Tutorial: Importing Calendars From Apple iCloud

Getting the ICS feed URL from iCloud Calendar

Apple does not make this obvious, but iCloud Calendar supports public sharing via ICS feed URLs. Here is how to get one:

Step 1: Open iCloud Calendar at icloud.com/calendar in your browser, or open the Calendar app on your Mac.

Step 2: In the sidebar, hover over the calendar you want to share. Click the sharing icon (the person-with-plus icon on Mac, or the broadcast icon on iCloud web).

Step 3: Check "Public Calendar" (on Mac) or toggle "Public Calendar" on (in iCloud web). Apple will generate a sharing URL.

Step 4: Copy the URL. It will look something like webcal://p##-caldav.icloud.com/published/2/.... This is your ICS feed URL.

Step 5: Replace webcal:// with https://. The webcal protocol is just HTTPS with a different scheme. Most tools, including manyCalendars, work with the HTTPS version directly.

Adding the feed to manyCalendars

Once you have the HTTPS URL, adding it to manyCalendars takes about 10 seconds:

Step 1: Open manyCalendars and go to the calendar management panel.

Step 2: Click "Add Calendar" and select "ICS Feed."

Step 3: Paste your iCloud calendar URL.

Step 4: Give the calendar a name and pick a color. manyCalendars will fetch the feed and display your events in the unified view.

That is it. Your iCloud Calendar events will now appear alongside your Google Calendar, Outlook, and any other calendars you have connected.

Limitations to know about

ICS feeds are read-only and refresh on a schedule. Apple's iCloud feeds typically update within 15 to 30 minutes, but sometimes the lag stretches to several hours. This means a meeting added to your iCloud Calendar at 9 AM might not appear in manyCalendars until 9:30 AM or later.

For personal calendars with relatively stable schedules (recurring appointments, blocked personal time), this lag is usually fine. For work calendars where meetings get added and moved frequently throughout the day, the lag can cause you to miss recent changes.

There is also no write access. You cannot create or modify events on your iCloud Calendar through the ICS feed. It is strictly a one-way import.

Alternative: Tab Sync for real-time data

If ICS feed lag is a problem, there is another option. Open iCloud Calendar in a browser tab at icloud.com/calendar and let manyCalendars sync it directly. Tab Sync reads events from the live page, so there is no refresh delay. You see events as soon as they appear in the browser.

The tradeoff is that you need to keep the iCloud Calendar tab open in your browser. If you close the tab, manyCalendars stops receiving updates from that calendar until you reopen it. For most consultants, keeping a few calendar tabs pinned is already part of the workflow, so this is not a significant change.

Both methods work. ICS feeds are simpler to set up and work even when the tab is closed. Tab Sync gives you real-time data but requires the tab to stay open. Pick the one that fits your workflow, or use both: ICS as a baseline and Tab Sync when you need live data. Install manyCalendars and your iCloud Calendar will finally play nicely with the rest of your schedule.