Import Google or Apple Calendar events into Quok

Most families already keep something in another calendar - work meetings in Google, a personal calendar on an iPhone. Quok can import those events onto the shared family calendar so nobody has to type them in twice.

Importing is free. It is not part of Quok Plus.

The import is one-way and read-only. Quok never writes to, changes or deletes anything in Google or in your Apple calendars. Adding, editing or deleting an event in Quok has no effect on the calendar it came from. If you want the traffic to go the other way, that is a separate feature: See family events in Google or Apple Calendar. Using both does not join them up: each one carries events one way, and neither writes back.

Who can connect a calendar

Connecting a calendar needs the organizer or adult role. That is a role, not a plan - every adult in the family can do it on the free plan, and children and guests cannot.

You connect your own account, and only you can disconnect it again.

Caution

Imported events are visible to everyone in the family, like any other shared event. If your work calendar holds appointments you would rather the household did not read, import a different calendar or leave it out.

Import from Google Calendar

1. Open Imported calendars in Quok: Preferences on the web, or Settings on the iPhone. Choose Connect next to Google Calendar.

2. Sign in to Google and allow Quok to read your calendars.

3. Tick the calendars you want on the family calendar. Leave the rest clear.

Quok brings across each event’s title, date and time, whether it lasts all day, its location and its notes. It covers the past three months and the next twelve - older or further-out events are left where they are.

Quok asks Google to tell it when something changes, so an edit in Google usually reaches the family calendar within minutes. If that channel is unavailable, Quok checks about once an hour instead. Import now on the connection pulls a fresh set immediately - it only ever pulls, and sends nothing to Google.

Import from an iPhone’s Apple Calendar

Apple calendars are read on the device itself, so this one starts in the Quok app on an iPhone rather than on the web. Each person sets it up on their own phone.

1. In Quok on the iPhone, open Settings → Imported calendars and choose Import Apple Calendar.

2. Allow calendar access when iOS asks. Without it, Quok cannot see the phone’s calendars at all.

3. Choose which calendars to bring in, review the summary, and confirm.

Quok re-reads those calendars when you open the app on that iPhone, and at most once every fifteen minutes. Contact birthdays stay out - Quok takes birthdays from family profiles instead. See Put family birthdays on the calendar every year.

If you turn calendar access off in iOS later, importing pauses. Events already on the family calendar stay.

Stop importing a calendar

Clear the tick on a calendar, or choose Disconnect to stop the whole account.

Either way, events already imported stay on the family calendar. They become ordinary Quok events that your family can edit or delete.

If you import the same calendar again later, Quok reconnects matching events instead of adding duplicates, and brings them up to date with the calendar they came from. Any event your family edited in the meantime is yours to keep - Quok leaves it alone.

Disconnecting also revokes Quok’s access with Google, so Quok can no longer read anything from that account. When you connect it again, tick the calendars you want - Quok does not assume the old selection.

When events do not appear

• Check the calendar is ticked under Imported calendars. A calendar that is not ticked imports nothing.
• Check the dates. Only the past three months and the next twelve are covered.
• If the connection shows Needs reconnecting, Google has withdrawn Quok’s access - choose Reconnect and sign in again.
• For an iPhone, open Quok on that phone. Apple calendars are read there, not on the server, so nothing arrives while the app stays closed.