How to Sync iCloud Calendar with Google Calendar
Apple’s iCloud Calendar and Google Calendar don’t natively sync with each other. If you use an iPhone with iCloud for personal events and Google Calendar for work, you have to manage two separate calendars with no connection between them. Here’s how to fix that.
Why iCloud and Google Calendar don’t sync natively
Apple and Google both offer ways to view external calendars — you can add a Google account to the iOS Calendar app, or subscribe to an iCloud calendar URL in Google Calendar. But these aren’t real sync:
- iOS Calendar app + Google account: Shows your Google events on your iPhone, but events you create in the iOS Calendar app on your iCloud calendar don’t appear in Google Calendar
- Google Calendar + iCloud ICS subscription: Read-only, refreshes every 12–24 hours, no privacy controls
Neither option gives you two-way event sync between the two calendars.
Option 1: Use Hetk for real-time sync
Hetk connects to iCloud via CalDAV and to Google Calendar via the Google Calendar API. Events sync automatically between them.
Setup
- Go to app.hetk.io and sign in with your Google account
- Add your Apple iCloud account using an app-specific password (generated at appleid.apple.com)
- Select which iCloud and Google calendars to sync
- Choose sync direction and privacy settings
How iCloud sync works
Apple doesn’t offer webhooks or push notifications for calendar changes, so Hetk polls your iCloud calendar for updates:
- During active hours: checks every 3–5 minutes
- During inactive hours: checks every 15 minutes
Google Calendar changes sync to iCloud in real time (seconds). iCloud changes sync to Google within a few minutes.
Privacy controls
You can configure each sync relationship independently:
- Mark as Private — event title replaced with “Busy”, description and attendees stripped
- Show As — override free/busy status (Busy, Free, or Original)
- Identity Transform — replace organizer email with the target calendar’s identity
What about the app-specific password?
Apple doesn’t support OAuth for calendar access. Instead, you generate an app-specific password in your Apple ID settings. This password:
- Only grants access to iCloud services (calendar, contacts, mail)
- Cannot be used to sign in to your Apple account
- Cannot make purchases or change account settings
- Can be revoked at any time from appleid.apple.com
Option 2: Add Google account to iOS Calendar app
If you just want to see your Google events on your iPhone:
- Go to Settings > Calendar > Accounts > Add Account > Google
- Sign in with your Google account
- Enable Calendars
This shows Google Calendar events in the iOS Calendar app. But it’s not sync — events you create in iCloud don’t appear in Google Calendar, and there are no privacy controls.
Option 3: Subscribe to iCloud calendar in Google
- In iCloud Calendar (icloud.com), click the share icon next to a calendar
- Check Public Calendar and copy the URL
- In Google Calendar, click + > From URL and paste it
This creates a read-only subscription that refreshes every 12–24 hours. You can see iCloud events in Google Calendar, but you can’t edit them and there’s significant delay.
Comparison
| Hetk | iOS Google account | ICS subscription | |
|---|---|---|---|
| iCloud → Google | Yes (polling, 3–5 min) | No | Yes (read-only, 12–24h delay) |
| Google → iCloud | Yes (real-time) | No | No |
| Bi-directional | Yes | No | No |
| Privacy controls | Yes | No | No |
| Edit from either side | Yes | No | No |
Summary
If you need actual sync between iCloud and Google Calendar — events flowing in both directions with privacy controls — Hetk is the only option that handles this across providers. The Personal plan at $15/year covers both calendars with a 21-day free trial.
For a quick read-only view of Google events on your iPhone, adding the Google account to iOS settings is the simplest approach.