Calendars 5 by Readdle Reviews

I love this Calendars 5 App. It seems to be the best one out there for my busy schedule. It has easy entry of appointments, a more informative monthly view, wonderful week and daily views. I like it a lot better than the iphone app. I did not like the spinning wheel to set dates it caused errors. So far no errors on calendars 5. To make it better though I'd like to have a Mac version and the ability to sink with the iphone version. I would like a second ring that is a little stronger when it alerts me of an upcoming appointment. And a more detailed task list where I could prioritize tasks by groupings/categories and like the franklin planner by A1, A2, A3, B1, C1, D1, etc. (And a priority marking of different colors like Outlook and/or priority mark by time sensitivity c1= critical item due now, d2 = do it within next 2 days, w1=do it within next 1 week, m2= do it in next 1 month, etc.) Also, the ability to print out daily and monthly appointment views from my Mac & PC computers would be more helpful. It looks like there is a printer app from the iphone but I haven't tried it yet. I hope it works well. I got it in the bundle purchase but haven't tried these other apps out yet. Peace to all.

Looking to make the best of my schedule, I sought different apps to meet my needs. And found it! Calendars 5 is a a combination of FANTASTICAL and THINGS. Where FANTASTICAL uses iOS native apps to port reminders and events, it lacks luster and customization. THINGS is pleasant to look at, but it forces you to work outside your native iOS apps, meaning you have CALENDAR events and REMINDERS and you get the pleasure of having a separate set of THINGS CALENDAR EVENTS and THINGS REMINDER TASKS. It’s a nuisance because events and reminders are not being synced through native apps so you are forced to buy a MAC and iPad version in order to be fully synchronized across all your devices. CALENDARS works with iOS. It looks amazing across iOS and Apple Watch. Plus, 1 app purchase gets you the iPad, iPhone, and the Watch app. And because it works with iOS everything syncs smoothly. I recommend CALENDARS 5 very much. It has a 1 week free trial before you have to do a full purchase of it. There are no subscriptions, and 1 purchase gets you all 3. There is no Mac version, but because everything syncs so well, whatever I add to CALENDARS shows on my Mac and iOS devices and vice versa.

I’ve used Calendars5 for years and loved it and now with the latest update when I put something on my Calendar for say Monday June 15th at 2pm it make an automatic time frame of ending the following day at 2am so that my monthly calendar looks like I have an event that lasts for 12 hrs when it’s just a Drs appointment. It clutters up my screen and when I try to change the ending time so that it all falls during the same day it automatically changes the start time. Sometime all of the automation app developers add doesn’t really help. It add something that I need to remove do what would be a simple task. If something isn’t an “All Day Event” that doesn’t automatically make it a several day event. It just means it’s an appointment for a specific time. An event that lasts several days should be the exception that I need to go a little further to do. Most events are a specific time not several days. Several days are for a block of time that I will be out of town for work or a vacation. It’s made Calendars5 a pain to use.

First let me say that I love Calendars5, as well as Documents and PDF Expert! Readdle makes high quality professional Apps. However the reason I am only giving Calendars5 3 Stars is because when iOS 10 was released they said they updated Calendars 5 to be completely compatible with iOS 10. However they did not support Split View, one of the greatest features in iOS 10 for iPads! And now here we are at iOS 11, where we not only have Split View, but Drag & Drop as well. This means that you cannot have your Contacts, Notes, email, or any other Application open along with Calendars 5 to be able to easily input relevant information into your Calendar from these other Apps. I contacted Readdle some time ago regarding this issue, and yet they still are not completely supporting iOS, 10 or 11! Please Readdle, support iOS. Let me state yet again though that I love Readdle and their Apps. I would even be willing to pay them monthly to use them! Thank you Readdle, and I look foreword to being able to fully utilize iOS 11 with Split View and Drag & Drop.

Loving Calendars5; still great with the new version. The title/subject line says it all.

I held off rating this for a long time, as I wanted to fully experience it. I love it all: easy to create new entries, move them, and copy them to make new ones, just by swiping of hold tapping them. Works equally easily on the ipad and smaller screened iphone. Great choices for types (SMS, email, audible) and multiples (1st, 2nd, 3rd) of reminders. Integrates well with Apple's calendar types (I use their birthday and one holiday calendar only); downloadables such as national holidays; and multiple Google calendars, as well, all integrated onto east to read and select layouts. This works as well as Outlook's calendaring system, but much more easily and with so many calendars on so many platforms. Sharing events, and confirming events to which you're invited (a red-flagged number easy to notice at the top if the calendar display) is a piece of cake, as well, with no need to return to or refer to the inviting email itself.

Thanks for a stupendous product!

