Import a calendar

Using Apple Calendar?

A link means publishing your calendar publicly, which is buried in the share settings and only works for iCloud calendars. Exporting a file is easier and nothing leaves your device: File, then Export, then pick the file here.

Where to find the link

Canvas

On an iPhone: open Canvas in Safari, not the Canvas app, and go to Calendar. Tap aA in the address bar, then Request Desktop Website. Tap Calendar Feed at the bottom of the right-hand column, then press and hold the link it shows and tap Copy. On a laptop: Calendar, then Calendar Feed in the right-hand column. Signed in, a link you save on one device is on your others too, so pasting it once on a laptop also sets up your phone.

Already subscribed in your iPhone calendar? The link is in Settings, Apps, Calendar, Calendar Accounts, Subscribed Calendars (on iOS 17 or earlier, Settings, Calendar, Accounts), in the Server field of the Canvas one. If Canvas is not listed there, your iPhone saved it to iCloud or copied the events in once, and there is no link to copy; use Safari as above.

Google Calendar

On the web, not the app: Settings, pick the calendar, then Secret address in iCal format.

School Google accounts sometimes have this switched off by the school. A personal Gmail calendar always has it.

Apple Calendar

On an iPhone: Calendar, Calendars, tap the i next to one, turn on Public Calendar, then Share Link. Or on a Mac, File then Export, and choose the file below.

A public link can be opened by anyone who has it. The exported file exposes nothing.

Outlook

Outlook on the web: Settings, Calendar, Shared calendars, Publish a calendar, then copy the ICS link.

School accounts sometimes have publishing switched off. If the option is missing, that is why.

Work schedule

When I Work, 7shifts, Homebase, Sling, Deputy, UKG and most other scheduling apps have a calendar sync or subscribe option, usually in the web version. Copy the link it gives you, the one ending in .ics or starting with webcal.

If your app only offers to add shifts to your phone calendar, do that, then import that calendar from Google or Apple above. If it has no calendar option at all (TimeTree is one), add your usual shifts once in Setup as work hours.

Treat these links like passwords

Anyone holding one can read that calendar, indefinitely, without logging in. So Heron only keeps yours if you ask it to, and never writes it to a log.

If you tick Remember this link, Heron uses it to check that calendar once a day. Signed out, it is kept in this browser and nowhere else. Signed in, it is also saved to your account, encrypted, so your phone and laptop both have it; the key that opens it is not stored in the database. It is never in the backup file you can download. Forgetting it here or in Settings removes it from every device, and so does deleting your data. The privacy page spells out exactly what that means.