Syncing appointments with third-party calendars

Integrate with calendar programs like Google and Outlook to prevent clients from booking appointments when you’re not available.

You can sync your Acuity appointments with your personal or business calendar to keep track of your schedule in one place. To prevent clients from booking appointments when you're busy, you can also block off time in Acuity for events on your third-party calendar.

Acuity can sync with these calendar programs:

• Google
• iCloud
• Outlook Office 365
• Outlook Exchange
• Outlook.com

If you get started and decide you want more hands-on help setting up Acuity Scheduling, you can hire a vetted expert. 

Note:

• The instructions below include links to Acuity settings separated by the kind of account you use to log into Acuity. Which kind of account do I have?
• When managing synced appointments, you should make any updates to the appointments on the Acuity calendar. Changing a synced appointment's details on a third-party calendar won't update the appointment in Acuity.

Watch a video

Tip: Register for our webinar Preparing to book: Customizing and sharing your Acuity schedule where we cover syncing with external calendars.

What syncs between calendars

Appointments and classes in Acuity

• All your Acuity appointments will sync to your third-party calendar.
• For classes, each class attendee appears on your third-party calendar as individual appointments. For example, a class with eight attendees will show in your other calendar as eight appointments. Classes won't sync to a third-party calendar until at least one client signs up for them.
• If you add blocked time to your calendar in Acuity, the blocked time won't sync to the third-party calendar.

Events on your third-party calendar

Events on your third-party calendar appear as blocked-off time in your Acuity calendar, if block off time is enabled. If you block off time, keep in mind:

• Only events in your hours of availability will sync.
• Events from the next 200 days will sync into Acuity.
• Some third-party calendars, like Google Calendar, mark events as either "Busy" or "Free." Only events marked as "Busy" will sync into Acuity.
• If you're syncing with iCloud, keep in mind that travel time will not sync to Acuity. Acuity blocks the start to end time of the event, but not more time for travel.
• By default, the titles of events on your third-party calendar that sync into Acuity will be visible to other Acuity contributors or users. To hide the titles of synced events from others, check the box for Hide event title and only show "Busy" to other users when creating or editing your sync.
• If you have read-only access to a third-party calendar, it won't sync events into Acuity.

Managing synced appointments

After you sync with a third-party calendar, you should manage your appointments in Acuity only. Deleting, rescheduling, or editing a synced appointment's details on a third-party calendar won't change the appointment in Acuity, and your clients won't be notified of any changes made.

To keep your appointments streamlined and up to date, you should make any updates to synced appointments on the Acuity calendar. If an appointment is canceled, rescheduled, or edited in Acuity, this is reflected on the third-party calendar. Google calendar typically shows these updates immediately. Microsoft calendars may take up to 10 minutes to update. 

Sync with one third-party calendar

Step 1 - Connect the calendar account

To sync with a calendar, first connect to the calendar account:

1. Open the Sync with other calendars panel: I log in with an Acuity account | I log in with a Squarespace account. 
2. On the left, select the third-party calendar program you want to sync with.
3. Click the Connect to... button to connect your third-party account.
4. Follow the prompts to complete the connection.

Step 2 - Sync events and block times

After you connect the account, you can sync events and block times:

1. Open the Sync with other calendars panel: I log in with an Acuity account | I log in with a Squarespace account. 
2. On the left, select the calendar program you connected.
3. Find the Acuity calendar you want to sync.
4. Select a third-party calendar from its drop-down menu. Google calendars will display "(Google Hangouts Meet)" beside the calendar name. To learn more about integrating Acuity with Google Meet, visit Connecting video conferencing to Acuity Scheduling.
5. To block off time in your Acuity calendar for events on your third-party calendar, check block off time on your Appointment Calendar from....
6. If your third-party calendar has multiple calendars, you can block off time in Acuity from more than one calendar. To set this up, select the other calendars from the drop-down menus under and also block off time from.
7. Events will sync to the daily and weekly views of your Acuity calendar within 30 minutes. In the monthly view, synced events display as blocked off time.

Note: Acuity appointments don't sync to the additional calendars selected under and also block off time from. 

Sync multiple people's calendars

If you have multiple staff members who each want to see Acuity appointments on their personal calendars, each person can sync with their own third-party calendar.

To sync multiple users to a single calendar:

1. Add each staff member as a contributor (if you log in with a Squarespace account) or user (if you log in with an Acuity account). If you don't know which account you use to log in, visit Which kind of account do I have?
2. Have each staff member follow the steps for syncing one calendar.

Note: If a user who isn't the main admin in your Acuity account syncs their third-party calendar, their Acuity username will appear on any blocked time that syncs from their calendar. The username will not show when the sync is coming from the main admin's third-party calendar. 

Sync one person with multiple third-party calendars

If you use multiple third-party calendars from different providers, you can sync your Acuity calendar with each of your third-party calendars. This can be helpful if you have separate personal and business calendar accounts, plus your Acuity calendar. You can connect one of each type of supported account per Acuity user or contributor.

For example, you can sync an Acuity user with one Google account, one iCloud account, one Office 365 account, one Exchange account, and one Outlook.com account. You can't sync an Acuity user with multiple Google Accounts.

To sync one user to multiple calendars, follow the steps for syncing one calendar and repeat for each type of calendar.

Sync one person with multiple calendars from the same third-party account

If you use multiple third-party calendars within the same account — for example, multiple Google Calendars within one Google account — you can sync all of them to one Acuity user. This can be a good option if you use one third-party account to track employee schedules on different calendars and you want to sync them with your Acuity calendar.

