How to sync Google Calendar and Apple Calendar

If half your schedule is in Google and half is in Apple, sooner or later you'll miss a meeting. The short version:

1. To see Google events in Apple Calendar, add your Google account in your iPhone or Mac settings.
2. To stop other people booking over you, your busy time has to reach the calendar they check. Seeing everything yourself doesn't do that.
3. If events are slow to show up, check Fetch New Data. Your phone may only be checking for updates now and then.
4. If some Google calendars are missing, turn them on in Google's sync settings page.

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Your phone is an iPhone and your work runs on Google Calendar. Switching between two apps to see what's next gets old fast, and one day you'll forget to open the Google app and miss a client call.

There are two different jobs here. One is seeing everything in one place. The other is blocking off your time so nobody books over it. Apple's settings handle the first. The second takes more work.

Why sync your Google and Apple calendars?

The Apple Calendar app is built into the iPhone. Siri, widgets and the Apple Watch all read from it. The Google Calendar app doesn't get that treatment.

Once your Google account is in Apple Calendar:

• Your iCloud events and your Google work events sit on the same screen.
• Asking Siri for your next meeting includes your work meetings.
• Your Google events show up in widgets and on your Apple Watch.

There's a limit. This lets you see your Google events on your iPhone. It doesn't copy them into iCloud, and it doesn't copy iCloud events into Google. More on why that matters below.

Method 1: add your Google account to your iPhone or Mac

This is what most people are looking for. Apple Calendar reads your Google Calendar and shows it next to everything else.

How to sync on your iPhone or iPad

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Go to the Calendar settings. On newer iOS versions, Calendar is listed under Apps.
3. Open the accounts section and tap Add Account.
4. Choose Google.
5. Sign in with your Google account.
6. You'll see a list of Google services you can sync, such as Mail, Contacts and Calendars.
7. Turn on Calendars.
8. Tap Save.

Give it a couple of minutes, then open Apple Calendar. Your Google events should start to appear.

How to sync on your Mac

1. Open the Apple menu in the top left corner.
2. Choose System Settings.
3. Click Internet Accounts.
4. Click Add Account and choose Google.
5. Sign in to your Google account.
6. Click Allow to give your Mac access to the account.
7. Make sure Calendars is turned on.

Open Calendar on your Mac and press Cmd + R to refresh. Your Google meetings should appear.

Method 2: keep personal events in a Google calendar

Method 1 has one big flaw. Your calendar looks free to other people when it isn't.

Say you have a dentist appointment in your personal Apple Calendar at 2:00 PM, and your work Google Calendar is also on your phone.

• You see the dentist appointment and know you're busy.
• Your boss looks at your Google Calendar and sees 2:00 PM as empty.

Apple Calendar only displays your Google events. It doesn't send your personal busy time to Google. Your boss books a meeting at 2:00 PM, and you're double-booked.

One workaround is to keep personal events in a personal Google calendar instead of iCloud. In your iPhone's Calendar settings, set Default Calendar to that Google calendar. You keep using the Apple Calendar app, but new events are saved to Google, where Google's sharing settings and calendar sync tools can reach them.

Caltsu is one of those tools. It copies busy time between Google and Microsoft accounts as "Busy" blocks, so your boss sees 2:00 PM as taken. It doesn't sync iCloud calendars, which is why this workaround matters. Your events need to live in Google or Outlook first.

How to troubleshoot your Google and Apple Calendar sync

If you followed the steps and your calendar is still empty, check these.

1. The hidden "sync select" setting

If you use a lot of Google calendars, this is the likely cause. Google has a settings page that controls which of your calendars other apps can see.

If your main calendar shows up but shared ones like "Team Holidays" are missing:

• Go to calendar.google.com/syncselect in your browser.
• Check the boxes next to the missing calendars.
• Click Save.
• Refresh Apple Calendar.

2. The "Fetch New Data" setting on your iPhone

If an event you add on your laptop takes hours to reach your phone, Fetch New Data may be set to Manual.

• In the Calendar accounts settings, open Fetch New Data.
• Turn on Push if the account supports it.
• Google accounts use Fetch, so choose a schedule like every 15 minutes instead of Manual.

3. The "Default Calendar" trap

If you create an event on your iPhone and it never reaches your work computer, it was probably saved to the wrong calendar.

• Open the Calendar settings.
• Find Default Calendar.
• Pick the calendar you use most, for example your main Google work calendar.

A few tips

Once everything shows up, a few habits keep it readable.

Use color coding

Pick colors yourself instead of taking the defaults.

• Open Apple Calendar.
• Tap Calendars at the bottom.
• Tap the info icon next to a calendar.
• Choose a color. Red for all work calendars and blue for personal ones is easy to read at a glance.

Use travel time

When you create an event in Apple Calendar with a location, turn on Travel Time. Apple Calendar blocks out the time before the event so you leave on time.

Clean up your view

Lots of shared calendars clutter the screen. Open your calendar list and uncheck the ones you don't need every day. They stay in your account, just hidden.

Conclusion

If you only need to see all your appointments in one place, the built-in iPhone and Mac settings do the job, and they cost nothing.

That view only helps you, though. To stop double-booking, the calendar other people check has to show when you're busy.