How to sync Canvas assignments to your phone calendar

Canvas knows every due date you have. Your phone, the thing you actually look at 90 times a day, knows none of them. Fixing that takes about three minutes and one copy-paste.

Canvas gives every student a personal calendar feed, an iCal link that other calendar apps can subscribe to. Subscribe once, and your assignments show up next to your classes, shifts and plans. Here's how to set it up, plus the parts nobody mentions until something goes wrong.

Where do you find your Canvas calendar feed link?

On a computer:

1. Log in to Canvas and click Calendar in the left-hand navigation.
2. On the right side of the calendar page, click Calendar Feed.
3. Copy the URL in the box that pops up.

That link is personal to you and includes all your courses, so don't post it anywhere public. Anyone with it can see your calendar.

If you only have your phone, the Canvas Student app for iOS has a Subscribe to Calendar Feed option in its settings, per Canvas's own guide. Menus move around between app versions, so if you can't find it, the web route above always works.

How do you add Canvas to your iPhone calendar?

Apple's Calendar app can subscribe to the link directly. These are the steps from Apple's support page at the time of writing:

iOS 26 or later

1. Open Calendar and tap the Calendars button.
2. Tap Add Calendar, then Add Subscription Calendar.
3. Paste your Canvas link and tap Find.
4. Give it a name (something like "Canvas") and pick a color.
5. Next to Account, choose iCloud, then tap Done.

iOS 18 or earlier

1. Open Calendar and tap Calendars at the bottom.
2. Tap Add Calendar, then Add Subscription Calendar.
3. Paste the link and tap Subscribe.
4. Name it, pick a color, choose iCloud from the Account menu, and tap Add.

Choosing iCloud means the calendar shows up on your Mac and iPad too, as long as they're signed in to the same Apple Account. On some older iOS versions you'll also find a subscription option in the Settings app under Calendar accounts, but the Calendar app route above is what Apple currently documents.

How do you add Canvas to Google Calendar?

Google only lets you add a calendar by URL from a computer, not from the phone app. Once it's added, it syncs to your phone automatically.

1. Go to calendar.google.com on a computer.
2. On the left, find Other calendars and click the +.
3. Choose From URL.
4. Paste your Canvas feed link and click Add calendar.
5. Open Google Calendar on your phone and check that the new calendar is listed and turned on. On Android, if it doesn't appear, look in the app's settings for that calendar and make sure sync is enabled.

Canvas also has a step-by-step guide for Google Calendar if you want screenshots.

Why is my Canvas calendar not updating?

Because subscribed calendars aren't live. Your phone or Google checks the link on a schedule, and Canvas doesn't push changes to them.

So if your professor moves a due date at 9 p.m. for something due at 8 a.m. tomorrow, your calendar may still show the old time. Removing and re-adding the calendar sometimes triggers a fresh pull, but it's not guaranteed.

What syncs from Canvas, and what doesn't?

Here's what to expect, based on Canvas's documentation at the time of writing:

A few things trip people up:

• No due date, no calendar entry. If a professor posts an assignment but puts the deadline only in the description or the syllabus, it won't appear.
• New classes. Added a course mid-semester or starting a new term? Canvas's guide says to re-import the feed to pick up the new course. Easiest fix: copy the link again and re-subscribe.
• Time zones. If a due time looks off by a few hours, check the time zone in your Canvas account settings and your phone.
• It's one-way. Deleting an event on your phone doesn't change anything in Canvas, and the event may come back on the next refresh anyway.

Is a calendar subscription enough?

For a lot of students, it's a solid start. Seeing assignments next to your work schedule makes it obvious when a week is about to get rough. But a calendar is passive: it shows you things if you look. It won't tell you the essay due Friday is worth 20% of your grade or that the professor has a strict no-late-work policy.

Canvas's own notifications help with that, and the Canvas Student app lets you set reminders on individual assignments. We compared the two approaches in Aeero vs Canvas notifications.

Aeero takes a different route. It connects to Canvas directly instead of going through the iCal feed, so it sees due dates along with grades, late policies and professor office hours. Then it texts you first when something's coming up or changes, and checks back until the assignment is actually submitted. It can also add or remove items on your calendar, always after asking you to confirm.

Using Blackboard, Moodle or Brightspace instead?

The same idea works for every major LMS. Each one has its own calendar feed link, just hidden in a different menu. We walk through all three in how to find your Blackboard, Moodle or Brightspace calendar link.