How to Sync Google Calendars - 2024 Guide

Google Calendar is one of the most used calendars by individuals and companies, and yet syncing multiple calendars in real-time, reliably is complicated.

If you are a Google Calendar power user and want to learn how to sync multiple Google Calendars, this article will make your life easier.

Prefer video? Here is our step-by-step tutorial on syncing multiple Google Calendars in real time.

Syncing Google Calendars via Calendar Sharing Feature

If you search "How to Sync Google Calendars" on Google Search, most results recommend using the Google Calendar sharing feature, which allows you to publish a Google Calendar and import it into another Google Account.

Unfortunately, you can't sync two or more Google Calendars by using the Calendar Sharing feature. Let me show you why:

Assume you have Google Calendar A and Google Calendar B, and you'll use the sharing feature to presumably synchronize these two Google Calendars.

To sync two Google Calendars using the Google Calendar sharing feature, follow these steps:

1. Open Google Calendar. You can access Google Calendar on the web by visiting https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/r

   

2. Hover the mouse cursor over the calendar you want to sync. The calendars section is located on the left side of the screen.

   

3. Click the three-dot menu icon. The three-dot icon pops up the menu that contains the calendar actions.

4. Click "Settings and Sharing" on the menu.

   

5. Enable "Make available to public": In order for us to share the Google Calendar, we should make the calendar public. Note that the calendar events will be available to the world, including Google Search, so be careful. If your calendar contains sensitive events, I would recommend using a Calendar Sync Tool to sync your Google Calendars.

   

6. Select "See Only Free/Busy Details": Even though the events are public, you can hide the details. This is not ideal, as it means that you won't be able to see the event details on the imported Google Calendar as well.

   

7. Scroll until you see "Public Address in iCal Format" and copy it. We'll need that URL to paste it into the other Google Account.

   

8. Open the Google account you want to import this calendar to.

9. Under "Other Calendars", Click the + icon: The Other Calendars section is located on the left side of the screen, below the "Calendars" section.

   

10. Click "From URL".

    

11. Paste the "Public Address in iCal Format" we copied from the first calendar.

    

12. Click "Add Calendar"

    

13. Your Calendar is now located under the "Other Calendars" Section.

    

Calendar A is now imported under the "Other Calendars" section of account B.

This method does not directly sync these two Google Calendars, it just imports Calendar A as a separate calendar into Calendar B's Google Account. This is useful to see both Google Calendars under the same Google Account, but it doesn't block time for Google Calendar A in Google Calendar B.

Ultimately, you'll still face double bookings if you manage two or more Google Calendars.

Benefits of syncing two Google Calendars by sharing

1. Calendar clarity. You can view multiple Google Calendars in a single Google Account, without the need to open multiple Google accounts to see your schedule.

Downsides of syncing Google Calendars by sharing

1. Not a real calendar sync: This method imports a Google Calendar into another account and doesn't directly sync two calendars. This still leads to double booking, as team members who use the "Find a Time" feature in Google Calendar can't see the events of imported calendars.
2. No privacy controls. When exporting the Google Calendar, we had to make it public, making it visible to the world, including Google Search. This is a deal breaker if your events contain sensitive information.

How to automatically sync Google Calendars?

By using software such as OneCal, you can sync as many Google Calendars as you like, configure the way the events are cloned, and adjust your privacy, in less than one minute.

To automatically sync two or more Google Calendars, follow these steps:

1. Create a Free OneCal Account

You can sign up for OneCal for free, without entering a credit card. You can use the app for free for two weeks, then upgrade to one of the paid plans.

2. Connect Your Google Calendars

Using OneCal you can connect multiple Google Calendars. The calendars can belong to the same Google Account or separate Google Accounts.

3. Choose Which Google Calendars to Sync

OneCal supports one-way and two-way syncs between multiple calendars. One way syncs clone events from one calendar to another. Multi-way syncs keep multiple calendars in sync, in real-time.

4. Configure How Events Are Synced

Unlike sharing a Google Calendar, OneCal doesn't require making the calendar public. Using OneCal you can configure what event details you sync from one Google Calendar to another. If you want to keep complete privacy over your events, you can hide all event details.

Furthermore, you can mark the synced events with specific colors, exclude events by color, and more.

📆 Your Google Calendars are synchronized!

Events from your source Google Calendar will appear in your selected target Google Calendar(s) and OneCal will automatically keep them up to date.

Benefits of using OneCal to sync Google Calendars.

1. Reliable, real-time Google Calendar sync. Once you've created your sync, you can have complete confidence that your Google Calendars will consistently and reliably sync without any concerns.
2. You have full control over your Google Calendar privacy. It's important to note that workspace administrators won't have access to view events or calendar details that are replicated by OneCal.
3. Easy setup, reliable syncs. When attempting manual synchronization through the import method, you have to go through a 13-step process to sync one Google Calendar with another Google Calendar. After following these steps, the sync might fail, and the changes don't happen in real-time. With OneCal, your calendars stay in sync automatically, and you can sync multiple Google calendars in one go.

Automatically Sync Multiple Google Calendars Using OneCal

If you only want to see multiple Google Calendars under the same account, importing is a great option.

For a real Google Calendar Sync, the best option is to use a calendar sync tool. Our recommendation is OneCal, as it's the best calendar sync tool in the market, offering great privacy controls with fast synchronization speed.

You can Sign Up for OneCal for free, no credit card is required, to sync Google Calendars in real-time, automatically, and benefit from other calendaring features.