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Avoiding duplicates in Google Calendar to Microsoft Outlook


Hi everyone,

 

Newbie here. Here’s what I want to do. I want to add Google Calendar events to Microsoft Outlook. I also want to add Microsoft Outlook events to Google Calendar. Using the Zap templates that Zapier has for those integrations creates a looping problem whereby the new google calendar event becomes a microsoft outlook event and that becomes a google calendar event, and so on and so forth. I read somewhere that I can avoid this problem by using filters. Presumably, the filter would check if the target calendar already has the event. My problem is that I don’t know how to do this, because I do not see a way to search the target calendar when the target calendar is outlook. Can you help?

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Best answer by Troy Tessalone 15 June 2023, 00:03

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11 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +14

Hi @napier_plays_poker 

Good question.

FYI: Zapier is not meant for 2-ways data sync between apps: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8495908569613-Does-Zapier-support-two-way-syncing-

 

To leverage Filters in the Zaps, you’d need to include a data point that indicates the source of the event.

For example…

  1. If the event originated in GCal and was created in Outlook, then include “GCal” as part of the Outlook event.
  2. If the event originated in Outlook and was created in GCal, then include “Outlook” as part of the GCal event.

 

That way the Filter conditions can be set in each Zap to only continue if that value does not exist.

Thank you. Fixed and done. It works!

Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Woohoo 🎉! Love to hear this is working for you. Thanks for keeping the thread updated and sharing your success! 🤗

Userlevel 1

Hi, please share your succeess!

How did you solve? I have your same problem! Which filter did you use?

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi @danieleloizzo,

If you want to avoid duplicates when doing a “Two-way sync” Zap. I suggest following this help article to avoid Zap looping: https://help.zapier.com/hc/en-us/articles/8496232045453.

Hopefully, this helps! 😊

Yes, @danieleloizzo, I did exactly what @ken.a ‘s link says to do.

 

 

Userlevel 1

Yes, @danieleloizzo, I did exactly what @ken.a ‘s link says to do.

 

I have a problem I think!

 

 

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi @danieleloizzo,

I looked at the screenshot, and it looks like you may have mapped a data on the last field of the Filter step instead of typing the condition. I suggest typing the condition on the last field of the Filter step. For example if we refer to this help article you want to type #sf in the last field of the Filter step. Like so:

3bfc9de15a0a73eb63a558eb931a9d76.png
(view larger)

Hopefully, this helps! 😊

Userlevel 1

I tried, but in “Calendar” there is no filter that can add a text on item summary or item title.

 

Userlevel 1

Finally solved! 

it was enough to manually enter the #sinc condition and not choose between the various automatic options!

Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi @danieleloizzo,

That’s fantastic news! We’re glad to hear that it works now.

If you have any other questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the Community. We’re always happy to help! 😊