Hello again readers! Dear Berry is here once again with a mailbag full of BlackBerry questions and woes. Today's question comes from Garry who asks:

I have a Google calendar and my wife has one as well. She has shared her calendar with me, when I login online I can see her calendar, however I can't see her calendar on my BlackBerry native calendar. Is there anyway to see that information on my BlackBerry ‎calendar or will I always need to login online?

With the introduction of BlackBerry OS 10.2 (and higher), your device offers the ability to add a subscribed calendar for accessing public, or in this case private, calendars such as this.

The main instructions on how to add a subscribed public calendar is as follows:

  • From the home screen, swipe down from the top and select Settings
  • Tap Accounts, and then tap on the Add Account icon at the bottom
  • Tap Subscribed Calendar
  • Enter in a name for this calendar in the Calendar Name field
  • In the Server Address field you will need to copy and paste the address of the public calendar in ICS format. For example, the format of the web address would be http://google.com/calendars/ical/dearberry/calendar.ics

In order to find this public or private address you will need to obtain the iCAL URL (ending in .ics) link to your wife's calendar to add to your BlackBerry device. This is the link you would then copy into the server field as described above.

What you can do is have your wife access her Google Calendar from your PC through the browser and perform these steps.

  • On the left hand side of the screen, under My calendars, click on the arrow to the right of your wife's personal calendar (it should be her name)
  • Select Calendar Settings from the drop-down list
  • As your wife's calendar is not public, there should be an option on the screen called Private Address
  • You should see listed next to Private Address two options: XML and ICAL. Click on the ICAL icon which will bring up the link to her calendar so that you may copy and paste into any application that supports this format
  • Send this link to your device and copy and paste it into the Server field when adding a subscribed account as outlined above

It will take some time to sync. From the calendar app you can swipe down from the top and select Manage to make sure the account is checked off to appear in your calendar. You can even tap on the Refresh button as well to make sure it syncs. Once it has synced you should see her events in your BlackBerry calendar.

Now for those who wish to subscribe to a public calendar such as a sports team or other calendars the same instructions apply. Only this time you would use the Calendar Address field to grab the link from rather than the private one. Furthermore, many Sports teams or other interesting calendars such as the ones Google offers, display the iCAL link directly on their sites so you would simply copy and paste that link into the Subscribed Calendar address when you create that new account. For example, if you follow an MLB team, in this example let's say the Yankees, their downloadable schedule provides the direct link which you can easily copy and insert.

See you next time!

Have a question about BlackBerry etiquette? Need advice on how to cope with your BlackBerry addiction? Dear Berry has you covered and there's no question too big or problem too small. Submit any of your BlackBerry woes by email to [email protected] or on Twitter @DearBerryCB.

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