Questions and answers

It reads your feed and writes every event into a calendar of its own inside your Outlook or Google account, then keeps it up to date. Because the events are in your calendar, they show on your phone, watch and computer through the calendar apps you already use.

The first 30 days are free, built into the app: no key, no card and no email to start. After that it is $20 a year, the same price whether you buy from this site, the Microsoft Store or the Mac App Store.

Both. Download the Windows or Mac version from the home page, or get it from the Microsoft Store or the Mac App Store. The two are the same product with the same settings, and one key works on either.

No. PortalCal runs on your own computer and talks only to your feed and to Microsoft or Google for your calendar. There is no account with us and nothing of your schedule is stored anywhere but your computer and your calendar. The privacy policy lists exactly what leaves your computer and why.

No. PortalCal is an independent tool from CcsSync LLC. It reads the calendar feed your service publishes, the same link you could paste into a calendar app, and nothing else. Always confirm times that matter against the service itself.

No. The 30-day trial starts the first time PortalCal runs. Enter a key whenever you like, during the trial or after it; nothing is lost and nothing has to be set up again. A Store copy has no key at all: the subscription is in the Store.

From the subscription page; it arrives by email. One key activates one computer at a time. To move it, press Deactivate in Settings on the old computer, then enter the key on the new one.

Any iCal, ICS or webcal link, including one that needs a username and password. That covers most scheduling, rostering, school and club systems. PortalCal does not speak CalDAV; if your service offers only CalDAV, ask it for an ICS or iCal export, which many have without advertising it.

No. PortalCal makes a calendar of its own, called PortalCal unless you rename it, and writes only there. Your own appointments are never read or changed. In Outlook or Google you can show both calendars together.

Either, or both at once. Outlook means any personal Outlook.com or Microsoft 365 account; Google means Google Calendar. Each gets its own PortalCal calendar, and you sign in to each once, from Settings.

Google's permission screen has a tick box for calendar access that is not ticked by default, and it is easy to press Continue without it. Press Sign in again on the Google row in Settings and make sure the calendar box is ticked. If Google shows only an Allow / Deny choice, choose Allow.

PortalCal is signed by CcsSync LLC, but browsers treat any program that has not yet been downloaded many thousands of times with caution. In Edge choose Keep, then Keep anyway; in Chrome choose Download suspicious file. If the file vanishes from Downloads on its own, a browser add-on such as McAfee WebAdvisor or Norton Safe Web removed it: switch it off, download again, switch it back on. The Microsoft Store copy avoids all of this.

Every five minutes unless you choose otherwise. Settings → Starting up → Check for changes every (on a Mac, the General tab) offers five minutes up to a day. Sync now checks at once, whatever the interval.

While the computer is awake, yes: every five minutes, or less often if you set it so. Asleep, a Windows PC can wake itself to sync if you turn that on under Settings → Starting up → Wake this PC to sync (it needs to be plugged in). A Mac syncs in the short background wakes macOS makes on its own, every few minutes to every hour or so, and fully within a minute of waking. If your feed changes while the computer is closed, it reaches your calendar at the next wake. And the "If this is TODAY" marker in your calendar tells you if syncing has stopped altogether.

Settings → Your calendar → Remind me before a event (on a Mac, the Events tab): untick it to turn reminders off, or pick a different time from the list. The next sync rewrites every event with the new setting, so existing ones change too.

Versions before 1.34 wrote every event again after each update, and Outlook fires the reminder of anything it rewrites that is already inside its reminder time. From 1.34 an update leaves your events alone, so this no longer happens.

Settings → Notifications. Switch them off altogether, choose which kinds you want, or set quiet hours. Notifications only affect the pop-ups on this computer, never what lands in your calendar.

PortalCal checks once a day by itself. On Windows, Settings shows Update available with a short note of what changed and an Update button; on a Mac it is Check for Updates in the menu. A copy from the Microsoft Store or the Mac App Store is updated by that store instead. Help, under What's new, lists every version.

A marker PortalCal parks on tomorrow at noon and pushes forward every time a sync works. Seeing it a day ahead of you means everything is fine. If it stops moving, today catches up with it and its reminder tells you syncing has stopped: the computer is off or asleep, or PortalCal is not running. It is the only warning that still works when the app itself is not. Turn it off under Settings → If something goes wrong → Warn me if the PC is off.

On purpose. PortalCal never deletes a event that is more than a few days in the past, even when your feed stops showing it, so your calendar is also your history. The same history is kept on your computer and can be saved as a file, or put back into a calendar, from the history window at any time.

PortalCal notices and says your calendar no longer exists. Open Settings and create a new one, or choose another; the next sync fills it. Past events come back from the history window with Put back.

No. It installs under your own account with no administrator password, never changes your Windows or macOS sign-in settings, and the only things it writes are its own calendar, its settings and its log.

The computer has been offline or asleep, or the last few checks failed. Look at the log in the main window (on a Mac, Open log in the menu): the last lines say why. Most often it is the network, and syncing resumes by itself.

PortalCal stops updating your calendar and the banner turns red; everything already in the calendar stays. Enter a key, or get one from the subscription page, and syncing carries on where it left off. The trial runs once per computer: reinstalling does not restart it.

Windows: Settings → Apps → Installed apps, find PortalCal, Uninstall. Mac: quit PortalCal and drag it from Applications to the Trash. Either way nothing is deleted from your calendar: the events stay, and your history stays on the computer. The one thing left behind in each calendar is the "If this is TODAY" marker; to remove it, open Settings and press Sign out on each calendar row before uninstalling. If you want to use the key elsewhere, press Deactivate first.

Email support@portalcal.com. Say what the banner or the menu's first line reads, and paste the log if you can: it is in the main window on Windows, and under Open log → Copy all on a Mac. Help inside the app has a page for every message it can show.