• Google Calendar For Macbook Air
• Google Calendar App For Mac
• Google Calendar Widget For Mac
• Download Google Calendar For Macbook

Add or delete calendar accounts on Mac. If you keep calendars in internet accounts—for example, iCloud, Yahoo, or another CalDAV account—you can use the accounts in Calendar on your Mac, and access all your calendars and events in one place. In the Calendar app on your Mac, choose Calendar Accounts, then select the account you want to delete. Click the Remove button at the bottom of the account list. You can view, add, and modify events, and respond to invitations, in the Calendar app on all your devices that use the same accounts.

The built-in Calendar app on Mac is .. fine. Sometimes though, you need a few different features. That's where third-party calendars can be very useful. Check out my favorite calendar apps for the Mac and let us know which one suits you best.

Best overall: Fantastical 2

Fantastical 2 is a workhorse of a calendar app that can connect to your iCloud, Exchange, Google, Yahoo, fruux, and CalDAV accounts. It then imports all of your daily event information into one unified calendar, which can be displayed as a full month along with daily, weekly, or yearly options. You can also display a daily event list on the left side with detailed information on everything you've got going on today. Better still, Fantastical allows for custom calendar sets with specific accounts tagged in them, time zone support, and more.

All these features mean it comes with a $50 price tag, but the extra money's worth it.

Bottom line: Fantastical 2 is a robust, full-featured calendar with dozens of useful features for any and all productivity.

One more thing: It comes with a mini-calendar that sits in your Menu bar for quick access.

Why Fantastical 2 is the best

Does everything a calendar app should do!

Fantastical 2 works exactly the way a calendar app should work on your desktop: It's got a beautiful interface with customizable options for viewing daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly events. You can even set up customized calendar sets that only show certain events. Those different sets can be toggled to activate at different locations, too: When you get to work and open your laptop, you'll only see your work calendar, but when you take it home, you will only see your personal one.

When you select an event, you'll get the details, including a map for events with locations. You can also toggle between light or dark mode any time you like.

Fantastical's natural language event creation is where it shines. All you have to do is type out your phrasing as if you were talking, and Fantastical will automatically set dates, times, locations, and more for you. 'Have dinner at Morton's with mom tomorrow at 7' is transformed into an event, complete with location mapping.

Fantastical 2 works with a number of different calendar services, including iCloud, Google, Yahoo, and more. It also syncs with your Mac's built-in Reminders app so you can keep track of daily tasks while making sure you aren't late to any appointments.

Best Cal organizer: BusyCal 3

BusyCal 3 has a great setup feature: It automatically syncs up with the accounts you have stored in the Mail app on Mac. Any calendars you use with those email accounts will be updated in the BusyCal calendar. So, if you use Yahoo, iCloud, and Gmail, you'll be able to connect them all just by entering the account password when you open the app for the first time.

My favorite feature of BusyCal is the Smart Filter, which makes it possible for you to create rules for what events are shown. For example, you could set a filter that will only show you birthdays or only events that repeat. You can create multiple filters and then switch between them. It is ideal for keeping your calendar events organized.

Bottom line: If you have a lot of different types of events, or multiple calendars, BusyCal 3 will help you filter out what you don't need to look at right now so you can stay focused on what is important.

One more thing: There is a mini calendar that sits in your Menu bar so you can see a quick glance of the month ahead and current day's events without having to open the full app.

Best Cal companion: Calendar 2

Calendar 2 is a Menu bar widget. It stores all of your calendar information on the Menu bar so you can quickly access it. All you have to do is connect your Mac's built-in calendar and you're ready to go. Then, when you want to check your schedule, just click on the icon. You'll see a monthly view with dots next to dates that have events, plus a sidebar with a list of events taking place. If you want to see more details of an event, click on it to open your Mac Calendar app.

Bottom line: If you are happy with the built-in Calendar app on your Mac, but just want a different way to see what's on your schedule, check out Calendar 2.

One more thing: There is a premium upgrade that includes a lot more features, like the ability to connect your Google calendar and get cool looking backgrounds.

Best for productivity: Informant for macOS

Informant for the desktop is more than just a calendar app. It's a task manager and note taker, all rolled into a clear and concise calendar. You can organize your calendar to see your to-do list on the same screen as your schedule and tasks are combined with daily events.

