How to make Google Calendar show 'busy' instead of event details

Compare the settings

Visibility is per event. Sharing permission is per person (or everyone in the organization). Busy or Free is whether the time is occupied. They are different controls.

Google Calendar Help steps checked Nov 1, 2026.

Per-event visibility

Google Calendar Help lists three visibility settings: Default visibility, Public, and Private.

• Default visibilityfollows the calendar's sharing settings. If you share with See event details or higher, people can find the event details. If you share with See free/busy only, they only see you as busy.
• Public lets anyone who can view the calendar find all details for that event, even if the calendar is restricted to free or busy.
• Private hides details from everyone except you and people with Make changes and see event details or higher. Others looking at your calendar see a block labeled Busy.

On a computer:

1. Open Google Calendar.
2. Open the event.
3. Click Edit event, then Default visibility.
4. Select Default visibility, Public, or Private.
5. Click Save.

Google Calendar Help also documents the same three choices in the Calendar app on Android and on iPhone or iPad: open the event, tap Edit, tap Visibility settings, choose Default visibility, Private, or Public, and tap Save.

Google Calendar Help steps checked Nov 1, 2026. Cited from Change event & task visibility.

Calendar sharing permission

To show only busy to someone who can see this calendar, share it and choose See only free/busy (hide details). They can only find out when you are busy. They cannot find names or other details.

Choose See event details if that person should see names, times, places, and descriptions. Private events still show as a Busy block to them unless they have Make changes and see event details or higher.

On a computer:

1. Open Google Calendar.
2. In My calendars, open More, then Settings and sharing.
3. Under Shared with, next to the person or group, open the drop-down and choose the permission. Or add them first with Add people and groups.

Google Calendar Help documents these sharing steps on a computer. It does not describe the same Settings and sharing path in the mobile app, so keep this change on the web.

Google Calendar Help steps checked Nov 1, 2026.

Busy or Free on an event

Google Calendar Help describes events as marked Busy or Free. That is not the same as Default / Public / Private. Busy occupies the time. Free does not.

If you grant Make changes (see private events as free/busy), Google Calendar Help says a private event marked Busy appears as a busy block with no event details. A private event marked Free does not appear on their calendar grid.

Help does not document a labeled "Show as" control or a mobile path for changing Busy versus Free, so treat the exact editor label as something you confirm in your own Calendar. To hide a title, use Private or See only free/busy. Do not rely on Busy alone.

Google Calendar Help steps checked Nov 1, 2026.

Why a calendar just shows busy

If someone else's calendar just shows busy, you are seeing their permission level, not a missing title on their side.

• They shared the calendar with you as See only free/busy (hide details).
• The event is Private, and you do not have Make changes and see event details or higher.
• In a work or school organization, the administrator sets the default for what colleagues see. That default can be no sharing, only free/busy, or all information. Users can change their own calendar when the admin allows it. Super administrators and admins with calendar-management permission can still find event details.

Ask the calendar owner to raise your permission to See event details, or to change that event from Private to Default visibility, if they want you to see the title.

Google Calendar Help steps checked Nov 1, 2026. Cited from Set Google Calendar sharing options for the administrator default.

When to use Resync instead

Use visibility and See only free/busy when people look at this calendar and you want them to see Busy instead of the title. Use Resync when a different Google account's calendar should treat that busy time as busy — for example a personal Gmail calendar and a work Google Calendar.

Sharing the source calendar into the other account is still only a view. The busy-time guide covers that path. Resync does not share calendars with each other. It reads when you are busy on Google calendars you mark as sources and writes hold events onto Google calendars you mark as mirrors. $1.50/month or $9/year after a 30-day free trial, no credit card required.

• Holds are titled Busy. Description, location, attendees, and conference data are left empty, so source meeting details stay on the source calendar.
• When you mark calendars as both source and mirror, a booking on either calendar becomes a Busy hold on the others. That is two-way blocking between those Google calendars.
• If a source event moves, Resync updates the hold. If the event is cancelled, marked free, declined, or is a working-location event, Resync does not keep a hold.
• Resync looks 90 days ahead when it reads source events. Holds it writes are marked so they are not copied again.
• Resync watches source calendars and updates holds when those events change. A polling fallback also runs about every 5 minutes.
• If you delete or edit a hold, Resync records that and does not recreate it for the same source event on that mirror.
• Read-only calendars cannot be mirrors. Resync currently syncs Google calendars only.

Set up Resync

1. Sign in with GoogleOpen Resync and sign in with the Google account you want as your primary account. You land on setup.
2. Connect another Google accountChoose Connect another Google account and finish Google's permission screen. Resync needs at least two Google accounts before you can start.
3. Start syncingWhen a second account is connected, setup shows bidirectional mirroring as the intended default: real events on either side become private busy blocks on the other. Choose Start syncing to open the dashboard.
4. Mark sources and mirrorsIn Sync configuration, turn on Source to read busy time from a calendar and Mirror to receive Busy holds. A calendar can be both. Read-only calendars cannot be mirrors because Resync needs write access to create holds.

What is and isn't copied

Resync copies the source event's start and end so the hold occupies the same window. It does not copy meeting details.

• Copied: start time, end time, and time zone. The hold is titled Busy and marked so Resync can find it later.
• Not copied: source title, description, location, attendees, conference data, or attachments. Those stay on the source calendar.
• Not mirrored: events marked free, events you declined, and working-location events. Holds Resync already wrote are skipped so Busy blocks are not copied back.
• If you delete or edit a hold, Resync records that change and does not recreate a hold for the same source event on that mirror.
• People with free/busy access on the mirror see a Busy block. People who can see event details still see the title Busy, not the source meeting name. If the source event is Private, the hold is Private. Otherwise the hold uses default visibility.

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