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Avoiding duplicates in Google Calendar to Microsoft Outlook


napier_plays_poker

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?

Best answer by Troy Tessalone

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.

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11 replies

Troy Tessalone
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  • Zapier Expert
  • 31058 replies
  • Answer
  • June 14, 2023

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.


napier_plays_poker

Thank you. Fixed and done. It works!


christina.d
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 2653 replies
  • June 15, 2023

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


danieleloizzo

Hi, please share your succeess!

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


ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6423 replies
  • July 10, 2023

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! 😊


napier_plays_poker

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

 

 


danieleloizzo
napier_plays_poker wrote:

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

 

I have a problem I think!

 

 


ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6423 replies
  • July 11, 2023

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! 😊


danieleloizzo

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

 


danieleloizzo

Finally solved! 

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


ken.a
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  • Zapier Staff
  • 6423 replies
  • July 17, 2023

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! 😊