To connect multiple third-party calendars from the same program to Acuity:

1. Ensure that you've shared your third-party calendars with one central account in the third-party program. For help with this, contact support for your third-party calendar.
2. Sync your Acuity account with the central third-party calendar.

Disconnect a third-party calendar

To disconnect your third-party calendar from Acuity:

1. Open the Sync with other calendars panel: I log in with an Acuity account | I log in with a Squarespace account. 
2. On the left, select the calendar program you connected.
3. Click Disconnect [calendar program] account, then click Ok. 

After you disconnect your calendar, any existing synced appointments will still appear on the third-party calendar. On the Acuity calendar, synced events that have already taken place will still appear, but events for future dates will not. For example, if you had an appointment booked on your third-party calendar for next week, but you disconnect your calendar before the appointment takes place, we will remove that appointment so it no longer blocks off time in your scheduler. 

Troubleshooting

Events aren’t syncing between Acuity and your third-party calendar

Events can take about 30 minutes to sync after connecting, depending on the number of events in each calendar. If it’s been more than an hour, ensure you've connected the correct Acuity calendar and third-party calendar.

If you've recently changed the password for your third-party account, it'll disconnect from Acuity.

To reconnect:

1. Open the Sync with other calendars panel: I log in with an Acuity account | I log in with a Squarespace account. 
2. On the left, select the type of calendar you’ve connected with Acuity.
3. Follow the prompts to enter your new password and reconnect your account.

Acuity appointments aren’t appearing on a third-party calendar

If you're not seeing your Acuity appointments on your third-party calendar, ensure that you're viewing the correct calendar. In some programs, it’s possible to have several calendars accessible from one account. If the calendar you’re syncing with isn’t being displayed by the third-party calendar program, you won’t see the synced events.

Additionally, there's an iCloud calendar syncing setting that can limit which events sync from Acuity. If this setting isn't set to sync all events, some appointments may not appear as expected on your calendar. To learn how to check this setting on your device, visit Apple's support documentation. 

If you’re using a calendar app, check if the issue is between Acuity and your third-party calendar or between your calendar and your app. To test this, visit the third-party calendar in a web browser. If you see your Acuity appointments, the problem is between your third-party calendar and your app. For help, contact support for your third-party calendar.

Events are appearing twice

Events can appear twice on your third-party calendar if:

• You've connected Acuity to two third-party calendars that are also syncing with one another.
• Two people have set up the same sync between your third-party calendar and your calendar in Acuity.

First, check if any synced third-party calendars are syncing with one another.

For example, say you have an iCloud account that automatically syncs with your Google account, and you sync a calendar in Acuity to iCloud and to Google. Both iCloud and Google would end up with two copies of each Acuity event — one from Acuity and one from the other third-party calendar.

To fix this, stop syncing with one of the two third-party calendars, or stop them from syncing with one another.

If connected third-party calendars aren't the problem, it's possible both you and someone else set up a connection between your calendar in Acuity and your third-party calendar. Check if another person on your team has set up the same sync as you.

Events appearing in the wrong time zone

If an appointment syncs to your third-party calendar in the wrong time zone, check the time zone settings on both your Acuity calendar and the third-party calendar. If the time zones are different between calendars, Acuity will translate the appointment time to your third-party calendar's time zone when synced.

When a client schedules an appointment, they can click a button on the confirmation page to add the event to their calendar. If the event then appears on their calendar in the wrong time zone, the client should also check their calendar's time zone settings. 

iCloud connection error: "Sorry but we couldn't validate those details"

If you try to connect your iCloud account to Acuity but receive an error message, first try revoking your app-specific password, then try to connect the sync again.

If you still receive an error, navigate to the calendar page in your Apple account and ensure you've completed any required verification steps. 

Finally, if you still can't resolve the issue, we recommend contacting Apple Support to check for issues with your app specific password or ID.  

iCloud sync disconnects

If your iCloud sync has become disconnected, create a new app-specific password and use it to reset the connection. We recommend typing in the new app-specific password manually, rather than pasting or using autofill.

Other syncing issues

For other calendar syncing issues, we can help. Contact us with the following information in your message:

• A screenshot of the event that isn’t syncing, including any visible calendar settings
• The date and time of the event that isn't syncing, if it's not visible in the screenshot
• The names of all calendars involved
• If it's a third-party calendar event not appearing in Acuity, or an Acuity appointment not appearing on a third-party calendar
• Whether you're viewing your calendar through a mobile app, a computer application (like Calendar on a Mac), or a browser

Create a one-way sync

A one-way sync sends your Acuity appointments to a third-party calendar without receiving any information from that outside calendar. This means you can view your Acuity appointments in an outside calendar, but any events or appointments made in that calendar won’t automatically block off time in your Acuity calendar.

One-way syncs send all appointments from all Acuity calendars to the third-party calendar. It's not possible to use this calendar sync option to send appointments from only one Acuity calendar.

If the Acuity user or contributor who set up a one-way sync changes their password or is removed from Acuity, the one-way sync will be disabled.

To set up a one-way sync:

1. Open the Sync with other calendars panel: I log in with an Acuity account | I log in with a Squarespace account. 
2. Click 1-way calendar sync.
3. To connect to Google, Outlook, or iCal, click Set up 1-way sync to Google, iCal, or Outlook calendar. To connect to Outlook Exchange or Outlook 365, follow the steps listed on the page.
4. Check your third-party calendar's listing on the page for any extra steps you'll need to take to periodically refresh your one-way sync.