How to: Migrate Calendars

Dan Charlesworth
Dan Charlesworth
Last updated 
Your calendars can't be automatically migrated from Zimbra to Google. However, you can self-migrate them by following these steps.

Each section (A), (B) and (C) must be repeated for each Calendar owned by your Zimbra account that you wish to migrate.

A) Create equivalent calendars in Google

If you only have one personal calendar, you can skip this section and start with exporting.

  1. In your Google Mail web inbox, click on the grid icon at the top-right and choose Calendar, to open Google Calendar.
  2. In a different browser tab open your Zimbra calendar.
  3. Identify the Zimbra calendar you wish to migrate and, in Google Calendar, click the Create new calendar link under the My calendars dropdown menu (🔽) on the left of the screen.
  4. Fill out the Create New Calendar form, keeping the same name as the original.
  5. If the original Zimbra calendar is shared, make sure to share the new Google equivalent with the same people under "Share with specific people".  (You can inspect a Zimbra calendar's share status by right clicking on and choosing Properties.)
  6. When you're finished, click the Create Calendar button.

B) Exporting from Zimbra


  1. In your Zimbra web inbox, navigate to your Preferences
  2. Select the Import / Export section from the Preferences menu on the left
  3. In the Export pane, set the type to Calendar and change the source from "All Folders" to the calendar you wish to export (can only do one at a time).
  4. Click the Export button. 
    (An .ics file will now be saved to your computer. Take note of its location, you'll need it agin momentarily.)

C) Importing to Google Calendar


  1. In your Google Mail web inbox, click on the grid icon at the top-right and choose Calendar, to open your Google Calendar
  2. Inside Google Calendar, open the âš™ (gear) dropdown menu on the upper right and select Settings
  3. Inside Calendar Settings open the Calendars tab, upper-left
  4. Half-way down these settings click on the Import calendar link
  5. Inside the Import Calendar dialogue, choose the .ics file you exported to your computer previously.
  6. Choose the calendar corresponding to your name from the Calendar dropdown
  7. Finally, click the Import button