Calendar sync
Connecting your calendar
Kerfuff can sync with Google Calendar, Outlook, and Apple Calendar. Events from your connected accounts appear on your household calendar and on the wall display.
Paid plan required
Calendar sync requires the paid plan. Connect from Settings → Calendar accounts after upgrading. See Plans & billing.
At a glance
| Provider | Direction | How you connect | Sync frequency |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Calendar | Two-way | OAuth (secure, no password) | ~30 min + push |
| Outlook | Read only | OAuth (secure, no password) | ~15 min |
| Apple Calendar / iCloud | Two-way | App-specific password | 5–10 min |
Google Calendar
Google Calendar uses OAuth — you grant Kerfuff access through Google's secure sign-in screen. Your Google password is never shared with Kerfuff.
How to connect
- 1.Go to Settings → Calendar accounts → Add account → Google.
- 2.You will be redirected to Google to approve access.
- 3.Kerfuff requests calendar read/write permissions. You can choose read-only if you prefer.
- 4.After approving, you are returned to Kerfuff and your calendars begin syncing.
Two-way sync explained
Events you create in Kerfuff are written back to your Google Calendar. Changes you make in Google Calendar appear in Kerfuff. Deletions sync both ways.
You can mark individual calendars as read-only if you do not want Kerfuff to write to them.
Sync speed
Google sends Kerfuff a push notification when your calendar changes (via Google Calendar webhook). Kerfuff processes that change within about 5 minutes. The fallback polling interval is 30 minutes.
Outlook
Outlook sync is read-only. Events from your Outlook calendar appear in Kerfuff but events created in Kerfuff are not written back to Outlook.
How to connect
- 1.Go to Settings → Calendar accounts → Add account → Microsoft.
- 2.You will be redirected to Microsoft to sign in and approve access.
- 3.Kerfuff requests Calendars.Read permission — read-only by design.
- 4.After approving, your Outlook events begin appearing in Kerfuff.
Outlook is read-only
Events created in Kerfuff will not appear in your Outlook calendar. If you need events to sync back to a Microsoft account, create them in Outlook directly — they will appear in Kerfuff within 15 minutes.
Sync speed
Kerfuff polls Microsoft every 15 minutes. Microsoft does not support push webhooks for calendar changes, so there is no faster update path.
Apple Calendar / iCloud
Apple Calendar uses the CalDAV standard. Kerfuff connects using an app-specific password — a separate password you generate in your Apple ID settings, which means your main Apple ID password stays private.
How to connect
- 1.Sign in to appleid.apple.com and go to Sign-in and Security → App-specific passwords.
- 2.Generate a new app-specific password. Label it 'Kerfuff'.
- 3.In Kerfuff, go to Settings → Calendar accounts → Add account → Apple CalDAV.
- 4.Enter your Apple ID email and the app-specific password you just generated.
- 5.Kerfuff discovers your calendars automatically.
Two-way sync
All calendars discovered via CalDAV are synced two-way by default. Events created in Kerfuff are written to iCloud and appear in Apple Calendar on your iPhone or Mac. Changes in Apple Calendar appear in Kerfuff within 5–10 minutes.
Sync speed
Kerfuff checks your Apple Calendar every 5 minutes using a lightweight check (CTag). If nothing has changed, no further work is done. If something has changed, a full sync runs and the next check is in 10 minutes.
Troubleshooting
Events are not appearing
Sync runs in the background. After connecting a calendar, allow up to 30 minutes for the first full import. If events are still missing, try disconnecting and reconnecting the calendar account.
An event I created in Kerfuff is not in my external calendar
Check that the calendar account has write permission. Outlook sync is read-only and will never write back. For Google, check the calendar is not set to read-only in Kerfuff settings.
My Apple Calendar connection stopped working
App-specific passwords can be revoked in your Apple ID settings. If the connection breaks, generate a new app-specific password and reconnect in Kerfuff.
I disconnected a calendar — will my events be deleted?
Disconnecting removes the sync connection. Events already imported remain in Kerfuff unless you explicitly delete them.