Need a calendar setup that syncs reliably to iPhone and can handle Google invite changes properly

[DGGoingUphill]

I’m in desperate need of a calendar service that can both reliably push calendar changes to the iPhone and deal with Google’s non-standard invite updates. When I use iCloud, calendars sync around my devices instantaneously and I can deal with invites and invite updates received from folks who don’t use Google calendar. But, when I receive updates from Google users, the changes don’t process in iCloud. For a while I used Fastmail for calendars (my email provider). This resolved a lot of issues, but sync to the phone was unreliable (iPad and Mac were instant and rock solid). Fastmail says this relates to something Apple does to conserve battery power on the phone and Fastmail has no control over it. It’s not just that sync became slow, but often I wouldn’t receive sync updates unless I manually updated calendars on the phone. This meant that I never knew if my phone and watch were up to date. It got so bad that I went back to iCloud for calendars, but now I am dealing with all the Google users pushing those bad invites.

Have any of you figured out a system that both reliably syncs and can manage Google invites properly (putting my calendars in Google is not an option)?

 

[DaPizzaMan]

Readdle makes some solid apps. I use Spark for email and their Calendar app for calendars (and reminders!): https://readdle.com/calendars5

 

[DGGoingUphill]

Readdle makes some solid apps. I use Spark for email and their Calendar app for calendars (and reminders!): https://readdle.com/calendars5

Thanks for the rec, but it looks like it only works with the native calendars or Google, so not really a solution to my problem, unless I’m missing something. What Calendar service do you use?

 

[DaPizzaMan]

Thanks for the rec, but it looks like it only works with the native calendars or Google, so not really a solution to my problem, unless I’m missing something. What Calendar service do you use?

You can add local accounts, Google, Exchange, iCloud, and Outlook. And I receive invites from other Google accounts.

 

[BrianBaughn]

You can add local accounts, Google, Exchange, iCloud, and Outlook. And I receive invites from other Google accounts.

But what about event updates?

The OP may find something that will work but I just have to say that cross-platform calendaring, invites and updates isn't going to function the way inter-company calendaring works when everyone's on the same system.

I despise getting calendar invites from clients!

 

[bransoj]

I use Google Calendar for my stuff synced up to my iPhone and iPad and have done for years. Use it for my own stuff and have multiple synced calendars plus one i administer and share to others. Everything seems to work fine for me including synced calendars updating changes as and when they happen.

Recently my wife has been doing online fitness classes and gets a calendar invite for the classes from the instructor. These come to my email with a .ics attachment and i add this to my calendar both via Gmail on a PC or on my iPhone and they add to my calendar fine and then show within Zoom for my wife to just click on and start the class stream over Zoom. No idea what the instructor uses for sending the invites but it all seems to work fine.

 

[DoubleFlyaway]

I use Fantastical across all my devices and am happy with it. I am self-employed and use Google calendars for my work account with no issues.

 

[DGGoingUphill]

Thanks all for the input. One thing I think everyone is missing in my request is that I can’t use Google Calendar as my service.