How to Sync Two Google Calendars

Google Calendar can’t merge two accounts, but each can show the other’s events. On a computer, open Settings and sharing for the calendar in account A, add account B under Shared with, choose a permission, and click Send. Repeat from B to A for both directions.

Your dentist appointment lives in your personal Google Calendar, your meetings live in your work one, and you keep getting double-booked because neither shows the other.

What “Sync” Can Mean in Google Calendar

When people say they want to sync two Google calendars, they usually mean one of four different things. Google offers a tool for each, and they behave very differently, so it’s worth picking the right one before you click anything.

What you want	Method	Direction	Stays up to date?
See your personal events while signed in to work	Share the personal calendar with the work account	One way	Yes
Each account shows the other	Share from both accounts	Both ways (two shares)	Yes
Colleagues see you’re busy, without details	Share with See only free/busy	One way	Yes
Move old events into the other account	Export a .ics file and import it	One time	No

Sharing is the method that fixes double-booking. It doesn’t copy events into the other account. Instead, the shared calendar appears as its own entry under Other calendars, with its own color, and you see its events beside your own. When the owner adds, moves or deletes an event, the change shows up for the other account too, because both are looking at the same calendar.

Share a Calendar With Your Other Google Account

Sharing settings are only available in Google Calendar on the web, so use a computer for this part. The steps follow Google’s calendar sharing help. In the example, Elena wants her personal calendar to show in her work account.

1. On a computer, open Google Calendar and sign in to the account that owns the calendar you want to share (Elena’s personal account).
2. On the left, under My calendars, find the calendar. Hover over it and click More (the three dots).
3. Click Settings and sharing.
4. On the left, select Shared with, then click Add people and groups.
5. Type the email address of your other Google account.
6. Choose a permission (the next section explains each one).
7. Click Send.

Google sends an email to the other account. Nothing changes in that account until the invitation is accepted.

Choose the Right Permission

Google offers five permission levels, described in its help on controlling calendar access. For seeing your own events in your other account, you rarely need more than the second one.

• See only free/busy (hide details): the other account sees blocks of busy time with no titles or locations. Good when a work calendar is viewed by colleagues or an assistant.
• See event details: titles, times and details are visible, but nothing can be changed. The safest choice for viewing your personal calendar at work.
• Make changes (see private events as free/busy): the other account can add and edit events, but events marked private show only as busy.
• Make changes and see event details: the other account can edit events and see who else the calendar is shared with.
• Make changes and manage sharing: everything above, plus the ability to share the calendar with other people and change their access. Treat this like handing over the keys.

Picking a higher permission doesn’t make the “sync” any better. Every level updates the same way; the only difference is what the other account is allowed to see and do. Pick an editing level only if you really want to add personal events while signed in to the work account. If someone ends up with more access than you expected, Google notes that broader permissions take priority (for example, if the calendar is public with event details visible, someone you set to free/busy can still see those details).

Accept the Calendar in the Second Account

1. Sign in to the second account’s Gmail (Elena’s work account) and open the email from Google Calendar about the shared calendar.
2. Click the link in the email to add the calendar. Google says the recipient must click this link for the calendar to be added.
3. Open Google Calendar in that account. The shared calendar appears on the left under Other calendars.
4. Make sure the checkbox beside its name is ticked so its events show, and click the three dots beside it if you want to change its color.

If the email doesn’t arrive, check Spam and Trash. If it’s still missing, go back to the first account, remove the address under Shared with, and add it again. Another route from the second account: next to Other calendars, click the add option, choose Subscribe to calendar, and enter the first account’s email address; if the calendar isn’t shared yet, Google’s subscribe help says the owner gets an email asking to grant access.

Make Both Accounts Show Each Other

One share only works in one direction. After the steps above, Elena’s work account shows her personal events, but her personal account still has no idea about her work meetings. For both directions, repeat the whole process from the other side:

1. Sign in to the work account on the web.
2. Open Settings and sharing for the work calendar, add the personal address under Shared with, pick a permission, and click Send.
3. Accept the invitation from the personal account’s email.

Now each account shows the other’s calendar alongside its own. Events still belong to the calendar they were created in. If Elena adds a dentist appointment while viewing her work account, she should pick her personal calendar in the event’s calendar drop-down, or it will land on the work calendar. That only works if the share gives her a Make changes permission.

Block Busy Time Without Showing Details

If the goal is to stop coworkers from booking meetings over personal appointments, you don’t need them to see what those appointments are. Share your personal calendar with your work account using See only free/busy (hide details). You’ll see busy blocks, which is enough to keep you from double-booking yourself.

Be aware that a shared calendar sits under Other calendars and isn’t treated as your own work calendar. Colleagues looking at your work calendar may not see those blocks. If they need to, the reliable fix is to add a matching “Busy” event to your work calendar for important personal commitments.

Other Ways to Move or View Events

Copy Events Once With Export and Import

If you’re leaving an old account and want its events in the new one, export and import. Google’s export help says this only works on a computer, and you need the Make changes and manage sharing permission on the calendar.

