How to Create a Recurring Event in Google Calendar

The event is saved, but it sits on one day only, and copying it onto every Tuesday by hand is not a plan. Repetition is not something added to the event afterwards from its page; it is a dropdown that reads Does not repeat, sitting right next to the date and time. Setting it turns the single event into a series that Google Calendar manages as one item.

Open the repeat dropdown

Click an empty slot on the grid, or click Create, Event. Set the correct first date and time, then click the Does not repeat dropdown below them.

Pick a preset schedule

Choose Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Annually, or Every weekday (Monday to Friday). The weekly and monthly presets take their pattern from the date already on the event, which is why that date matters first. Click Save.

Build a custom pattern

Choose Custom for anything the presets do not cover. Set Repeat every with a number and a unit of day, week, month, or year. For a weekly pattern, tick each day of the week the event should land on, so a twice-weekly meeting is one series rather than two. Under Ends, choose Never, On with a final date, or After with a number of occurrences. Click Done, then Save.

Edit the series later

Open any occurrence, click the pencil icon, make the change, and click Save. Google Calendar then asks what the change applies to: This event, This and following events, or All events. Choose one and click OK. The same prompt appears when an occurrence is dragged to a new slot.

Moving a weekly series to a new day. All events rewrites history, so past occurrences move too and old records stop matching what happened. This and following events is almost always the right choice: it leaves everything before today alone and splits the rest into a new pattern from that occurrence onward.

Deleting behaves the same way. Removing an occurrence offers the same three choices, so a single canceled week can be deleted without disturbing the rest of the series.