Sync Google calendar with iPhone using CalDAV

Posted on September 6, 2009 at 5:52 am

Since I’ve gotten my iPhone, I have tried to sync up as many services as possible with the iPhone’s built in email, calendar and contact apps. If you’re in a corporate environment, you’ve probably already setup an email account using the Exchange option on the iPhone.

Unfortunately, you can only add one Microsoft Exchange account to your iPhone, so if you want to sync your Outlook calendar and Google calendar, you have to use CalDAV instead of Google Sync (which uses Exchange).

In this post, I will walk you through the steps for setting up Google Calendar on your iPhone using the CalDAV protocol, which means you can still use the Exchange option for your corporate email.

First, click on the Settings button on your iPhone home screen:

Home screen

Next, click on the Mail, Contacts, Calendars option under Settings:

google iphone

Next, click on the Add Account option at the bottom:

caldav iphone

Next, click on the last option called Other:

google calendar iphone

Next, click on the Add CalDAV Account option under the Calendars heading:

google account iphone

Almost done! Now, you need to enter your Google account information. In the Server field, enter Google.com. Enter your full email address for the username and type in your Google account password. In the Description field, type in the name for the account that you want.

caldav google iphone

Tap the Next button at the top of the screen and you’re done! Just go to the Calendar application on the iPhone and syncing will automatically start once you open it. If you have any issues, post a comment here and I’ll try to help! Enjoy!

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56 Responses to “Sync Google calendar with iPhone using CalDAV”

  1. Vijay said on : September 6th, 2009 at 3:30 pm

    I have configured the iPhone as per the instruction. I can now see two calendars (iPhone calendar and Google Calendar) but I can not see the events created on Google calender, though it is set as public.

    Should I configure something else to sync? or any other way to sync is required? Please assist.


  2. Tony said on : September 8th, 2009 at 3:01 am

    I can add entries in Google Calendar and I will see them in my iPhone.
    But if I add entries in my iphone, I don’t see them in my Google Calendar.

    Is the system not bi-directional?

    Rg.
    Tony


  3. katja said on : September 8th, 2009 at 11:39 pm

    Yes, but any idea how to synch more than one calendar to the iPhone? on Google I have 3, they sync with iCal just fine but as delegates, and then they don’t get synched with my iphone … any idea?


  4. dmacher said on : September 9th, 2009 at 7:05 pm

    I did this, and it worked, but it only syncs one of my calendar options. For instance, I have a “work” calendar, a “family” calendar etc., but only the first calendar will sync. Is there a way to sync all of them? Thanks.


  5. bob fiorentino said on : September 10th, 2009 at 8:39 am

    hi, I set up sync of my google calendar and my iphone using CALDAV and it worked beautifully for the first day. On the second day it stopped working and i no longer am getting access to my gmail either. any suggestions/ideas?

    thank you, bob


  6. Karen said on : September 11th, 2009 at 5:12 pm

    Hi,
    I tried to add a Google calendar when I got my 3G, and another just now, following your instructions. Neither shows up on the main iPhone calendar. The only potential cause I can come up with is that I received the phone from a colleague, and after lots of research figured out how to remove his personal calendars.
    Thoughts?


  7. Navlyn said on : September 14th, 2009 at 7:11 am

    Hi,

    thanks for the instructions. I was able to sync with my google calendar, however, within google calendar I have a few separate calendars (e.g. personal, school, etc), but only one of the calendars (the top one in the calendar) is syncing.

    when I used exchange to sync the calendar, all of the sub-calendars showed up. is there anyway to do this also wiht calDAV? it would be really helpful.

    cheers,
    navlyn


  8. Jasper said on : September 17th, 2009 at 5:29 pm

    Great solution with Caldav but I have two calenders with Google under one account. Only the primary calender syncs with the iPhone! What can I do???


  9. Brandon said on : September 21st, 2009 at 3:32 pm

    It worked great for me! I have google calenders and my ECU private mail running together!

