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Best answer

Syncing 2 Google Calendars - How to sync cancelled/deleted event?

B
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I have 2 Google Calendars and have a Zap that runs when a New Event is created on GCal A, it creates a New Detailed Event on GCal B (identical to the one of GCal A). I would like to create a Zap so that when the event is cancelled on GCal A, it gets cancelled on GCal B.

The problem I am running into is how to find the same event on GCal B. If I try to use a step to Find Events in a Google Calendar, it will not search cancelled events.

Seems to me there should be an easier way to keep these calendars synced so that one Zap handles adds, update and deletes of the events between the two calendars.

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Best answer by MohSwellam 21 October 2022, 14:39

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This post has been closed for comments. Please create a new post if you need help or have a question about this topic.

14 replies

J
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Hi @bgorsky , I have a similar workflow setup but directly inside of my Google Calendar. I don’t think you NEED to use Zapier for this (but you definitely could)

 

In Google Calendar settings, you can “share” your calendar with anyone via email. So just login to Calendar A and share with Calendar B and then repeat for Calendar B

when sharing, set the permissions so both calendars have full access to one another. Now, whenever an event is added/edited/removed on one calendar, it will be viewable on your other calendar.

https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/37082?hl=en

B
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@Joshua Merryman Problem is that these are not “primary” calendars; they are additional calendars that were added and shared to the org. I don’t want users to have to go into GCal to see events. I app posted the events on a Google Site. Does that make sense?

MohSwellam
Userlevel 7
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Hi @bgorsky 

 

You can add a step before that to Find the event in Calendar B then use the event ID to delete it. 
 

OR you can have a google sheet that includes Event A IDs and the corresponding Calendar B ids then have a step that looks up those IDs in google sheets to be able to delete it. 

Founder of GeekyAir.com
B
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@MohSwellam The problem with finding the event in Cal B is that since the event in Cal A has been cancelled/deleted (after all, that is what triggers the zap in Step 1), Zapier’s “Find Event in Google Calendar” action doesn’t allow the lookup of cancelled events.

 

I suppose I could go the spreadsheet route. As I’ve said before though, it just seems as though it shouldn’t be that hard to do this with all of the very cool advanced features of Zapier.

Maybe one of the Zapier folks can add this to the wishlist… an action that simply keeps a calendar event synchronized once it is added.

MohSwellam
Userlevel 7
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Hi @bgorsky 

 

Zapier doesnt allow the look up of cancelled events yes, but the event is not yet cancelled in Cal B :) 

Founder of GeekyAir.com
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What parameter would I use to look up the event in Cal B though that would have corresponded to the event in Cal A? If you could provide me a way to do that I’d give it a try.

MohSwellam
Userlevel 7
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I would expect the Event Name? Can you try that? 

Founder of GeekyAir.com
B
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Two issues:

  1. If the event in Cal A is already deleted when the Zap runs, how do I get the event name from the deleted event? Remember, Zapier isn’t deleting the event, it is deleted on Cal A and that triggers the Zap
  2. I have numerous classes with multiple sessions of the same training and as such, they all have the same name (i.e.: Google Training). That said, there is a session ID unique to each I could use, if only I could pull that from the deleted event from Cal A to find it on Cal B
MohSwellam
Userlevel 7
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You need to test the trigger to see what data is coming, but I believe it will contain all the required data. Did you try loading test data in the trigger? You might want to delete an existing event (maybe create a duplicate and delete it?) to see the data.

 

The search action searches the event name and description, so if the session ID is in either then it would work.

Founder of GeekyAir.com
B
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Got it. Thanks for your help @MohSwellam  - I am still relatively new to Zapier.

B
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So shortly after I had this working, it stopped working for some reason and I don’t know why. It isn’t failing but rather it says “Halted” because “This step was safely halted because nothing was found in Google Calendar.”

I’m assuming that is because Step 2, the lookup of the event in the second GCal is coming up with nothing. The odd thing is that I haven’t changed anything.

Any assistance troubleshooting this would be appreciated. @MohSwellam ?

Danvers
Userlevel 7
Badge +12

Hi @bgorsky!

Yes, you’re right that the Zap will have halted if it didn’t find anything in Google Calendar that matched the search. Have you double checked that the event you were expecting to find had the information that the Find Event step was looking for? 

If you want to check what the Find Event Step used to search Google Calendar, go to the Zap history for that Zap and click on one of the Zap runs that was halted because nothing was found. Then go to the Find Event step and look at the ‘Data In’ tab, that will show you what search term was used so you can check that it does match with an event from Google Calendar. 

I hope that helps, let us know if you still need some help here!

B
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So I was able to figure it out. My search was looking for the title, start time and end time. Problem was that the end time had changed. Makes sense. Thanks @Danvers 

christina.d
Userlevel 7
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Ah, good to know! Thanks for closing the loop here, @bgorsky! Super glad to hear you were able to get this sorted. 🤗

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