Sync Options

This is where you configure how, when and what is synced between your calendars.

Changes to any of the settings will take immediate effect for the next synchronisation of calendars, but they won’t persist between restarting OGCS unless the Save button is clicked.
Settings can also be exported as a backup, as well as imported between OGCS instances or installations.

How

Direction: One-way sync from Outlook to Google, vice versa or two-way sync between both.

These next configuration items help you manage what should happen with items that OGCS wants to remove.

Merge with existing entries: It is recommended the target calendar is either empty or a new calendar created specifically for OGCS to sync with. This will make it easier for you to identify what has been synced etc. However, if you need to sync into a calendar that contains items not present in the source calendar and you want to keep those items, check this option.

Such a situation may arise if you wish to sync your work Outlook calendar in to the default Google calendar, in order that Alexa or Google Home can announce your schedule for the day.

Disable deletions: This option is mostly a safeguard to be used by new users of OGCS. Once you have confidence the tool is working as expected, it should most likely be switched off.
Confirm deletions: Once deletions have been permitted, if you turn this option on, each deletion will prompt you to confirm or deny if this should be allowed. Again, this is to help you gain confidence you have the right configuration and OGCS is doing what you expect. It is not intended as a setting to have enabled long term.
If a sync causes every single item in the target calendar to be deleted before creating new items a-new, then there is always a “bulk deletion” warning, irrespective of the above settings. This is to provide a chance to confirm this is definitely expected and intended.

Specific attributes can be overridden in the target calendar:

• Set privacy as private/public
• Set availability as free/busy. Also tentative/out of office if syncing to Outlook
• Set colour/category

For two-way sync, you can choose between Outlook and Google as to which is the target calendar, as well as whether to implement the override

• For all synced items; or
• Only for items newly created by the sync tool

This second option means that the overridden attribute(s) will not sync back to the source calendar - otherwise, for example, everything would end up private which is probably not what is intended.

Word obfuscation: Through the use of regular expressions, certain letters, words or phrases in the calendar item’s subject can be altered. By clicking the Rules button, you will see a table with Find and Replace columns; each row of regular expression rules would be applied in the order given using AND logic.

If two-way sync is configured, the obfuscation can only work in one direction - choose which from the drop down menu.

When

Specify when to run a sync.

Date Range: Select the number of days into the past and future within which calendar items should be synced. Date ranges greater than a year into the past or future are not allowed. If a recurring appointment spans the date range specified, then it will also be synced. A minor exception to this are annual recurrence patterns - these will only sync if the month of the appointment falls into a month within the sync date range.

To optimise the sync speed, the smaller the date range the better. Try to avoid a large date range combined with a frequent sync interval.

Schedule: The number of hours or minutes between automated syncs. Setting it to zero turns off automated syncs, relying upon on-demand manual synchronisations.
15 minutes is the minimum sync frequency allowed, unless Push Sync is also enabled in which case it is 120 minutes.
Push Outlook Changes Immediately: Have OGCS detect when calendar items are changed within Outlook and sync them within 2 minutes.

What

Attributes

Specify which appointment attributes to include in the sync.

With all of these settings, when turned on they will only sync from that point forward. To sync them for all calendar items, press and hold Shift while clicking the Sync button. When turning sync off data already synced will not be removed - this will need to be done manually and is to protect against loss of data should two-way sync ever be configured.

Location: The location of the appointment.

Description: The body of the appointment.

One-way to Google: If two-way sync is configured, optionally only sync the description to Google. Because Google has a maximum of 8kb held in plain text, it may cause information or formatting to be lost if subsequently synced back from Google.

Attendees: Sync the meeting attendees, using their email address as their unique identifier. A default maximum of 200 attendees can be synced, or specify a lower limit.

This option is likely to trigger the Outlook security popup. If you cannot prevent this through standard settings, it may be best to stop syncing attendees.

Cloak email in Google: Google has been known to send out unsolicited notification emails to attendees. To prevent this, the default is to “cloak” the attendee’s email address by appending .ogcs, thus making any such emails undeliverable.

Colours/categories: The Outlook category and/or Google colour can be synced, which uses an algorithm to match to the closest equivalent colour. If there are multiple categories in Outlook with the same colour, or the wrong colour is being matched, there are more fine-grained controls under the Mapping button.

The Test map section shows how each colour will map to the other system. The table below can be used to specify alternative mappings from the default - eg the red Outlook "My Test" category mapped to the "Banana" colour in Google.

Single category only: Google only allows a single colour, so this would enforce only one Outlook category. If unchecked, the sync will create new categories for each synced colour, with a name prefixed by "OGCS ".

Reminders: Include reminders/alerts in order to be notified of upcoming meetings.

Use Google Default: It is possible to configure a default reminder within a Google calendar that all items within it will inherit. Check this option to allow this behaviour to continue when the Outlook item has no reminder set or reminders are not being synced. With the option unchecked, only the Outlook reminder will sync and appear on the Google event, and if none is set in Outlook or reminders are not being synced, Google will not have a reminder either.

Use Outlook Default: It is possible to configure a default reminder within Outlook settings that all items will inherit. Check this option to allow this behaviour to continue when the Google event has no reminder set or reminders are not being synced. With the option unchecked, the Google reminder with the shortice notice period will take precedence and appear on the Outlook appointment, and if none is set in Google or reminders are not being synced, Outlook will not have a reminder either.

DND between hours x and y: Syncing from Outlook to Google is the most popular option, usually in order to see work commitments on an Android phone. For all-day appointments especially, this can mean an unnecessary midnight alert (thanks to the default Microsoft reminder of 15 minutes)! To avoid this, configure a “do not disturb” window in which reminders will not be synced.

Exclusions

Specify which calendar items to exclude from the sync.

These settings operating differently according to your sync direction. When calendar items are excluded:

• One-way: both newly created items will be not be synced and previously synced will be removed.
• Two-way: only newly created items will be not be synced to the target calendar.

If greater control is needed around what should sync, include or excluding Outlook categories / Google colours that are manually assigned to individual items may suit better.

Availability: Exclude calendar items marked as Free or Tentative. Note that Tentative is only available when syncing from Outlook.
Privacy: Exclude calendar items marked as Private.
All-Day: Exclude all-day calendar items, or those spanning several days from midnight to midnight. Optionally, only exclude all-day items that are marked Free.
Subject that contains: Exclude any items with subjects/titles that match this search string. Supports regular expressions.