FAQs

FAQs

Other FAQ Pages

• Why am I getting Outlook security pop-ups?
• OGCS just crashes with a strange error code / COM errors
• Is OGCS Free?
• Known Issues

FAQs on this Page

• Why isn't it finding any Outlook calendar items?
• Why can't I sync more than 1 year past or future?
• Why the restriction on sync schedule
• What does the "Merge with existing entries" option do?
• Why am I getting duplicates created?
• Why are my meeting attendees getting notified of updates to Events in Google?!
• Why am I the meeting organiser for all events?
• How do I wipe/reset the configuration?

Why isn't it finding any Outlook calendar items?

This is normally due to being in a non UK or US timezone which may use a less common date-time format. Try experimenting with different date formats under Settings > Outlook > Regional Date Formats or even custom date formats such as dd-MMM-yyyy HH:mm.

📝 Normally including seconds and/or AM/PM make things worse, but worth experimenting with everything!

Then click the Test button to check the expected number of items are now returned. If the test is returning items but the sync is not, check the Outlook category filter to make sure you aren't inadvertently filtering everything out!

If it still doesn't work, check if you have an "Archive" folder configured in Outlook (this happens when you open a .pst file) - it might be that OGCS is syncing with a calendar folder inside here. If so, temporarily close the archive, configure OGCS against the main account calendar and then reopen the archive.

Why can't I sync more than 1 year past or future?

This is often a misunderstanding of what OGCS will sync. If there are recurring appointments that span the date range being synced, then the whole recurring series will be synced. So, for example, a series that started 20 years ago and has no end date would still be synced. The only caveats are that:

1. if the recurring series has an exception that falls outside of the synced date range, these will not be included; and
2. if the recurring series repeats annually, then the month it occurs must fall within the synced date range

If you are looking to sync years and years of calendar, then more likely a one off manual export to .ics and import is what you're after.

Why the restriction on sync schedule?

As per the User Guide, scheduled syncs are restricted to a maximum frequency of 15 minutes, or 120 minutes if Push Sync is also enabled. This is to encourage a type of fair usage policy, in which individual users cannot consume a disproportionate amount of the limited quota provided by Google for OGCS.

What does the "Merge with existing entries" option do?

This will preserve calendar events that were not created by this tool, or are not related to the content you are syncing, you can select this option to stop the tool deleting them.

However, it's recommended to sync to a dedicated calendar (contains no other items) if at all possible.

Why am I getting duplicates created?

This may be because you have migrated from a different tool to this one, or used an earlier version of it which had a known issue with recurrent events. Please ensure you have Disable deletions unchecked. If you have Merge with existing entries checked, then only items that you have deleted in the source calendar (eg Outlook) will be deleted in the target calendar (e.g. Google).

Why are my meeting attendees getting notified of updates to Events in Google?!

Unfortunately, this is nothing OGCS is doing, but several reports of it have been made. It would appear from several similar postings on Google's forums (here and here), that this was an issue that plagued it's own original calendar sync tool...but was never resolved.

In response to this, from v2.6.2, by default OGCS will append ".ogcs" to the email address of the meeting attendees. By "cloaking" the real email address in this way, if Google does attempt to send out unsolicited email, it will be undeliverable. The side effect of this is you may notice undeliverable notifications in your Gmail (evidence the cloaking has prevented the email reaching the meeting attendees).

Of course, you could also completely turn off synchronisation of attendees in the settings of OGCS.

📌 If you were syncing attendees prior to v2.6.2 and wish to now cloak them, it is recommended to force this change for all you events by pressing the Shift key whilst clicking the Sync button.

⚠️ If you delete an event with uncloaked attendees through your mobile Calendar app, this will also automatically notify the attendees! Additionally, in the Google web calendar, when manually deleting an event with attendees it will prompt "Would you like to send cancellation emails to Google Calendar guests?", and even selecting "Do not send", it will send them anyway! This is not something OGCS has any control over beyond the aforementioned cloaking.

Why am I the meeting organiser for all events?

Even though you may not be the organiser in source calendar, you will find you are the meeting organiser in the target calendar. This is a limitation of the Google API - the organiser must be the person who created the event (which is you through OGCS).

How do I wipe/reset the configuration?

If you wish to reset your configuration, so you can start the application as though it's a fresh install:-

1. Click the Settings tab, and then Application Behaviour
2. Click the Open Log button (this will open Windows Explorer)
3. Close OGCS
4. In the Windows Explorer window, select the settings.xml file and delete or rename it.
5. Restart OGCS