How to Merge Google Calendars

When it comes to calendar providers, Google Calendar is considered amongst the best in the industry, used by individuals, students, small businesses, and large enterprises. As years go by, Google Calendar has been improving, adding features such as Google Appointment Schedule, API access for third-party tools to build on top of it, and much more.

Given the benefits Google Calendar offers, individuals use it for scheduling their personal life and professional lives and managing multiple calendars. While the benefits of Google Calendar are undeniable, managing multiple Google Calendars is time-consuming, as you have to switch between accounts to join meetings, schedule meetings, or see and plan your schedule.

The first solution to this problem that comes to mind is, how do I merge Google Calendars? To answer this question, we’ll thoroughly explain how to merge Google Calendars, the benefits of each method, and the drawbacks.

How to Merge Google Calendars by Exporting and Importing?

The first method of merging two Google Calendars is by sharing the first Google Calendar and importing it to the second Google Calendar. As an example, let’s call the Google Calendar we’ll share Calendar A and the Google Calendar we’ll import, Calendar B.

To merge two Google Calendars, Calendar A, and Calendar B, we should follow these steps:

1. Open Google Calendar
2. Hover the mouse cursor over the calendar you want to export (Calendar A).
3. Click the three-dot menu icon.
4. Click Settings and Sharing on the menu.
5. Locate the Access permissions for events option, and check it. Google Calendar warns you that: Making your calendar public will make all events visible to the world, including via Google search. Click Ok. On the same option, select See only Free/Busy time.
6. Scroll down and copy the Public Address in iCal Format.
7. Open Google Calendar B.
8. On the sidebar, near the bottom of the page, click Other Calendars +.
9. Click From URL in the drop-down menu.
10. Paste the link you copied earlier (step 5) and click Add Calendar.
11. Your new calendar will appear in the list under Other Calendars + once it’s merged. You can then rename it and change its color settings

This method clones events from Google Calendar A to Google Calendar B. If you want to do a two-way merge, please repeat the same steps to send calendar events from Calendar B to Calendar A.

Cons of Merging Google Calendars by Exporting and Importing

1. Little Exporting Privacy when merging Google Calendars: When exporting the first calendar (Calendar A), Google Calendar warns you: Making your calendar public will make all events visible to the world, including via Google search. This means that your private Google Calendar events will be available to the public. This is a major concern if you’re trying to export a work Google Calendar, as meetings might be sensitive (same for your personal Google Calendar). The only way to protect yourself is by selecting See Only Free/Busy.
2. Google Calendar users (team members) can’t see your busy slots. In our example, we shared Calendar A to Calendar B. In that case, team members of Calendar B won’t be able to see that you are busy at the time slots of Calendar A, even though you have merged both Google Calendars. This happens because when they use the Find a Time feature on Google Calendar, Google Calendar only checks for busy slots on the primary calendar, not on the imported calendar. This leads to meeting conflicts and confusion.
3. Hard to set up. Merging Google Calendars takes a couple of minutes, as you’ll have to follow 11 steps for each Google Calendar to merge. Furthermore, you might have to troubleshoot possible issues.

How to Merge Google Calendars automatically?

As mentioned, Google Calendar has evolved over the years and provides an API for third-party tools to enhance the capabilities of Google Calendar, making users more productive and efficient.

One of the latest third-party tools that leverages the official Google Calendar API is OneCal, allowing you to merge multiple Google Calendars in minutes. The benefit of using OneCal to merge Google Calendars is that it’s focused on privacy, allowing you to select which meeting properties you want to merge over when merging Google Calendars.

How to Automatically Merge Google Calendars using OneCal

1. Connect your Google Calendars

2. Choose the Google Calendars you want to merge

OneCal allows you to merge one Google Calendar with another Google Calendar (one-direction merge), or multiple Google Calendars at once (multi-direction merge). For example, to merge 5 Google Calendars, you can do so in one go.

3. Set up how events are merged during the merge process

Using OneCal, you can bypass the issue of merging Google Calendars by exporting and importing, as it allows you to set up how events are merged during the merge process. For example, if you only want to merge event titles, and mark them a certain color, you can do so. Every meeting property is configurable to be merged or not.

Your Google Calendars are merged! 🎉

What are the benefits of Merging Multiple Google Calendars using OneCal?

1. Merge Google Calendars with privacy in mind. Given that your Google Calendars might hold important information, it’s crucial to only merge non-sensitive information. With OneCal, you can select each meeting property to merge, avoiding security risks.
2. Time-saving Google Calendars merge set up. Using OneCal, you get the benefit of merging multiple Google Calendars in less than one minute, having peace of mind that the merge will run successfully.

Use OneCal to Merge Google Calendars

OneCal is the perfect Calendar Automation Tool to merge Google Calendars. The Google Calendars merge setup is very easy and reliable, saves you time and it lets you focus on what’s important.

You can sign up for a 14-day free trial, no credit card required, to experience a time-saving Calendar Automation Tool that merges your calendars, allows you to schedule booking links, view multiple calendars simultaneously, and much more.