Showing an Apple calendar on Lantern

Lantern can show any of your iCloud calendars on the wall display and in the app. It subscribes to the calendar’s public link: the events stay in Apple Calendar, where you add and change them, and Lantern shows a read-only copy that it refreshes every 15 minutes.

1. Make the calendar public and copy its link

On an iPhone or iPad

1. Open Calendar and tap Calendars at the bottom.
2. Tap the info button next to the iCloud calendar you want on Lantern.
3. Turn on Public Calendar.
4. Tap Share Link, then Copy.

On a Mac

1. Open Calendar. If you don’t see your calendars, choose View > Show Calendar List.
2. Hover over the iCloud calendar and click its Share Calendar button.
3. Select Public Calendar, then click Done.
4. Open the same panel again and copy the link it shows.

The link starts with webcal:// and has a long code in it. Anyone who has it can see the calendar’s events, so treat it like a password: Lantern stores it encrypted and never shows it again.

2. Subscribe in Lantern

1. In the Lantern app, open Calendars under Settings in the sidebar (on a phone, open the sidebar with the menu button first).
2. Tap Subscribe to a calendar, and choose Apple iCloud under Where is the calendar? (pasting an iCloud link chooses it for you).
3. Paste the link, give the calendar a name and a colour, and choose its usual members: the people its events belong to, so they show in their colour and in their column.
4. Tap Subscribe. Lantern checks the link straight away and tells you if it doesn’t work.

The calendar’s events appear at once, then update every 15 minutes. To update sooner, open the calendar in Settings > Calendars and tap Sync now.

If something goes wrong

Settings shows what happened under the calendar’s name:

• “Nothing is at that link. In Apple Calendar, check that Public Calendar is still on…” The calendar stopped being public, or the link changed (turning Public Calendar off and on makes a new link). Copy the link again, unsubscribe, and subscribe with the new one.
• “Lantern can’t reach that calendar’s server.” Check that the Lantern server can reach the internet.
• “That link doesn’t lead to a calendar.” You may have copied a web page’s address; copy the calendar’s own link from the Share Link button.

To stop showing a calendar, open it in Settings > Calendars and tap Unsubscribe. Nothing changes in Apple Calendar.

What Lantern shows

Titles, times, places, and notes, including repeating events and their exceptions. Alerts and attachments stay in Apple Calendar. Events from a subscribed calendar can’t be changed in Lantern; change them in Apple Calendar and they update on the next sync.