Another calendar sharing question

[frozenpeas]

I know there have been calendar recommendations here before, but I don't think I've seen my exact situation. I have an iPhone and use the native calendar app for my personal calendar. At work we use Outlook, so I have my work Outlook calendar visible on the iPhone app. My husband has a Samsung phone and uses no calendar--just a combination of my nagging, random luck, & last minute sprints to make it to (most of) his work and personal obligations.

This is fine until it comes time for us to schedule something we have to attend together or when we have to coordinate travel. Is there a calendar I can ask him to use that will allow me to see his availability and him to see mine, given the different sources & devices we have (Outlook, iPhone, Samsung . . .)? I can't move work off Outlook, but I suppose I can move personal off the iPhone app, if necessary. I can't merge work and personal into one calendar, though.

There has to be a simple solution to this, right?
ETA: In an ideal world, I'd see everything on my iPhone calendar.

[2chatter]

I have a work calendar in outlook that can't be personal, too. We have crazy firewalls and I also don't want to authenticate three times to see my personal calendar.

So I duplicate where needed. It's super annoying.

[twinmomma]

Couldn't you sync a Google calendar to the calendar on your iPhone calendar app? Then that's what your DH would see too on his. Does he have to see your work calendar, or just your personal one? If it's the personal one, that should work. If you need him to see your work calendar, I have no clue how you'd get him to see that. You'd have to duplicate things.

[frozenpeas]

Thanks guys. The bulk of my entries are on my work calendar, so I think you're right about duplicating entries if I want him to see them. That's what I was afraid of.

I'm sure I can fairly easily set him up with a calendar I can see. But then that means I'm still the one who has to schedule all the joint things. I (selfishly) was trying to share the burden with him.

[indyrowergirl]

Here's how we have it set up:
work outlook calendar- my work email
google cal - my personal email
work outlook calendar- dh work email
google cal - dh personal email

We have the two google cals set up to be viewed/shared by the other.
On each iphone we have it set to view that person's work calendar and both google calendars in the native iOS app. (So 3 calendar accounts set up in the "Settings" for Calendar.)

The end result is that when I look on my phone I see all of my work and both mine and DH's personal. (He sees the same only with his work and both mine and his personal.) I don't need to see DH's work, so I don't worry about that. Because we share access to the google cal accounts, I can create calendar entries directly on his calendar from the phone, or create the entry in my google calendar. Either way, he can still see it.

I know this works across two iphones, not sure how the Samsung would play, but you could give it a shot.

The key in getting DH to share the scheduling burden in my house - if it's not on the google calendar, it doesn't happen. You have poker on Friday and you're just now telling me about it at dinner on Friday? Sorry, not on the calendar, not happening (or happening with a very grumpy wife). You have poker on Friday and it's been on the calendar for a while? Have fun DH!

[liziz]

Google!

You can sync outlook and google, and iphone cal and google, and I'm sure the calendar app on YH's phone natively syncs with google. Maybe you can set it so he can see your free/busy info on your work calendar, at least? For us, if it's work outside of normal schedule, especially travel, we make sure to duplicate it over, so we all know. H does not care what my meetings look like in a day, unless it changes my ability to pick the kid up (which I typically do, since he drops off)

[liziz]

Apr 20, 2017 9:43:09 GMT -5 indyrowergirl said:

The key in getting DH to share the scheduling burden in my house - if it's not on the google calendar, it doesn't happen. You have poker on Friday and you're just now telling me about it at dinner on Friday? Sorry, not on the calendar, not happening (or happening with a very grumpy wife). You have poker on Friday and it's been on the calendar for a while? Have fun DH!

Agree with this part completely! Whoever gets it in the calendar first, wins. Oh, you got called to sub for a hockey team on a night I already have yoga, sorry, better luck next time. Obviously there's some priorities involved, like I would skip yoga for a work issue, but not for hockey, but generally, first come, first serve.

[frozenpeas]

Ok, I think I get it, but please speak slowly and use small words. The solution of H seeing my work calendar might be to try to sync my work Outlook calendar with a Google calendar that we both have access to?

[2chatter]

frozenpeas - it depends on where you work. We can't sync outlook with anything (gmail is also blocked).

[frozenpeas]

Apr 20, 2017 10:15:21 GMT -5 2chatter said:

frozenpeas - it depends on where you work. We can't sync outlook with anything (gmail is also blocked).

Yep, that's where my mind is going, but I'm going to look into it anyway!

[liziz]

Apr 20, 2017 10:35:16 GMT -5 frozenpeas said:

Apr 20, 2017 10:15:21 GMT -5 2chatter said:

frozenpeas - it depends on where you work. We can't sync outlook with anything (gmail is also blocked).

Yep, that's where my mind is going, but I'm going to look into it anyway!

I could at my old job, but can't here - worth a shot.

[twinmomma]

Can you share your Outlook calendar with DH? In Outlook you can just invite someone else to see your calendar. Not sure if you would both need to be on the same email/calendar server though... You can usually choose whether or not to "share" with full meeting details, or just busy/free blocks.

[frozenpeas]

Apr 20, 2017 11:20:38 GMT -5 twinmomma said:

Can you share your Outlook calendar with DH? In Outlook you can just invite someone else to see your calendar. Not sure if you would both need to be on the same email/calendar server though... You can usually choose whether or not to "share" with full meeting details, or just busy/free blocks.

I wish I could, but not with the blocks placed by my company. If only he worked at the same place my life would be an open book to him . . .

[sandandsea]

We have a family calendar on our iPhones that we share. You can do it with google too.
So we each basically have 2 calendars - work and family. I put family stuff on my work (outlook) calendar and mark it as private but dh likes it on the family calendar too.

[seamonster]

You could have a shared Google calendar and copy over events. Even though H and I work for the same company and have access to each other's work calendars, we still send each other invites for events one of us puts on the calendar since we can only access our individual calendars on the phone.