Linking your calendar to 4appointments

There’s no direct Google Calendar or Outlook sync. Three ICS options connect your calendars today.

Special cases

Many people ask for syncing with Google Calendar. At the moment 4appointments has no direct connection to Google Calendar or Outlook and no two-way sync. What it does offer is ICS, the standard calendar format that almost every calendar app reads. With it you can bring busy times in, load a file once and share your schedule out.

Bring busy times in by subscription. Most calendar apps, including Google Calendar and Outlook, can publish a calendar as a secret ICS link. Paste that link under “External calendar” in the panel, and its busy blocks close the matching times so customers can’t book them. Use an https link; it’s read about every 15 minutes, each member can subscribe to up to three calendars, and events marked as free are ignored.

Load a file once. If you have a calendar exported as an .ics file, you can import it as confirmed bookings. The file can be up to 2 MB, only events starting within the next 60 days are read, the title becomes the customer’s name, no email or phone number comes in, and past or overlapping events are ignored.

Share your schedule out. Each provider has an ICS export link. Subscribe to it from your phone or computer calendar and your 4appointments bookings appear there. It’s a one-way feed, and when new bookings show up depends on how often your calendar app refreshes subscriptions.

Keep expectations realistic. Nothing you do in Google Calendar changes 4appointments through a connection of its own, and nothing is written from 4appointments into Google Calendar. A simple routine works well: subscribe to your personal calendar by ICS so personal events block times, and subscribe to your provider’s export on your phone to see your appointments.

What to remember

  • ✓No direct Google Calendar or Outlook connection, and no two-way sync
  • ✓Subscribe to an external calendar by ICS to block busy times
  • ✓Import a one-off .ics file, or export a provider’s calendar by ICS

Common questions

Can I sync more than one Google calendar?+

You can subscribe to up to three external calendars by ICS per member, Google calendars included. Remember that events marked as free are ignored.

Does it work with Outlook or Apple Calendar too?+

Those apps can read the ICS export of a provider by URL, and calendars from them can be subscribed by ICS link. There’s no native Outlook or Apple connection and no two-way sync.

More guides for you

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