Apple Calendar Not Updating in Google Calendar? Here's Why

You added an event on your iPhone and it hasn't turned up in Google yet, or a shared iCloud calendar in Google always seems to be a day behind. The cause depends on how the two are connected, and one of the two common setups has a real, unavoidable limit.

If you're using Apple's public share link

Apple lets you publish a calendar as a public link, which you can then subscribe to in Google using "From URL." This is a subscription, not a sync, and it has two hard limits:

Google controls the refresh schedule, not you. It can be hours between re-fetches, sometimes closer to a day.
It's read-only. You can see the events in Google, but you can't edit them there, and nothing you do in Google reaches iCloud.

If this is your setup, "not updating" usually means "hasn't been re-fetched yet," and there's no button to force it sooner.

If you're using a real two-way sync tool

A genuine sync service connects to both accounts and writes real, editable events, which is faster and two-way, but iCloud still has one limit neither Apple nor any third-party tool can remove: Apple doesn't send third-party apps a notification when an iCloud calendar changes. Google and Microsoft do, which is why those directions can react within about a minute. iCloud has to be checked instead, and Calendar Family does that every 15 minutes.

So even with real sync:

An event created or edited in iCloud can take up to 15 minutes to appear in Google.
An event created or edited in Google reaches iCloud straight away, since that direction isn't limited by the check.

Fixing it

Click Add calendar and choose Apple iCloud, connecting with your Apple ID and an app-specific password from appleid.apple.com.
Click Add calendar again and choose Google, through Google's standard consent screen.
Click Add connection, set your iCloud and Google calendars as the two sides, and choose Two-way sync.
Pick All details or Free/busy only, and let the first sync run.

From then on, both calendars are genuinely writable from either side, edits made in Google land within about a minute, and iCloud edits land within 15.

The short version

Stale for a day → you're on Apple's public share link; switch to real two-way sync.
Stale by up to 15 minutes, only when the event started in iCloud → that's Apple's own notification limit, and it's the fastest any tool can be for that direction.
Fine going the other way → Google-to-iCloud updates aren't affected by the check at all.

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Frequently asked questions

Why does my Apple/iCloud calendar seem out of date in Google?

Usually one of two causes. If you used Apple's public calendar share link and subscribed to it in Google, Google refreshes that link on its own slow, unpredictable schedule, sometimes many hours apart. If you're using a real sync tool instead, iCloud simply doesn't push change notifications to third-party apps, so even a fast tool has to check on a schedule rather than react instantly.

Can I make an Apple share link update faster in Google?

No. Google, not Apple, controls how often it re-fetches a subscribed calendar link, and there's no setting to force it. A shared iCloud link is also read-only in Google regardless of refresh speed - you can view it but not edit from there.

What's the fastest my iCloud calendar can update in Google?

With real two-way sync, an event you create in iCloud can take up to 15 minutes to reach Google, because Apple doesn't offer third-party apps a push notification for iCloud changes, only scheduled checking. Going the other way, a change in Google reaches iCloud straight away.

Is there any way to get instant updates from iCloud?

Not from Apple's side - the 15-minute check is a limit of what Apple exposes to any third-party calendar tool, not a setting a sync service can turn up. What you can control is making the other direction, and the setup, as fast and reliable as possible, which is what two-way sync does.