It's great to see all these colorful blocks on my iPhone because I can tell at a glance how my month or week or day are scheduled. However, since I can either select "all day" or a specific time with Calendars 5, and I'm accustomed to inputting the time AND being able to choose all day with my iCal calendar, it's challenging because it means that because Calendars 5 does not have a computer version but only iPhone or iPad versions, I can miss the event on my computer when it's buried down below in its time slot in my month view on iCal. I don't often have time to check week and day views when making appointments on the fly. This makes checking date availabilities in iCal's month view difficult as I can miss a scheduled appointment. It would be so much more helpful if Calendars 5 were also available in a computer version. If it were to be so, it would make iCal obsolete for me. I would rate Calendars5 5 stars if this were available. But since it's not (yet???), it only gets a 3-star rating.

App is frequently unusable for sometimes as long as nearly a minute (of course based on connectivity - I do recognize that - but I’m referring here to instances when connectivity is strong via WiFi and data connectivity) as it refreshes all data at every launch or open. Can’t view anything in detail. Can’t tap anything. Can’t stop the refresh. I’ve tried all setting combos: on or off background refresh does nothing. Additionally, interactions can sometimes be awkward at various touch and tap points leading to unintended views and items moving or shuffling around.

These are deal breaker problems. If you are trying to check items on the go and need key info from your calendar quickly, frustration levels are high. Hopping from meeting to meeting and needing room, floor, or time info is critical for me. I’m often stuck having to stand and wait for Calendars5 to fully load before I can view any items. I rely on my calendar but cannot rely on Calendars5.

It’s a great app when fully loaded! However, these items kill the whole experience and need for a paid calendar app. I’ll have to delete Calendars5 and go back to default calendar apps until this is fixed.

Like many coming by here these days, I was a loyal Fantastical user for years, and never had a reason to look at other calendar apps. Turns out that while I wasn’t looking, Readdle went and made a nice one (I’m also a Spark and Documents user, so I’m not surprised). I’ve already moved Fantastical from the top left of my 1st screen to the trash, and haven’t looked back.

Calendars 5 has the polish of those apps, and most if not all of the functionality of Fantastical that I loved. There are even things I like more, like the list view, which is a lot less jumbled. The iOS widget is also cleaner, and the Watch app, with only a little testing so far, seems pretty configurable. The week view is a little strange, but it’s not a view I use much.

A comment below nearly scared me off, around problems connecting to work Exchange servers. Note that that user had issues with connecting *directly* to the server — in other words, entering the credentials directly into Calendars 5 to get items directly from the server, bypassing the iOS internal calendar database. Calendars 5 allows this in addition to using the internal database — in other words, if you can see a calendar on the native Calendars app, you can see it in Calendars 5. For what it’s worth, I can connect to my work’s Exchange server just fine either way.

Readdle, please learn from Fantastical’s experience and don’t screw up a good thing!

This is one of my favorite calendar apps for the iPhone. There are only 4 reasons I don’t use it as my only calendar app...

1) When you Export or Share, it doesn’t include Tasks, only Events. That makes it almost useless for me as I have Tasks every day that need to be included when exporting.

2) Also when you Export or Share, you cannot use the List view, which is my favorite. You can only use Day, Week, or Month. Week and Month cut off details from each event, and Day requires one for per day no matter how few events you have, which is a waste. So List view makes the most sense when exporting/printing.

3) They don’t have any location based reminders. This is a big one. The native iOS calendar and reminders app have these.
Other 3rd party calendar apps like Informant get around this by simply adding the ability to use the iOS event or task editor when adding new items, so you can enter options for when it’s time to leave based on traffic and current location, or when you arrive to or leave a location, etc. This is massively helpful.

4) The widget and every view mode in Calendars5 cut off every event/task title after just 1 line, so you can’t see the full title.

There should be an option for the Widget and List view to allow you to show 3-5 lines of text before being cutoff.
(Not in the Week, Month, or Day views, as those have time blocks with limited space. But the List view and Widgets are not limited to time blocks, so should be able to show more)

Update: After deleting and re-installing several times over the last week, Calendars5 now seems to be functioning again. I did not receive any contact from the developer after submitting the crash log, and I was offered no insight as to why this happened. Changing the rating to four stars because I have used it for over five years with good experiences. In my mind, a five star app that I need daily can’t mysteriously crash for a bunch of people and be inaccessible for a week.

Update: Developer responded with a generic response of sending the crash log. I had already sent the crash log a few days before receiving this response and have received no subsequent response. This has been a week without the calendar I’ve used for over 5 years. Very frustrating. How do I NOT choose a different calendar at this point...?

