Syncing Google and Apple calendars is less annoying now

Synchronizing Google and Apple Calendars used to be a headache. You need to set the iCloud calendar to public, get its URL, paste it into the Google app, change "webcal" to "http", and a bunch of other tedious actions. It's as difficult as having two grumpy preschoolers who just learned to share the concept play together.

Today, it has made it much easier to work together with the iOS, iPadOS and macOS calendar apps. The link between the two companies' calendar services is becoming more mature, although not perfect. There is still some uncertainty between them.

How to sync Google Calendar and Apple Calendar apps

On iPhone or iPad, open the Settings app, click Calendar, and then click Account. If you have linked your Google account to your phone, you can skip the next paragraph. If not, click to add an account and select from the list. When your phone prompts you to access Google, click to continue . Select an account from the list that appears, or click to log in to an account that is not listed using another account . You will see another prompt that iOS wants to access this Google account – read it and select Allow to continue.

Now, in the

Settings > Calendar > Account you will see a Gmail entry, along with the data it syncs. If you see the calendar there, you're done setting it up. If not, click Gmail and activate the toggle next to Calendar (it will turn green).

[Related: 5 Google Calendar Tips to Make sure you never miss a date]

The steps on a macOS computer are similar: Open the Calendar app, click

Calendar in the menu bar, and then select to add an account . Select Google from the list and you are ready to go.

Check your synchronization settings

After pairing Google and Apple calendars, you need to make sure you understand how data flows between them.

On the Account page in Calendar Settings on your iPhone or iPad, click to get new data . You can't push updates from your Google account to your calendar app, but you can tell iOS to get them. You can choose from automatic, manual, hourly and every 30 or 15 minutes. Whatever you choose, as long as your phone has enough battery power and internet connection, Apple will get new data from your Google Calendar in the background.

The process on your computer is a little easier: click Calendar in the menu bar, select Preferences, then select Account, and finally select your Google Account . Finally, select an option from the drop-down menu next to Refresh Calendar . If you choose Manual Refresh, this option is located under the View tab in the menu bar. However, this will only sync in one direction – from Google to Apple. If you want to reverse sync, make sure when creating events on your macOS calendar, use the calendar selection menu (the drop-down menu next to the colored square in the upper right corner of the new event dialog box) to select your Google Calendar. This is part of the ongoing uncertainty we mentioned earlier.

What you need to know about linking Google and Apple Calendars

Now that you have understood the uncertainties, let's take a look at it in order to know what happens when using these apps at the same time. If you add or edit events in your iPhone's calendar app, it will appear almost immediately in your Google Calendar (if you have good battery and connection). Make changes in Google Calendar, which may take 5 to 15 minutes to show up on iOS.

To edit your calendar on your iPhone or iPad, open the Calendar app, click Calendar at the bottom of the screen, and then click the Information button next to the calendar you want to adjust ( "i" in a circle). To be fair, this is standard operation and not confusing at all.

However, since these applications are developed by two different companies, you may find some strange mistakes. For example, we found that if we created a full-day event in the Calendar app and then changed the time in Google Calendar, it inexplicably showed four hours ahead of the time we chose. We confirm that our time zone is correct, but require that the app always choose New York time—just to ensure. The subsequent edited event was nine hours ahead of schedule. Re-editing time will always solve the problem, but we haven't found a better way. We can only wait until the relationship between Google and Apple is fully mature.

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