If Google Calendar Events Just Disappeared on Your Mac, Try These Temporary Fixes
This is what I get if I don’t touch my Mac for a day or so. Thanks to the advice of Lifehacker reader David (unrelated) we can now confirm that Mac users probably have a hell of a lot of time trying to manage their schedule today. If you sync Google Calendar with your Mac calendar, all of your events might just disappear. Fortunately, there is a workaround for event recovery, but this is cumbersome.
Several Mac users have taken to Google to report the issue – and I can confirm that I ran into it myself on a MacBook Pro running macOS Catalina. I pulled out the regular Calendar app, saw all of my events as they usually appear, and then watched each event that was synced to Google Calendar disappear . Penn and Teller would be proud of this trick, but my blissfully empty calendar means I can’t use my Mac to figure out where I should be (or when).
Two interim fixes (so far)
The first fix that helped get my Google events back to Mac calendar was to log into Google Calendar directly and edit the event. You have to make are any changes to the event, even if it’s just to add to the character in the title or description. Save it, refresh your Mac Calendar (Command + R) and your event should appear again. Repeat as needed until Google fixes this issue, which should hopefully happen soon.
If you want to re-add a calendar for which you control rights, open your Google Calendar settings, click your calendar, make sure the “Make Public” checkbox is checked, and copy the “Public iCal Address” link. Then open Calendar on your Mac, click File, New Calendar Subscription, and paste the .ICS URL into it.
Once Google fixes the sync issue, you can delete that temporary calendar subscription (otherwise you’ll have two copies of every event in that calendar in the Mac Calendar app, which will be annoying).
I haven’t found a great solution to re-add all the events to the calendars that others have shared with you, but I’ll let you know if I stumble upon a method to recover those events. At least this issue only affects your Mac, not iPhone or iPad, so you can still view all of your events on other Apple devices.