Syncing bliss with the iPhone
by Colin Devroe on July 5th, 2007
Something I was worried about with Eliza and I both getting iPhones was syncing. She has data, I have data, we have data! How would I be able to manage keeping all of this data in sync between our two computers and the iPhones without forcing her to only sync her iPhone with my computer?
A few things came into play in order to make this happen – but out of the box I’m very happy with how the iPhone handles syncing. Unlike the iPod, and correct me if I’m wrong, the iPhone allows itself to be connected to more than one computer. Have you ever had an iPod yell at you when you connect it to another computer? The iPhone doesn’t. Which is beautiful! So now my iPhone syncs only with my computer whereas Eliza’s syncs with mine for music and her’s for mail, calendar, address book, and photos. Happy, happy, joy, joy.
However, this introduces a small wrench into the system. Syncing our iPhones separately would mean that we would have to manage two different address books and calendars. The address book is a non-issue since Eliza and I, for the most part, managed two very separate contact lists. The number of business contacts that I have makes it so that Eliza would not want to sync with my address book outright. I, on the other hand, want all of my contact’s information available to me all the time.
So we’re left with the calendar. How do I sync Eliza’s calendar with mine, mine with hers, and both of ours with our iPhones? Turns out this is made very easy using a utility called Spanning Sync. So here is how I do keep all of this information up-to-date between both of our computers, the Web, and our respective iPhones.
Syncing bliss. (made with Skitch)
The first step is to create the calendars that you think you need within iCal. I decided to create two calendars per person and one joint calendar for our use. So we both have a personal calendar and a work calendar, and then we share a family events calendar. Eliza maintains the family events calendar so that I don’t have to (thanks babe!).
The second step is to recreate those same calendars within Google Calendar. I could have easily set it up so that Spanning Sync used the same Google Calendar account, but I wanted to keep our two accounts separate for other reasons and I really think this is the better option if Eliza wanted to go into Google Calendar and subscribe to things like the Green Bay Packers season schedule or something.
Once you have this completed you tell Spanning Sync, on both computers, to sync the iCal calendars that you created with their online representatives within Google Calendar. This will pull your information from iCal every hour, day, or week and sync it with Google Calendar making them both up-to-date.
The final step is to share my calendars with Eliza through Google Calendar and share her’s with mine. Then, ask Spanning Sync to sync those calendars too with offline representatives within iCal.
Once I had this workflow down, and have tested it, I have been really, really happy with the results. If I didn’t explain this too well I’m sorry – it gets a bit confusing but if you have any questions you can leave them in the comments and I’ll try to answer them. Or, if you have any tips on how I can improve this workflow – I’d like those as well.
Nice write up, explained well. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for quite some time.
Same situation, we’ve got two Macs, two sets of different calendars, but I wanted one calendar we could share and update regarding those unified events (BBQs, visits with the parents…). Currently we send invites back and forth, but I think it’s a pain for every single thing, and then when you make a change you have to send another round of invites.
This also solves my problem of being able to update my iCal calendars while at work. I don’t have to have my laptop sitting next to me all day just for the possibly I want to make a change to an event.
Now I just need an iPhone for myself.
I originally sync’d my iPhone with my home PC. I got my calandar, contacts, music, photos etc. without too much problem. However, I need to keep my calandar and contacts up to date and sync’d with my office PC as well. When I attached my iPhone to my office PC I only sync’d my Info (calandar and contacts) and that is working fine. Now I’m afraid to try to sync my Info from the office back to the home PC. Have you, or are you aware of anyone who is doing what I’m trying to describe successfully? Thanks for your help.
Kirt: Follow the same instructions that I have here, instead of using iCal though, just share Google Calendars with your work email address or simply keep two separate calendars so that whether you sync at work, or at home, you will be syncing the same information.
Anyone know why my iphone will not let me sync with more than one computer for music and videos?? I tried to get some music and a movie off my bro’s computer and it erased all the pictures and music I already had on the phone. How can I get music from other peoples pc’s without it erasing what I already have on there? Thanks, J.
Jeff: Unfortunately you are not allowed to take music and/or video from any else’s computer using the iPhone. Burn a CD it probably the easiest way. Or, there are a few applications out there specifically made to do this – but again, it isn’t against the EULA.
I recently spilled liquid on my laptop putting it out of commission. After that, I purchased movies on iTunes using my account but my friend’s computer. How can I add those movies I purchased on my friend’s computer to my iPhone without deleting all the music/pictures that I currently have on my iPhone?
Kirby: You’ll probably need to call Apple for that one. My guess is that they’ll need to deauthorize the old computer and authorize the new computer manually? Really though, I don’t have any advice besides to give Apple Support a call.
I’m an iPhone newbie, and I am tryin to sync photos from the phone to my laptop. Am I missing something? This seems like it should be easy.
I just got an iPod Touch and was wondering if there are other PC calendar programs besides Outlook that iTouch can sync with?
Also, can I do this? Sync my music to my home computer and my calendar to my work calendar?
Thanks.
This is what you call “Syncing bliss”?! Sounds to me like it took a lot of tinkering and workarounds to make something happen which a revolutionary mobile smartphone should be able to do right out of the box. I really can’t see why Apple doesn’t manage to provide an option to sync your device’s calender with 2 machines or more if necessary. It’s not like having an office machine and another at home is a rare setup by any means. This should be basic stuff and it should be covered by now. Especially if you google it and find a zillion sites with people looking for solutions to this problem/fault.
And don’t get me wrong, I’m not a hater. I own an iPhone myself and love it. It’s just that Apple seems to always drop the “usability” ball when it comes to syncing their devices. The device itself is great. Syncing not so much.
I am wanting to sync my contact and calendar on both my work and home computers. I don’t just mean move them to my iPhone from my work computer and never see them on my hoe computer. If I change a business contact, I want it at home…if I change a friend’s contact (or a calendar entry) I want it at work also. Syncing to multiple machines doesn’t really work well for this instance. Buying the subscription seems that it would work, but Plaxo is free. It syncs up my Address Book, iCal, Outlook Contacts, Outlook Calendar, Gmail Calendar, MSN, Yahoo, etc..
And if your .Mac account syncs automatically when something is updated, then it will be updated also.
If I change one thing on one machine, all of the other devices are all automatically synced with their server.
Now if the iPhone would only allow wireless syncing….
if i connect my iphone to another computer. will i be able to backup the info of the iphone onto the computer (transfer all my data- notes, bookmarks, home screen icons, etc), or will the data on my iphone be erased?
i am planning to get another laptop and get rid of this old laptop.
Hi Colin
Thanks for the initial write up in Jul 07. Since both you and Eliza have both your calendars on each other’s iPhone based on the sharing-setup over google, when you make changes to your schedule on your iphone, will the changes be updated only to your Google/ Ical calendars ?
What if I had personal info on my iCal on my mac at home and work info on a PC at work. Can I still use your methodology to sync both calendars and contacts using google calendar as the medium with spanning sync ?