How to Share an iCloud Calendar

iCloud lets you share an iCloud calendar two ways: privately with named people who use iCloud (with view-only or full edit access), or publicly with a read-only link for anyone. This guide covers both methods, how to accept a shared calendar, and how to stop sharing when you're done.

Private sharing vs public sharing

For the public route, see get a public iCloud calendar link. The rest of this article focuses on private sharing.

Share privately on Mac

1. Open the Calendar app on macOS.
2. Hover over the calendar in the sidebar and click the share icon, or right-click and choose Sharing Settings.
3. Under Shared With, type the name, email, or phone number of each person (they must use iCloud).
4. Click the person's name to set their permission: View Only or View & Edit.
5. Close the panel — invitations send automatically.

Share privately on iPhone or iPad

1. Open the Calendar app and tap Calendars.
2. Tap the info (i) button next to the calendar.
3. Tap Add Person and enter their contact details.
4. Tap a person's name to toggle Allow Editing on or off.
5. Tap Done.

Edit vs view permissions

• View Only subscribers see all events but can't change anything.
• View & Edit participants can add, edit, and delete events, and their changes sync to everyone. Only grant this to people you trust with the whole calendar.

You can change someone's permission or remove them at any time from the same sharing panel.

Accept a shared calendar invitation

When someone shares a calendar with you, an invitation arrives in the Calendar app (and sometimes by email or notification).

• Mac: Click the inbox icon (or the notification) and choose Join Calendar.
• iPhone/iPad: Tap Calendars, look for the invitation banner, and tap Join Calendar.

The calendar then appears in your list, color-coded alongside your own. You can give it a different color locally — see color-code calendars on Mac.

Stop sharing

To remove one person:

• Mac: Open Sharing Settings, hover over their name, and click the remove (–) or Delete option.
• iPhone/iPad: Tap the info (i) button, tap the person, then tap Stop Sharing or Remove.

To stop sharing with everyone, remove each participant, or simply delete the shared calendar if it was created only for sharing (this removes it for all participants — back up anything important first).

If a share isn't appearing

• Confirm both people are signed in to iCloud with Calendars turned on in iCloud settings.
• Private sharing only works between iCloud accounts — you can't privately share to a Gmail or Outlook address. For those people, use a public link instead.
• If changes aren't showing up, see iCloud calendar not syncing.

Related reading

• Subscribe to a calendar on iPhone and Mac
• Why subscribed calendars don't update instantly

If you also work across Google and Outlook, nocal unifies those calendars into one timeline — see how.