Google Calender all day events show as busy

[Sigurdur_Herman]

I made an automation to create reminders in my Google Cal. They’re all-day events, which by default don’t show you as busy, but when they’re made through Airtable they’re ticked to show as busy.

I couldn’t find a field to change this in my automation.

Can I make it so my all-day events made from automation don’t show as busy?

[Vivid-Squid]

Hi @Sigurdur_Hermannsson,
I see this too. This does look like the default behavior for the API though.

From the API documentation:

|transparency|string|Whether the event blocks time on the calendar. Optional. Possible values are:

• “opaque” - Default value. The event does block time on the calendar. This is equivalent to setting Show me as to Busy in the Calendar UI.
• “transparent” - The event does not block time on the calendar. This is equivalent to setting Show me as to Available in the Calendar UI.|
  | — | — |

I would ask support@airtable.com if they can add the Transparency selector to the Automation.

[Sigurdur_Herman]

Thanks for the answer. I’ve just sent them an email, I hope they’ll reply.

In the meantime, is there any kind of workaround or quick-fix I could employ?

[Vivid-Squid]

Sigurdur_Hermannsson:

is there any kind of workaround or quick-fix I could employ?

I only spent about 20 min testing it and could not get Airtable automation to work the same way as creating an All Day event in Google Calendar.

There is an additional app Make.com that you can use for free that can watch your google calendar for events created by Airtable, and flip that switch for you. Or remove the automation from Airtable and create the full event in Google Calendar for you the way you want it.

[ScottWorld]

As @Vivid-Squid mentioned above, you can toggle this setting by using Make.com — check out this screenshot below:

[hannahRFP]

@Sigurdur_Herman did Airtable respond about the Outlook calendar events showing as 'busy'?

I'm currently having this issue and I can see from forum posts people have been requesting this function since 2019 so I am curious if it is something they plan on working on or not! 

I have also emailed Airtable and if they reply I will update on this thread. 

[Sigurdur_Herman · Accepted solution]

Hey hannahRFP, I'm afraid it's been so long I can't recall if they answered, but I do remember finding a workaround that worked for me. I made it so the Airtable all-day events the automation created were made in a Calendar that my Calendly WASN'T checking. That made the process work for me. Maybe it'll work for you? 😃