External calendars: connect your diary via ICS

What is possible and what is not

There are three things: importing busy times from an external calendar, importing a one-off ICS file as confirmed bookings, and exporting each provider’s diary. There is no sign-in with a Google or Microsoft account. “External calendar” is simply the name the panel gives to an ICS link. If you edit or delete an event in Google Calendar or Outlook, the bookings in 4appointments are not changed, so keep personal commitments in your usual app and use 4appointments for the booking diary.

• Import busy times by subscribing to the ICS link of another calendar.
• Import a one-off ICS file as confirmed bookings, within the limits described below.
• Export each provider’s diary as an ICS link you can subscribe to.
• Nothing is synced both ways: bookings do not update when the other calendar changes.

Importing busy times and ICS files

In the “External calendar” section, a team member can subscribe to the calendar they already use, and its events block those times in availability so nobody books over them. The link must start with https, each member can subscribe to up to 3 calendars, and the calendar is read again roughly every 15 minutes, so updates are not instant. Events marked as free are ignored. You can also import an ICS file once as confirmed bookings: only events starting within the next 60 days come in, the file cannot exceed 2 MB, past or overlapping events are ignored, the event title becomes the client name, and no email addresses or phone numbers are imported. The import is one-off, so later changes in the old calendar do not come across. Check the result before you give up the old diary.

Taking the bookings onto your phone

Each provider has their own ICS export link. If you subscribe to it from your phone’s calendar, the bookings appear alongside your personal commitments, and you can check the diary on a computer without opening the panel.

• Each member’s link shows only their own bookings.
• How often the phone calendar refreshes is decided by your calendar app, not by 4appointments.
• The free note the client wrote when booking may appear in the event description.
• Treat the link as confidential: anyone who has the address can subscribe to it.

Common questions