Sync Gmail Contacts and Google Calendar with Outlook

June 16, 2009 at 01:01 · Filed under Guide

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There are many tutorials out there but they are all too complicated or/and give you paid, complicated tools to do the job.

Both tools on this post are free, will sit on your tray and won’t bother you, while maintaining your contacts and calendar synced. I’m gonna show you the easiest way to do it.

Google Calendar Sync

Download page: http://www.google.com/support/cal..wer=89955
(Direct link to download)

Installation

Read through the Google Calendar Sync Terms of Service, and click I Agree.
Follow through the Installation Options and click Install to finish the set-up process.
Once Google Calendar Sync is installed on your computer, the Google Calendar Sync Settings window will appear:

Google Calendar SyncPrint

Just enter your email/password and click Save. If you don’t want to sync back to Google Calendar choose “1 way: Google Calendar to Microsoft Outlook”

You are now syncing Google Calendar with Outlook!

Go Contact Sync

As the name says this is the plugin that’s gonna sync your Gmail Contacts. It supports contact categories and contact photos so your contacts will look exactly the same.

Download page: http://www.webgear.co.nz/Pr../GOContactSync.aspx
(Direct link to download)

Installation

Follow the setup instructions..
After installed, choose Start > All Programs > GO Contact Sync

GO Contact Sync Configuration

Just enter your email/password, make sure Sync Profile is not empty (enter any text, the program doesn’t allow it to be empty) and click Sync. Also check “Run program at startup“ .

You may be prompted by Outlook that a program is trying to access it. Grant permission to it for 5 minutes.

You are now syncing Gmail Contacts with Outlook!

Conclusion

Because Go Contact is still in beta you may some notices from the program that an error has ocurred. I found that a restart to the program solves it. I don’t know what the error means but a future release should correct the bug.

Also you are not limited to Outlook. With your Outlook synced you can keep your mobile also synced without spending money; I keep my Nokia N70 synced by bluetooth (maybe a future blog post). I just tell Nokia Suite to sync Outlook with my Nokia everytime its in range and now I have Google Calendar and Gmail Contacts on my pocket 24/7.

Questions/Problems

If you have any questions or problems just reply on the comments.

14 people like this post.

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steveday

I've tried multiple times to sync contacts and each time it says "synced 0 of 0". I've closed the program out and no change. Using Outlook 2007. Tried different options for syncing too. Please advise. Thanks.

SF

No point complaining about free software. The developer has moved on. He posted this on open source and has not returned.

I get the same, "Error: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection" on both of my computers. I had a problem with the Google Calendar Sync Tool as well. Someone posted instruction on how to turn on verbose logging for that tool. That helped me find the calendar events that were causing the problems. Too bad there isn't something like that for this program.

Robert W

As others have reported, on the 1st sync (which ran for an hour) it reported "No match found for outlook contact ..." on every record and didn't add any contacts to Google. I followed the suggestion to first delete all my Google contacts and import my Outlook contacts into Google, but still get this error. In addition, I now get lots of new errors, like "Warning: Skipping outlook contact" and "Warning: Invalid outlook contact" and "Outlook contacts with the same email have been found. Please delete duplicates"

This latest sync ran for 3.5 hours! It also made Outlook consume 1.2 GB of RAM, instead of the usual 70 - 100MB. And the RAM consumption did not diminish when the sync ended. I also could not close Outlook gracefully -- the process continued to run and I had to manually terminate it.

I'm stuck.

Ivette

I tried sync with Go Contact Sync and received the following message:
Error: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
What can I do to fix it. I have not been able to sync my google contacts into outlook

Scott

i've just installed and tried out this go thing and it didn't work. at first i was getting the same error messages as everyone else: "index out of range..." (i had no contacts at all in outlook). i then imported my contacts manually from google and ran the sync again. seemed to work but then i got the error message invalid outlook contacts (some of these contacts don't have email addresses or phone #s... they were synched to my google contacts via my blackberry. they are facebook contacts). once completed, i then got the index was out of range message. so, this thing workin or not?

tommyc3po

Tried this. No errors, but it did nothing. I already had been using Google's calendar sync and was looking for its equal. I hope they get this working.

John Rehill

I just installed this app as I was looking for one like it for ages...

However after installing and trying to sync I get the message "Invalid credentials"

The user and password are correct, any ideas???

AKDick

BTW - have tried GO several time (different versions as it evolved), and it has never worked (want Outlook to Google only).

I actually did try deleting all Google contacts, and re-importing from Outlook, but still doesn't work (logically, seems it should, though).

Have left message on the Go site, but to no avail.

A great idea - wish it worked.

AKDick

Google Calendar Sync just won't access Outlook 2007 - tried deleting and uninstalling several times. Only want Google to Outlook, but can't even connect.

sandraray

Can I sync multiple computers with Outlook (with dif info) to the Google calendar and have them combined for later sync?

John

Is someone Joking !!! this app does NOT work .....

charleswhealton

I don't know about that, John. I just used it and it appeared to work as advertised with a couple minor issues. There were a couple messages and as somebody said, having the & sign might be interfering with it.

It did sync my contacts.

Thanks for pointing us to this software....

medivets

I treid the Go Contacts and I am getting a sync report that NO Contact have been syncd or Deleted?.... what am i doing wrong?... Thanks

walter

I have the same problem as Alberto & others:
12/12/2009 23:57:10 Sync started
12/12/2009 23:57:11 Information: No match found for outlook contact (Stexxx, Axxx & Maxxx)
12/12/2009 23:57:11 Information: No match found for outlook contact (Nxxx)
etc
for everfy contact

Just won't sync the contacts...

