DON'T Lose Your Appointments – Back Up Your macOS Calendar

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calendar icon and time machine back up icon

The Calendars app in macOS Catalina is automatically backed up if you have an iCloud account and enable this option. However, I like to keep another back-up of my calendar events and urge you to do the same.

Here’s how to make a backup of your Mac’s Calendar:

Launch Calendar.
From the Calendar sidebar, choose the calendar you want to back up.
From the menus, select File > Export.
Export menu”>
Use the Save dialog box to browse to a location on your Mac to store the backup, click the Export button.

The selected calendar will be saved in iCal (.ics) format. Repeat for any other calendars you wish to back up. Saving these files on an external drive is also recommended in case you have problems with your computer.

These instructions apply, for the most part, to other versions of macOS besides Catalina. However, I’m using Catalina on a 16-inch MacBook Pro for this tutorial.

5 Comments

Muhammed Suso says:

June 22, 2023 at 3:49 am

I want before date of backups
dirk says:

July 27, 2020 at 2:19 am

Hi,
Why are we “urged” to make an extra / optional backup? As this export is a manual process (automator?), exporting several calendars each day is not really something to look forward to…
Or is the backup recommended in case of hardware / software problems — computer replacement — … ?

Many thanks in advance for your clarification.
- Muhammed Suso says:
  
  June 22, 2023 at 3:53 am
  
  I want before date of backups 100% of this phone.
Jack says:

July 21, 2020 at 3:29 pm

Does TimeMachine back up the Calendar?
- OWC Mark C says:
  
  July 21, 2020 at 4:07 pm
  
  Time Machine backs everything up but is most useful for restoring files and folders. When it comes to apps and app data, it gets a little more complicated.