One of the things I loved about my old iPhone was the built-in Exchange sync. I could sync my email, my calendar, and even my contacts (although I only did the first two). Life was good.

After moving to the Android platform, however, I was disappointed to discover that although an Exchange email app was included, it wouldn’t allow you to directly sync an Exchanged-based calendar. A little searching provided a way, though.

1. Make sure you’re running Office 2003 or 2007 – if you have the Office 2010 Beta installed, it won’t work. If you still want to sync, uninstall 2010 and install 2003 or 2007, then follow the Special Note at the end of the post.
2. Download the Google Calendar Sync tool.
3. Install, follow on-screen instructions.
4. ???
5. Profit!

Now it should be noted that I did this, and at first it didn’t work as I was using Office 2010 Beta 2. Even after uninstalling it and installing Office 2007, I still couldn’t sync and received this error:

Could not connect to Microsoft Outlook: error -2147319779

A little searching turned up this link, which contained a hint at the solution. When you install Office 2010, it creates the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTTypeLib’{00062FFF-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}9.4

In the same key, there should also be a ’9.3′ entry. With Office 2010 uninstalled, you can safely remove the ’9.4′ key. Now, restart Google Calendar Sync, and everything should work just fine.

One major caveat with this solution is that your computer has to be up-and-running for the calendar to actually synchronize – fortunately, this isn’t much of a problem if you’re the only one updating your calendar. With any luck, though, Google will eventually support full Exchange syncing with Android.

Edit: I probably should point out that this is for ROMs without official Exchange support (such as Cyanogenmod, which syncs Exchange mail, but not the calendar). Some official ROMs, like HTC’s, actually include Exchange calendar syncing out-of-box.

Update: There’s an APK floating around that gives you the Exchange (Corporate) Calendar. I won’t link it here, but a Google search for “CorpCal.apk” should give you what you need.

Further Update: Froyo will feature native Exchange Calendar sync, so CorpCal will be rendered moot when the update finally hits.

Even Further Update: Froyo, which has been released OTA for the Nexus One, does in fact feature native Calendar syncing with Exchange. This article is handy if you’re stuck on an older ROM, but if not, just use the official method.