    What could be better?


  10. Heino said on : October 2nd, 2009 at 9:20 am

    Does anybody know if it’s possible to sync an exchange calendar on iphone with a google calendar?


  11. iPhone4idiots said on : October 7th, 2009 at 8:02 pm

    Thanks, my wife was bugging me to get more organized so I told her I’d finally start using a calendar. This worked well for me.


  12. neo23 said on : October 11th, 2009 at 7:27 am

    About the problem people are having with syncing a secondary calendar. You need to add another CalDAV account with ID of second calendar.

    See this: atnan.com/2009/6/19/configuring-multiple-caldav-google-calendars-on-iphone-os-3-0


  13. greg said on : October 14th, 2009 at 5:17 pm

    THANK YOU!!!! I was able to sync my calendar to my iPhone!


  14. rachitac said on : October 30th, 2009 at 11:58 am

    can i share calendar events by doing this?
    Like meetings etc.. if yes, how


  15. Ashley said on : November 17th, 2009 at 3:06 pm

    WOW! Thank you so much. How much clearer could a set of directions be.


  16. John said on : November 23rd, 2009 at 6:56 pm

    I have configured the iPhone as per the instruction. I can now see all my calendars (iPhone calendar and Google Calendar) but I can not see the events created on Google calender, though it is set as public. What can I do?


  17. john said on : November 23rd, 2009 at 7:13 pm

    Now I have synced my google calander to my Iphone but it only shows one of my google calanders. How do I get all of them to sync. For example it shows Work, but dosn’t show Trips, appointments and a few others calanders I have?


  18. G building said on : November 29th, 2009 at 5:23 am

    To sync other calenders that you may have on your google Calendars go to m.google.com/sync/settings on your iPhone browser and check your settings.


  19. LKB said on : November 30th, 2009 at 11:26 pm

    I was able to add my Google calendar, which is also in my iCal. But, why do I now have “All from my Mac” and “All Google” on my iPhone? Any way to just have the single calendar that is synched among iCal, iPhone and Google? That is the only one checked in iCal (the Google calendar) and the only one checked in iTunes for synching purposes. Thanks.


  20. JSH said on : January 6th, 2010 at 1:55 pm

    Thank you so much for this post! It was exactly what I needed.


  21. LKB said on : January 6th, 2010 at 6:03 pm

    OK…here’s another question. I want my invitations to go to the CalDAV calendar but they automatically go to the iCal calendar, which I presumably cannot delete. Any suggestions?


  22. Greentiger said on : January 8th, 2010 at 4:34 pm

    Hi. I’m having the same trouble as some others – my google calendar is showing on my iphone but the info entered there does not.
    Please help me resolve this.


  23. Greentiger said on : January 8th, 2010 at 5:55 pm

    Sorry – did not complete last query properly. I meant to say that info entered on iphone does not appear in google calendar.
    I.m looking forward to resolving this issue.


  24. LKB said on : January 10th, 2010 at 8:18 am

    If you set up both iCal and the iPhone calendars as CalDAV calendars, they should synch wirelessly. If I enter something in my iPhone, and the phone is not in its sleep mode, open Calendar and it should synch with your iCalDAV Google, and your Google calendars and vice versa. It’s a three-way thing.


  25. Stoo said on : January 21st, 2010 at 5:44 am

    I’ve spent hours trying to get this to work on my iPod Touch. No matter how i set things up i just keep getting a pop-up saying “Incorrect Password” and prompting me to enter the correct one. But i KNOW the username and password are correct!! Grrrr

    any ideas?


  26. Bruddap said on : January 22nd, 2010 at 1:04 pm

    All of the sudden my Gmail calendar was missing off my iPhone and this brought it back. Cheers


  27. Sital said on : January 26th, 2010 at 12:25 pm

    Please help me. I have used caldav to sync my google calendar with my iPhone, however, when I put an entry into my iPhone, I cannot see it on my google calendar. Why is this?

