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Calendar Sync (Google, iCal, Yahoo, CalDav)

How to sync your calendars with Amazing Marvin

Christina avatar
Written by Christina
Updated over a week ago

Supported Calendars

Currently Marvin support calendar sync with the following calendars:

  • Google Calendar

  • Apple iCal

  • Yahoo Calendar

  • Outlook Calendar

  • Public Feed Calendars

  • CalDav Calendars (this can be a lot of third party calendars)

Multiple Calendars

You can connect as many calendars as you need. Each calendar connection can have their own configurations.

Connecting your Calendar

Click on the Calendar Sync strategy settings to set up your calendars.

Click the "Add Calendar" button at the bottom to select your calendar.

Instructions for each calendar will be provided on selection. 

Should you run into any problems check out our troubleshooting articles. If that does not resolve it, reach out to support.

Setting up your Calendar Sync

Once your calendar is connected you have to configure how you want the sync to work. 

You want to pick: 

  • if the sync is one-way or two-way

  • if events get imported into Marvin as tasks, events, or time blocks (if time blocking is enabled)

  • if items imported to Marvin get a special label or category

One-way refers to syncing your events from Google Calendar/iCloud Calendar, etc. to Marvin. To have one-way sync but from Marvin to an external calendar, use the Outgoing sync option.

If you want to be able to create tasks in Marvin that get synced to an outside calendar you have to select the tasks option. You can specify a label or category (or both) in which case only items matching this label or category will get synced. If you don't choose a label or a category, then items from your external calendar will be added to Inbox. All tasks created in Marvin that have time in their title and are scheduled for the future will be synced to your calendar, regardless of the category they're in (if you have two-way sync turned on).

Two way vs. One way Sync

One-way sync synchronizes from your calendar to Marvin. As a result, Marvin will always have an exact replica of your data in the calendar. And any changes made to an imported item in Marvin won't get transmitted. If you are worried about messing up your calendar data by accident, this is the safe choice.

If you try to move an item for a different time or unscheduled a task if you're syncing items from your calendar into Marvin as tasks, you'll get the following error message:

Two-way sync allows you to make changes to imported items in Marvin and those changes will get transmitted to your calendar as well. So deleting an item in Marvin, will delete that item on the calendar too. You can use two-way sync for tasks, events, and time blocks created in Marvin.

Two-way sync also gives you the option to create tasks in Marvin that will get placed on the calendar. For tasks created in Marvin to be synced to your calendar, they need to satisfy the following conditions:

  • Scheduled for today or for the future

  • Have time in their title. This can be added either manually or by dragging and dropping a task to your Marvin Calendar or Agenda

Additionally, they also need to have the specified label and/or category if you set those when making a connection. If they're not set, then all tasks that satisfy the two previously mentioned conditions will be synced to your external calendar.

Changing sync

You can change between these three modes anytime. Changing sync mode will affect future imports but not already imported items. Consider unlinking the calendar and deleting all local items when prompted and then relinking the calendar with the desired item type.

Tasks vs. Events vs. Time Blocks

You can import your calendar events as tasks, events, or time blocks

IMPORTANT: If your calendar events happen at a specific time (not relative to timezone) like a phone call or appointment, import them as events. Tasks and time blocks are relative to where you are located! So if you travel to a different time zone, the task and time block time won't get changed and will be the same as when you imported them.

For more info about these, please check this article: What are the differences between Tasks, Events, and Time Blocks?

What metadata is synced to Marvin?

Besides the name and time of an event that's getting synced into Marvin, Marvin will also sync its note while guests and location won't get synced to Marvin.

To which calendar will an item created in Marvin get synced?

When you have multiple calendars added to Marvin which are of the same type (tasks, events, time blocks) then Marvin will sync an item to the first calendar that matches the item's type.

In this case, an event created in Marvin would get synced to the "Events calendar 1" as it's the first two-way calendar of "Events" type:

Outgoing sync

To add tasks, events, or time blocks created in Marvin to your calendar, as a separate calendar, click on one of the options to copy a secret URL to your clipboard. You can then subscribe to this URL "Event Feed" in your Calendar App to access your Marvin Tasks, Events, and Time Blocks (read-only).

At the moment this feature is only available in the pre-release version: https://app.amazingmarvin.com/pre

Removing a calendar connection

You can remove a calendar connection anytime by clicking the trash icon on the right. 


Clicking it will ask you whether or not you want to remove all imported items from this connection in Marvin. Deleting these items won't affect the original items in your calendar even with two-way sync.

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