulting zip file will contain a folder with an ICS file for each calendar. Note: this will only include calendars that you can edit. Public calendars or shared calendars that you have view-only access will not be included.
If you are a Google Apps user, just go to http://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/YOURDOMAIN/exporticalzip
Now, if only Google could make synching calendars from the desktop with gCal a bit easier.
[via Google System Blog via Google Calendar Help]
this takes care of syncing one way from goole to ical
link
http://www.tuaw.com/2006/04/13/howto-subscribe-to-a-google-calendar-using-ical/
have fun with the simple things in life, they work
Sorry for the naive/dumb question.
But how safe is this? If I allow nuevasync access to my calendar/contacts, is there a possibility they could steal this info? I don’t know too much how these services work. However, what has me a little worry is how is nuevasync making money out of this, even if to just cover basic site/server fees…
-TW
Good question Henry, I was asking myself that too.
that is why i chose for the safe but manual methode in my previous post.
I do not think my contacts would be amused if all thair info hit the sidewalk
Does exactly what it does on the tin. Very impressed.
My only queston is that I once read that if you activate an Exchange server on your iPhone, then AT&T sees you as a business phone, and will charge you for a business plan.
What are your thoughts on that?
Great Post!!
The calendar syncing is working just fine with the google calendar except for one little detail, all the events I place on my iPhone appear perfectly fine and don’t change under any circumstance, but when I go into my google calendar, they all appear but 30 minutes earlier. So if I set up an event on my iPhone for 8:00 am, it will show up on my google calendar at 7:30 am. Can anyone lend a helping hand, I’d really like to get this fixed, for the rest of it, it works just fine. If you can help me out, please post here.
All my adds in my iPhone calendar come out fine, but when I look at my google calendar they appear 30 minutes earlier. So if I add an event on my iPhone claendar for 8:00 am it will show up on my google calendar for 7:30 am. Someone please comment with some help.
Hi,
I think that the saving the Google mobile home page on the home screen
works better. You can have all your events color coded by calendar and extra goggle calendars (weather, holidays, etc. ) will show up too.
It looks nicer that way.
- Eva
Calendar works great on iPhone. Can’t get contacts to sync in either direction. I have over 11,000 contacts, is there a limit? Google seems to handle them.
Hey @P. D. Riley!
It might not be working as the server could be timing out. I believe the guys at NuevaSync are working on this, so stay tuned
THANKS
Thanks, this looks awesome!
I’m trying it out right now
Can’t wait for gmail push!
mobileme is mostly just a personal information manager, and does not allow for sharing of information, which is an important function of Exchange, so it falls short of being an “exchange alternative”.
14 Trackbacks
[...] for sync of Contacts & Calendar on your iPod touch or iPhone, thanks to NuevaSync and Google. Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar) | Good News for P… Well worth a read if you want to save $119 Does have some cons, but on the whole it works [...]
[...] on setting up NuevaSync inside your iPhone, as well as Windows Mobile and Palm Treo devices. Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar) [Good News for People Who Like Bad News via Lifehacker [...]
[...] on setting up NuevaSync inside your iPhone, as well as Windows Mobile and Palm Treo devices. Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar) [Good News for People Who Like Bad News via Lifehacker [...]
[...] on setting up NuevaSync inside your iPhone, as well as Windows Mobile and Palm Treo devices. Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar) [Good News for People Who Like Bad News via Lifehacker [...]
[...] on setting up NuevaSync inside your iPhone, as well as Windows Mobile and Palm Treo devices. Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar) [Good News for People Who Like Bad News via Lifehacker [...]
From vBharat.com » Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar) | Beau Giles…
For those who dont want to shell out the $99 for a MobileMe subscription, here’s a free alternative with support for push Contacts. NuevaSync is a new website which links Google Calendar and Contacts with their Exchange server, letting you sync your …
[...] Originally Posted by Micara57 This is killing me, my entire family (6 ppl) all share a google calander and we all have each others events on our phones. NemuSync was great so I loved that and it was easy to make plans with friends and whatnot. But now with my new iPhone 3G I cant and its sooooooo frustrating, if anyone develops a method for syncing google calanders it would be greatly appreciated if you would pm me. Is this what you’re talking about? Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar) | Beau Giles [...]
[...] Beaugiles.net has the step-by-step tutorial if you need. But below is a summary that I am confident most of you can get this going fairly quickly: [...]
[...] tu iPhone, para eso es necesario una herramienta llama NuevaSync, para ver cómo hacerlo mira el tutorial completo. Archivado en Personal Deja aquí tu comentario ↓ Etiquetas apple, google, gratis, [...]
[...] Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar) | Beau Giles - For those who dont want to shell out the $99 for a MobileMe subscription, here’s a free alternative with support for push Contacts & Calendar on your iPod touch or iPhone, thanks to NuevaSync and Google. [...]
[...] Originally Posted by questioncom too bad nuevasync isn’t in cydia (2.0 version). I need my calenders. Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar) | Beau Giles [...]
[...] company does not have an exchange server, so I started to look for free alternatives. Good thing, I found this link that taught me how to setup push on my iPod touch for free. Enter NuevaSync, a service that acts as an Exchange Server between Google and the iPod touch. Just [...]
[...] article is written by Beau Giles. Here is an excerpt from the original article, go here to read the whole [...]
[...] a blog entry on “Using Google as a *free* MobileMe alternative (with push contacts & calendar)“. It appears that only one calendar can be used. Note that Google contacts requires that [...]