Spanning Sync Public Beta (Re)Opens

On February 4 at 14:35 GMT (9:35a ET/6:35a PT) we quietly reopened the public beta of Spanning Sync. The new server infrastructure seems to be handling the load well so far, but we're keeping a close eye on it. Hundreds ThousandsOver 17,000 new beta testers have started using the system and we're already getting some very valuable bug reports and feedback.

To participate in the beta, just download Spanning Sync v1.0b16 (if you haven't already), install it, and log in using your Google Calendar account name. If you haven't yet set up Google Calendar, you'll need to do that first.

Beta Means Bugs

We're thrilled at the level of interest and enthusiam we've seen around Spanning Sync, but we want to make it perfectly clear that this is a beta release, meaning it has bugs. Some of those bugs could do things like:

• Destroy your iCal and Google calendar data
• Silently move events from one time to another, or delete them altogether
• Silently fail to apply changes made in one calendar to the other
• Make duplicates of your calendar events
• Send duplicate email invitations to the attendees of all of your events
• Ruin your whole morning

So while we want as many people as possible to help us test, we don't want to be anyone's reason for missing an anniversary, flight, or meeting. Please back up your calendars before using Spanning Sync. Directions are included in the ReadMe file in the download package. And please don't rely on the Spanning Sync Beta to handle information that hasn't been backed up.

Once we're confident that the major bugs have been fixed, we'll release v1.0. Until then, please consider Spanning Sync a beta service. Please send all bug reports to beta@spanningsync.com and include a detailed description of what you did, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened.

For those of you whom I haven't managed to scare away, thanks for helping us test our service!

Comments

[Ben]

Markus: I also had this error. Try deleting your password, pressing tab, then restarting OS X, then re-open the preference pane and try again. Should work. No idea why.

[MP]

Hmmm. Can't even log in. I only get an error-message: "An unknown error occurred. Please check your network settings." :(

[Jules]

Uninstall/Reinstall : Simple fix, worked for me. Good Luck!

[ronsu]

Hi Charlie,

Thanks for your job. I have two questions about the soft:
1.- The sync is only in the way Ical to Gcal? Can I change this way? Or it's possible to have doble way sync?
2.- I look in the screencast an "Calendar options" button, but in my screen this button doesn't exists. Is it normal? May be this button is the key to change the way and to aswer the question numer 1 ;)

Thanks a lot!

[Charlie Wood]

Ronsu,

If events aren't syncing from gCal to iCal, you've found a bug that several other people have also experienced. We're working on identifying and fixing it. When Spanning Sync is working correctly, events are synchronized both ways.

The "Calendar Options" button you see in the screencast has been removed since that early beta version. It may return when Google finishes implementing support for alarms/reminders, but until then you won't see it.

Regards,
Charlie

[David]

I'm getting this dialog when SS attempts to sync:
-------------------------
Spanning Sync would like to sync Calendars with iCal and other applications.
Calendars from iCal, Motorola SLVR, iSync, iCalEvents, iPod, Entourage, David Stewart and .Mac will be merged with calendars from Spanning Sync.
[ ] Delete all callendars from Spanning Sync before syncing.
{ Don't Allow } { Allow }
-------------------------

I have no idea what would be happening if I allowed this. Does this mean that Spanning Sync doesn't just sync with Google and iCal, but with every other possible calendar app I have, including .Mac (I have no idea what syncing with .mac would mean)?

And what does "delete all calendars from Spanning Sync" mean? I didn't know Spanning Sync had any calendars.

I don't quite know... is this a bug, a feature, or what? The dialog text is both threatening and inscrutable.

[Thayne Miller]

you might want to consider opening a forum. This comment section isn't going to work.

Great work on the software though! It seems to work great! I agree you should add:

1) growl support

2) a menu icon that shows when syncing is occuring (similar to apple's isync/.mac sync)

[Charlie Wood]

Thayne,

In fact there is a forum. You can access it via the link at the top of the Spanning Sync Blog, or this one:

http://groups.google.com/group/spanningsync

Thanks also for the suggestions.

Thanks,
Charlie

[Patrick]

This application is fantastic. I will gladly pay for a licence for this when the beta is finished since it's already earning its keep within my company.

[Pascal]

This application is great!
Unfortunately, i also encounter the bug that i only can sync iCal to gCal but not gCal to iCal. Or do i do something wrong? Have any preferences to be set rightly in gCalendar?
I installed already twice SS without getting it to work as it is supposed to.
But still thumb up for great work. I am looking forward to 1.0! May it work correctly for me too once ;-)

[Rae]

As a brand new Mac-owner and a brand new Google Calendar user, I'm looking forward to giving this a try.

[giamba]

This is solution that I'm looking for. I want to sync my iCal to Google Calendar.

It took quite long for the first time to sync all my iCal data back from year 2005. But really work.

Nice work. I'm sure there will be improvement in the future.
I hope this still will be free in the future.

[Andrew Sutherland]

Hey guys, any news on the Gmail Contact syncing? I would LOVE to have my Mac Address Book contacts sync with Gmail. Talk about your perfect program!

Andrew

[infinity22]

hey....i just tried to download and extract this file. stuff it gives an error while expanding....any idea how i can resolve this

[Charlie Wood]

Infinity22,

From the Beta FAQ at http://blog.spanningsync.com/2007/02/spanning_sync_b.html:

Q: I downloaded Spanning Sync, but I can't unzip it with StuffIt Expander.
A: StuffIt Expander doesn't seem to like OS X zip archives. You should be able to unzip it by selecting the zip file in the Finder and selecting File > Open With > BOMArchiveHelper.

Regards,
Charlie

[Nick P]

Great service. Just what I was looking for to share an agenda with my class-mates, sync it with iCal both-ways. Thanks!

[Niels Olson]

Hello, referring back to giamba's comment that the first sync took a really long time. How long is a long time? Seriously. Charlie, my syncserver process has been consuming about 80% of my 1.2Ghz iBook G4 for over an hour. Admittedly I have several thousand events on gCal dating back to 2001, but the network is transmitting hundred of *bytes* at a time. How much processing could possibly go into 300 bytes?

It didn't take nearly this long to upload the CSV files to gCal last night, and only a few minutes to upload the events from my Tungsten T3 to Outlook before that.

Inspecting the spanning sync process reveals a relatively short tree, looks like a series of nested loop calls. I'm guessing these loops are what syncserver is executing?

How long is long enough?

[Tobias]

We use Google Calendar to keep track of our appointments at work and share various calendars for various people and tasks. This works perfectly fine.
It'd be brilliant though if I could synch my some of my private iCal Calendars with a second Google account, which I share e.g. with my family.
Wouldn't it be possible to expand Spanning Synch functionality to allow synchronisation of iCal with multiple Google Accounts?

[Charlie Wood]

Tobias,

Great question! In fact, you can already do exactly what you're looking for by using Google Calendar's sharing features along with Spanning Sync.

Please see the article "Syncing Calendars from Multiple Google Accounts", located here:

http://blog.spanningsync.com/2007/03/syncing_calenda.html

If after reading the article you still you have any questions about how to set this up, drop us an email at support@spanningsync.com.

Regards,
Charlie

[andreascohen]

Great app.

Any plans to extend the functionality include syncing between Google Address Book & Mac Addressbook?

This really missing!

[Charlie Wood]

Andreas,

As soon as Google provides an API into Gmail contacts, we'll add support for syncing Apple Address Book contacts.

Regards,
Charlie

PS. The answer to this question and many other popular ones can be found in the FAQ at:

http://spanningsync.com/faq