How To Subscribe To Internet Calendars In iPhone OS 3.0

Posted on Jun 17, 2009 by Stephen

One of the iPhone OS 3.0 features touted by Apple at WWDC was the ability to subscribe to Internet calendars in CalDAV and iCalendar/ICS format. On first testing OS 3.0, I discovered that these calendars could indeed be synchronized from my Mac’s iCal application through iTunes, but that these would not update over the air. However, on closer examination I have discovered that, indeed, iPhone OS 3.0 does allow direct over-the-air subscription to Internet calendars!

Check it out! How To Keep Your Family Activities In Sync With A Shared Google Calendar

For the most up-to-date information, see my iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Guide!

This post is part of my series focused on integrating the iPhone with Microsoft Exchange using ActiveSync:

iPhone OS 3.0 information:

First Look: iPhone 3.0 And Exchange ActiveSync Integration

How To Subscribe To Internet Calendars In iPhone OS 3.0

How To Access LDAP Directories In iPhone OS 3.0

iPhone 3.0 Exchange ActiveSync: Better But Not Perfect

How To Set Up iPhone Exchange ActiveSync

A Few iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Gotchas

Can the iPhone Sync With Multiple Exchange Servers?

This is really a major advancement for the iPhone platform. With 3.0, you have many different calendar synchronization options and can mix and match, using all or none as you see fit:

	Local iTunes Sync	Over-the-Air Sync	Read/Write	Invitations
Exchange ActiveSync	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
MobileMe	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Google CalDAV	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
iCalendar/ICS	Yes	Yes	No	No

How to Subscribe to a CalDAV Server (Like Google Calendar)

CalDAV is a powerful open protocol for calendar event synchronization. Lots of services support it, including Google’s free Calendar application, which is part of gmail and Google Apps. It’s a mash-up of WebDAV and ICS and supports two-way synchronization, notes, alerts, and such. iPhone OS 3.0 includes CalDAV as a supported protocol for over-the-air subscription and synchronization, so it can seamlessly synchronize your Google calendar with your phone calendar. Unlike ICS, however, you can create and edit CalDAV entries on the phone and the changes will quickly show up in your Google calendar.

iPhone 3.0 includes direct over-the-air use of CalDAV, ICS, and LDAP servers

Setting up CalDAV, though hidden, is pretty slick. Follow these steps:

On the iPhone, select “Settings”
Select “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”
Select”Add Account…” under “Accounts”
Select “Other” at the bottom
Select “Add CalDAV Account”
Enter “www.google.com” for “Server” – the iPhone will automatically identify this as a google CalDAV server!
Enter your gmail user name (e.g. “sfoskett”) or full google apps username and domain (e.g. “stephen@fosketts.net”) for “User”
Enter your password for “Password”
Optionally modify the description
Select “Next” and you’re done!

The iPhone recognizes Google Calendar – it’s smart enough to “know” that when you enter “www.google.com” as the CalDAV server it needs to correctly format the URL for Google. Other CalDAV server types might need some tweaking, which you can do in the Advanced tab of the CalDAV’s account in Settings.

All CalDAV calendars are bi-directional, meaning you can create or edit entries and they will (eventually) synchronize on both the phone and calendar server. In my tests, items modified on the iPhone showed up almost immediately, while changes made on Google’s calendar server took a few minutes to show up.

Two notes on CalDAV:

Although the documentation says it’s read-only, my Google Calendar absolutely, definitely, is read/write: I can create and modify appointments in the Google Calendar on the iPhone and it shows up online.
The “Sync events x weeks back” limit in settings does not apply to CalDAV or ICS! Large numbers of events will cause Calendar to be very, very slow. Beware!

Other popular apps also support CalDAV, including Apple Leopard Server’s iCal Server, Yahoo Calendar, and Zimbra.

I use this capability as a shared family activities calendar. What ideas do you have?