I cannot even open Calendars5 since the most recent update. Crashes immediately. Please fix. Calendars5 is crucial to my day.

I've enjoyed Calendars 5 and it is quite nice visually, but I don't understand why there isn't any basic integration with Readdle's own Spark application, whose calendar is far weaker in functionality and usefulness. Forever they've existed as totally standalone apps but I feel like this doesn't make sense logically.

On a separate note, I find Calendar 5's event creation area to be irritating. Specifically, I'm referring to where you enter in the event's title and it will use entered times to automatically calculate start and end times. If I'm taking a college course, I can't put "INFO 300", because Calendars will interpret this as a time, 3:00. To me, it makes this functionality redundant and it makes sense to enter the event title and times into Google. To me, Calendars5 is only useful for viewing my schedule, and not creating it.

Finally, I think Calendars' limited support for multiple accounts is also quite weak, as forcing the user to rely on using the iPhone's internally added accounts past the one account you use to sign into Calendars is annoying.

I've tried lots of calendar apps and this one is the most seamless and easy to use. I've been using it since this new revamped version came out, what, a year & a half ago? It is so easy to integrate other calendars, to schedule, etc. I can easily track multiple schedules for personal, business, kids, etc. It's darn-near perfect, and if it were, I'd give it five stars. Right now, I'd really give it a 4.5. Here's what I really, really want: To be able to export all my calendar data, and to run a search for entries. Let's say someone wants to know the schedule for next year's board meetings. I'd like to just run a keyword search and get a list, maybe in a table so it can show and sort everything, and I'd like to be able to somehow copy/paste that info, whether or not that's through export or otherwise. I'd also really like a separate (maybe csv) record of my past schedule for separate record keeping.

I have been using this calendar for years. I maintain my entire family's busy schedules in different colors so I can keep track of my kids' college classes, so I know not to text or call while they are in class, my daughter's busy school and rehearsal schedule, because I am her driver, my husband's rehearsal and cycling schedule and everyone's Dr. appointments. This product also integrates with Google Calendars and all I have to do is import or find a public Google calendar, for instance a school calendar, and it instantly incorporates into my calendar.

If I schedule an appointment or event for my family members, I can easily "invite" them to the event so they can also add it to their personal calendars. I can arrange reminders for days, hours, and minutes in advance of my appointments.

The reason I rated it four stars instead of five is because the one thing it doesn't have, or I have not figured out how to do is search for an event on my calendar. If it had that, it would be perfect!

I really like this calendar app, lots of nice features and the interface is clean and intuitive for the most part. I do have a couple requests tho. I wish there was an easier way to switch between the different views especially on iPhone. Having to tap all the way at the top on the three lines and THEN picking the view, it’s too many taps, and it’s difficult to hit the three lines if I’m using my phone with one hand. Swiping side to side seems like it would be more intuitive. It would be awesome if you changed it so swiping up and down moves you through time and swiping side to side changes the view. This is 2018 after all!

My other request is to have an option to hide completed tasks on the calendar. I know you can delete completed tasks in the settings, but I don’t want to have to do that each time I complete a task. An option to hide completed tasks would put Calendars5 above the rest.

Thanks! Keep up the good work.

4.5 stars! I love Calendars5! I use it for everything! There is only one problem I have. When I need to type in the name of a business that has a number or weekday in the title, Calendars5 automatically goes to the day of the week or the time. For example, I type in 5 (or five) Guys Burgers and Fries, it will change the time to 5!!! I cannot leave 5 in the title because it will not allow me to chose my own time. Also, a business called Tuesday Morning, automatically schedules it for the next following Tuesday. I try to fix it but Calendars5 insists on scheduling it for Tuesday if that word is in the Title. It is very aggravating and if you are in a hurry it can really mess you up. Also if I want to put something like Christmas shopping it will automatically go to christmas day. Christmas shopping does not happen on the day if for this family!
With all that said though, I really do love Calendars5! It is very easy to use! I use it for shopping lists, party planning lists, etc.

I’ve had Calendars5 since the beginning and after trying every calendar app, this is my go toooo! HOWEVER, of all 347 apps on my phone, I have to say this is the most frustrating. Every time I launch it, it’s a crap shoot as to whether it will open or not. Such as scheduling a doctors appointment before leaving the office, I try an open Calendars 5 and I get a blank screen..it happens all the time. Then I have to reboot my phone. It’s hit or miss. I try an open it, nothing. Then a few minutes later, it opens..go figure! It does it on my iPhone 6 plus, and the adventure continues here on my iPhone 12 pro max. So if you’re the type of person that likes to reboot your phone every time you want to check your schedule or make an entry, then look no further, Calendar 5 should be your choice. ~jd/

Besides Timepage, a calendar app that I tend to switch back and forth with Calendars 5, this calendar is nearly one of a kind. I love the functionality of the calendar, and how it looks like a calendar, and how you can integrate your tasks with it as well. It truly is one of the best calendar apps out there.

