Wix Bookings and iCloud: sync Apple Calendar to stop double bookings
Short answer: Wix Bookings’ built-in sync can connect one external calendar per staff member. If a staff member keeps appointments in iCloud (Apple Calendar on iPhone, iPad or Mac), in more than one iCloud calendar, or in iCloud plus Google or Outlook, share each iCloud calendar as a public calendar link and let an app such as Calendar Sync for Bookings turn its events into busy blocks on that person’s Wix schedule. Clients can then only book times when the person is really free.
What Wix’s own sync does
Wix’s help article “Syncing personal calendars with Wix Bookings” lists Google, Microsoft and Apple calendars. The limits that matter:
- One external calendar per staff member.
- It needs a Business Premium plan and cannot be set up in the Wix mobile app.
For a solo owner with one Apple calendar this can be enough. It falls short when someone keeps a work calendar and a family calendar in iCloud, when part of the team uses iPhones and part uses Google or Outlook, or when one person has calendars in two services.
Step 1: get the iCloud calendar link
On an iPhone or iPad:
- Open the Calendar app and tap Calendars.
- Tap the ⓘ next to the calendar you want to use.
- Turn on Public Calendar and tap Share Link, then Copy.
On a Mac: in Calendar, right-click (or Control-click) the calendar in the sidebar, choose Share Calendar, tick Public Calendar, then copy the address.
The link starts with webcal://. Keep it private: Apple’s public calendar link shows the events, including their titles, to anyone who has it. You can turn Public Calendar off and on again to get a new address.
Only calendars stored in iCloud have this option. A calendar that lives “On My iPhone” or “On My Mac” cannot be shared this way; move its events to an iCloud calendar first.
Step 2: link it to the staff member
Calendar Sync for Bookings (our app) reads the link and creates “Busy (Calendar Sync)” blocks on the staff member’s Wix schedule, so those times are no longer offered on your booking page:
- Install it from the Wix App Market and open Apps > Calendar Sync in your dashboard.
- Choose Link a calendar on the staff member’s card and paste the iCloud link.
- The app reads it at once and says how many events it found. Within a minute the busy times show in Booking Calendar as blocks.
The app only takes the busy times: event titles are stored encrypted and never appear on your site, and the link itself is stored encrypted. Each staff member can link several calendars on the paid plan, so an iCloud calendar, a Google work calendar and an Outlook calendar can all block the same person’s bookings. It checks every hour on the free plan (1 staff member, 1 calendar, 30 days ahead) and every 10 minutes on Pro ($9 per month or $7.50 billed yearly; up to 10 staff members with 5 calendars each, 180 days ahead), and Check calendars now reads them at once.
Things that trip people up
- Changes show up late. Apple updates the public version of a calendar on its own schedule, and any app then reads it at its next check. A brand-new event can take a while to block a slot. For a same-day appointment, press Check calendars now.
- All-day events. Birthdays and “working from home” entries are all-day events. Calendar Sync lets you choose per calendar whether all-day events block the whole day or are ignored.
- Shared family calendars. If you link a calendar that the whole family uses, everyone’s appointments block your bookings. Link only the calendars that hold your own time.
- Time zones. The app reads each event’s own time zone, so an event created while travelling still blocks the right hours on your site.
Getting Wix bookings into Apple Calendar
The other direction works with a subscribed calendar. Calendar Sync for Bookings gives each staff member a private booking feed address.
- Mac: Calendar > File > New Calendar Subscription, paste the address, and choose how often it refreshes.
- iPhone or iPad: Settings > Calendar > Accounts > Add Account > Other > Add Subscribed Calendar, paste the address.
Apple refreshes subscribed calendars on its own schedule, so a new booking can take a while to appear on the phone.
More: sync more than one calendar per staff member, Outlook and Microsoft 365, Google Calendar sync not working, calendar sync apps compared.