How to see your iCloud calendar on an Android phone
Step by step — create an app-specific password and connect iCloud in Journal, so your Apple calendars show up on Android.
By The Journal team · · 2 min read
If you use an iPhone and an Android phone, or you switched from iPhone to Android, your calendars may still live in iCloud. Android doesn’t include an iCloud account option, so those events don’t appear on your phone. The good news: iCloud calendars use CalDAV, an open standard, so any app that speaks CalDAV can show them.
This guide shows how to connect iCloud in Journal in about five minutes.
What you need
- Your Apple Account email address (often ending in @icloud.com, @me.com or a personal address).
- Access to account.apple.com to create an app-specific password.
- Journal installed on your Android phone.
Step 1: Create an app-specific password
- Go to account.apple.com in a browser and sign in.
- Open Sign-In and Security, then App-Specific Passwords.
- Choose to generate a new password and name it something you’ll recognise, such as “Journal”.
- Copy the password. It looks like
abcd-efgh-ijkl-mnop. You won’t be able to see it again, so keep the page open until you’ve pasted it.
Step 2: Connect iCloud in Journal
- Open Journal and go to Settings › Calendars.
- Tap Add iCloud or CalDAV account and choose iCloud.
- Enter your Apple Account email and paste the app-specific password.
- Tap Connect and sync.
Journal finds your iCloud calendars and shows them under Connected in Journal. Untick any you don’t want in your schedule.
Step 3: Check your schedule
Open the Schedule page. iCloud events appear in the hourly timeline alongside events from any Google or Outlook accounts on your phone, labelled with the calendar they came from. When you add an event in Journal, you can choose to save it to an iCloud calendar, and it will appear on your other Apple devices too.
Troubleshooting
- “The email or password was not accepted.” Make sure you used the app-specific password, not your normal Apple password, and that there are no spaces at the start or end.
- Some calendars are missing. Check they’re ticked in Settings › Calendars. Shared calendars you’ve declined in iCloud won’t appear.
- “Action needed” next to the account. The password was revoked, often after an Apple password reset. Create a new app-specific password and tap Fix.
- Events are out of date. Tap Sync now in Settings › Calendars. Journal also refreshes when you open the app.
The same steps work for other CalDAV calendars
Fastmail, Nextcloud and many other calendar services also use CalDAV. Choose Other (CalDAV) instead of iCloud and enter the server address your provider gives you, with your username and password.
Try it in Journal
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Frequently asked questions
Why can’t I use my normal Apple password?
Apple requires app-specific passwords for apps that aren’t made by Apple when two-factor authentication is on, which it is for almost every Apple Account. It also means you can revoke access for one app without changing your main password.
Is it safe?
An app-specific password can only be used for the services that app needs, such as calendars, and you can revoke it at any time from your Apple Account. Journal stores it in your phone’s secure storage and connects directly to iCloud.
My calendar stopped syncing and says “Action needed”. What happened?
The app-specific password was revoked or changed, often after a password reset. Create a new one and tap Fix next to the account in Settings › Calendars.