Synchronizing Calendars between devices

I’ve been a little quiet on here lately, mostly because I’ve been busy giving BlackBerry Traffic a workout!  A friend who has recently purchased a PlayBook asked  me a question via Twitter today about syncing his BlackBerry calendar with the calendar on the PlayBook.  I synched them as soon as I got my PlayBook in December, so naturally I went to the help on the PlayBook to get him an answer.  The steps there will get your calendars synched but the instructions are a tad confusing.  Here’s the easy way of doing it.

Step 1: Connect your PlayBook and your BlackBerry using BlackBerry Bridge.

Step 2:  On your Playbook, in the top right corner is an icon that looks like a cog:  it will take you to the settings.

%{include image.html url=”/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/settings2.jpg” alt=”screenshot of a BlackBerry PlayBook screen with the home apps row along the bottom and the settings gear icon in the top right corner circled in red” description=”Settings”}

Step 3:  In the Settings page, there will be a bunch of options on the left hand side.  Select Accounts and then “Email, Calendar and Contacts”.

%{include image.html url=”/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/pb-calendar-accounts1.jpg” alt=”The BlackBerry PlayBook settings menu expanded to show the Accounts view with the first option, Email, Calendar and Contacts circled in red” description=”PlayBook Calendar Accounts”}

Step 4:  Select “Add New Account”

%{include image.html url=”/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/pb-calendar-accounts.jpg” alt=”The BlackBerry PlayBook settings menu expanded to show the Accounts view with the add new account button at the bottom right circled in red.” description=”Adding a new account”}

Step 5:  Enter the email address you use for your BlackBerry Handheld device Calendar.

%{include image.html url=”/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/accounts.jpg” alt=”The BlackBerry Playbook Add account screen with the words sign into existing account and boxes for the input of email address and passsword. There are advanced setup and next buttons on the bottom of the screen” description=”This is where you put your information”}

*Repeat the above steps to add another calendar, if you have more than 1 on your Smartphone

Step 6: Go to the Calendar application on your playbook and add the calendar(s) to it.

%{include image.html url=”/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/pbcalendar.jpg” alt=”A calendar showing September 2012 with the 19th highlighted and events on the 19th pulled out in a tab on the left. At the bottom of the calendar is a small calendar icon with a plus sign that has been circled in red and labelled as the Add calendar button.” description=”The BlackBerry PlayBook calendar”}

Step 7: From the drop down menu, select the new calendar.

%{include image.html url=”/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/calendar.jpg” alt=”Calendar event view option with the add event feature selected. There is a dropdown with PlayBook local and Gmail calendars as options, fields for subject, location, attendees, start and end date / time, an all day check box, a recurrance option and a reminder time drop down menu.” description=”Adding events to Calendar”}

You have now successfully synched your PlayBook and BlackBerry Handheld Calendars.  Remember to use BlackBerry Bridge to keep both your Handheld and your PlayBook Calendars on the same page!