How to Subscribe to an iCalendar Server/.ICS feed

iCalendar is an older calendar subscription format, and many servers offer .ICS feeds of calendar entries. I particularly love TripIt‘s free travel itinerary service, which is available as an ICS feed. iPhone OS 3.0 also includes iCal as a supported protocol for over-the-air subscription, so you can view your ICS feeds right in your phone calendar. Note that iCalendar is read-only, like an RSS feed, so you cannot create or edit items on the phone.

Tap a link to a .ics file and the iPhone will ask to subscribe

The simplest way to subscribe to an ICS feed is simply to email the link to yourself. The iPhone interprets any URL ending in “.ics” as a iCalendar feed and asks if you want to subscribe. This ensures that the link is typed correctly.

If you need to manually set up an iCalendar feed, it’s very similar to CalDAV. Follow these steps:

Locate the calendar feed you want to use and copy it using OS 3.0′s new copy and paste features
1. If you use TripIt, log into your account in the iPhone Safari browser
2. Select the “iCal Feed” icon in your main page
3. In the popup, select “Subscribe to calendar feed”
4. Tap and hold the resulting URL (which begins with “webcal://”) until the “Copy” box appears
5. Tap “Copy”
Go back to the hope screen and select “Settings”
Select “Mail, Contacts, Calendars”
Select”Add Account…” under “Accounts”
Select “Other” at the bottom
Select “Add Subscribed Calendar”
Select the “Server” box and tap “Paste”
Select “Next”
Optionally modify the description

Updates to the iCalendar feed will now show up in your calendar. These are read only, of course, but it’s awfully nice to be able to subscribe to a TripIt or Dopplr feed or the Red Sox schedule on your phone!

One more time: The “Sync events x weeks back” limit in settings does not apply to CalDAV or ICS! Large numbers of events will cause Calendar to be very, very slow. Beware!

You might also want to read these other posts...

Tags: ActiveSync, Apple, CalDAV, calendar, Exchange, featured, Google, iCal Server, iCalendar, ICS, iPhone, iPhone OS 3.0, iTunes, Leopard, Leopard Server, MobileMe, Red Sox, synchronization, TripIt, WebDAV, Yahoo, Zimbra

Consult My Updated iPhone Exchange ActiveSync Guide

The iPhone now has most of the functions of the BlackBerry: Over-the-air push and sync of Exchange email, contacts, and calendars! This guide is intended as a concise walkthrough of how to get up and running with an iPhone and Microsoft Exchange server.

TimR

Have you found a way to see secondary calendars on the same account?
Jaime Urquijo

We have an xServe where team calendars (through iCal) are set up. In my laptop I am subscribed to this account, I see all the calendars available and I only see the checked ones (in this particular case, only mine).
I set up the iPhone 3.0 according to your indications (many thanks!) but all the calendars appear at the same time. Is it a way to select only the one in which I am interested? Note: I can see only my activities if I select my specific calendar but that alternative has the inconvenience of demanding me two checkings (the one in the Server and my MobileMe).
If there is of any interest, I am a consultant and my colleagues scheduled activities for me in the server.
Thanks in advance.
http://www.kevinsuttlephotography.com/ Kevin Suttle

Stephen,
I have discovered a drawback to CalDAV with Google versus GoogleSync (a la ActiveSync). Both CalDAV and GoogleSync give me the ability to create events from either my iPhone or my Google Calendar. However, with my GoogleSync calendar, I can actually edit events on my iPhone to set the alert. I cannot do this though my CalDAV connection.

For example, I had an event set to alert me 10 minutes prior to the event. I wanted to change that to “2 hours before”. I could not change that through CalDAV but could through the GoogleSync'ed calendar.

I've also noticed that all event displayed in my Google Sync'ed calendar show as “accepted”…ie a solid color. All events in my CalDAV calendar show as gray with a dashed border until I formally accept them from within Google Calendar.
-Kevin
Hubcap

Is there a way to subscribe to subcalendars ???
Ted

Awesome post. For a while I didn't think I was going to be able to see my MS Outlook calendar from work and my Google calendar at the same time on my new iPhone 3GS.
dondada

Thanks for writing this post…It's awesome…However, this only shows the main calendar.

