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My Google Calendar mobile app does not sync with my desktop Google Calendar

One of the main advantages of Google Calendar is how you can enter an event via the web interface and within seconds it is visible on your phone – or vice versa: add an event on your phone and woosh, there it is on Google Calendar on your computer.

Unfortunately, for some people that last situation doesn’t always occur – you add an event on your phone but it doesn’t appear on Google Calendar on your computer. Yet events that are added via Google Calendar on the computer are still showing up on the phone – so what on earth is going on?

What this usually means is you’re associating mobile events with the in-built calendar that came with your phone, rather than with Google Calendar. The only phone that comes with Google Calendar built-in, is the Pixel phone from Google. Every other phone has it’s own in-built calendar app and by default any events that you create on your phone, even if you’re using the Google Calendar mobile app, will remain in that phone-only database.

Very annoying, but luckily there’s a quick and simple fix to the problem.

Establish a link between Google Calendar on your mobile and Google Calendar on your PC

  • Create a dummy event on your phone
  • In the edit screen make sure the calendar icon Event says Events. If you don’t see that, tap the Event Calendar icon to switch to the correct calendar. The screenshot shows a meeting that has been properly linked to the Google Calendar.
  • Save the event and confirm that it has synced to your PC. Once you’ve confirmed that, you can delete the dummy event.

What about all the events I already created? Do I have to re-create them manually to sync them to my PC?

Thankfully no, you won’t have to re-create your events. Do a search in either the Google Play or App Store for ‘export calendar events’ and you’ll find many different apps that will allow you to export your previously created items.

Once you’ve exported them, follow the import instructions in the Google Calendar help centre to add them to your Google Calendar on your PC.

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32 replies on “My Google Calendar mobile app does not sync with my desktop Google Calendar”

Tried every step you have mentioned for my Google Calendar on my Samsung S21 and it still won’t sync with my PC Google Calendar. MY PC Google Calendar does sync with my phone but not vice versa.

Hi Al,
If you’re able to sync from the PC to the phone but not vice versa, then it usually means the events are being created on the Samsung calendar (called My Calendar). Can you try creating an event on the PC, and then editing it on your phone? If the changes come back through to the PC then you may not be associating new events with the Google Calendar when you create them on your phone. Check that the ‘Events’ calendar is selected in the details screen when you create your event on the phone.

Hi Al,

I’m having the EXACT same problem as you. Were you able to resolve the issue? Is so, any help is appreciated!!

my Google Calendar on my Samsung S21 will NOT sync with my PC Google Calendar. MY PC Google Calendar DOES sync with my phone but not vice versa.

Hi Kimberly, please try the following:
1. Create an event on your computer
2. Open the event on your phone and check what calendar name is listed there
3. Create an event on your phone and make sure the same calendar name is listed when you create that event.
Let me know if that newly created event syncs to your PC Google Calendar.

after creating the event, I have to tap it and change the Events email – don’t select “pc sync” option. Hope that helps

Same here, with my Galaxy s10 and Tab s4. I place all of my events into my s10 phone. That calendar syncs to my Google calendar on the s10 and the Tab s4. I need for all these events to sync to the Google calendar on my HP laptop. Surely there is a way to do this.

I have imported my iPhone calendar to my google calendar app, but the imported entries do not show in my desktop google calendar. Can anyone help?

Hi Andrew, if the events are still assigned to your in-built Apple calendar then they won’t show up on the desktop Google Calendar. You’ll need to manually amend each event so that it is assigned to the ‘Events’ calendar.

Since I bought the Galaxy S21, I have not been able to sync my calendar from my phone to the computer (3 months and Samsung is as useless as tits on a bull). I have followed the instructions of 10 other pages and the problem continued…. until YOU hit it RIGHT ON THE NOSE!! I am realizing now that Samsung is hijacking my activity on more than one app.

although I was using the google calendar, and the app says it is syncing, it was only visible on my phone. I enabled the event on my calendar and it was that easy.

Ken

Woo hoo – thanks for the raise recommendation; I’ll let my boss know :). Seriously though, glad i’ve been able to help

Thank you so much for your advice.
Fortunately I found this problem early on with my new Realme 7 5G.
Your fix worked brilliantly!
Thank you!

Hi Larry, unfortunately that’s not possible using the Google Calendar mobile app. You’d need to access your Google Calendar via the mobile browser and then search from there.

Thanks so much!!! Tried about 25 different websites with a variety of instructions and tips… none of which worked.

This was perfect

Hi Priya,

My issue is similar to the issues above except my PC Google Calendar is fine in that I have events going back to 2016 but the Google calendar app on my phone is only showing events from May 2020. Tapping ‘sync now’ on hte phone app or PC version makes no difference.

Hi Nigel – for some reason (probably related to a time when mobile phone memory was at a premium) the Google Calendar mobile app only shows events up to 1 year in the past or 1 year in the future. If you want to see older events you’ll need to use the mobile browser to visit calendar.google.com

I’m using an email app (Nine) for work email and calendar events. It syncs with the Google calendar app locally on my phone so that I can use Google calendar to see my work and personal events together. Unfortunately, it does not sync with my Google calendar on a desktop, which is kind of a pain. Your method works to show the work events in my Google desktop calendar (thanks for the very clear instructions). Since this is an exported file and not a link, I assume that I’ll need to keep updating it manually like this to incorporate any new events or changes down the road for my work calendar to show up on the desktop calendar?

Hi Geddy, unfortunately yes, if you don’t have a link to the work calendar then you’ll have to keep doing these steps. However, if there’s an online version with a URL that you can access you should be able to add that calendar to your Google Calendar desktop version – then it will show both there and on your mobile app.

These Steps Worked Perfectly on my Samsung S20 Ultra. I went from no Android Phone to PC Google Synching to real-time synching – with the simple change outlined in this article. 5 Stars! 5 Stars! 5 Stars!

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