Adding an Event to Multiple Google Calendars

Updated instructions and screenshots on December 11, 2019.

I love Google Calendar 🗓, and I love the fact that I can have more than one calendar with my single Gmail account.

Of course there is the default calendar that comes with your Gmail address, but you can also add other calendars under the same Gmail account for a variety of reasons:

a Family 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 calendar that is shared with everyone in my family
a Kids 👦🏻 calendar where you keep track of events just for your child(ren), or even a separate calendar for each child
a Sports 🏀 calendar where you keep track of sporting events and practices
a Pets 🐶 calendar to keep track of appointments and vaccinations, etc.

I hope the ideas for multiple calendars are starting to come to you.

Now comes the challenge: I want to create a calendar event, but I want it to appear on more than one calendar.

The steps below outline a process to allow an event to appear on more than one calendar. The steps involve creating a new calendar, getting the calendar’s ID, adding the new calendar as a Google Contact, and finally adding the new calendar/contact as an invitee to your event(s). I’ll use the Pets calendar idea as an example.

Create your new calendar in Google Calendar

In the upper right corner of the Google Calendar view, click the gear icon ⚙️ and select Settings.

Google Calendar Gear Icon and Settings screenshot

From the left column, select Add calendar, and then select Create new calendar.

Google Calendar Create New Calendar screenshot

From the Create new calendar view:

Google Calendar Create New Calendar View screenshot

Provide a calendar Name (e.g., “Pets”).
Optionally, provide a Description (e.g., “Keeping track of the dogs’ appointments and vaccinations”).
Select the Time zone (it should default to the same time zone as your other calendars).
Click the Create calendar button.
Now you can click the left arrow ← next to Settings in the upper left corner to return to your calendar.
Your new calendar will now show up in the list of My calendars.

Get your new calendar’s ID

Now in your calendar view, under My calendars, you should see the new calendar you just created. Hover over the calendar name until the Options menu appears. Click the Options icon, and from the pop-up window, select Settings and Sharing.

Google Calendar Settings and Sharing screenshot

From the Settings window, scroll down to the Integrate calendar section, and you should see a Calendar ID — a long string of numbers and letters followed by @group.calendar.google.com, forming an email address.
Highlight the Calendar ID and copy it using Ctrl+C (Windows) or Cmd+C (Mac) on your keyboard, or Edit > Copy from the browser menu.
(NOTE: While you’re here in Settings, you may want to check that Auto-accept invitations is set to Automatically add all invitations to this calendar, so that any events are automatically accepted and added to this calendar.)

Add the new calendar as a Google Contact

To make it easier to reference this calendar in future events that you create, it’s best to add this calendar to your list of Google Contacts.

Click the Google Apps “grid” in the upper right corner of your calendar window and select Contacts from the pop-up window.

Google Apps Grid and Contacts screenshot

Your Google Apps icons may appear in a different order than what is shown in my screenshot, and you may even need to click the More button at the bottom to find Contacts.
This will open Google Contacts in a new tab in your browser.
From the upper left corner, click the Create contact button.

Google Contacts Create Contact screenshot

From the Create new contact window, provide a name for your calendar (I like to put it in the Last name field).
In the Email field, paste the Calendar ID that you copied in the steps above. You can paste it using Ctrl+V (Windows) or Cmd+V (Mac) on your keyboard, or Edit > Paste from the browser menu.

Google Contacts Create New Contact screenshot

Click the Save button.

Add your new calendar/contact to the list of event invitees

Now, when you create a new event in Google Calendar, you can add your new calendar/contact to the list of invitees.

Create a new event in Google Calendar.
When you edit the event, you will see a place on the right side where you can Add guests.
In the Add guests field, type the name of the new new calendar/contact that you created in the steps above and click the Add button. (NOTE: There may be a time delay between when you create the calendar as a Google Contact and when it will be available to add as a guest to your new events. Be patient.)
Your new event will now appear in the calendar where you created it, and also in the calendar that you added as a guest.