With that being said, one bug that needs to be fixed is the tasks. If you don’t complete a recurring task on time, or forget to check it off, and you do so the next day or some time in the future, it duplicates the task. This is minor, so something I can look past on.

Another bug I noticed is not being able to create calendar event if you include someone’s name in the event title and they don’t have an email address. Calendars5 glitches, and I can’t see/set any other information (such as time, location, recurrence, etc.) because the drop down menu for that person’s name remains on the screen. This needs to be fixed so that when adding someone’s name to the event title, you can bypass the email address insertion prompt.

Lastly, one feature request I have is a “Time To Leave” alert, where the calendar can read traffic reports from, say, Google Maps or Apple Maps, and alert you for when you need to leave based on how long it will take you to get to your destination.

Otherwise, Calendars5 is fantastic, and, as mentioned before, one of the best out there!

With this most recent update the functionality of the location field for events is back to working as it did a version ago. Entering/searching location data is a function that I use a lot and I was very disappointed when the ability to do this was changed to the point of being useless. Now that this functionality is back I have increased my rating of Calendar 5 from three stars to five. I thank the developers for listening and making Calendar 5 a great app. Highly recommended.

Previous review: Populating the location field for an event is not as efficient or effective as with previous versions. Why was it deemed necessary to change this feature for the newest version? For my money this is a step backward. I am looking for another calendar app.

I've been using the Readdle calendars 5 app for years now. My husband and I both have Calendars5 so we can share the calendar more fluidly. We each can view our own work calendars, but share our family calendar. It will link just about any calendar you have and any you sync into iOS/Google. Calendars5 is intuitive, but what I have always loved is the variety of color, how you can set all-day events and most importantly the way the month and week views look. It is so much easier to view than the iOS calendar that makes you dive in further to see what you have planned. I recommend Calendars5 to all of my friends who are looking for something new. It is definitely worth the expense so they will keep creating more useful apps and updating this one.

The date selection function is designed against humanity. The previous date selection is very convenient and intuitive, I don't know why it must be designed in the form of a scroll wheel. When modifying the date of a time period, the operation is very annoying. I just want to simply shorten the period of time. Modify the deadline. The initial date changes accordingly. A little carelessness will stretch the length of time to one month. It is very annoying to operate, and it greatly affects efficiency.
Hope to return to the previous date selection. I have seen many other software’s date selections that have a scroll wheel that turns into a calendar shape. Only you, this software, gets rid of its dross and takes its essence.

Looking to make the best of my schedule, I sought different apps to meet my needs. And found it! Calendars 5 is a a combination of FANTASTICAL and THINGS. Where FANTASTICAL uses iOS native apps to port reminders and events, it lacks luster and customization. THINGS is pleasant to look at, but it forces you to work outside your native iOS apps, meaning you have CALENDAR events and REMINDERS and you get the pleasure of having a separate set of THINGS CALENDAR EVENTS and THINGS REMINDER TASKS. It’s a nuisance because events and reminders are not being synced through native apps so you are forced to buy a MAC and iPad version in order to be fully synchronized across all your devices. CALENDARS works with iOS. It looks amazing across iOS and Apple Watch. Plus, 1 app purchase gets you the iPad, iPhone, and the Watch app. And because it works with iOS everything syncs smoothly. I recommend CALENDARS 5 very much. It has a 1 week free trial before you have to do a full purchase of it. There are no subscriptions, and 1 purchase gets you all 3. There is no Mac version, but because everything syncs so well, whatever I add to CALENDARS shows on my Mac and iOS devices and vice versa.

First let me say that I love Calendars5, as well as Documents and PDF Expert! Readdle makes high quality professional Apps. However the reason I am only giving Calendars5 3 Stars is because when iOS 10 was released they said they updated Calendars 5 to be completely compatible with iOS 10. However they did not support Split View, one of the greatest features in iOS 10 for iPads! And now here we are at iOS 11, where we not only have Split View, but Drag & Drop as well. This means that you cannot have your Contacts, Notes, email, or any other Application open along with Calendars 5 to be able to easily input relevant information into your Calendar from these other Apps. I contacted Readdle some time ago regarding this issue, and yet they still are not completely supporting iOS, 10 or 11! Please Readdle, support iOS. Let me state yet again though that I love Readdle and their Apps. I would even be willing to pay them monthly to use them! Thank you Readdle, and I look foreword to being able to fully utilize iOS 11 with Split View and Drag & Drop.