Set Up Your Calendars

Align stores every time block as an event in your device's calendars. This page explains how to give Align access to them, choose which ones appear in the timeline and decide where new time blocks are saved.

Calendar Access

Align needs Full Access to your calendars. It uses that access to:

Show the events from the calendars you turn on as time blocks in your timeline.
Save new time blocks, and changes to existing ones, as events in your calendars.
Create and edit calendars when you ask it to.

Without full access, Align can't show or save time blocks. Write-only access isn't enough.

Grant Access During Onboarding

Align asks for calendar access during onboarding. Depending on your version of onboarding, it may first ask Bring your calendars?:

Yes, bring my calendars: after you allow access, you choose which of your calendars appear in your timeline. Turn on at least one to continue.
Keep Align separate: Align creates a calendar named "Align" and keeps your time blocks there. Your other calendars stay out of your timeline until you turn them on in Settings → Calendars.

When iOS asks for permission, allow full access. If you choose not to allow access, you can keep exploring and connect later in Settings.

Fix Access Later

If access was denied, Align shows No calendar access in the timeline and in Settings → Calendars. To fix it:

Tap Open the Settings app, or open the iOS Settings app yourself.
Go to Align → Calendars and select Full Access.
Return to Align. If the timeline still shows the message, tap Retry.

If Align shows Calendar access restricted, an active restriction on the device, such as parental controls, may be blocking calendar access.

Choose Which Calendars Appear in Align

Open Settings and tap Calendars.
Calendars are grouped by account. Turn on the calendars you want in your timeline.
Turn off the ones you don't want to see.

Turning a calendar off only hides its events in Align. It doesn't delete the calendar or its events. Calendars you add to your device later start turned off, so turn them on here when you want them in Align.

If no calendar is turned on, the timeline shows No synced calendars. Tap Open calendar settings and turn on at least one calendar.

If you chose Keep Align separate during onboarding, turning on one of your own calendars here brings your calendars back into Align: the editor offers them again, and the Default calendar setting reappears in Settings.

No Calendars Listed

If Calendars shows No calendars, there are no calendars on your device yet. Tap Create new calendar to add one from Align, or add a calendar account in the iOS Settings app.

Supported Accounts

Align works with any calendar that appears in Apple's Calendar app, including iCloud, Google, Outlook and Exchange accounts, and calendars stored only on your device. Add accounts in the iOS Settings app; their calendars then appear in Settings → Calendars, grouped by account.

Create a Calendar

You can keep your time blocks in a calendar of their own.

Open Settings → Calendars.
Tap New calendar at the bottom of the list.
Enter a Title.
Tap Select a source and choose the account the calendar belongs to (for example iCloud).
Pick a Color.
Tap Save.

The new calendar is turned on in Align right away.

Edit or Delete a Calendar

Tap a calendar's name in Settings → Calendars to change its title or color. The account can't be changed after the calendar is created.

To remove a calendar, open it and tap Delete calendar, then confirm. All events in the calendar are deleted with it.

Read-Only Calendars

Some calendars can't be changed from Align, such as subscribed calendars, holiday calendars or shared calendars you can only view. In Settings → Calendars, a calendar you can't edit shows This calendar isn't editable. and can't be opened for editing. You can still turn it on or off.

Events from calendars that don't allow changes appear as locked time blocks and can't be changed from Align. Make changes in the app or service that owns the calendar. See Calendar-Based Locked Blocks.

Default Calendar for New Time Blocks

Choose which calendar the editor starts with when you create a time block:

Open Settings and tap Default calendar (in the Editor section).
Choose an option:
- Default: Use the default calendar selected by the system.
- Custom: Always start with the calendar you choose here. Tap it to pick a calendar.
- Last one used: Start with the calendar you picked most recently in the editor.

You can still change the calendar of any time block in the editor's Calendar section. See The Editor.

When a Calendar Is Removed

If the calendar chosen for Custom or Last one used is deleted, turned off in Align or no longer allows changes, the editor falls back to the last calendar you used. If that one isn't available either, it uses the system's default calendar, or, if that isn't turned on in Align, the first turned-on calendar that allows changes.

Default behaves the same way: when the system's default calendar isn't turned on in Align, the editor starts with the first turned-on calendar that allows changes.

If you chose Keep Align separate during onboarding, the editor always starts with the Align calendar and the Default calendar setting is hidden.

Refresh Your Calendars

Changes made in other calendar apps sync to Align automatically. To ask for an update right away, pull down on the timeline. See Refreshing Your Calendars.

Tips

Keep time blocks in their own calendar if you want to show or hide them separately in other calendar apps.
Turn off busy shared calendars you don't plan around to keep the timeline focused.
Use Custom as the default calendar so new time blocks always land in the same place.

Need more help? Contact us.