How to sync your calendars (optional, recommended)

Note: This article is for tutors - if you're a student, you can find syncing options here.

We highly recommend that tutors use our 2-way Google Calendar sync feature. Once connected, bookings will instantly be added to your Google Calendar, and Google Calendar events will create unavailable time in LanguaTalk.

This will make it easier to 1) check bookings, 2) set time as unavailable, and 3) if you are also working through other websites, set identical availability whilst still avoiding double bookings. Highly useful!

To turn on the sync, log in, go to Settings in the top right of the menu, then select Calendar Sync. Click the button to connect.

Google will then ask for permissions. Make sure you tick all the boxes. This is essential to ensure that the sync works - be assured, the permissions are only used for syncing your calendars and you can hide event names for privacy.

Once connected, you'll need to select the correct calendar(s) to sync with.

Then check that it's working. To do this, you can go to the Calendar tab and you should see appointments that have been added from your connected calendars.

If you're teaching via another website, you'll need to sync it with Google calendar too. You'll notice under 'Also, block off time from these calendars' we give you the option to sync more than one calendar. This is useful if you teach via a site that does not allow you to add lessons to your main Google calendar, as you can sync both your main calendar and the calendar used for the other website.

What to do if you do not currently use Google Calendar:

The easiest solution may be to switch to using Google Calendar. If you don't have a Google account, the first step would be to create one. But if you really want to stick with your current calendar tool, such as Apple or Outlook, as a workaround you could 1) create a Google calendar, 2) sync it with LanguaTalk, then 3) sync the Google calendar with the calendar you use. Here are some help articles if you want to try this: Sync Apple Calendar with Google Calendar | Sync Outlook with Google Calendar

How to resolve issues with the sync:

We've found that tutors sometimes have issues with Google's calendar sync. 99% of the time, they're able to fix it by going to Settings > Calendar sync, removing the selected calendar from the sync (select 'select a calendar...), then saving, adding it back and saving again. You do not need to click 'Disconnect' to do this. 

Afterwards, check that the appointments are correct on LanguaTalk's Calendar tab and Google calendar. 

Unfortunately, Google's sync can be unreliable at times and may need resetting using the method we describe above. Note that this is a third party tool, not something built by us.

UPDATE: we added an option to 'delete all events'. Clicking this will remove any events that are not being cleared from your calendar after trying the above fix. Give it a try! This will clear all events, so you will probably want to do the following to ensure any events that are still on your Google Calendar are brought back into LanguaTalk. To do this, change the selection to 'Select a calendar', and save. Then after 10 seconds, select your calendar again and save. Then check on the Calendar page that the right events are showing.

Other possible problems:

Sometimes, tutors don't realise that lessons on another site they work on don't get added to their main Google calendar but rather to a separate one. If you haven't added the calendar, you can do this under 'Also block off time from these calendars' on LanguaTalk's Calendar Sync tab.

Another common problem is if you have all-day events on your Google calendar. These are sometimes hard to spot on Google Calendar as they may show only at the very top of a given day. If you have all-day events, you'll see the whole day blocked off when you check the Calendar tab on LanguaTalk.

If you still can't find a solution after trying the above solutions, please let us know.