HowTo: Merge Google Calendars Together
Colin M | March 4, 2008 | 2:11 amHere’s a quick How-To on merging two Google Calendars together, since Googling with the obvious phrases did not get me very useful results.
The Problem: Merge Two (or more) Google Calendars Into One
Let’s suppose that you, like me, have more than one calendar in your Google Calendar, and decide at some point that you want to condense those into one. I was struggling to find a single click solution for this, and then just to find any solution, for quite a while. Then I stumbled on the “Import” feature, and realized that it actually solves all my problems. Here’s how it works.
The Solution: Import one Calendar into the other
Once you see how to do it, it’s a quick task to merge two calendars together. In fact, you can even use this to merge a Google calendar from one account into another.
- Log in to your Google Calendar account, and click on the drop-down menu next to your Source calendar. Pick “Calendar Settings” from the list:
- Now, scroll down to the bottom and find the Private ICAL address link. Right click on this link and save the file to your Desktop (or other handy temporary location):
- Next, return to your calendar and click on the “Add” dropdown menu at the top of your calendar list, then click Import Calendar:
- Select the file you just saved from your Source calendar, and choose the Destination calendar you want to import into:
Then click Import, and you will soon be greeted with the cheery success message:
- And that’s it! Here’s a before-and-after of me combining two calendars to show that it works. (Take a look at Tues, February 12, for example.):
Good job!
Thanks for this – it’s great. It saved my life!!!
Wonderful — thank you!
Hi,
Great to know about the import function. Still if you want the two to be displayed as separate calendars use the this description
http://blog.larskjensen.dk/2006/12/18/google-calendar-publishing-multiple-calendars/
Thanks for this. It saved me a load of work!
Thanks for this excellent little tutorial. It works a treat!! Just what I was looking for :-)
Also discovered that you can embed several calendars into the one view without having to merge them. This embedding method also retains the original colours of each calendar!!
Thanks for posting this — exactly what I needed.
it won’t work for me. what are you saving the ical link as on the desktop in step 2
@Brian:
Save the calendar as an ical calendar file (.ics extension). you can choose any file name that you like, but you will need to remember it and be able to locate it again for step 4.
If that’s still confusing/not working, try this: right click on the ICAL link, and select “Save As…”. (you may see “Save Link As” or “Save Target As”, those are good too). When the file chooser appears, press the “Up Folder” icon (A folder with an arrow going left and up on it, located near the top of the file chooser window) many times until you reach your Desktop. Now, enter a name, such as “calendar1.ics”. Then follow the steps until Step 4. When you click on “Browse…”, repeat the same procedure: click the “Up Folder” icon many times to reach your desktop, and then select the file you just created, “calendar1.ics”.
Thank you, this was very helpful. If only it were so easy to merge gmail accounts!
@Daniel:
I suggest using IMAP to merge gmail accounts. (And thanks, by the way, for reading and posting!)
If you’re looking to do what I think you are looking to do: copy all mail from an old_account into a new_account, then here is what I would recommend, based on what has worked well for me.
Enable IMAP access to both accounts by logging in, then clicking on Settings->”Forwarding and POP/IMAP”->”Enable IMAP”. Then click [Save Changes] and wait for some time so that Google can enable the IMAP service. (This took about 15 minutes for me… YMMV)
Now, add both accounts as IMAP accounts to a local mail program, such as Mozilla Thunderbird. The settings you will need are, in brief:
User: username@gmail.com
IMAP server: imap.gmail.com
Port: 993
Use SSL.
Once you have added both accounts to your local mail program, simply drag the messages you want to migrate from the old_account to the new_account, in the appropriate folders. This will take some time, as all the messages will be first downloaded to your PC, then uploaded again, but is well worth the wait, because everything (dates, sent addresses, etc) is preserved correctly.
A few notes:
You can automatically label all messages that you are transferring in this way by creating a new folder in the new_account’s IMAP section, and dragging the messages to that instead of the Inbox. The name you give the folder will appear as a label back in GMail.
You can find the “Sent” folder under the special IMAP folder: [Gmail]/Sent Mail
Good luck! And let me know if any of this is unclearly written; I will try to better explain.
[...] get gsync and synchronise your Google calendar with your Outlook calendar. (found it via here) This and this post [...]
Discovered this while searching: merge google calendars
This is a great tip. Nicely written and nicely done. Thankyou for taking the time to share.
Cheers,
JC
I need to put my tasks into my calendar. Is there any way to do this?
Thanks you so much! Exactly what I needed.
THANKS SO MUCH!!! I was using the unregistered version of Rainlendar (which I LOVE) to have a calendar on my desktop. Now Calgoo calendar is FREE! But, it only lets you sync 1 calendar with Outlook. And I have to sync Google with Outlook in order for my smartphone to get the info. (Yes, I *COULD* go online and see the Google Calendar with my smartphone, but I want the items in my Today screen)
Thank you again for the instructions…..IMPORT……how obvious is that?????? Obviously not very, because I (and many others) had to do a search and end up here to find out how!!!