1. In the old account, open Settings and sharing for the calendar and click Export calendar under Calendar settings. An .ics file downloads. (Settings > Import & export > Export instead downloads a .zip with every calendar; extract it before importing.)
2. In the new account, click Settings, then Settings, and select Import & Export on the left.
3. Click Select file from your computer and choose the .ics file.
4. Choose which calendar should receive the events, then click Import.

Google’s import help is clear about the limits: imported events don’t stay in sync between the two accounts, and guests and conference data aren’t imported. Events go into your primary calendar by default. A good habit is to create a new, empty calendar first (for example, “Old personal”) and import into that; if something goes wrong, you can delete that one calendar instead of cleaning up hundreds of events by hand. If you’d like to look at the exported events in a spreadsheet first, see how to open a Google Calendar file in Excel.

The Secret iCal Address

Every Google calendar has a private link under Settings > Settings for my calendars > your calendar > Integrate calendar > Secret address in iCal format. Google’s help on syncing with other programs says this address is for viewing your calendar in other apps, such as Outlook or Apple Calendar, and that the view is read-only.

It isn’t the tool for linking two Google accounts. Google Calendar’s own From URL option (under Other calendars) is meant for adding a calendar that someone has made public, and Google’s help says you can only add a calendar by link if the other calendar is public. For two Google accounts, sharing is the documented method, and Google itself says to share your calendar if you want someone else to view it. Keep the secret address to yourself, and if you ever pasted it somewhere you shouldn’t have, click Reset on the same screen to create a new one and cut off the old link.

Outside Sync Services

Some third-party services copy events between accounts automatically in both directions. They need permission to read and change your calendars, so check their privacy terms and your employer’s rules before connecting a work account. For most people, sharing in both directions does the job without involving anyone else.

See Both Calendars on Your Phone

You don’t have to share anything to see both accounts on a phone. The Google Calendar app can show calendars from more than one signed-in Google account at once. Once a shared calendar has been accepted on the web, it also shows in the app for that account.

On Android, Google’s help for calendars missing from the app gives these checks:

1. Open the Google Calendar app and tap Menu in the top left.
2. Make sure the box beside each calendar you want to see is checked.
3. If a calendar is missing, open Menu > Settings, select that calendar, and make sure Sync is on.
4. To pull in recent changes, tap Menu > Refresh.

If a whole account is missing on Android, check the phone’s account settings (Passwords, passkeys & accounts on many phones), select the Google account, and make sure sync is on for Calendar. Google also notes the app only syncs past events from up to one year ago; older events are still on the web at calendar.google.com.

On iPhone or iPad, install Google Calendar from the App Store and sign in with your Google account. Google’s iPhone help covers signing in; then tap Menu in the top left and check the box beside each calendar you want to see. Note that you can’t add a new calendar subscription from the mobile app; Google says that part needs a computer.

Work and School Account Limits

With a Google Workspace account from an employer or school, your administrator decides what you’re allowed to share. Sharing outside the organization, the secret iCal address and export can all be turned off. If the option you need is missing or grayed out, that’s usually why, and only the admin can change it.

Google also notes that administrators can have permissions that let them see your calendar and event details even if you haven’t shared it with them. Think about that before sharing a personal calendar with full details into a work account; See only free/busy may be the better fit.

When the Shared Calendar Doesn’t Show Up

• No invitation email: check Spam and Trash, then remove and re-add the address under Shared with.
• Calendar listed but events missing: make sure its checkbox under Other calendars is ticked.
• Events at the wrong time: check the time zone in Settings in both accounts; each account shows events in its own time zone.
• The other account can edit when it shouldn’t: lower its permission under Shared with, and check whether the calendar is also public, shared across your organization, or shared with a group at a higher level.
• Shows on the web but not the phone: run through the app checks above.
• Too many email alerts after sharing: adjust the notifications, or turn off Google Calendar email notifications.

Two-Calendar Questions

How Do I Stop Sharing Later?

In the account that owns the calendar, open Settings and sharing, go to Shared with, and click Remove next to the other account. The calendar disappears from the other account’s Other calendars list.

If I Delete an Event in One Account, Is It Gone From Both?

With sharing, there’s only one copy of each event: the one in the owner’s calendar. If the owner deletes it, it disappears everywhere. If the other account has a Make changes permission and deletes it, it’s deleted from the owner’s calendar too. Imported events are separate copies, so deleting one doesn’t touch the other.

Will My Past Events Show in the Other Account?

Yes. Sharing gives access to the calendar itself, not just future events, so past entries are visible on the web. The Android app only syncs a year of past events.

Can I Share More Than One Calendar This Way?

Yes. Each calendar under My calendars has its own sharing settings, so share each one you want visible. Google’s only stated ceiling is a performance warning if you subscribe to more than 400 calendars.

Start with one share, from your personal calendar to your work account at See event details, and check your work calendar tomorrow morning; if both sets of events are there, add the reverse share only if you need it.