Apple has changed the way calendars sync in Mavericks. Here’s how to sync your Apple Calendar App with an existing Google calendar.
You can’t use an iCloud based calendar to sync with Google. You need to start from Google and go the other way. Apple can see the gmail calendar but not the other way round.
Introduction
You might be wondering why someone would want to even use a Google calendar now that Apple Calendar does everything… You can share your Apple Calendar with other people. You can subscribe to other people’s Apple Calendars. You can even allow other people to edit your calendars. So why would you even bother with a Google calendar any more?
Well… The Apple calendar does not allow you to embed a calendar in a website. (Like I have done for our church calendar here.) So if you ‘publish’ your calendar, the other person has to view your calendar from within their Apple calendar app. They cannot look at it in a web browser.
The simplest way to have a calendar published on a website but editable in Apple Calendar is to use a Google calendar. Using this method the calendar info is hosted by Google, not Apple, but the calendar is viewable and editable in Apple Calendar.
Adding a google calendar to Apple calendar is the easy in OS X Mavericks. There are no .ics files or messy webcal:// addresses needed. All you need is your google email address and password.
1. CREATE YOUR GOOGLE CALENDAR
1. If you don’t already have a Google calendar, this previous article of mine describes how to set up a Google calendar. You can then embed that Google Calendar in any website according to Google’s instructions here.
2. ADD YOUR GOOGLE CALENDAR TO APPLE CALENDAR
Here’s how to add the Google calendar to Apple calendar app. A number of people can do this so that they can all edit the same calendar if you want.
1. On your Macintosh go to ‘System Preferences’ and Click on ‘Internet Accounts’.
(This is different to previous versions of OSX where you did it from within Calendar settings. )
2. Click on ‘Google’ to add your Google account.
3. Enter your Gmail settings for the account that has the Google calendar. You will need your Google email address and password. (The ‘Name:’ can be anything.)
4. Click ‘Set Up’ and then make sure ‘calendars’ is selected.
All the calendars from that Gmail account will now appear in your Apple Calendar. You can ‘connect’ to multiple Gmail accounts and multiple calendars. You can turn them on and off by checking or un-checking the checkbox next to the calendar.
If you do not see this window, click on the ‘Calendars’ button on the top left of your Calendar app window.
When you edit your Gmail calendar in the Apple calendar app the changes will automatically be uploaded to the Google account calendar. If the Google calendar is published on a website, the changes will automatically go from the Apple Calendar to the Google calendar and then to the website.
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