To get your other calendars, you'll need to repeat the above for each (with distinct Descriptions otherwise it'll be confusing), then edit that CalDAV account, and under “Advanced Settings” change the “Account URL”. You can get this Account URL by clicking the down arrow next to your calendar at calendar.google.com and selecting “Calendar Settings”. You should find your Calendar ID next to the XML, iCal, HTML links in the Calendar Address section. Insert this Calendar ID into an URL like so: https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/ccogk69iprl... . You can email this to yourself, then leverage the new copy&paste feature of 3.0 to avoid typos.
dondada

Sorry small mistake…

Copy the Calendar ID that's next to the “XML” “ICAL” “HTML” icons then paste it into the following string and replace “[GOOGLE_ID]

https://www.google.com/calendar/dav/GOOGLE_ID...

Now copy the entire link and email it to yourself.
Carsten

THank you Stephen for this perfect overview concerning calender management. I have one qustion to the point “How to Subscribe to an iCalendar Server/.ICS feed”:
I use active sync for googlesync (calender+contacts). Perfect.
My second calender from MS Office is available over Office online, so I tried to subscribe the way as you told us. Unfortunatelly the URL for my “*.ics” does not begin with “webcal://” but with “webcals://” (including the s at the end), probably the difference why I cannot subscribe?
Do you have any idea to use the icalender Server for MS Online, or better, is there a known way to subscribe to a CALDAV server for the available Office Online data?

Would be very helpfull, if someone knows a solution.

Thank you very much in advance.
chopper69

Can ActiveSync work with my AOL calendar on my iPhone?
Scott

How do you remove a subscription of a calendar from the iphone?
http://blog.fosketts.net sfoskett

To remove an iPhone subscription, go into Settings, Mail…, and the calendar account and press the big red Delete button.
ahhgo

How about if there IS NO CALENDAR listed but there actually is one? Well, after looking around at all sorts of web sites, including apple.com, and not finding anything useful, I got mad. Having messed with computers and the like for over 20 years, I am a good guesser… I told the thing to create a new calendar account, put in exactly the same info that I did the first time I created a Google calDAV account, and there was the account and the big red Delete button. Hit delete and got a message that calendar was being turned off (or something like that). No more extra calendar. I am not impressed with the calendar stuff on the iphone.
Anonymous

I cannot do this though my CalDAV connection.

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Martin

I have the same issue. I have stored my work calendar (which I cannont share in any other way) as an *.ics on Office Online. I can subscribe to in in my home Outlook, but not on the iPhone. The only difference from Carsten is that the subscription link starts with “webcal://” (without the 's') but I don't think that matters, since the iPhone cuts out that initail part when pasting the URL. I could really need some help in sorting this out
Chris Preovolos

I was able to get my default calendar to sync with the iPhone using CalDAV, but not the other two calendars I created. Any ideas?
Kenny

Hi Chris,

I assume you are taking about Google Calendar in your comment. If so then the other calendars are easy to sync.

1.) Goto Google Calendar
2.) Settings
3.) Click on Calendars tab.
4.) Click the calendar you want to subscribe.
5.) Under the private address click on the ICAL icon.
6.) Copy this link.
7.) email the link to yourself somehow.
8.) on your iPhone open the email and click on the link. The calendar will be added to your iPhone calendar.

Enjoy…
Geoff

Great post! Problem: Went on Google, created a calendar, double checked the user name and password, created the account on my (new) iphone successfully, BUT it says password incorrect. I am sure I am entering the same one as I am using on the web site but it does not recognize it! Any ideas?
cloud strife

hi can some1 plz tell me y i cant write or modify my google calender from my i phone 3g when for some reason it wont let me sync it niether can u plz email me your ansers to caramon391@yahoo.com ty very much
http://razmaspaz.com/ razmaspaz

This seems to crash my settings app every time I try to do it.
Micah_hardie

My wife has subscribed to my yahoo calendar which she can now see on her iphone. However she can't edit any entries of mine. Is this possible?

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Stephen Foskett, Pack Rat