Syncing Google calender and 2nd Exchange account

[awesme]

Hi all

My phone is configured to sync with my work email and calendar already.

At the same time I'm trying to configure google sync. discovered it only allows one Exchange account, first why eve limit this, 2nd, does any one know of a work around.

I keep my personal dates/events in google and all work on the work server.

G

 

[anon(153966)]

I have both, and that's only because I have Mobile ME. And, as you know, Mobile ME uses it's own connection in the mail setup window.

Not sure of an alternative...

 

[awesme]

hmm

tell me more please.

So by changing to mobile me i wold be able to sync google mail+ calander and and work mail+calender,

What does mobile me offer me, cost me,

G

why ever would they design a limit like this into the software...

 

[Alli]

Exchange has always been limited to one account..until the Palm Pre. For some reason it handles multiple exchange accounts. But you can't even do it on a Windows pc.

 

[awesme]

hmmm, i'm the first one that will say because it has always been does not make it right,

if we look here a fair share use gmail for their personal mail, I'm sure a fair amount also work for a large corporate that can sync they work email and calendar with their iPhone which is a exchanged based service.

G

 

[awesme]

hmm not interested in using mobileme. so will have to maintain calendar locally in outlook, (I dont, use outlook for mail, but now have to use it for calender, uses Thunderbird, would be nice if Lightning could do a calendar sync).

searching for a better option.

G

 

[awesme]

hmm ok, so here is the todo list.

work mail and calendar, configured by work adapter into corporate system, exchange based.
personal calendar, and mail: (1 x gmail, 2 x hotmail, 2 x yahoo)

local mail client is thunderbird, local calendar in mail=lightning.
Would be lovely if lightning could sync with gmail:calendar and then get this sync with phone as a 2nd exhange account. (company is working on an adapter to sync lightning with corporate calendar services) would solve allot.

I hate limits...
G

 

[Limited04]

I have a iphone 3g and my roommate just got the Pre, There are plenty of reasons to switch with its tethering capabilities, and like you just said, Its ability to have multiple exchange servers, It is tempting. But I still love My Iphone.. It is time to step it up again Apple...

 

[taylorh]

I have a better solution. I use Exchange for calendar/email and sync all of my Google calendars using caldav (other under mail/calandar settings.) There are a couple of things you need to know so I'll post the how to later today. It works great and all of the calendar colors match what you choose on google.

 

[jglowe74]

what's the difference between using the standard google calendar setup vs. doing it as a CalDAV calendar?? guess i don't see a big difference.

 

[jglowe74]

anyway, this guy seems to have a handle on the issue with setting up multiple CalDAV accounts on your iPhone:

Nathan de Vries ? Configuring Multiple CalDAV / Google Calendars on iPhone OS 3.0

 

[awesme]

Tell more please.
G

 

[flyingember]

Tell more please.
G

did you read the link? It explains it all

 

[awesme]

sorry, missed the link.
G

 

[taylorh]

what's the difference between using the standard google calendar setup vs. doing it as a CalDAV calendar?? guess i don't see a big difference.

Sorry I didn't get back sooner.
Here's the one tutorial I followed:
Configuring CalDAV on iPhone 3.0 for Google Calendar - Robert Chien's Blog
Pretty much step by step exactly what you need to do.

So to answer the question, Google Sync uses Microsoft Exchange Activesync. It essentially mimics being an Exchange Server. This is the most convenient as it will sync all of your calendars with one exchange account setting.

Well you can only have one Exchange account configured on the iPhone at a time. In my case I'm using Exchange for work, so I can't set it up to use Google sync as well.

CalDav is direct syncing with individual calendars directly. I don't know much about it honestly.
You can have (as far as I know) as many CalDav accounts as you want which is what is so convenient about it in this case.

The iPhone can also do "subscribed" calendar account syncing. But I believe this is one way (read only) as long as you have the Google address to the iCal .ics URL.

On Google, I have 4 calendars. 3 are mine, which I share with my wife and one is my Wife's which she shares with me.

So on my iPhone, I have these accounts set up:
Exhange calendars - all sync with work
My Calendar on Google - CalDav Account
Her Calendar on Google - CalDav Account
Hockey home schedule - CalDav account
Hockey away schedule - CalDav account
Google Mail - Personal Email on Google.
Yes, I have season tickets to San Jose Sharks hockey so I have the hockey schedule separate, and I share it with my wife on Google.

If someone is sharing a google calendar with you, depend on whether they give you rights to change their calendar will carry over to the iPhone. So you'll either be able to edit events or it'll be read-only depending on permissions.

And as I said before, the colors you choose on Google will be the colors that show up on the iPhone. With Exchange, it just assigns colors that you don't get to choose.

So check out the link. It explains a lot.

 

[jglowe74]

Great explanation taylorh, thanks!

 

[flyingember]

caldav works great. my wife and I share a calendar with it.

ldap for more contacts is not the same thing. Apple also limited mobile me sync to one contact group so one can't buy a family pack for themselves and keep two contact groups. (I ended up making groups in Contacts on my Mac and in Exchange)