How to Delete Spam Calendars From Your IPhone
If your iPhone starts showing random calendar events saying “Your iPhone is HACKED”, you may be subscribed to a spam calendar. While it’s intimidating, you can’t take care of it – it’s easy to unsubscribe if you know what to do.
How calendar spam starts
We’ve all visited websites that send out spam messages like “Your phone is infected, CLEAN IT NOW”. If you click the wrong button on such a site, it may subscribe you to a spam calendar containing links to phishing sites or other malware. The calendar itself is relatively harmless, but it likely contains links to scam websites. If you do not click on these links, your data is most likely safe. However, you will still see those scary (and annoying) calendar alerts quite often.
Some calendars send notifications much more frequently than others, and you may find yourself in some awkward situations if the calendar contains swear words or other inappropriate messages.
How to Delete Calendar Spam from Your iPhone
In most cases, these spam attacks target the stock Calendar app on your iPhone. Open the app and tap the Calendars button located in the bottom corner of the screen. Then delete any unfamiliar calendars by unchecking them, which will remove spam from your iPhone. You can also delete these calendars completely by clicking the i button next to the calendar, scrolling down and clicking Delete Calendar .
You may not be able to delete calendars associated with your Gmail or Outlook accounts using this method (although you can still hide them from the default Calendar app on iPhone). To remove spam calendars associated with non-iCloud accounts, open the respective calendar apps and do your job. For example, the Google Calendar app allows you to delete Gmail calendars.
To prevent calendar spam in the future, be careful when dealing with pop-ups on new websites. When you accidentally tap on one, iOS tries to protect you by asking if you really want to add the new instance to your calendar. Carefully review the text in the pop-up window and decline requests to add a calendar.
Using a good ad blocker or your own DNS like NextDNS is also a great idea. These services can automatically block a bunch of spam domains so you don’t end up on those sites at all.