Calendly Calendar Availability and Free/Busy Status Guide
Overview
Calendly checks your connected calendars for events marked as Busy and treats those as conflicts; events marked as Free are ignored. If you appear available when you shouldn't be—or blocked when you should be open—verify the event's Free/Busy status in your external calendar and adjust it as needed. All plans can connect calendars; Free includes one connection and paid plans support up to six.
Step-by-Step
- Connect your calendar: Go to Availability → Calendar settings and connect your work or personal calendar so Calendly can check for conflicts.
- Understand how conflicts work: Calendly sits on top of your external calendar(s) and blocks any time with events marked Busy; it ignores events marked Free.
- Check Google Calendar event status:
- Open Google Calendar.
- Find the event and select the pencil icon to Edit event.
- Select the Busy or Free dropdown and set the event to Free (Calendly will ignore) or Busy (Calendly will block).
- Click Save.
- Check Office 365/Outlook event status:
- Open your calendar.
- Select the event.
- Select Edit, then More options.
- Under Show As, choose Free (Calendly will ignore) or Busy (Calendly will block), then save.
- Adjust Outlook conflict statuses in Calendly (optional): By default, Calendly treats Busy, Tentative, Working Elsewhere, and Away/Out of Office as unavailable. Busy events always block time. To be considered available for other statuses, go to Calendar settings, open the What's considered unavailable? dropdown under Calendars to check for conflicts, and uncheck the statuses you want Calendly to ignore.
- Check iCloud event status:
- Existing iCloud connections are supported, but new iCloud Calendar connections are no longer available as of August 20, 2024.
- iCloud marks all-day events as Free by default and timed events as Busy.
- To change an event's Busy status, use the Calendar app on iPhone or iPad (the Busy option does not appear on macOS Calendar or icloud.com).
- Troubleshoot an unexpected block: If Calendly is detecting a busy event, you'll see an unavailability error labeled CALENDAR when testing your availability. Review the event's status and update as needed.
Key Notes & Limitations
- Calendly only treats events marked Busy as conflicts; events marked Free do not block time.
- On Outlook, Busy, Tentative, Working Elsewhere, and Away/Out of Office are considered unavailable by default. Busy always blocks time. You can change which other statuses block time in the What's considered unavailable? dropdown in Calendar settings.
- iCloud new connections are not supported as of August 20, 2024; existing connections continue to work.
Related Questions (FAQ)
Q: Can I make Outlook "Working Elsewhere" not block my Calendly availability?
A: Yes. In Calendar settings, open the What's considered unavailable? dropdown for your Outlook calendar and uncheck Working Elsewhere.
Q: I see CALENDAR as the reason for unavailability—what does that mean?
A: Calendly detected a Busy event on a connected calendar at that time. Open the event in your external calendar and set it to Free if you want it ignored.
Q: Does Calendly support new iCloud Calendar connections?
A: No. New iCloud Calendar connections are not supported as of August 20, 2024. Existing connections will continue to function.