You can view events from Apple Calendar next to your to-dos. If you are experiencing trouble with this feature, the following tips might help resolve them.
If the events you see in Things are not correct, it means that Calendar sent faulty data to Things. We have no means of correcting this ourselves – the issue has to be fixed in Apple’s Calendar app.
In this article:
Some events or calendars do not appear
Things depends on Apple Calendar for any information about your events. If what you see in Things does not match what you see in Apple’s app, Apple Calendar has sent faulty data to Things. Here are a few steps you can try to correct this:
Mac
- Reboot your Mac.
- Turn off calendar integration via Things → Settings → Calendar Events, then re-launch Things and turn calendar integration back on.
- If you use Things Cloud (check if Things → Settings → Things Cloud is enabled) to keep an off-device copy of your to-dos, remove Things entirely from your device, reboot, and then reinstall Things. Re-enable the calendar integration and check if the data comes through now.
- Last but not least, you might want to try to remove your calendar accounts (especially with Google or Exchange accounts*) through System Settings → Internet Accounts, reboot your Mac, and then add those accounts back.
* If your Exchange or Google account is being managed by your IT department, they might have set certain restrictions that prevent Apple Calendar from sending information to other apps. We can’t circumvent that limitation.
iPad & iPhone
Basic troubleshooting
Only follow the steps below if Things Cloud is turned on!
- Check that Things → Settings → Things Cloud is enabled.
- Tap and hold the Things icon on your iPad or iPhone.
- Tap Remove App -
- Reboot your iPad or iPhone (Don’t skip this step!).
- Install Things again.
- Go to Things → Settings → Calendar Events and enable the integration again.
- Connect to Things Cloud via Things → Settings → Things Cloud to download your data.
Depending on the size of your database, the download might take a little time. Please don’t close the app while this happening and make sure your iPad or iPhone is charged and has a stable WiFi access.
Advanced troubleshooting
If none of the above steps helped to fix the problem*, you might want to try to remove the problematic calendar accounts from your device and then add them back.
- Go to Settings → Apps → Calendar → Calendar Accounts and delete the accounts that cause trouble. Keep in mind that this will remove all the data for this account from your iPad or iPhone.
- Reboot your iPad or iPhone.
- Add the accounts back, check that the calendar data appears in Apple Calendar, and then enable the calendars again in Things.
* If your Exchange or Google account is being managed by your IT department, they might have set certain restrictions that prevent Apple Calendar from sending information to other apps. That’s a limitation we cannot circumvent.
Some Google calendars do not appear
Even though you can see all your Google calendars in Apple Calendar, you can’t select some of them in Things → Settings → Calendar Events. As a result, some events aren’t shown in Things. This might happen specifically with subscribed or delegated calendars, and is a result of faulty calendar settings outside of Things.
- Log into your Google account via a web browser and visit this page: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/syncselect. Make sure your delegated calendars are checked.
- Check out the troubleshooting steps above to see if they might help.
- If your calendars are managed by an IT department, consult with them to determine which restrictions are in place.
Managed calendars are missing
If your device is managed within a corporate environment, and some calendar data is missing, it’s possible this is due to mobile device management (MDM) profiles. Please speak to your IT department so they add Things as a managed app to the MDM profile. This will grant Things access to managed calendars.
Changes to events don’t appear immediately
Normally, when you make a change to an event in Apple Calendar on the same device where you’re using Things, this change should be reflected in Things very quickly.
If you use 3rd-party apps like Google Calendar, Outlook, Exchange, etc., and possibly make changes on a different device, these changes might not appear in Things right away – even Apple’s own calendar app doesn’t get the information immediately. Instead, the changes are pushed to the origin app’s own servers, then to Apple, then to Apple Calendar, and only then will Things get notified that there’s new content.
Therefore, if you are using 3rd-party apps or services to manage your calendar events, certain delays are to be expected.
Things’ to-dos don’t appear in Calendar
This is not a bug, but a choice on our part. Things does not send your to-dos to Apple Calendar.
Strange events appear in Things
If you’re seeing strange events appear in the calendar section in Things, which are not present in your calendars, it is due to an Apple Siri feature.
Siri can look through your apps, like iMessage and Mail, and create events for you. For example if Siri reads in an email or message that you were talking about having dinner with someone at a certain time, it can create such an event automatically. This happens mostly on macOS.
This it not something that Things is doing as Things can’t look at your emails, messages, or create calendar entries.
Please consult Apple’s own support pages on how to disable this feature. As this is happening outside of Things, we have no way of addressing this ourselves.
Problems with permissions to access Calendar
Mac
After clicking an event in the calendar section, you see the following prompt:
Things needs permission to open the Calendar app. Grant permission in System Settings, then restart Things and try again.
- Go to Settings.
- On macOS 13 or later, go to Settings → Privacy & Security. Click Calendars. Turn the toggle next to Things on.
- On macOS 12 or earlier, go to System Preferences → Security & Privacy and at the top, select the Privacy tab; then pick Calendars on the left. Make sure Things is checked on the right.
- If Things is already enabled, disable and then re-enable it. Reboot your Mac now to see if that helps.
- Now check Automation if the previous step hasn’t helped.
- On macOS 13 or later, go back one step to Privacy & Security. Scroll down a bit and click Automation.
- On macOS 12 or earlier, still within the Privacy tab, scroll the list on the left and click Automation.
- Make sure that Things is present in this setting, and that all checkboxes are ticked.
- You might get prompted to enter your Mac user account password as you're editing security settings that need authentication.
iPad & iPhone
After trying to enable calendar integration in Things’ Settings, you are taken to Settings → Privacy & Security → Calendars and Things is not showing up and you can’t enable it.
This happens rarely, but if you don’t see Things there, here’s something to check:
- On your iOS device, go to Settings.
- Tap Screen Time → Content & Privacy Restrictions.
If this feature is enabled, make sure that in the Calendars section Things isn’t being blocked.
Open 3rd-party calendar app after clicking event
Mac
At this time we can’t influence which app is loaded when you click an event – it’s something that is controlled by the Operating System, not us. We might be able to work around that in the future, but we can’t give you an ETA for such a feature. For now, macOS will always open Apple Calendar for you.
iPad & iPhone
At this time we can’t influence which app is loaded when you tap an event – it’s something that is controlled by the Operating System, not us. For the time being, when tapping the calendar section in Things, Apple Calendar opens to the day of the event.