Walter

Justin

I have the same problem and it just does not work.

adouglas

by accident, i told Outlook to NOT allow another program access to it. Now i can't get it to run. How do i reverse this? It's killing me!

Rocco

Doesn't work. It's a pity. Doesn't transfer any contact from and to my Outlook/google Contacts...
Maybe when the developer fix this problems yes, I dont' know when will be that. but the idea is great...
R.

cambridgecomputerrepair

Many thanks, I've been looking for something like this for ages! :)

Cheers

Kev
Cambridge Computer Repair
www.cam-pc.co.uk

abiaresi

"no match contact found"
I fixed it deleting all my gmail contacts
exporting outlook contacts to a file
importing outlook contacts from file into gmail contacts
start syncing and ever since it works.

XP Pro SP3 and Outlook 2003

CD

Has anyone who has received the error "Information: No match found for outlook contact" been able to fix it and have GO Contact Sync work for them? I'm using Windows XP Professional SP3 and Outlook 2007. I'm able to use Google Calendar Sync flawlessly, and I want to be able to sync my Outlook Contacts as well. I'm not too sure about using Soocial because it looks like there are some bugs with their Outlook sync tool that you download and install; and I'd rather not use one of the paid options if it's at all avoidable. Thanks.

ldonelson

I get a popup that says:
A program is trying to access email addresses stored in Outlook. Do you want to allow this? The options are Yes, No or Yes for 1, 5, or 10 minutes. If I click yes the pop simply remains. If I click yes for 10 minutes the sync stops & I get an error message. Any suggestions? No matter what i choose I do not get a successful sync even though it appears to be syncing.

Robert W

For those like Idonelson struggling with the Outlook security pop-up requesting access, try Express Click Yes: http://www.contextmagic.com/express-clickyes/ It's free, and all it does is answer yes to this message. You can exit the program when the sync is done. 10 minutes was nowhere near long enough for my contacts to sync.

abiggerplate

Yes, well done.

alberto

Hi, just installed contact sync on vista home premium SP2, Outlook 2003 , restarted the system but cannot sync, for every contact in my list I have this message:
8/22/2009 6:38:09 PM Sync started
8/22/2009 6:38:32 PM Information: No match found for outlook contact (Adaxxx, Matxxx)
any suggestion ?

dman

any resolution for this yet???? annoying for sure.

using Vista, Outlook 2007 with Business Contact Manager

Thanks

zerone

What option did you choose? Try "Merge Google Wins"

parent_kevin

I've tried all the options and get the same message.

Name

hi, the app needs a firewall and proxy configuration option. the error messages experienced by MW and dschanen are both firewall/proxy related.

Bert

hi, thx to try developing such program! it would be great, but I get the same error as all the other comments here: index out of reach... ect. can you fix it please? thx feedback :-)

clemens749

After hours of trying to get rid of error messages, I just found a piece of the puzzle. If the outlook contact contains an "&" symbol in the comments area, you will not get it to sync this contact. Replace it with "and" and you're fine.

caponesj

Hi, Calendar worked great the Go Contact app keeps giving me this error msg even after restart:

28/07/2009 5:59:44 PM Error: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name: index
28/07/2009 5:59:44 PM Sync failed

Ben

Well, I think you've found a pretty big chunk of the holy grail. I've wasted hours trying to find a [FREE] program like Google Calendar Sync for contacts. Well done sir.

Leigh

I installed the Google Calendar sync app, and it ran and everything synced. The icon was in the system tray. Then I restarted my computer. The icon is gone, and I cannot get it back without actually reinstalling the app. Any thoughts? I have uninstalled and reinstalled just to verify - the problem remains.

MW

Don't work. Maybe this is due to the proxy I am using or firewall settings...?

Vipul

Hello,

When I try to sync this is the error message that I am getting. Get this message when I try to sync Outlook To Google Only and Google To Outlook Only. Currently all my contacts are in Google and do not have any in my Outlook on my desktop. Not sure if that could be the issue. Any help would be great. Thank you.

6/25/2009 4:39:04 PM Sync started
6/25/2009 4:39:08 PM Error: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name: index
6/25/2009 4:39:08 PM Sync failed

zerone

Try to sync both with "Merge Google Wins" and tell me your results

Fedor Romanenko

Hi! I have the same problem. Merge Google Wins produces the same results.

Also for some contacts (usually without names) I have the message "no match found" as mentioned below.

Fedor Romanenko

I turned "prompt for merge". It opens the popup for every contact on initial sync (popup moves around the screen, and there's no hotkeys for choice selection buttons, - not comfortable). For some contacts is says "" for the name of the contact. In case I press "use Google copy" for such a contacts, it crashes. If I use "use outlook copy" it goes further. Possibly this happens to contacts with no name but with filled "Company" field, I don't know.

I have never chance to go through initial sync, 'cause after the first mistake I have to start all over...

MW

Do you have an idea whats up with this failure notice?

Error: Execution of request failed: http://www.google.com/m8/feeds/contacts/default...

zerone

That's strange. Did you try to reboot? Or maybe Google Contacts API was down (it's where the application gets your contacts). Test it again and make me know.

dschanen

I am having this same problem... did you ever figure out what the issue is?

I put the URL into a browser and found the server returned a 401, Authorization required, error.