Connect Apple iCloud Calendar

Before you start

• Your Apple Account e-mail address and password: the account you use for iCloud on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.
• Two-factor authentication on that account. Most Apple Accounts have it; Apple offers app-specific passwords only when it is on (if it isn’t).
• An iPhone, iPad or Mac nearby, in case Apple sends a verification code when you sign in.
• A computer makes it easiest: you copy a password from one browser tab and paste it into Attaché in another. On an iPhone or iPad, copy it in Safari and paste it in the Attaché app.

Part 1: Create the password at Apple

1. 1

   Step 1: Sign in at account.apple.com

   Open account.apple.com in a web browser and sign in with your Apple Account. If Apple sends a verification code to your other devices, enter it.

   On screen

   Your Apple Account page, with its sections listed down the side (on a phone, behind the menu button). One of them is Sign-In and Security.

2. 2

   Step 2: Open App-Specific Passwords

   Choose Sign-In and Security, then App-Specific Passwords.

   On screen

   A short explanation of app-specific passwords, and any you already have, each listed by its name. No App-Specific Passwords at all? Two-factor authentication is off.

3. 3

   Step 3: Generate a new password

   Choose Generate an app-specific password. If you already have some, choose the + button by the list instead.

   On screen

   A small box that asks you to name the new password.

4. 4

   Step 4: Name it Attaché

   Type Attaché (or Attache), so that you’ll know it in the list later, and choose Create. If Apple asks for your Apple Account password again, enter it to confirm.

   On screen

   Your new password: 16 lowercase letters in four groups joined by hyphens, like abcd-efgh-ijkl-mnop.

5. 5

   Step 5: Copy the password before you close the box

   Select the password and copy it. Leave the box open until the password is in Attaché, then choose Done.

   Apple shows the password only once

   Once you close the box, nobody can show it to you again. If you lose it, no harm done: remove it from the list and create another.

Part 2: Add it to Attaché

6. 6

   Step 6: Choose Apple iCloud Calendar

   In Attaché, open Settings → Connections and choose Connect another account; when you’ve just signed up, Attaché starts there, at Connect your calendars. Under Apple iCloud Calendar, choose Connect iCloud.

   On screen

   A short form. It repeats Apple’s steps in brief, then asks for two things, Apple Account email and App-specific password, and its Step-by-step guide link brings you back here.

7. 7

   Step 7: Enter your e-mail address and paste the password

   In Apple Account email, type the address you sign in to your Apple Account with. Paste the password into App-specific password, with or without its dashes, and choose Connect. Your Apple Account password doesn’t work here, and Attaché won’t send it: it checks for the 16-letter shape first.

   On screen

   Checking with iCloud…, then Choose calendars: every calendar iCloud reported, ticked. Untick any you don’t want in Attaché and choose Continue; then pick colours and a calendar set, as for any account. Your iCloud account joins Settings → Connections, and its events appear in your calendar shortly after.

What you’ll see in Attaché

• Your iCloud calendars, the calendars other people share with you in iCloud, and your Family Sharing calendars.
• Calendars you subscribe to in iCloud, such as holidays or a team’s schedule, show their events but are read-only.
• You can add, change and delete events in your iCloud calendars, and so can the delegates you allow to, with the permissions you choose for each calendar.
• Attaché doesn’t send invitations from iCloud calendars yet. It shows the guests of an event, but to invite people, use Apple’s Calendar app.
• Attaché looks for your calendars when you connect and whenever you give it a new app-specific password. A calendar you create in iCloud later doesn’t appear on its own (how to add it).

If it doesn’t work

There’s no App-Specific Passwords option

Apple offers app-specific passwords only when two-factor authentication protects your Apple Account. Turn it on: on an iPhone or iPad, open Settings, choose your name, then Sign-In & Security and Two-Factor Authentication; Apple’s two-factor authentication guide has every way. Then start again at step 1.

“iCloud didn’t accept that email and app-specific password”

• Use the e-mail address you sign in to your Apple Account with. Another address on the account, such as an iCloud Mail alias, may not work.
• Paste the app-specific password, not your Apple Account password, and without spaces before or after it.
• Check that Attaché is still in your list of app-specific passwords at account.apple.com. If it isn’t, it was revoked: create a new one.

“An app-specific password has 16 letters, like abcd-efgh-ijkl-mnop”

The whole message is “An app-specific password has 16 letters, like abcd-efgh-ijkl-mnop. Your Apple Account password won’t work here.” Attaché sends nothing until the password has that shape, so you have pasted something else, usually your Apple Account password. Copy the app-specific password again (steps 3 to 5 if you closed the box).

Apple won’t create another password

You can have up to 25 active app-specific passwords. Choose Remove by one you no longer use, then try again.

Attaché shows “Update app-specific password”

The password stopped working. That happens when it is removed at account.apple.com, and also every time you change or reset your Apple Account password: Apple then revokes all your app-specific passwords. Create a new one (steps 1 to 5), choose Update app-specific password by your iCloud account in Settings → Connections, paste it as the New app-specific password and choose Save. Your calendars, events and your delegates’ access are kept.

I can’t find the Family calendar

Family Sharing’s calendars belong to the family organiser’s iCloud account and are shared with everyone else in the family, so they appear under the organiser’s account. If you aren’t the organiser, look for them among the calendars shared with you.

Another calendar is missing

• A calendar you created after connecting: Attaché looks for calendars when you connect and whenever you give it a new app-specific password, and the Update app-specific password button appears only once the old password has stopped working. So remove the Attaché password at account.apple.com (how), wait for Attaché to show Update app-specific password by your iCloud account (a few minutes, at its next check), create a new one (steps 1 to 5) and paste it. Calendars Attaché hasn’t seen come up as New calendars on iCloud, every one ticked: untick any you don’t want. Your other calendars, their events and your delegates’ access are kept. (Disconnecting and connecting again also works, but then you choose calendars, colours and your delegates’ access again.)
• Calendars under On My Mac live only on that Mac, not in iCloud, so Attaché can’t see them. Neither can it see Reminders lists.

I can’t change some events

Calendars you subscribed to in iCloud are read-only, and so is a calendar someone shares with you for viewing only.

Stop Attaché’s access

• In Attaché: in Settings → Connections, choose Disconnect by your iCloud account. Attaché stops syncing it and deletes the app-specific password and the calendars and events it copied, normally within minutes. Your calendars in iCloud stay as they are.
• At Apple: at account.apple.com, open Sign-In and Security → App-Specific Passwords, choose Remove by Attaché and confirm. (Revoke All removes every app-specific password you have.) Attaché then shows Update app-specific password until you disconnect it or give it a new one.

Apple offers no way for an app to revoke its own app-specific password, so when you stop using Attaché, do both.

Why an app-specific password?

Google, Microsoft and Zoho let you approve a calendar app on their own sign-in page. Apple has no such sign-in for calendar apps from other developers. Instead, it lets you create app-specific passwords (Apple’s guide):

• It is a separate password that you give only to Attaché. It isn’t your Apple Account password, and it can’t be used to sign in to your Apple Account or change it.
• You can see it in your list at account.apple.com and revoke it at any time, without changing anything else.
• Apple’s app-specific passwords can open more of iCloud than your calendars, such as mail and contacts. Attaché uses yours only with Apple’s calendar server, to read and change your calendars.

We store it encrypted with AWS Key Management Service, where only the servers that sync your calendars can decrypt it, never show it to anyone, your delegates included, and delete it when you disconnect. The security page and the privacy policy have the details.