To avoid double bookings and streamline your scheduling, we recommend all users sync their Google or Outlook calendar with Porter. Once synced, you’ll see your calendar events directly inside your Porter calendar, and any appointments you schedule through Porter will also appear in your external calendar.
✅ What Calendar Syncing Does
Syncing your calendar with Porter has two major benefits:
Two-way visibility:
Any Porter appointments you schedule will appear on your Google or Outlook calendar.
Any events from your Google Calendar will now show inside your Porter calendar (read-only). This helps you avoid double-bookings and makes your Porter calendar the single source of truth for your availability.
Smart booking logic:
Porter will automatically block off any time slots that are busy in your synced calendar, so clients won’t be able to request appointments during those hours.
⚠️ At this time, Apple Calendar can’t be connected to Porter directly due to Apple’s restrictions on syncing with third-party apps. The good news: you can still bring your Apple Calendar events into Porter by routing them through Google Calendar — see “What About Apple Calendar?” below for the step-by-step workaround.
📲 How to Sync Your Calendar
Open the Porter mobile app
Tap the “Profile” icon in the bottom right
Tap “Connect Your Calendar”
Choose either Google or Outlook
Sign in with your calendar account and grant permission to sync
That’s it! Your calendar will begin syncing immediately.
🔍 What You'll See in Porter
Once synced, here’s how your calendar will work:
Google Calendar events will appear on your Porter calendar in a light gray color (read-only).
Appointments scheduled through Porter will show in both Porter and your external calendar (Google/Outlook).
Blocked time from Google Calendar will be respected by the booking system—clients won’t be able to book over those times.
Porter will not edit or remove any of your external calendar events—only read them.
🧠 Tip: When you're just getting started, we recommend keeping your Google or Outlook calendar updated as your source of truth while Porter syncs your appointment data.
🧪 How to Confirm It’s Working
To verify sync is active:
Go to your Porter calendar and check for any gray events — those are pulled from your Google Calendar.
Book a test appointment through Porter and check that it appears in your Google/Outlook calendar.
If you don’t see anything right away, give it a minute or two — sync may take a few moments the first time.
📎 What About Apple Calendar?
Apple Calendar can’t connect to Porter directly — but there’s an easy workaround: move your Apple Calendar events into Google Calendar, then connect Google Calendar to Porter. There are two ways to do it:
Option 1: One-time import (recommended)
On a Mac, open the Calendar app, click the calendar you want to move in the left sidebar, then choose File → Export → Export… This saves an .ics file.
On a computer, go to calendar.google.com, click the gear icon → Settings → Import & export.
Click Select file from your computer, choose the .ics file you exported, pick which Google calendar to add the events to, and click Import.
Connect that Google account to Porter using the steps in “How to Sync Your Calendar” above.
Option 2: Ongoing one-way sync from Apple to Google
In Apple Calendar (or at iCloud.com), enable Public Calendar sharing for the calendar and copy the link (it starts with webcal://).
In Google Calendar on a computer, next to Other calendars click + → From URL, paste the link (replace webcal:// with https:// if needed), and add it.
Connect Google Calendar to Porter as above.
Note: Google refreshes URL-based calendars periodically (updates can take several hours to appear), so Option 1 is the most reliable way to bring over your existing appointments.
💡 Keep in mind: events synced in from an external calendar appear in Porter as read-only busy time — they block those slots from being booked, but they aren’t full Porter appointments. For existing bookings you want to fully manage in Porter (deposits, client records, reminders), create them as Porter appointments as well.
💬 Need Help?
Still having issues syncing your calendar? Reach out to us at support@getporter.io and we’ll be happy to help!