Setting up an iOS device for using CA Google Mail and Calendar

 

Google has published a new open standard for connecting Calendars and Contact to clients, using the CalDAV and CardDAV api. 

 

The following is the new best practice for configuring Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts to an iPhone or iPad. It takes some clicking, and some paying attention, but it works. It is the same process if you want to connect a personal Consumer Google Account, or a CA Google Apps account. 

 

In order to get the CA Google Apps account to work, you need to LOG IN TO CA CONNECT FIRST, and click on the CA Google Apps icon in a web browser, on your mobile device. Pay attention to the password that works, this is the password you will need.

 

Once that is out of the way:

 

The best way to configure Gmail and Google Calendar on your iPhone 

The original post from the Verge (http://www.theverge.com/2012/12/5/3732364/best-way-gmail-google-calendar-iphone-how-to) has been modified to work for us at CA.

Android users can take advantage of Google’s major services right out of the box, but setting Gmail, Google Contacts, and Google Calendar up on your iPhone isn’t quite so clear. It’s worth doing right, though: with a little elbow grease you can have a setup that’s every bit as good. It’ll let you use the new Gmail app, which is a big improvement over the iPhone’s standard mail app and most other third-party options, and you’ll also get a better, simpler calendar and contacts setup — goodbye, weird duplicated events and endless birthday notifications. Plus, we’d swear that our battery life got a lot better as soon as we left Exchange and turned to our new setup.

 

The trick here is combining the Gmail app with two syncing protocols called CardDAV and CalDAV (don’t worry, you’ll never actually need to know what these are to get them to work). You’ll need an iOS device running version 5.0 or above to take advantage of these, but each offers better and more powerful integration with Google’s services than just tapping “Gmail” when you first set up your email accounts on your phone. Much like the momentary pain of digging into your Facebook privacy settings, the five or ten minutes spent setting up this system will save you email stress for months to come.

 

Part 1: Setup the Gmail app and disable the iOS Mail app

1) If you haven’t already, download or update to the latest version of Google’s iOS Gmail app.

With multiple account support, a full redesign, and infinite scrolling, it’s a massive update that will serve as the core of your iOS mail experience. To set up additional accounts in the app, simply tap the menu bar icon on the top left, and then the drop down at the top of the navigation list. From here, you can add up to five new Gmail accounts. Don’t forget to turn notifications on in the iOS Notifications (Settings > Notifications > Gmail). 

 

But unfortunately, the Gmail app won’t take over all the emailing functionality on your iPhone. So you need to set up what amounts to a send-only Gmail account, for when you want to send a URL from Safari or a photo from your camera roll.

2) Go to Settings and scroll down to Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

Tap Add Account and pick Gmail.

Then enter your CA Connect username (fake_adult@concordacademy.org or fake.student@ concordacademy.org) and CA Connect password, plus your name and a description for the account.

On the next screen, make sure only Mail is set to “On.” 

Then go back to the Mail settings and tap on “Fetch New Data.” 

Scroll down to “Advanced,” and then tap on the account you just set up.

Make sure Manual is selected — that makes sure the account will never retrieve data, but will still let you send emails when you want to.

Note that for these accounts, you’ll want to turn notifications off, otherwise you’ll be receiving updates from both Gmail and Apple’s Mail app.

Part 2: Syncing contacts with CardDAV 

The second key part of the setup is managing your contacts. This will forever backup and sync your iPhone contacts to your personal Google Contacts. You may choose to employ iCloud to back up your contacts instead of Google. If so, ignore this step.

YOU MAY ONLY WANT TO DO THIS FOR YOUR PERSONAL CONSUMER GOOGLE ACCOUNT, NOT YOUR CA CONNECT Google Apps ACCOUNT.

To sync your personal Google contacts with your phone, 

1) Go to Settings in iOS and scroll down to Mail, Contacts, Calendars, tap Add Account... and then select Other.

Choose Add CardDAV Account and enter "google.com" for the Server field, then enter your account credentials under Username and Password.

There’s a field where you can enter a description of the account if you like (write Personal Gmail), and after you fill that out, tap Next and ensure that theContacts toggle is enabled.

Navigate back to the Contacts app, and once you enter it your contacts should start syncing right away.

Part 3: Selecting the Default Account 

If you’ve got a previously configured iCloud account that syncs your contacts, you still have a few more steps. CardDAV needs to be designated as theDefault Account if you want any new contacts you add to be synced with Google automatically, and to do that, make your way back to the Mail, Contacts, Calendars pane within the Settings app. Swipe down to the Contacts section and tap Default Account, which will only be visible if you’re syncing more than one. Finally, select your newly added CardDAV account, and your new contacts will sync with Google automatically after you’ve entered them.

Part 4: Syncing personal  or CA Google Calendars with CalDAV 

The steps required to integrate Google Calendar with iOS are very similar — 

1) Go to Settings and navigate down to Mail, Contacts, Calendars once again.

This time, tap Add Account... and select Other, and then Add CalDAV Account. Just like above, you'll enter "google.com" for the Server field,  enter your CA Connect username (fake_adult@concordacademy.org or fake.student@ concordacademy.org) and CA Connect password, and add an optional description. After clicking Next, navigate back to the Calendar app and the entries should appear shortly. To decide which calendar feeds you wish to be able to toggle on and off on your phone, go to https://www.google.com/calendar/syncselect and select the calendars you want to sync, then click Save. If you run into any problems, double check that SSL is enabled in both your CardDAV and CalDAV accounts.

You would need to add separate CalDav connectors for both your personal and CA Google Accounts.

With all of this configured and the new Gmail app for iPhone installed, you can now enjoy a similar level of integration with Google’s productivity ecosystem that Android users boast about. Go have some fun organizing your contacts — you've earned it.

Part 5: Sync your Apple device to CA Connect (Google Apps)  

Sync your Apple device to CA Google Apps 

The rest of this tutorial is for syncing CA Google Apps accounts to iOS devices. 

The old way of syncing Apple Devices to Gmail, using a Microsoft Exchange Protocol, is no longer supported by Gmail. CalDAV is an internet standard that’s used to sync Google Calendar with your Apple iOS devices (including iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch) and iCal.

To sync with your device with CA's Google Apps, follow these steps:

• Open the Settings application on your device's home screen
• Open Mail, Contacts, Calendars
• Select Add Account...
• Select Other
• Under Calendars, select Add CalDAV Account:

• In the Server field, enter google.com
• In the Email field, enter your full Google Apps email address (CA Connect)
• In the Password field, enter your CA Connect Google Apps password. 
• In the Description field, enter a description of the calendar (e.g. "CA").
• Select Next at the top of your screen.

It will sync, if your password is correct (incorrect password might lead to SSL problems)

• Make sure the Calendars option is turned on.

After you've completed setup, open the Calendar app on your device. Syncing will automatically begin.

By default, only your primary calendar will be synced with your device. If you have additional calendars you’d like to sync, follow the instructions below.

Sync Multiple Calendars 

• Visit the following page from your device's mobile browser, or from the browser that you use to access CA's Google Calendar: https://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/concordacademy.org/syncselect
• Select the calendar feeds you wish to be able to toggle on and off on your phone, then click Save.

The selected calendars will be displayed on your device at the time of the next sync.

Requirements 

Syncing via CalDAV is only available for Apple devices running software version 3.0 or higher.  The syncselect browser page (the web page that allows you to select which calendars will push down to your iPhone) is also accessible on a computer browser.