Calendar will automatically show any accounts that you're signed in to with your Apple ID. You can also add calendars or calendar subscriptions from your email account, social media, and more, and they'll stay up to date across your devices. iCloud can help you manage your events and appointments so you're where you need to be, when you need to be there.
How to use Apple’s Calendar app to add even more automation to your Mac. Events entered in your Calendar app sync across all your Mac and iOS devices.
Get started
- Update your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch to the latest version of iOS, and your Mac to the latest version of macOS.
- Make sure you’re signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID on all of your devices.
Set your default calendar
When you create a new event, iCloud adds it to your default calendar. To make setting appointments easier, the calendar you use the most—probably for work or home—should be your default calendar. You can change your default calendar from your device or on iCloud.com.
On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:
- Go to Settings > Calendar.
- Tap Default Calendar.
- Choose the calendar that you want to use as your default.
On your Mac:
- Open Calendar (or iCal).
- Click Calendar in the menu bar and choose Preferences.
- In the General tab, choose the calendar that you want to use from the Default Calendar menu.
On iCloud.com:
- Go to Calendar > > Preferences.
- Choose the calendar that you want to use from the Defaults menu.
- Click Save.
Manage your events
Whether you're managing your schedule from your Mac or setting appointments on the go, using your Calendar is simple. And any changes you make immediately appear on all of your Apple devices.
Add an event
- Open Calendar.
- Select the event date.
- Tap and enter the details of your appointment.
Change an event
- Open Calendar.
- Select the event you want to change.
- Tap Edit.
Delete an event
- Open Calendar.
- Select the event you want to delete.
- Tap Delete Event.
You can only delete events that you created. If you have an event on your Calendar that someone else invited you to, you can tap Decline and remove the event. If you want to remove an event on a subscribed calendar, you might need to go to the subscription source—for example, decline an event on Facebook—for it to delete from your iCloud Calendar.
Share calendars with your family
iCloud makes it easy to keep track of everyone's active schedule. When you set up Family Sharing, it creates a family calendar where everyone can see and add appointments, and they can also get an alert when something changes. After your family members join your group, the family calendar instantly shows up on everyone’s devices.
If you don't want to share the family calendar, you can unsubscribe from it directly on your device, or on iCloud.com, and remain in the Family Sharing group.
Change your time zone
Your device automatically updates your Calendar and appointments to reflect the time zone you're currently in. So if you travel from San Francisco to New York, your 1:00 p.m. alert will now go off at 4:00 p.m. If you don't want the time zone to update automatically, you can change the Calendar settings on your device.
On your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch:
- Go to Settings > Calendar.
- Tap Time Zone Override.
- Slide to turn on Time Zone Override.
- Tap Time Zone and search for the time zone you want to use.
On your Mac:
- Open the Calendar app.
- Click Calendar in the menu bar and choose Preferences.
- Go to the Advanced tab.
- Check Turn on time zone support.
Learn more
- Get help using iCloud Calendar.
- Follow these steps if you see duplicate calendars or events on your iCloud Calendar.
- You can also get help using Outlook with iCloud for Windows.
Published 8:44 AM EDT Oct 15, 2016
Q. When I search for old events on my Mac in Sierra’s Calendar app, it doesn’t show anything older than about two years. What’s going on here?
![Calendar app for mac how to use iphone Calendar app for mac how to use iphone](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125769277/501543762.png)
A. That’s a glitch in Apple’s new macOS Sierra, also known as version 10.12, and we seem to have been the first to bring it to the attention of the company’s developers. (You’re welcome.)
The behavior in question happens when you type a search into the Calendar app for an event that happened more than two years ago: You won’t see it. For example, the CES electronics gathering has been on my schedule every year since 1998 —something one could regard as a cry for help — but in Sierra, Calendar only shows the 2015 and 2016 shows.
This happens whether you have your calendars saved on your Mac or synced from a service like Google. But as a post in Apple’s tech-support forum noted, if you try the same search in Sierra’s Spotlight search, you’ll see those older items — but with much less detail visible, and mixed into a list of results from every other app on your Mac.
My query to Apple PR yielded an explanation that Sierra’s version of this app, intentionally or not, had picked up on the way Calendar has treated recurring events in searches. Going back to at least last year’s El Capitan release, this program would only show the last two and the next two years’ instances of a repeating event.
That makes sense for recurring appointments — who needs to see that you have New Year’s Day on your schedule from now until the end of time? But for separate appointments that have the same title, it’s less than helpful.
Apple says it will fix this in an upcoming update to Sierra, although it’s too soon to say how soon. The first patch for Sierra is already in a fourth round of beta testing, so I would not expect this fix to ship with that upcoming “10.12.1” release.
Meanwhile, don’t forget that you have alternatives to Apple’s software. Most cost money, but since the operating system itself is free, you shouldn’t make that a sticking point. Among Calendar alternatives, Flexibits’ $40 Fantastical seems particularly well-liked: Macworld’s Glenn Fleishman gave it 4.5 stars out of five in his review, and iMore’s Lory Gil gave it the top ranking in an August roundup of calendar apps.
You could also use Google Calendar in a Web browser, but staying on top of your schedule when you’re offline won’t be too satisfying.
Using a third-party calendar app makes even more sense in Windows 10, where Microsoft’s built-in Calendar app somehow offers zero support for time zones. That invites chaotic scheduling once you fly too far east or west. The best-liked alternative in the Windows Store appears to be a free app called OneCalendar — but that, too, doesn’t support time zones. If you’ve got a replacement in mind that will let me put different events in different time zones, please submit your nomination in the comments.
Rob Pegoraro is a tech writer based out of Washington, D.C. To submit a tech question, e-mail Rob at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/robpegoraro
Published 8:44 AM EDT Oct 15, 2016