To sync your Canvas calendar to Google Calendar, open Calendar in Canvas, click Calendar Feed and copy the link. Then, in Google Calendar on a computer, click Add other calendars next to Other calendars, choose From URL, paste the link and click Add calendar. Your Canvas events and assignments appear as a calendar of their own. Google refreshes it on its own schedule, which Instructure says can take up to 24 hours. If you would rather have due dates that follow Canvas closely, Breezy can write them into Google Calendar for you.
How to link Canvas to Google Calendar with the Calendar Feed
- Sign in to Canvas and click Calendar in the global navigation menu.
- In the sidebar of the calendar, click Calendar Feed.
- Copy the link in the URL field.
- Open Google Calendar on a computer, in a web browser, signed in to the Google account you want the calendar in.
- On the left, next to Other calendars, click Add other calendars, then From URL.
- Paste your Canvas link and click Add calendar.
The Canvas calendar appears on the left under Other calendars, apart from your own events. To hide it without removing it, uncheck it there. If your school gives you Google through your school email, Instructure suggests subscribing with that account. It then shows up in the Google Calendar app on your phone as well; see Canvas on your phone if it does not.
What the Canvas feed leaves out
- Changes are not instant. Google Calendar fetches the feed on its own schedule, and Instructure says that can take up to 24 hours, so a due date moved this morning may still show the old time tonight.
- It covers a window. Instructure says the feed includes events from the past 30 days and up to 366 days ahead, and no more than 1,000 items.
- Canvas To Do items are not included.
- A course you join later is not added on its own. Instructure says to import the feed again after you enroll in a new course, so plan to redo the steps each term.
- It is Canvas only. A class on another course site needs that site's own feed, if it has one.
The Breezy way: due dates written straight into Google Calendar
Breezy is a browser extension and study workspace. It reads your Canvas courses with the sign-in your browser already has and can add your assignment due dates to a calendar it creates in your Google account. There is no feed link to copy and nothing for Google to refresh.
- Install the Breezy extension, sign in to Breezy, open Canvas and press Sync now in the extension. Breezy for Canvas walks through this, including which browsers work.
- In Breezy, open Profile, then Connections. The Calendar page offers the same connection in a bar across its top.
- Next to Google Calendar, click Connect and approve in the Google window that opens. Breezy only asks for access to calendars it creates, so it cannot read the ones you already have.
- Breezy creates a calendar called Breezy · Courses in your Google account and adds your deadlines to it. Back in Connections, Last synced shows when it was last updated.
How that compares with the Canvas feed:
- It updates when your courses do. Breezy writes the events into Google Calendar itself, right after each sync, so there is no subscription waiting to be refreshed. A sync runs when you open your course site in a connected browser with Auto Sync on (at most once an hour) or press Sync now in the extension, so the calendar is as current as your last sync.
- New courses are picked up on their own. There is nothing to add again each term.
- Each deadline is a 30-minute event that ends at the due time, named for the assignment and its course, with reminders a day and an hour before.
- Only assignments with a due date are added, from 30 days ago to 240 days ahead. Other calendar events your instructors post, such as office hours, are not copied, and neither are Brightspace quiz dates or any Blackboard due dates.
- Coursework your course site never posted, like a deadline set in class, can go there too: ask Breezy in a chat to add it.
- The calendar belongs to Breezy. Changes you make to its events may be overwritten when the assignment changes on your course site, and if you delete the calendar, Breezy makes it again on the next sync. To stop, choose Disconnect in Profile, Connections, which deletes the calendar.
If you also rely on Canvas calendar events, like a review session your instructor added, keep the Canvas feed for those. Assignments will then show up in both calendars, and you can hide either one by unchecking it in Google Calendar.
Troubleshooting
- Nothing from Canvas shows up. Check that you added the link with From URL, that you are looking at the Google account you added it to, and that the calendar is checked under Other calendars. Then give it time: Instructure says Google can take up to 24 hours.
- A new course is missing from the feed. Import the feed again; Instructure says a course you enroll in after subscribing is not added otherwise.
- A Canvas assignment is not on the calendar at all. If it has no due date, Canvas lists it under Undated items instead of on a day. If your instructor has not published it yet, Instructure says it is invisible to students, so it will appear once it is published.
- A whole course is missing from the Canvas calendar. Canvas shows up to 10 courses and groups at a time and selects the first 10 for you, so a later one can be switched off. Check the box next to the course in the calendar list.
- A Canvas To Do item is missing from the feed. Instructure says To Do items are not part of it; only events and assignments are.
- An assignment is missing from Breezy · Courses. Breezy adds assignments that have a due date, from 30 days ago to 240 days ahead. If one like that is missing, open Canvas and press Sync now, then see when something is missing from a course.
- Connections says “Google no longer lets Breezy update this calendar.” Choose Disconnect, then Connect again.
More calendar guides
- Add your Canvas calendar to Apple Calendar: Subscribing on a Mac or an iPhone, and putting Canvas due dates in iCloud with Breezy.
- Add your Canvas calendar to Outlook: Subscribing in Outlook on the web or the Outlook app, and what to do when it fails.
- Get your Canvas calendar on your iPhone or Android phone: Apple Calendar on an iPhone or iPad, Google Calendar on Android, and the Canvas app's own calendar.
- Add your Brightspace or Blackboard calendar to Google Calendar: Where each site hides its calendar link, and what Breezy can and cannot add yet.
- Everything on the Breezy blog, newest first.
New to Breezy? The homepage shows the workspace your courses sync into, integrations lists every course site it works with, pricing compares the plans, and troubleshooting covers a sync that stalls.
Breezy is an independent product. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the companies behind the course sites and calendar apps named on this page.
