How to show iCloud calendar events as busy on your work Google Calendar

Why this is harder than it looks

When a coworker uses Google Calendar's "Find a time", or sends you an invite, Google checks the calendar that belongs to your work account. Your iPhone calendar lives in iCloud, which Google can't see. Apple has no "share free/busy with Google" setting, so unless something puts your personal appointments onto the work calendar itself, you look free during your dentist appointment.

Option 1: Subscribe to a public iCloud calendar link

1. In Calendar on iCloud.com (or on an iPhone or Mac), open the sharing settings for your personal calendar and turn on Public Calendar. Copy the link.
2. In Google Calendar on the web, signed in to your work account, go to Other calendars → + → From URL, and paste the link. If Google rejects it, change webcal:// at the start to https://.

It's free, but it has three problems:

• The calendar becomes public. Anyone who has the link can read every event, with titles, locations and notes. The link can't be password-protected.
• It's slow. Google refreshes subscribed calendars on its own schedule, often hours apart. There's no refresh button.
• Coworkers still see you as free. The events land on a separate, subscribed calendar that only you see. Scheduling looks at your own work calendar, so it doesn't count them.

Option 2: Copy appointments by hand

Create an event on your work calendar for each personal appointment, title it "Busy", and set its visibility to Private. Coworkers see you're busy, and nothing about the appointment. It works, but you have to remember every time, and when an appointment moves or gets cancelled, the copy doesn't follow.

Option 3: Sync busy blocks automatically

A sync service reads your iCloud calendar and keeps a private busy block on your work calendar for each event. With SyncBusy:

1. Create an app-specific password at appleid.apple.com (Sign-In and Security → App-Specific Passwords). SyncBusy never sees your Apple ID password, and you can revoke the app password at any time.
2. Pick which iCloud calendars to sync. You can choose more than one.
3. Sign in with your work Google account so SyncBusy can create busy blocks there.

From then on, each iCloud event shows up on your work calendar as a private event called "Busy (via SyncBusy)". Coworkers see only "Busy". Moved or cancelled events update on the next check. Events you've declined or marked Free are skipped. SyncBusy only reads your iCloud calendars; it writes to one only if you turn on reverse sync, and then only to the calendar you pick.

Apple doesn't offer push notifications to other apps, so iCloud is checked on a timer: every 15 minutes on Free, every 5 on Pro. The free plan syncs 14 days ahead; Pro syncs up to 60 days and costs $4 a month or $36 a year. Your work calendar needs to be Google Calendar; for Outlook or Microsoft 365, see the comparison.

The three options side by side