    Many thanks


  28. debby said on : January 31st, 2010 at 7:43 am

    now in English…

    it works perfect!!! just forwarded my livemail to gmail and saw my test mail in gmail on my iphone. Now I’ll try to sync my iphone calender items I already made…


  29. klein said on : February 17th, 2010 at 7:08 am

    In my Google Calendar, I created multiple calendars (each a different color): work, holidays, invitations … .. when i sync with the iPhone, only 1 of the calendars is taken into account. How to have them all? thanks


  30. mfr.ch said on : February 24th, 2010 at 7:17 am

    Bonjour et merci pour le tuto, jusque là ça marche, mais comment faire pour afficher sur l’iphone les autres agenda d’un même compte?
    salutations


  31. Joel said on : February 24th, 2010 at 12:55 pm

    I have the same issue – i have multiple calendars (work, Family, Social) and only the main calendar will sync (which has pretty much nothing in it and isnt very helpful!

    Any clues?


  32. Joel said on : February 24th, 2010 at 1:03 pm

    FOR ANYONE HAVING ISSUES SYNCING MULTIPLE CALENDARS

    GO TO: http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=151674

    use the instructions then follow the blue link at the bottom of the page and you can select the calendars you want synced simply by using check boxes! FANTASTIC!


  33. Nicolas said on : March 1st, 2010 at 5:31 am

    Hi,

    I have the same issues as Fred and Greentiger: my google calendar shows on my iphone, but the reverse is not true: none of my iphone items appear in google calendar.

    Any idea?


  34. NeoDecKer said on : March 1st, 2010 at 6:10 am

    Perfecto. Con el microsoft exange no me sincronizaba siempre que lo abría, hacia como que sincronizaba, pero cuando acababa, no había cambios.
    Con este método, cada vez que abro el calendario, espero 3 o 4 seg. y se sincroniza a la perfección.

    Muchas gracias


  35. Nicolas said on : March 1st, 2010 at 7:17 am

    ok found the answer to my own question:

    For all who cannot have ical events appear in google, found this answer on google forums:

    From Startler:
    In iCal, make sure you’re entering your events into your google calendar not the local iCal calendar. It took me a long time to notice there was a difference.


  36. Claude said on : March 2nd, 2010 at 10:53 am

    Thanks, I have read so many brainy solutions, but this was the most simple and logical one out there! Thanks!


  37. craig said on : March 2nd, 2010 at 12:25 pm

    tip: you can select which google calendars to sync to your iphone by going to the following url:

    https://www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect


  38. Marco said on : March 7th, 2010 at 1:32 pm

    To synchronize the calendar you must connect to the internet on the iPhone or can you do it when you synchronize with iTunes? If so, how?

    Thanks!


  39. JOEL said on : March 8th, 2010 at 10:01 am

    they will syncronize back to the calendar if you categorize them correctly when you are booking things directly on the iphone – just play around with it and you’ll be fine


  40. Hillary said on : March 9th, 2010 at 9:31 am

    I have my personal calendar downloaded but my google calendar has several other calendars that go with (work, travel etc) and those don’t load. Help!


  41. Gianfranco said on : March 12th, 2010 at 4:37 am

    Spectacular! Thank you very much! I have a question for you though … I have setup three calendars in Google Calendar (including my wife’s) but on my iPhone I see only one. Could you help me? Thank you very much, Gianfranco


  42. Robert said on : March 17th, 2010 at 7:44 am

    To activivate the secondary calendars go to:
    https://www.google.com/calendar/iphoneselect

    or for Google app users:
    https://www.google.com/calendar/hosted/YOUR_DOMAIN_NAME/iphoneselect


  43. Karina said on : March 22nd, 2010 at 5:59 am

    I performed the steps you mentioned, but it did not synchronize my Google calendar, none of the appointments are appearing on my iPhone!