Thanks so much! Just what I was looking for!
Thank you so much, it’s what i am search for
As many have said, found this while search “merge google calendar” Thanks for clear answer and taking the time, was very helpful – (also, love the header photo – very zen).
Great job!!! And great blog too…this post is very helpful…
Thank you – a great help!
Great job. Thank you very much.
Great – I found this searching for ‘merge google calendars’ too.
One question though – will I need to keep on doing this to keep it up to date?
Cheers,
Raj
@Raj:
Yes, if you are making changes to the source calendar(s), you will need to keep doing this if you want your destination calendar to remain updated. Exporting & Importing the calendar(s) like this is a “one-time” synchronization: you copy a snapshot of all the events on the source calendar into the destination calendar one time only.
If you want to see many calendars in one “view”, you can always add each calendar to your Google Calendar page, but unfortunately I do not personally know of any way to merge them into a single calendar with live synchronization at this point.
Thanks for reading!
-Colin
Hi,
Ive just followed the instructions but at the end of the process I get thefollowing error message…
(Block quote doesnt seem to work! ;-)
error message was…
Processed 47 events.
Successfully imported 22 events.
Failed to import events: Could not upload your events because you do not have sufficient access on the target calendar..
Will they be merged on an ongoing basis this way, or is this solution just backward looking?
So helpful! Thanks; if only they made it easier to naturally know how to do it all yourself.
Thanks for the tip.
Thanks a lot, very helpful!
Thanks for your help man
It works but it does not remove duplicates. eg. Merging two or more holiday calendars. Common holidays such as Christmas, New Year’s Day, Easter, etc. will not merge together to leave one.
Thank you!
thanks! super helpful!!!!
If you get an error like this:
Could not upload your events because you do not have sufficient access on the target calendar..
The problem is being caused by your primary calendar already having items in it. You must first wipe out your primary calendar before adding the *.ics file.
1) Save a backup copy of your primary calendar as an *.ics file using the process described here.
NOTE: Be sure you right-click on the Private iCal link. If you try to save the public file, all you’ll get is a hypertext link.
2) Go to “Settings : Calendars” and delete your primary calendar. A pop-up box will appear warning you that you are about to delete everything in your primary calendar…that’s fine. Your calendar isn’t going anywhere, you’re just deleting its contents.
3) Import your new calendar using the process described in the above blog post, adding the *.ics file to your primary calendar
Worked for me … 145 events successful, and no jibberjabber about not having enough access.
Good luck!
So many thanks for your time on this!
Very much appreciated!
[Colin says: These directions should not be necessary in ordinary circumstances, but if you do run into this case, give them a try and let us know if they worked for you!]
it seems you cannot merge a calendar into a non-empty main calendar (your 1st one, the one you cannot delete)
BUT you can merge any calendar into any (non-empty) secondary calendar AND/OR merge a calendar into your EMPTY main calendar.
So, you got it ?
What you have to do is:
1/ export calendars
2/ delete all events in main calendar
3/ create a new “test” calendar
4/ import calendar 1 into “test”
5/ import calendar 2 (3, 4, 5, …) into “test” (merging)
6/ export calendars
7/ import “test” into main calendar
8/ delete “test”
That’s all folks !
Wish Google guys work on that issue !
@bruno – After seeing your comment, I tested these directions again this morning to be sure they still worked. Other than the Add button moving to the bottom of the list instead of on top, everything is still the same. You should not have to delete events from the destination calendar before importing. If you find that this is isn’t working, I would check the sharing permissions on your main calendar.
This worked like a charm! Thanks!
Hi
I just did this
But I lost my colours – which was the main reason I made up separate calendars – any reason why?
Thanks so much! The only directions I’ve ever found and perfect!
BTW, if you do this with a public calendar, such as Religious Holidays, then you can edit to remove any unwanted ones or rename, etc.
Thanks so much, thats perfect!!! just what i was looking for!
AWESOME! WONDERFUL! Saved $ to use free calendar! THANK YOU!! – webmaster
Yay! My calendar agony is over! Thank you! Thank You!
Thanks–a huge help!!
Very nice, thanks for the idea.
[...] http://www.mccambridge.org/blog/2008/03/howto-merge-google-calendars-together/ [...]
Wow! This is incredible. Thanks for taking away a HUGE headache!
Thank you!
What I have tried to do is set up notifications for my “Contacts Birthdays” Calendar…. however I do not have a private link to subscribe to it in the other calendar. Got any advice? I desperately need notifications for my Birthdays, that is the main thing I need to remember!