You can keep your to-do list right on top of the screen with upcoming and completed tasks clearly identifiable. You can create tasks using either GTD, Franklin Covey, or Simple mode, making your lists work for you.

Filters allow you to hide events from specific calendars. You can have multiple filters saved in your favorites and switch between them at any time. It makes it easy to keep your work and home life separate.

Bottom line: If having your to-do list and calendar grouped together are important and your daily schedule is the top priority, Informant for macOS is for you.

One more thing: It features a tabbed interface so you can work in multiple task windows without making a mess on your screen.

Conclusion: Fantastical 2 is the best

When it comes to desktop support, Fantastical 2 wins the day. It's a straightforward app with a beautiful interface and plenty of customizable features. The mini calendar, which sits in your Menu bar, is perfect for checking upcoming events at a glance and you can add appointments without having to open the full app. The natural language event creation makes it easy for you to simply jot down what you need to do and when. Fantastical takes care of the rest for you. If you just lost Sunrise and are looking for a replacement, try Fantastical 2 for Mac.

March 2019: Updated pricing and links.

We may earn a commission for purchases using our links. Learn more.

Apple Arcade

STELA for Apple Arcade is a shallow, sadistic, totally fun game

Can you outrun killer dark shadows? Take leaps of faith into the unknown? Traverse a world where nothing is what it seems? STELA will test your mettle.

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…

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. In System Preferences find ‘Internet Accounts’

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.

Google Calendar For Macbook Air

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.

The Gmail calendars will now appear alongside your iCloud calendars – toggle their visibility with the checkbox.

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.

Related posts:

ical, google cal, iphone, what a mess…How to sync your Google calendar with OS X and iPhoneHow to access your gmail contacts from Apple Contacts app.Google Calendar iOS appHow to install Google File Stream and Google Teamsjean christophesays:March 14, 2014 at 12:11 pm

Hello,
Yes, very née, but the account in pref keeps saying “a secure connection hash”t been able to be established”… And nothing happened !

Thanks to help !

ReplyAnnoyedsays:

Google Calendar App For Mac

April 4, 2014 at 1:16 pm

Same thing, on 10.9.2

ReplyDsays:July 14, 2014 at 10:50 am

Did you ever figure out how to setup your google calendar on your mac? Mine also kept saying “a secure connection hasn’t been able to be established” :-/

ReplySarahsays:October 2, 2014 at 2:21 pm

I had this problem. I fixed it by going to my Gmail account, Security settings and changing Account permissions: Access for less secure apps to “Enabled” – hope that helps!

saharsays:August 6, 2015 at 7:47 am

hi I have forgotten my google password where do I go to reset

Waynesays:August 6, 2015 at 2:08 pm

gmail.com

Thomas Slomkasays:May 8, 2014 at 10:02 am

Nice article. Your method works well. Have you been able to get your iCloud calendars to sync up to a Google calendar?

Imagine you have two iCloud Calendars, Two Exchange Calendars and you manage all of them using the desktop app Apple Calendar. You also have all of them synced up to your iPhone and iPad. Now all you want is to display all of them on a web page so folks can see your availability…. This use to be possible pre-Mavericks by publishing each of the calendars to Google and then publishing the Google calendar to the web.

If you can solve that you’ll make a lot of folks happy.

ReplyWaynesays:May 9, 2014 at 3:49 am

No I haven’t found a way to do this. I did look long and hard. Hence this solution I described where you have the master calendar in Google, and you can share this to the web and to iCloud. But iCloud won’t share to Google. Apple doesn’t have much love for Google.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6093379?tstart=0

ReplyPetesays:May 30, 2014 at 7:08 pm

Wayne – amazing! Who’d of thought I’d find you.
Anyway – maybe you can help. Mac cursor for windows. I’ve just upgraded to Mavericks, and have lost all my iCal data, now that they have put me on to Calendar. Do you know of any way I can get it back, and then import it into Calendar?

ReplyChawn Crawleysays:June 3, 2014 at 3:16 pm

Wayne,

Great write-up and thanks for getting it out there!
I’ve been using Google calendar for quite some time in order to keep track of work and family. Honestly, my usage isn’t terribly elaborate or complex, but I’m still working to simplify things more. Currently, I’m using Fantastical to punch in fast entries from my mobile devices and things are just fine there.

