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Connect a Google Calendar to your community calendar

Your community calendar in CommunitySync syncs from the calendar your team already uses — you keep editing events in Google Calendar, and they appear in the member portal automatically (hourly, or instantly with Sync now). All you need is the calendar's iCal address: a link that ends in `.ics`.

Before you start: use a dedicated calendar

Don't connect your personal calendar. In Google Calendar, create a calendar just for community events (Settings → Add calendar → Create new calendar, e.g. "KWSWF Events") and share edit access with the staff who run events. Two reasons:

  • Everything the feed carries becomes visible to your members — a dedicated calendar keeps your own appointments out of the portal.
  • The calendar's name becomes a filter chip in the member portal for events that have no category, so name it the way you'd want members to read it.

Get the iCal address

  1. Open Google Calendar in a browser and click the gear → Settings.
  2. In the left sidebar under Settings for my calendars, click the calendar you want to connect.
  3. Scroll to Integrate calendar.
  4. Copy the Secret address in iCal format — this is the one you want. It carries full event details (titles, descriptions, locations) without making your calendar public. Treat it like a password.

Connect it in CommunitySync

  1. In your community's Admin Panel, open Calendar → Feeds & categories.
  2. Click Connect a feed, give it a member-friendly name, and paste the address.
  3. Click Connect & import — your events import immediately and you'll see the count. From then on it syncs every hour on its own.

Troubleshooting

"That looks like Google Calendar's web page link"

You pasted the calendar's browser URL (it contains `?cid=` or `/embed`). Those links serve a web page, not calendar data. Go back to Integrate calendar and copy the address that ends in `.ics`.

I don't see a "Secret address in iCal format" field (Google Workspace)

If your Google account belongs to a company domain (Google Workspace), your domain admin controls whether calendars can be shared outside the organization. When external sharing is limited, Google hides the secret address entirely. A domain admin can unlock it:

  1. Go to admin.google.com → Apps → Google Workspace → Calendar → Sharing settings.
  2. Under External sharing options for primary calendars, choose "Share all information, but outsiders cannot change calendars".
  3. There's a separate, identical setting for secondary calendars on the same page — set that one too if you connected a dedicated events calendar (recommended above).
  4. Save, wait a few minutes, then reload the calendar's Settings page — the secret address appears under Integrate calendar.

My events all say "Busy"

You connected the Public address while the calendar only shares free/busy information — Google strips titles and details before anyone outside sees them. Two fixes, either works:

  • Recommended: switch to the Secret address in iCal format (see above) — full details, calendar stays private. Paste it over the old URL in the feed's edit dialog; it re-imports on save.
  • Or make the calendar public with full details (Access permissions for events → Make available to public → "See all event details") — note this makes the calendar readable by anyone and Google may index it.

I edited an event in Google but the portal hasn't caught up

Feeds sync hourly. For an immediate refresh, open Admin Panel → Calendar and click the Sync now icon on the feed. Also note Google itself can take a few minutes to publish changes to its feed addresses.