How to change notification times for synced Google Calendar events?

Written By Arch Calendar

Last updated 3 days ago

"I set notifications to go off at the start time, but they keep coming 30 minutes early." "Every event Arch Calendar creates gets a 30-minute reminder in Google Calendar."

If this sounds familiar, the notification time isn't coming from Arch Calendar — it's coming from your Google Calendar's default notification settings. Here's how to change it.

How notifications work

Events you create in Arch Calendar sync to Google Calendar. When they do, Arch Calendar doesn't set a notification time of its own — it tells Google Calendar to follow your calendar's default notification settings.

So if your Google Calendar default is set to 30 minutes before, every event created in Arch Calendar will show a 30-minute reminder. If it's set to 10 minutes, you'll see 10 minutes — and so on.

Keep in mind that notifications live in two separate places:

  • Arch Calendar app notifications: Set in Arch Calendar under Settings → Notifications. These only control the alerts Arch Calendar itself sends.

  • Google Calendar notifications: Alerts sent by Google Calendar (and by any other calendar app that syncs with it). These are controlled in Google Calendar, using the steps below.

Changing your Google Calendar notification time

  1. Open calendar.google.com in your browser. (On mobile, use your browser's "Desktop site" option.)

  2. Click the gear icon → Settings in the top right.

  3. In the left menu, under "Settings for my calendars", click your calendar's name. 💡 This is the step most people miss — the setting isn't in General settings. You have to click the calendar itself to reveal its per-calendar options.

  4. Scroll down to "Event notifications".

  5. Change the existing notification (e.g., 30 minutes) to whatever you prefer.

    • Set it to 0 minutes to get notified right at the start time.

    • You can also remove the notification entirely with the X button.

The change applies not only to new events but also to events that already exist — no need to recreate anything.

Note: Using Samsung Calendar or your phone's built-in calendar app?

Built-in calendar apps like Samsung Calendar display your events by syncing with Google Calendar. That means their alerts for synced events also follow the Google Calendar settings above.

The default reminder setting inside the Samsung Calendar app only applies to events created directly in Samsung Calendar — it doesn't affect events synced from Google Calendar. To change the notification time, use the Google Calendar steps above.

FAQ

Q. Can't I just change this inside Arch Calendar?

Your Google Calendar default notification is a setting on your Google account. It applies to all of your events — not just the ones from Arch Calendar — so Arch Calendar doesn't modify it on your behalf. We're exploring an option to set notification times for Arch Calendar events directly in the app.

Q. I have multiple calendars. Which one should I change?

Change the settings for the calendar Arch Calendar creates events in. Under "Settings for my calendars", each calendar has its own Event notifications section.