Only trouble I have is figuring out what app I should be running on the OSX side. Fantastical is there but it only works in the menu bar.

Since I’ve no use (that I’m aware of now) for posting my calendar to my website, do you recommend sticking with Google or maybe rolling back to a strait iCal system?

Thanks,

Chawn

ReplyDean Linnellsays:July 9, 2014 at 5:13 pm

Thanks for the article. I’m not sure if I’m understanding this correctly but here’s what I want to do:
My wife uses iCal and has our whole family’s schedule in there and it’s synced with my iCal. Works great. However, I’ve just switched to Android and have begun using Google Calendar. I want all our activities to sync from her iCal to my Google Calendar. How do I go about this? If I can’t see my family’s activities in my Google Calendar I’m pretty well screwed. Help!!

ReplyJoanne Scottsays:July 27, 2014 at 4:56 am

I have the exact same issue with my husbands android syncing to our iCal on our Mac at home. Hope someone can help us out with this…

ReplyJoanne Scottsays:July 27, 2014 at 5:10 am

My husband just uploaded an app called “smooth sync” for cloud calendar for $1.99 and he can now view all of our family iCalendars!

ReplyDoro Schmittsays:August 5, 2014 at 4:54 am

As in the other websites, too: THIS IS NOT A SYNC!!!!!!

This is how i can use my google calender in my iphone. A sync would be having the same data in both calendars.
I openend 1000 sites now where everybody talks from syncing but it’s all shit

ReplyTHsays:November 5, 2014 at 6:43 am

Agree,

This is not synching. Updating the calendar on my iPhone and having the update show up on my Google calendar is synching.

ReplyWaynesays:November 6, 2014 at 3:48 am

You can update the calendar on your iPhone and the update shows up on the Google calendar. I’m not sure how that’s not a sync. And if you want more than one calendar, just make another Google calendar. I guess what this post is attempting to describe is a work-around for the fact that Apple prevent you from syncing with Google calendar.

You can’t use an iCloud based calendar to sync because Apple don’t want to play nicely with Google. You need to start from Google and go the other way They are doing to Google what Microsoft did to Apple in the 90’s when Apple could read PC floppy disks but Microsoft wouldn’t read Apple disks. It’s a shame Apple didn’t learn from that experience! Thankfully Google try to play nicely with everyone.

AGsays:November 19, 2014 at 3:59 pm

It isn’t syncing because all you’re doing is updating a Google calendar on an iDevice. Syncing would be updating an iCal and having those changes appear on a Google calendar either on the same device or on another.

My wife uses iCal on her iPhone, while I now use Google calendar on Android. Changes on one do not appear on the other. I wish they did.

ReplyJeromysays:December 26, 2014 at 2:39 pm

I have tired the google calendar settings to allow less secure apps, but still no dice on getting my gmail calendar to work on Ical. anyone have any other ideas?

ReplyH25says:January 8, 2015 at 8:59 pm

I was able to sync the two by adding the account through iCal preferences and syncing my Gmail account as indicated above. My appointments made in Google Calendar showed up, but there were some “triangle + !” error messages that were annoying. I went through google help and followed this link https://www.google.com/calendar/syncselect — my correct info was already selected so I just saved it and the errors went away! My google calendar events all show up in iCal now–but as posters said, not the other way around. It seems like you have to export/import iCal into Google Calendar, but I haven’t fully looked into that.

ReplyLlind asays:January 25, 2015 at 1:22 pm

Free music notation software mac os x. Nice idea but I do not have an Internet accounts button on my System preferences file or on my IMAC. Now What?

ReplyCarosays:January 29, 2015 at 11:20 am

Thanks a lot for the advice! That is exactly what I need it.

ReplyM³says:February 4, 2015 at 8:17 am

To the author of this article:
Are you really that stupid? You’re questioning the use of google calendar. Every argument you use for using Apple calendar is also available in google calendar. The only difference is that with a google calendar you can do all of those things on EVERY device you want. You can share, view, edit ,… with everyone on every device.
And now you’re making some workaround because of the incapabilities of the apple calendar… I think it’s time for you to throw away those blinkers…

ReplyWaynesays:February 6, 2015 at 1:07 am

I’m sorry, I think you’ve completely misunderstood the article (or not read it). It’s not questioning the use of Google calendar at all, it is actually telling you how to use google calendar, step by step.

