A lot of people use a Google account for their emails (Gmail or a Google for work account) and the iCal calendar (Apple) application on Mac. In this case, when you schedule a meeting from your calendar on mac, your event may not appear in your Google calendar account. It is because your Google calendar is not your default calendar on mac. 

 

Make your Google calendar as default on mac, necessary to use some apps

It can be very useful to make your Google calendar default on mac. Today, a lot of great applications ask you to log in with Google and ask for an access permission to Google calendar. It is the case for some calendar applications, some scheduling software or some meeting tools.

For these applications, your Google calendar needs to be up-to-date. Some of them let you share your availability with customers, co-workers or friends. But, they may show some wrong data if the calendar you actually use, your calendar on mac, is not correctly synced with your Google calendar. 

 

Make your Google calendar as default on mac to be up-do-date on your Android calendar

Another case when it is very useful to make your Google calendar as default calendar on mac is when you are using an Android phone. On an Android mobile phone, everything is done for you to sync your Gmail account and to connect Google calendar account. But, it is not possible to connect an iCal account. If your Google account is not your default calendar on your mac, it is likely that you will not have all your meetings synced with your mobile calendar. 

 

Steps to make your Google calendar as default on mac 

Now, let’s see how to make your Google calendar as default calendar on mac. At the end of this article, you can find a video tutorial that shows you how to deal with this Google calendar / iCal synchronisation easily.

 

Feel free to jump to any part of this article. 

1. Add your Google calendar to iCal calendar on mac

2. Make your Google calendar as default calendar on mac 

3. Make your Google calendar as default calendar on mac (video tutorial)

 

1. Add your Google calendar to iCal calendar on mac 

Choose a calendar account to add on iCal calendar on mac

To add your Google calendar to your Apple calendar application on mac, you need to click on the “Calendar” tab in the menu. Then, you need to click on “Add Account” to add your preferred calendar accounts on your iCal application on mac. If you have an iPhone, an iPad or an Apple watch and if you use the iCal application on these devices, you will see the preferred accounts that you added.

Your Apple calendar application lets you add either an iCloud account, an Exchange account, a Google account, a Facebook account, a Yahoo account or a CalDAV account. 

In our case, we will add a Google calendar account on your mac calendar. Click on “Google” and then press “Continue” to go to the next step. 

 

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Let your Mac access your mail and other Google account data 

You will be asked to sign in with your Google account to let your Mac access your email and other Google Account data. Enter your Google email, then click on the “next” button. 

Select the apps that you want to use with your Gmail account. In our case, you can only select the “calendar” option as we only want to synchronise your Google calendar with your mac. 

Click on the “Done” button when you are finished. 

 

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Default-calendar-on-mac-Google-calendar-select

 

2. Make your Google calendar as default calendar on mac 

Set Google calendar as default calendar on mac in your preferences

Wait a little and if everything is right, you should see that your Google account and your Google calendars are now connected with your iCal calendar on your mac. You can choose which of your calendars you want to display in your mac calendar. 

To make your Google calendar as default calendar on your mac, you need to click on the “Calendar” tap in the menu and then on “Preferences”. 

In your preferences, in the “general” tab, you will see that you can choose which of your calendars you want to make as default calendar on your mac. Just select, within your Google accounts, the calendar that you want to make as default. You’re done!

 

Default-calendar-on-mac-Google-calendar-added

 

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Create an event from your calendar on mac and check synchronisation with your Google calendar account

To be sure that everything is working properly, we suggest that you create an event from your calendar on your mac. You can either click on the “plus” button next to the “tab” (Create quick event) or click somewhere inside your calendar. The event should be created in the default calendar that you set, i.e. your preferred Google calendar account. 

Now, go to www.google.com/calendar and check if your event has been created. Do not forget to reload the page if the Google calendar website was already open on your mac. Is it working? Great! 

Your Google calendar accounts and your iCal calendar accounts are synchronised. Well done!

 

3. Make your Google calendar as default calendar on mac (video tutorial)

Below, find a video with the steps to connect your Google calendar  and make it as default calendar on mac. 

1. Go to the “calendar” tab and click on “Add accounts”.

2. Connect your Google account (email and password needed).

3. Go to the “calendar” tab and click on “Preferences”.

4. Select your Google calendar as “Default calendar”.

 

 

To conclude…

We hope this blog post helped you make your Google calendar as default calendar on mac. Now that your Google calendar and your calendar on mac are synced, it will be possible to get the most out of some great calendar applications that ask that you log in with a Google account.

 

At vyte, we created an easy scheduling application and you need to log in with Google to use it.

We built this software to let people schedule meetings 10 times faster. If you want to get rid of email and calendar back and forth when scheduling meetings, you should give a try to our scheduling software. And, by the way, it’s free! Learn more about vyte, schedule meetings 10 times faster