How To Merge Two or More Google Calendars

If you are like most people, you have multiple Google calendars (and Gmail accounts). Maybe, you have one for work, another for personal appointments, a shared team calendar, and perhaps even a few shared calendars with family and friends.

The problem with having multiple calendars is that this makes time blocking harder and drastically increases the likelihood of you double-booking yourself.

However, having only one calendar for everything might solve the overbooking problem but it is far from an ideal solution. Sharing your one and only Google calendar with your coworkers and boss can be problematic if they see all of your personal appointments and family commitments.

In this post, we’re walking through two different approaches (both manual and automated) for how to merge Google calendars without having to sacrifice privacy.

The manual approach: Merging multiple Google calendars

Here is a step-by-step guide to manually merging multiple calendars.

Start by opening your Google calendar, and clicking the gear icon in the upper right of your screen (i.e. the calendar settings wheel), and selecting Settings.

Then, in your calendar settings, click the import & export option from the menu on the left side of your screen.

You’ll be prompted to download the zip file of your current calendar to your computer. Once you unpack your zip file, you’ll see an ICS calendar file (which is your main calendar data file) in your downloads folder.

Now, you’ll need to create a new Google calendar account (or open an existing one!) to merge the calendar you just downloaded.

Once you are in the calendar, you’ll want to open up the settings menu (same process as earlier noted in this post) and then click on the import & export option from the menu on the left side of your screen.

This time, you’ll use the Import section instead of Export. Click the ‘Select file from your computers’ button and import the ICS calendar file that you had previously downloaded.

You’ll now be able to see your merged calendar.

How to merge an Outlook or iCloud calendar into a Google calendar

It is worth noting that merging calendars isn’t just limited to existing Google calendars. You can follow a similar process to download your calendar ICS file from Outlook or iCloud and then merge it into your existing calendar.

Related Reading: How to add your Google Calendar to Outlook

For example, here is how to find and download your Outlook calendar ICS file.

In the Outlook App, click the gear icon (Settings) located in the upper blue bar at the top of the screen on the right side of your screen.

Then, select the ‘View all Outlook settings’ at the bottom of the Settings section.

Now, click on ‘Calendar’ and then ‘Shared calendars.’

Then, go to the ‘Publish a calendar’ section under the Shared calendars screen. Click ‘Select a calendar’ and then find and select the calendar you want to download and merge.

Then, under sharing settings, select ‘Can view all details’ from the Select permissions dropdown box and hit Publish.

From there, you’ll see two links. You’ll need the ICS link to import your calendar.

Now, open your Google calendar. Click on the + sign beside the ‘Other calendars’ section on the left-hand menu, and select the ‘From URL’ option.

Paste the ICS link in the ‘URL of calendar’ box and click the ‘Add calendar’ button.

The new calendar will be listed under the Other calendars section on the left-hand menu.

Note: This same process above also works for merging your iCloud calendars.

An automated solution to merge multiple calendars

If you are looking to merge multiple calendars, you are probably doing this to avoid scheduling conflicts, missed appointments, or spreading yourself too thin.

However, if you have multiple Outlook, Google, and iCloud calendars that you need to sync, the process of having to download and link to multiple calendar ICS files can be time-consuming.

In SavvyCal, you can add all of your Google, Outlook, iCloud, and FastMail calendars.  Then, you can create and configure how your scheduling links integrate with your external calendars.

You can also have different settings on a per-link basis.

For example, if you want to have 15-minute increments on one link for sales demos. Then, you have another calendar with 90-minute time increments for podcast recordings. It is easy to set this up in SavvyCal.

Never worry about merging calendars again

When it comes to syncing all of your calendars, using scheduling software like SavvyCal, is the simplest and quickest way to avoid overbooking or double-booking yourself. You can import all of your external calendars and create as many different scheduling links as you need.

Ready to get started with SavvyCal? Sign up for a free trial here.