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Sync with Google, iCloud, or Outlook Calendar
Sync with Google, iCloud, or Outlook Calendar

Learn how to connect your external calendar account(s), and how to set up a two-way sync

Updated over 4 months ago

How do I sync my calendars?

  1. In the FlowSavvy menu, click Settings > Calendars

  2. Click "Add account"

  3. Choose your Google, iCloud, or Outlook account and allow permissions.

  4. IMPORTANT: Select the calendars you'd like to sync, then press "Save"

Two calendars can be synced on the free plan. Unlimited calendars may be synced on the Pro plan.

Why aren't FlowSavvy tasks showing up in Google/iCloud/Outlook Calendar?

If your synced calendar events are showing up in FlowSavvy, but FlowSavvy tasks are not showing up in the synced calendar, you are most likely creating your FlowSavvy tasks in the default "FlowSavvy" calendar, which is not synced to connected calendar accounts by default.

If you'd like your FlowSavvy tasks to show up in a synced calendar account, make sure you add them to a synced calendar, not the FlowSavvy calendar, when creating the task. In this example, "Personal" is a Google calendar, so we'll change the calendar from the default "FlowSavvy" calendar to "Personal":

How do I make my synced calendar the default calendar for all new events and tasks?

You can make a synced calendar your default calendar for new events/tasks. This is a perfect option for people who want all of their events and tasks to sync back and forth between FlowSavvy and Google, iCloud, or Outlook.

For instructions on how to change your default calendar, please see the Change the default calendar article.

How do I sync my FlowSavvy calendar to Google, iCloud, or Outlook

Most people use the calendar syncing to make their Google/iCloud/Outlook calendars show up in FlowSavvy. However, you can also make a FlowSavvy calendar show up in Google/iCloud/Outlook if you'd like.

This is also a great option if you want to sync your events to FlowSavvy, but then you want your FlowSavvy tasks to sync back to a separate calendar in Google, iCloud, or Outlook.

  1. In the FlowSavvy menu, click Settings > Calendars

  2. Click the FlowSavvy calendar you want to sync to your external calendar service.

  3. Click the dropdown next to "Sync to:"

  4. Select the external calendar account you want this calendar to sync to, or add a new account.

Can I change whether Google/iCloud/Outlook events default to Free/Busy in FlowSavvy?

FlowSavvy always uses the free/busy value from the source calendar, so if the event is busy in Google/iCloud/Outlook, it will be busy in FlowSavvy. If you want all events from an external calendar to be free or busy, your external calendar service may offer the ability to change that default.

Note for iCloud users: Unfortunately, there is a known Apple Calendar issue where the Free/Busy setting does not show up when an event is being added to certain iCloud calendars in Apple Calendar (source and source). This affects all services that connect with iCloud and is not unique to FlowSavvy. The best option until Apple fixes the bug is to mark the events as free when they come into FlowSavvy, which will also edit the Free/Busy status in the iCloud calendar.

Does FlowSavvy sync with Google Tasks, iCloud Reminders, or Microsoft To Do?

No, FlowSavvy does not currently sync tasks from these task apps. FlowSavvy can sync scheduled tasks to and from calendar apps as events, but FlowSavvy does not pull tasks from these task apps. If you'd like FlowSavvy to sync with a task app, please submit a feature request using the in-app help center.

Can I sync my Outlook / Exchange calendar?

TL;DR: If you can view your calendar at outlook.com, you can sync it with FlowSavvy.

Microsoft calendars are known by many names. Whether you call your calendar "Microsoft 365 calendar", "Office 365 calendar", "Outlook calendar", "Exchange Online calendar", etc, if it is available online in your Microsoft 365 account, FlowSavvy can sync with it.

Sometimes, people refer to calendars hosted in on-premises Microsoft Exchange servers as "Outlook calendars", which causes some confusion because you can also view "Exchange Online" calendars in Outlook. FlowSavvy does not support syncing with on-premises Exchange servers.

Can I sync with FlowSavvy if my organization doesn't allow it?

If your organization or IT department doesn't allow syncing calendars with external tools, FlowSavvy will not be able to connect to your calendar service.

You may be able to sync your calendar to another well-known calendar service that we integrate with (Google, iCloud, or Outlook.com), and then sync that to FlowSavvy. If your organization does not allow that either, FlowSavvy cannot sync with your calendar.

Some organizations allow local syncing, meaning calendar data is synced between apps on your device instead of the servers communicating with each other. FlowSavvy does not support local syncing. Please submit a feature request in the in-app help center if you'd like FlowSavvy to support local syncing.

Troubleshooting Sync Issues

When the sync fails repeatedly with an error message:

If the sync fails repeatedly with an error message, this usually indicates some calendar data is in an unexpected format/state, and Support will need to resolve it. Please reach out and we'll be happy to look into it!

When there are no error messages in FlowSavvy, but something didn't sync correctly:

Sync issues like duplicate tasks and old versions of tasks getting stranded in Google/iCloud/Outlook are rare, but when they do occur, doing a full re-sync will fix most issues. Follow the instructions below to do a full re-sync:

To re-sync a calendar that was created in FlowSavvy:

  1. Select the calendar in FlowSavvy Settings > Calendars

  2. Change "Sync to:" to "None" and hit "Save". This calendar will stay in FlowSavvy and will be deleted from the 3rd party calendar account.

  3. Select the calendar again and change "Sync to" back to your 3rd party calendar account and hit "Save".

To re-sync a calendar that came from Google, iCloud, or Outlook:

  1. In FlowSavvy Settings > Calendars, unsync the calendar experiencing issues. The calendar will be removed from FlowSavvy.

  2. IMPORTANT: Auto-scheduled tasks and completed tasks cannot be stored in 3rd party calendars, so if this calendar has any auto-scheduled or completed tasks in it, you will be asked if you want to move the tasks to a different calendar or delete them. Click "Move the tasks" if you want to keep them. A new FlowSavvy calendar will be created, and your tasks will be moved into the new calendar before the original calendar is unsynced.

  3. In FlowSavvy, sync your external calendar again. This triggers a full sync, where FlowSavvy will be able to identify and remove all duplicate/stranded tasks from the external calendar.

  4. If you'd like to put your FlowSavvy tasks back into the synced calendar, go to the to-do list view, then filter the list to the FlowSavvy calendar where your tasks were moved to, and move these tasks back into the synced calendar. Currently, these tasks will have to be moved individually.

If you are still experiencing issues after doing a full re-sync, please reach out to our team and we will be happy to help!


👋Have questions about your calendar sync? We're happy to help, just send us a message!


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