Import From Google Calendar Into Outlook

Transfer Your Calendar Events Easily

Man using calendar on tablet
Import Google Calendar Into Outlook. Hero Images / Getty Images
by Heinz Tschabitscher
An independent writer who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997.
Updated July 23, 2018

Outlook and Google Calendar do the synchronization dance well—for the respective default calendars. You can maintain many calendars in these apps, though, and events from other calendars have to be copied to the standard calendar to sync.

What about the schedule you've put together for that Hainan trip in Google Calendar, though? You don't want that on your standard calendar, and being able to sync changes is secondary to having the information in Outlook. Fortunately, importing an individual calendar from Google Calendar into Outlook is easy.

Getting Google Calendar Entries Into Outlook

  1. Click the down arrow next to the desired calendar in the Google Calendar My calendars box.
  2. Select Calendar settings from the menu.
  3. Click on the ICAL icon under Private Address: with the right mouse button.
  4. Select Save Target As..., Save link as..., Download Linked File As..., or similar, depending on your browser.
  5. Save the basic.ics file to your Desktop or Downloads folder.
  6. Double-click the basic.ics file you just downloaded. If the file does not open in Outlook:
    1. Open Outlook.
    2. Select File | Open | Calendar... from the menu.
    3. Find, highlight, and double-click the downloaded basic.ics file.
    4. Delete the basic.ics file from your Desktop or Downloads folder.