ReplyMohammedsays:February 27, 2015 at 2:33 am

Great help, thanks.Is there an easy way to get my ical events to show up in my google calendar?

ReplyWaynesays:February 27, 2015 at 11:17 am

No way that I know of except to copy them across in Calendar app. Apple can see gmail calendar but not the other way round.

ReplyWernersays:April 13, 2015 at 9:53 pm

Actually, Apple doesn’t have much love for anyone except Apple, and isn’t playing nicely with anyone except Apple. It is not a matter of Apple not learning from that past experience with Microsoft: it is a matter of Apple making every deliberate choice to trap users in an exclusively Apple environnement. The only way to teach them is to go to that conclusion: if you have made a step out of the Apple environnement (to free – as in freemind or freespeach – OS and soft for instance), then do the full walk toward an exclusively not Apple environnement … at least untill they act more friendly to others !!!

Replyjrsays:May 9, 2016 at 9:15 am

And Google isn’t locking everyone into Google apps to make money off the advertising (even the accounts they promised wouldn’t be checked, e.g., schools, paid business accounts)?
Once Google claimed to believe in, “[F]irst, do no evil”. Now, not so much.
IMHO: They’re both after user’s money, however they can get it. The only reason I use either is to avoid M$.

Traceysays:May 2, 2015 at 10:49 am

I am trying to import to google calendar from iCal, unfortunately when I do this, nothing happens. I get right to import calendar, and up pops a window once this has been done and a small window appears IMPORT CALENDAR. Nothing has been imported.

I have also tried to sync in ical, but I cannot find the URL or server settings that is supposed to show under ICal – Preferences – Account Information.

Does someone have an answer? My Mac computer is a 10. version.

ReplyJodysays:November 18, 2015 at 7:20 am

Great! Quick and to the point and worked immediately. Other articles were confusing and didn’t offer the right solution. From a new Mac user…thanks!!

ReplySarah

Google Calendar Widget For Mac

says:November 23, 2015 at 12:37 pm

This doesn’t work for me. I can “see” my Google calendar, but I can’t switch to it or see any of the events on it. It is blank, essentially.

ReplyJim Whitstonsays:June 20, 2016 at 5:33 am

The quote from Wayne on 27 Feb “Apple can see gmail calendar but not the other way round.” needs to be in bold somewhere in the main article. I have sweated blood trying to get my ical stuff to show in Android……

ReplyJansays:

Download Google Calendar For Macbook

June 29, 2016 at 9:20 pm

I loathe the Apple calendar!! So hard to add anything, and then it arbitrarily tries to slot what you’ve written into its self-determined time zones.

I love my Google calendar — so user friendly. But the pc it is on is dying so I’ll have to somehow follow these complicated instructions and set it up on my Mac. I’m actually regretting my decision to get a MacBook. Wish I’d stuck with a new pc but too late now….

ReplyKlaus Sauersays:August 22, 2017 at 5:49 am

hi, that works allright if you are working from a mac or ios device, but not if you are accessing your calender through a website.
regs Klaus

Replyleasays:January 23, 2019 at 6:03 pm

I tried to do this, I’d edit in ical (under google account) but it wont upload on gmail’s calendar . pls help!

ReplyArnaud Gauthiersays:May 29, 2019 at 10:59 am

Simply use One Calendar on your Android phone… and setup your icloud account in there… works like a charm. I tried all the other methods… but this is the best.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=biz.codespark.xcalendarapp

ReplyMustapha Fawazsays:May 30, 2019 at 4:53 pm

Hi,
Thanks for the article. Every even that I create on Google calender appears on my mac. But no event created on my mac appears on google calendar.
Do you have any idea why?
THanks

ReplyMustapha Fawazsays:May 30, 2019 at 4:59 pm

I finally figured it out.
You need to select the calendar from the left side. So, first, click on your gmail (email) account, then any even created will be synched with Google calendar.

ReplyTrevor Plowmansays:August 10, 2019 at 9:13 am

Excellent, thanks, stopped working in Safari for some reason, but can now manage all my google calendars from the Mac calendar. Very clear article, thanks.

Reply