Why Apple Calendar travel time doesn't reach Google

Published 13 September 2026 · Updated 26 September 2026

The DOFOTT figure looking at a phone, puzzled, a location pin above it

Apple Calendar has a travel-time setting, and Google Calendar™ doesn't. So if you plan your day in Apple's app, it's natural to set travel time there and assume it's handled. On your Mac and your iPhone, it is. Everywhere Google is looking, the drive isn't there.

Apple's travel time stays with Apple

Travel time in Apple Calendar is a setting on the event: pick a number of minutes, or let Apple estimate one from the map. Apple draws it as a strip above the meeting and reminds you when to leave. It's a good feature, and older than we are.

It's also Apple's own. Google Calendar™ events have no travel-time field, so when the meeting lives in a Google account, the travel time you set in Apple Calendar has nowhere to go. Google never gets it. That means:

Your colleagues look at your calendar and see the meeting, with free time right up to it.
Booking pages that read your Google Calendar™ offer the slot you'll spend driving.
Google Calendar™ itself, in a browser or on an Android phone, shows nothing where the trip is. So does any other app reading the same account.
The way back isn't covered anywhere: Apple adds time before an event, not after it.

What does reach everywhere

An event. Google passes an ordinary event to every place your calendar is read, Apple Calendar included. That's what DOFOTT writes: a real event before and after every meeting with a location, in your Google account, timed by Google Maps™, showing you as busy. Your colleagues see it, booking pages respect it, and Apple Calendar shows it too, with no setting to touch in Apple's app.

Whether this works for you depends on one thing: where your events actually live.

If your events live in a Google account

This is the common case: a work or personal Google account added to Apple Calendar, with the events themselves stored at Google. Apple's app shows them; it doesn't own them.

Everything works. DOFOTT connects to the Google account, reads the calendars you tick, and writes its blocks there. They come down to Apple Calendar like any other event. You never have to open Google Calendar™ for it.

If your events live in iCloud

Then DOFOTT can't see them, and nothing will happen. An iCloud calendar is Apple's, and DOFOTT asks Google for calendars, not Apple. There is no clever way around this and we would rather say so than let you sign up and wonder. For those calendars, Apple's own travel time is the one you have.

How to tell which one you have

Apple Calendar groups calendars by the account they come from.

On a Mac: open the calendar list on the left. The headings are accounts — iCloud, Gmail, the name of a work account. Find the calendar your meetings go into and read the heading above it.
On an iPhone: tap Calendars at the bottom. Same grouping, same headings.

If your meetings sit under the Google account, you're in the first case. If they sit under iCloud, the second.

Editing from Apple, with DOFOTT running

Change an event in Apple Calendar and the change goes up to Google, because that is where the event lives. DOFOTT sees it there and moves the blocks with it. Three things are worth knowing:

It is a little slower. A change made in Google Calendar™ reaches DOFOTT in seconds. One made in Apple Calendar has to reach Google first, on Apple's own schedule, and then it reaches us. Half a minute is normal.
Deleting a block counts. If you delete one of DOFOTT's blocks in Apple Calendar, that is the same as deleting it anywhere else: it stays deleted for that event and never comes back, unless the meeting moves somewhere new.
Your own events are safe either way. DOFOTT only ever touches blocks it wrote itself, and it can tell which ones those are.

Why the blocks show up a few minutes late in Apple Calendar

DOFOTT writes a block to Google within seconds, which is why Google Calendar™ shows it straight away. Apple Calendar is not told when something changes at Google; it goes and asks on a schedule of its own, and on a Mac that is every five minutes unless you change it. The few minutes you wait are that schedule, and nothing DOFOTT can speed up from its side. You can, from yours:

On a Mac: Calendar → Settings → Accounts → your Google account → set Refresh calendars to Every minute. To see it now, press ⌘R.
On an iPhone: Google accounts can only fetch, not push, and the shortest schedule is every 15 minutes (Settings → Apps → Calendar → Calendar Accounts → Fetch New Data). Automatically fetches in the background only while the phone is charging on Wi-Fi. What is quicker than either: open the Calendar app, tap Calendars at the bottom and pull down. That fetches at once.

The names can differ a little between versions of macOS and iOS.

Does Apple Calendar travel time sync to Google Calendar?

No. Travel time is a setting Apple Calendar keeps for itself, and a Google Calendar™ event has no field for it. Google Calendar™ in a browser or on Android, your colleagues and booking pages see the meeting, not the drive.

Does Apple Calendar add travel time for the way back?

No. Apple adds travel time before an event, not after it. DOFOTT adds a block before and after every event with a location.

Why do DOFOTT blocks show up late in Apple Calendar?

Apple Calendar checks Google on its own schedule, every five minutes on a Mac by default, while Google Calendar™ shows a block the moment DOFOTT writes it. On a Mac, set the Google account to refresh every minute; on an iPhone, where the shortest schedule is 15 minutes, pull down on the Calendars list to fetch at once.

Does DOFOTT work if I use Apple Calendar?

Yes, when your events live in a Google account shown in Apple Calendar: the blocks appear there like any other event. Events in an iCloud calendar DOFOTT cannot see.

What does DOFOTT cost?

Twelve meetings with a place a month are free. In a month you go past that it is $5 + tax and the rest of that month is unlimited; or $36 + tax a year, with no limit. Without a plan DOFOTT writes nothing new and leaves your calendar as it is.

Google Calendar™ and Google Maps™ are trademarks of Google LLC.