How to subscribe to Google Calendar from Microsoft Outlook

By subscribing to Google Calendar through Microsoft Outlook, you’ll easily be able to keep up with events and event updates in one location.

It’s easy to import a one-time snapshot of a Google calendar into Microsoft Outlook Desktop. But, if you’d rather sync the two calendars so updates to Google show in Microsoft Outlook, you’ll need to subscribe to Google Calendar from Microsoft Outlook. While the two calendars won’t truly sync—Google Calendar appointments will appear in Microsoft Outlook but not vice versa—it’s an excellent way to view all of your upcoming events from one calendar.

In this tutorial, I’ll be using Microsoft Outlook 365 desktop and Google Calendars with Edge on a Windows 10 64-bit system to show you how to subscribe to Google Calendar from Microsoft Outlook. Steps for older versions through Outlook 2013 might be slightly different, but the process is relatively the same. And, if you have a POP3 account, you may need to invest in a third-party product to create a reliable connection between both calendars.

SEE: 3 Google Calendar updates that streamline events (TechRepublic)

How to subscribe to Google Calendar

If you’re using both Google Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Calendar, chances are you will want them to sync. When that’s the case, you should subscribe to Google Calendar through Microsoft Outlook. To do so:

Open Google Calendar using your favorite browser.

Select My Calendars in the left pane. If you have multiple calendars, expand it and choose one from the list.

Click the three dots to the right of the calendar name and then select Settings or Settings and Sharing (Figure A).

Scroll down to the Integrate Calendar section, and find the Secret Address in iCal Format option. Click Copy (Figure B) and then OK to copy the private address for the selected calendar. This will be needed for a later step.

Open Microsoft Outlook.

Click the File tab, and choose Account Settings from the dropdown.

Click the Internet Calendars tab.

Click New, and then choose New Internet Calendar.

Paste the address you copied previously by pressing Ctrl + V, and then click Add.

Give the calendar a meaningful name, such as Google Main, as shown in Figure C.

Click OK, and then click Close.

As mentioned above, this is a one-way connection. Further, subscribing is sometimes unstable. If subscribing doesn’t work for you, consider using a third-party product, or use Outook.com.

How to subscribe using Outlook.com

If you use Outook.com, you may be able to sync with Google Calendar. Do the following to sync both calendars:

Open Google Calendar using your favorite browser.

Select My Calendars in the left pane. If you have multiple calendars, expand it and choose one from the list.

Click the three dots to the right of the calendar name, and then select Settings or Settings and Sharing.

Scroll down to the Integrate Calendar section and find the Secret Address in iCal Format option. Click Copy and then OK to copy the private address for the selected calendar. This will be needed for a later step.

Open Outlook.com, and go to the Calendar window.

Click Add Calendar.

In the resulting window, choose Subscribe From Web in the left pane and paste the private address you copied previously by pressing Ctrl + V.

Give the calendar a name.

Choose an Outlook.com calendar from the dropdown (Figure D).

Click Import.

Unfortunately, this might not work for you. The feature isn’t dependable across all systems. If you aren’t successful, consider using a third-party product.