How to sync Google Calendar and Outlook (and what “both ways” really means)
Short answer
Google Calendar and Outlook can subscribe to each other, but only one way and often hours late. To keep them in step both ways, connect both to one Kapcal board: each syncs both ways with Kapcal, and once you link an Outlook event to a Google event, moving either one, in Kapcal, Google or Outlook, moves the other in both calendars.
Why subscribing isn’t syncing
The usual fix is to publish one calendar as a link and subscribe to it from the other: Outlook can publish a calendar, Google Calendar can add it “From URL”, and the reverse works too. It’s free and takes two minutes, but it has three limits.
- One way. The subscribed copy is read-only. Move an event there and nothing happens; you have to move it where it came from.
- Late. Google says changes to a calendar added by link can take up to 12 hours to show; Microsoft says Outlook.com can sometimes take more than 24 hours. Why subscribed calendars fall behind.
- Separate. Each calendar still stands alone. When the client moves the presentation in Google, the prep session booked in Outlook doesn’t know it depended on it.
Syncing both ways needs something that can write to both calendars and knows which events belong together.
Step by step
Connect your Google calendar
On a Kapcal board, open Tools → Calendar syncing → Google Calendar, sign in with Google and allow both permissions, then pick the calendar and the category its events go in. Its events appear on the board as items, and titles, dates, times and notes change on either side.
Connect your Outlook calendar
Do the same with Outlook: sign in with a work, school or personal Microsoft account, pick the calendar and its category. A board holds one Google calendar and one Outlook calendar, side by side, each in its own colour.
Put the event in both calendars
For an event that belongs in both, add its twin in the other calendar’s category: click its day, type the title, pick that category and save. Kapcal creates the event in that calendar straight away.
Link the two
Select one of them: a small link handle appears inside each end of its bar. Drag a handle onto the other event. Both now show a link icon, and Details lists the other under Linked.
Linking: drag a handle from one bar onto another, and they move together. Move either one, anywhere
Move the event in Kapcal, in Google Calendar or in Outlook. When the change reaches Kapcal (within about a minute while the board is open, within 10 minutes otherwise, or at once with Sync now), the linked event moves by the same number of days, and Kapcal updates its calendar too.
What moves, and what doesn’t
Moves together
The day. Each event keeps its own length and times of day.
Stays put
Events with locked dates. A change of time on the same day, or a longer or shorter event, doesn’t move the other one.
Stays separate
Titles and notes. Each event keeps its own; Kapcal moves dates, it doesn’t copy one event onto the other.
Deleting
Delete an event in its own calendar and the board follows. Linked events can’t be deleted from Kapcal, on purpose.
Other ways
Subscribe by link
Free and built in, but one way and hours late. Fine for a holiday calendar; not for dates that move.
Share a calendar inside one service
If everyone can use Google (or everyone Outlook), share one calendar there: changes arrive in seconds. It doesn’t help when the team is split between the two.
A dedicated sync service
Several services copy events between Google and Microsoft accounts. They suit mirroring your own busy times; they don’t give a team one schedule with categories, views and dependencies.
Copy by hand
Works for a few dates. The copies drift the first time something moves.
Questions
Do I need a paid plan?
Two-way sync with Google Calendar and Outlook comes with the Pro plan, which starts with a 14-day free trial. Subscribing to a calendar by link works on every plan. See Pricing.
Can I sync more than one Google calendar?
Each board links one Google calendar and one Outlook calendar both ways. Other calendars can come in by their link, one way, read every 15 minutes.
Does it work with Microsoft 365 work accounts?
Yes: work, school and personal Microsoft accounts sign in the same way. Some organizations ask an administrator to approve new apps first.
What if both events are moved before a sync?
If linked events moved by different amounts, Kapcal leaves them where they are rather than guess which one is right. Move one again and the other follows.