  44. Felipe said on : March 23rd, 2010 at 12:30 pm

    E quando temos nossa agenda Google recebendo inputs de outras agendas compartilhadas? Não consigo ver os demais…

    E outra. Se eu gerar o compromisso no iCal do Mac, com o perfil da agenda Google, ele não alimenta o iPhone…

    Me ajuda?


  45. hello said on : April 19th, 2010 at 6:18 am

    Bonjour, j’ai bien procédé à toute les étapes mais le iphone ne veux toujours pas se synchroniser avec l’agenda dans gmail.

    Une idée peut-être ?


  46. Heather said on : May 6th, 2010 at 9:47 am

    Hi

    I tried to add my google calendar using the instuctions, but it did not show up for me. I have an Exchange Calendar and a Google calendar. I want to put them all in one calendar, is this the best way to do it, or do I need another application?

    Thanks


  47. martin tremblay said on : May 11th, 2010 at 11:16 am

    Bonjour à vous, depuis hier la synchronisation entre pocket informant et google agenda ne fonctionne plus. Connaissez vous la solution?


  48. Kim Dean said on : May 13th, 2010 at 12:43 pm

    Hi,

    I was able to sync with my google calendar, however, within google calendar I have a few separate calendars (e.g. personal, school, etc), but only one of the calendars (the top one in the calendar) is syncing.

    when I used exchange to sync the calendar, all of the sub-calendars showed up. is there anyway to do this also wiht calDAV? it would be really helpful.

    cheers,
    Kim


  49. Sue said on : May 14th, 2010 at 2:35 pm

    AWESOME–Works perfectly


  50. Juliano said on : May 29th, 2010 at 10:16 am

    Thanks for the tip! Very useful!


  51. milon said on : May 31st, 2010 at 12:44 pm

    Bonjour,
    J’ai suivi les instructions et j’ai bien les deux agendas qui se synchronisent dans les deux sens (à condition de prendre le calendrier google sur l’iphone et pas tous les calenndriers)
    1 ere question : est-ce normal (cela ne me pose pas de problème existentiel ;-) )
    2 EN REVANCHE j’ai de gros soucis depuis, ma messagerie appelle, je les entends descendre, l’iphone m’indique qu’”il y a des messages … voulez vous les visualiser” (car ils ne s’affichent plus) et même si je sélectionne de les afficher, aucun effet.
    Je ne peux plus faire apparaitre ma messagerie
    J’ai viré mon compte gmail courrier et recréé; rien n’y fait.
    Je redoute d’être obligé de virer le compte CalDAV car je viens de reporter tous mes rendez vous jusqu’à décembre 2010 et il y en a un paquet ….. C’est justement pour synchroniser ces nombreux rdv et les sauvegarder par la même occasion que je voulais cette synchro.
    mErci pour votre aide


  52. Cindy said on : June 15th, 2010 at 9:48 am

    OMG…..Joel wrote:
    “FOR ANYONE HAVING ISSUES SYNCING MULTIPLE CALENDARS
    GO TO: http://www.google.com/support/…..wer=151674
    use the instructions then follow the blue link at the bottom of the page and you can select the calendars you want synced simply by using check boxes! FANTASTIC!”

    I have spent hours trying to get this to sync & this was such a simple solution!!! Thanks so much!!!


  53. Diego N said on : June 22nd, 2010 at 8:10 am

    Hello, great article! Is there a possibility that I can sync my other Google calendars to the iPhone? This just popped into my head. Thanks.


  54. charlotte said on : July 1st, 2010 at 3:37 pm

    Het synchronisereb werkt perfect met nieuwe afspraken, maar is er een mogelijkheid om de bestaande afspraken uit mijn iphone (die er voor de synchronisatie in zijn gezet) te kopieren naar de google agenda?


  55. michelle said on : July 27th, 2010 at 4:25 am

    I cannot see all my calendars from Google. I have several (work, family, etc.) and only one shows up. What to do?


  56. jbos said on : September 4th, 2010 at 1:06 am

    Thank you. It seems to be working on my iPhone…


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