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What's the difference between my Google calendar and "My Calendar"?

J

JohnJSal

Android Expert
Whenever I use the default calendar app or the Google Calendar app, I always see two different calendars. One is called "My Calendar" and the other seems to be my Google Account calendar, which is listed as my Gmail address.

What is the difference between these two? Whenever I have the "My Calendar" option selected it shows birthdays, but selecting the Gmail account calendar also shows birthdays, so they are duplicated.

What is the "My Calendar" calendar pulling from? And what is the Gmail account calendar pulling from?

Thanks.
 
You don't mention what device you have, but from the "My ---" naming convention, I'm guessing it's a Samsung.
JohnJSal said:
What is the "My Calendar" calendar pulling from? And what is the Gmail account calendar pulling from?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
If my hunch about Samsung is correct, "My Calendar" is associated with your Samsung account. The GMail one is the Google Calendar, unless you have downloaded another and specifically configured it to use you GMail account. Google Calendar will sync by default with other devices you own.
 
Mr. Lucky said:
You don't mention what device you have, but from the "My ---" naming convention, I'm guessing it's a Samsung.

If my hunch about Samsung is correct, "My Calendar" is associated with your Samsung account. The GMail one is the Google Calendar, unless you have downloaded another and specifically configured it to use you GMail account. Google Calendar will sync by default with other devices you own.
Click to expand...

Yes, you are right. It's a Galaxy S4. Thank you for the answer. The only confusing thing is that "My Calendar" lists all the birthdays of my friends, but I never entered those in. Is it pulling from my Contacts app? Because I never entered my contacts manually either, it's just my Gmail contacts synced to the phone.
 
It's been awhile since I used an S4, but your hunch about getting info from the Contacts app seems logical. If so, it can probably be disabled as a configuration option, though you may have to manually remove birthday info for each contact, or clear data on the app and then reconfigure and re-sync - pick your poison. ;)

Edit: Just checked my wife's S4 - goto Settings > Accounts, and then tap the Samsung account name. She doesn't have one on her phone, but when the Google account was pressed, syncing Contact data was one of the options.
 
Mr. Lucky said:
It's been awhile since I used an S4, but your hunch about getting info from the Contacts app seems logical. If so, it can probably be disabled as a configuration option, though you may have to manually remove birthday info for each contact, or clear data on the app and then reconfigure and re-sync - pick your poison. ;)

Edit: Just checked my wife's S4 - goto Settings > Accounts, and then tap the Samsung account name. She doesn't have one on her phone, but when the Google account was pressed, syncing Contact data was one of the options.
Click to expand...

Strange...there is no Samsung account listed under Accounts. But all I needed to do, I guess, was disable the "My Calendar" option in the Google Calendar app, and it no longer shows the birthdays (and I assume anything else I put into the Calendar app that came with the phone).

Thanks again.
 
Actually, you're both likely incorrect (not to seem douchey) bc I can't figure out the difference between these two, but there is a "Samsung Calendar" where it shows whatever email address you use for your Samsung account, AND a "My Calendar", along with Google calendars of whatever email address you use for Google account.
So why would they have a Samsung calendar, and a My Calendar if it's also a Samsung calendar? Yes it pulls birthdays from your contacts, but all calendars do that, not just "My Calendar", thus its purpose must be for something else besides birthdays bc all calendars pull birthdays so that's only a default setting for my calendar. Therefore, it must be its own full calendar, but I can't figure out why they have all 3 (Samsung, Google, & My Calendar). If it is from the phone, meaning it's given you your own calendar from the phone (just like you can do with contacts, save to phone or Google account or Samsung account etc), WHY would they also have Samsung Calendar? I can't disable it bc I don't know what events are saved to it and don't want to miss them, but if I knew what it was there for precisely, besides my educated guesses, then I'd know what to do with it. They shouldn't have a phone calendar along with Samsung and Google, that's quite redundant. So I can't conclude that it is from the phone.
Any ideas, or does anyone know precisely?
 
It's the phone calendar. Don't ask me why they have a Samsung account and phone account, when it IS a Samsung phone. So Samsung (or Google) offers 2 Samsung calendar accounts. Idiots.
 
I agree that the people at Samsung are idiots. But my issue is slightly more than can be solved by simply deselecting "My Calendar" in my Google Calendar settings. The Southwest Airlines app has a function that allows you to save your flights to your phone calendar, but it saves them to "My Calendar", not my Google Calendar. Because of this, I cannot see these events on my Google Calendar on my desktop, nor can I send myself a calendar invite to my work address so that my flight is on my work calendar as well. I have scoured my settings on my Samsung Galaxy Note 9 and Google settings trying to figure out how to change the default calendar to my Google Calendar from "My Calendar" and come up empty.

Any ideas?

Thanks
 
go into the "my calendar" app and go into it's settings. locate at the bottom "manage calendars". you should see options to turn on google calendars. if not then you can hit the plus icon at the top and add in whatever calendars you have on your phone.
 
OK, this is awful!! I've got a brand new problem, obviously related to this subject. I'm guessing it happened in either a recent update of the Google Calendar app on my Samsung Phone, or a recent Android system update from Samsung.

When I create a new event in the Google Calendar app, by clicking on a day & time, it is now showing up by default as a "My Calendar" event, instead of an event in the calendar of my Gmail account. The colors are different, and if I visit the Google calendar using the browser of my Windows computer, the "My Calendar" events do not show up.

In the settings of the Google Calendar app on my phone, I can uncheck the box for "My Calendar," and those events disappear. However, when I create another event, it is still created by default as a "My Calendar" event. The other such events then reappear, and the checkbox for "My Calendar" in settings has been rechecked.

Damn, will those programmers never stop messing with things that aren't broken, and causing these kinds of problems? Has anyone solved this problem?
 
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