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Google Calendar

Get emailed when someone changes a Google Calendar you share, using its private iCal address.

If you share a Google Calendar with family, friends, or a team, CheckTheCal can email you whenever someone adds, changes, or deletes an event on it.

Google gives every calendar a secret address in iCal format. It's a private link that lets an app read the calendar without making it public. That's the one to use.

Note: You need to do this on a computer, at calendar.google.com. The Google Calendar phone app doesn't show these settings.

Copy the secret address

  1. Open Google Calendar on a computer.
  2. In the left sidebar under My calendars, hover over the calendar you want, click the three dots, and choose Settings and sharing.
  3. Scroll down to the Integrate calendar section.
  4. Find Secret address in iCal format and copy it. You may need to click the copy icon, or show the address first. It ends in basic.ics.
  5. In CheckTheCal, choose Add a Calendar and paste the address in.

If you only see a calendar under Other calendars (someone else's calendar that was shared with you), the secret address may not be available to you. Ask the calendar's owner to send it to you, or add it from their account.

Public address versus secret address

The same Integrate calendar section also shows a Public address in iCal format. That address only works if the calendar has been made public to everyone, which shares it with the whole internet. You don't need to do that. The secret address works without changing who can see your calendar.

Treat the secret address like a password. Anyone who has it can read the calendar's events. They can't change anything with it.

How CheckTheCal looks after it:

  • We never share your calendar links, and we only use them to check for changes.
  • We fetch your calendar over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection.
  • Links are hidden in our emails, in the app, and in our logs.
  • Our backups are encrypted.

See our Privacy Policy for the full detail.

If you ever need to cancel the link

In the same Integrate calendar section, choose Reset next to the secret address. Google makes a new address, and the old one stops working straight away.

If you do this, add the calendar to CheckTheCal again with the new address, and delete the old one. Otherwise we'll tell you we can't reach it.

Still stuck? Browse all guides or email support@checkthecal.com.