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How to Stop Gmail from Adding Events to Google Calendar

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About a month ago, Google added a capability to Gmail and Google Calendar that allows Gmail to automatically add events it see in your email to your Google Calendar. Here’s how to disable that feature.

The feature scans your Gmail email and automatically creates new events based on emails you receive that include dates and times, etc. This means that when you receive confirmations from buying game tickets, make a hotel reservation, or booking a flight, Gmail and Google Calendar will automatically add that event to your calendar.

On top of that, these automatically-added events will update with new information in real-time, including important information like flight numbers and check-in times, as well as update you if your flight is delayed.

Of course, we can see this feature being helpful for some users, but for most it’s seen as a nuisance. Personally, I like to manually add events to my Google Calendar in the right format that I like, since Google’s automatic way of doing it doesn’t use correct formatting most of the time.

Here’s how to stop Gmail from automatically adding events to your Google Calendar.

How to Stop Gmail from Adding Events to Google Calendar

Disabling this feature is actually really easy and only takes a minute or so. While this feature has mostly showcased by Google on Android devices, we’re going to show you how to do it on your computer by logging into your Google account. Scroll down for instructions on Android.

  • Log into your Google account by visiting Google.com and clicking Sign In up in the top-right corner of the screen.
  • Once logged in, visit calendar.google.com.
  • Click on the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and then select Settings.

Screen Shot 2014-12-03 at 10.49.38 AM

  • Find the setting called Events in Gmail.
  • Uncheck Add automatically.

Screen Shot 2014-12-03 at 10.52.49 AM copy

  • Click Continue when the pop-up appears.
  • Scroll back up and click Save toward the upper-left corner of the screen.

Furthermore, while you’re in your Google Calendar settings, you can disable email invitations from showing up in your Google Calendar as well.

  • While in the Google Calendar settings, scroll down and find the setting called Automatically add invitations to my calendar.
  • Select No, only show invitations to which I have responded.
  • Scroll back up and click Save toward the upper-left corner of the screen.

Screen Shot 2014-12-03 at 10.51.00 AM copy

How to Disable Automatic Gmail Events on Android

To stop Gmail from automatically adding events to your Google Calendar, here’s how to disable the feature on your Android device.

  • Open up the Calendar app on your Android smartphone or tablet.
  • Tap on the main menu in the top-left corner of the screen. It will be a button that consists of three horizontal parallel lines.
  • Scroll down and tap on Settings.
  • Select Events from Gmail.
  • Switch off Add events from Gmail.

Google has been taking the effort over the last couple of years to slowly integrate all of its services together, and the ability for Gmail to automatically add events to Google Calendar is just one example of this.

However, while most avid Google users are all for the streamline of Google’s various services, it can certainly go too far sometimes, and that’s when users have to step in and disable a few features in order to gain back control of their account.

We wouldn’t say Google is crossing the line, but this kind of feature is something that would probably be best suited as an opt-in feature, where users could enable it if they wanted to, and those who didn’t want the feature, could just move on without having to do anything different.

Nonetheless, we can see why Google implemented such a feature, as it can make planning easier for busy people, but most users just want all the control when it comes to adding events to their Google Calendar.

10 Comments

10 Comments

  1. Hermes Morell

    12/16/2014 at 6:26 pm

    Excellent help

  2. Danny

    07/18/2015 at 7:02 am

    Every website I’ve read about this topic is full of praise for this feature. Is there no one out there not outraged or concerned that Google reads all emails? Does everyone believe that this is just some benign, helpful little tool. Does everyone believe that Google just scans emails in some detached, disinterested way? If they did this to your snail mail, they’d be violating federal law in the US and probably most other western countries, but for some reason everyone accepts their reading our emails.

  3. Kate

    07/21/2015 at 11:05 am

    Danny, I am outraged. I only found out about this because I checked my Google calender (that I share with my boyfriend) one day only to find that apparently I (or he?) had booked a hotel in New York for three days. Needless to say, I was very surprised (especially since we live in Germany) and confused until I found this article.

    Anyway, I feel like this is a huge violation of privacy. It’s *my* calendar, damnit, and nobody should have access to it other than the people I give it to. Plus: they introduced this quietly and had the option on by default. That’s poor usabilty. The user should always have to check a box to make something happen, not uncheck a box to not make something happen.

    As much as I love Google mail, this is making me look for alternatives.

    • Kami

      07/07/2019 at 8:52 am

      Hello – I am just as outraged. These comments are already 5 years old and I just experienced this now in June 2019!
      Google informed me that I made hotel bookings in both Thailand & Kenya which I never made or dreamed of. There was no mail from these hotels in my gmail or any other mailbox. The dates where even overlapping so presumable I was going to stay at the same time in Thailand and in Africa.
      WHAT can be done ? Google does not reply.

  4. Megan

    11/18/2015 at 9:32 am

    The default settings were sending events straight to my calendar – with NOTHING in gmail to alert me to them. Unacceptable. How can google be light years behind on basic calendar management? Just follow Outlook – an email notifying me of the event and a setting to auto-add to my calendar if i want. Pathetic google!

  5. Terry

    12/08/2015 at 10:58 am

    I can’t even find the line in calender settings that would even allow me to opt out of this. Followed all instructions given by this site and Google but once I get inside of settings there is no “events from Google” and therefore no sub catagory of “add events from Google” to switch off. Help… I have a Samsung Note 4.

  6. Pat Wilks

    03/07/2016 at 10:33 am

    I have a Samsung Note 4, and Google has added an event in duplicate and I have followed the directions but cannot find a way to delete the duplicate. & I resent the fact that Google is automatically adding things without asking my permission.

  7. Alejandro P

    03/09/2016 at 10:28 pm

    Awesome help, easy to follow and my calendar does not get congested now. Thanks for the research and help.

  8. Susan

    03/17/2016 at 9:52 am

    It’s so annoying – I have loads of holidays booked according to my Google calendar. I am guessing that when I have researched holidays it has put the dates in regardless of whether it’s booked or not? Or does this mean I have forgotten to cancel a booking and am suddenly going to get charged for going to Thailand when I’m not!

    • Kami

      07/07/2019 at 9:12 am

      Hi,
      I am just as concerned.
      “I am guessing that when I have researched holidays it has put the dates in regardless of whether it’s booked or not?”
      This could not be the reason since I never searched for any hotel in Kenya – which Google states that I have done. Google states that I have booked hotels in both Thailan & Kenya on 4 different occassions partly overlapping periods supposing that I am staying in both countries at the same time.

      ••• Does anyone have an idea how to get an answer from Google ?

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