How to Export Your Moodle Calendar — a Step-by-Step Guide
Exporting the calendar from Moodle (a learning system many universities teach through) takes under a minute: open the calendar, go to Export calendar, pick a time period (a required field), and you get either a
.ics file to download or a URL for continuous sync. The process takes under a
minute — the only difficulty is knowing what to choose.
Want your course materials too, without exporting any file? The Focusity button in Moodle moves this term's courses, deadlines and course materials into your calendar in one click.
What actually comes out of the Moodle calendar
Before the steps, the single most important thing to know — because it saves a disappointment: the Moodle calendar contains submission dates, quizzes and course events. It usually does not contain your weekly class timetable.
The lectures and tutorials usually don't live there, and your institution's official exam dates aren't necessarily there either. At many universities the timetable lives in the student information system, and you get it from there separately, usually as a printable page or a file. If you exported from Moodle expecting to see Tuesday full of lectures, that's why it's empty.
Exporting the Moodle calendar: five steps
1. Open the calendar
Sign in to your institution's Moodle and open the Calendar. At some institutions it's in the side menu, at others in the user menu at the top, and at others through the main dashboard.
2. Click “Export calendar”
On current Moodle, the bottom of the calendar page has an Import or export calendars link, and the Export calendar button is on the next page. Older sites show the button directly at the bottom of the calendar. Either way, it leads to a short settings page.
3. Choose what to export
The recommended option is All events. You can't generate a URL for just one course: the courses option brings every course you're enrolled in.
4. Choose a time period. This choice matters.
Time period is a required field. If the buttons at the bottom of the page don't respond, check that an option is selected.
Pick the widest option you see: Custom range if it's there, otherwise Recent and next 60 days. The dates roll forward on every fetch, but the option you chose stays in the URL: pick a week and you'll only ever get a week. Widening later means a new URL and a new subscription.
5. Choose: file or URL
At the bottom of the page there are two options, and the difference between them matters more than it looks:
| Option | What you get | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| Export | A .ics file downloaded to your computer |
One-off use. A snapshot that never updates |
| Get calendar URL | A link for continuous sync | Across a semester. When a lecturer postpones a submission, it reaches you too |
The recommendation: the URL, not the file. The difference shows up the first time a lecturer moves a deadline — and that announcement is easy to miss in the course forum. With a sync URL, the date changes on your side by itself.
A security warning that isn't written on the export page
The export URL is a key to your calendar. It looks roughly like this:
https://moodle.example.edu/calendar/export_execute.php?userid=12345&authtoken=…
That authtoken identifies you to Moodle without a password and without
two-factor authentication. Anyone holding the URL can read your calendar.
So: don't share it in the course group chat, don't upload it to a shared drive, and don't paste it into a service you don't trust. If you leaked it by accident: the export page has no reset button. The only way we know of to invalidate the link in standard Moodle is changing your Moodle password, because the token is calculated partly from it, and then taking a new URL. At institutions with single sign-on that may not work, so ask your institution's IT help desk.
What to do with the file or the URL
A .ics file and a sync URL are a standard format, so nearly every calendar can read
them:
- Google Calendar: on a computer, Other calendars → Add other calendars → From URL. The phone apps can't subscribe.
- Apple Calendar: on a Mac, File → New Calendar Subscription
- Outlook: on the web, Add calendar → Subscribe from web
In an ordinary calendar you'll get the deadlines as events. That's a genuine improvement over discovering them by accident — but notice what it gives you and what it doesn't: the calendar shows you when the thing closes. It won't tell you when to start working on it. That decision stays with you, every day anew.
The Moodle calendar isn't updating — what to check
This is a common complaint after connecting. Here are four causes worth checking, in order.
| The cause | How to recognize it | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| You exported a file instead of subscribing to the URL | You downloaded a .ics file once and added it to your calendar |
A file is a snapshot and never updates. Go back to the export page and take the URL |
| The calendar simply hasn't pulled yet | Everything is set up right, but today's change doesn't appear | External calendars aren't fetched in real time. In Google Calendar it can take many hours, and the pace is set by Google and can't be controlled |
| The token changed | It stopped working all at once, after you changed your Moodle password | Generate a new URL from the export page and replace it everywhere you used the old one |
| The chosen time period is too narrow | Near events come through, distant ones don't | Take a new URL with a wider period and subscribe to it again. The option stays in the URL and the dates roll forward on every fetch, so a far-off deadline only appears once it comes inside the window |
A check that separates “not updating” from “not connected”: open the export URL in a new browser tab. If a file with content downloads — the Moodle side is fine, and the problem is with the calendar reading it. If you get an error — the URL itself is no longer valid, and you need to generate a new one.
Frequently asked questions
Why isn't my Moodle calendar updating?
A common cause is that you exported an ICS file instead of subscribing to the sync URL: a file is a snapshot and never updates. If you did use the URL, the calendar may simply not have pulled yet: external calendars aren't fetched in real time, and in Google Calendar it can take many hours. Two more causes are a token that changed because you changed your Moodle password, and a too-narrow time period chosen when the URL was created.
Why didn't my class timetable come through in the Moodle export?
Because it usually isn't there. The Moodle calendar contains submission dates, quizzes and course events, not your weekly lectures and tutorials, unless a lecturer added them. At many universities the timetable comes from the student information system, usually as a printable page or a file.
What is the difference between an ICS file and a calendar URL?
An ICS file is a snapshot: it's accurate at the moment of download and never updates. The URL is a live subscription — when a lecturer postpones a submission, the change reaches you too. For one-off use the file is enough; across a semester the URL is better.
Is it OK to share my Moodle export URL?
No. The URL contains an authtoken — a personal token that identifies you to Moodle without a password. Anyone holding the URL can read your calendar. Don't post it in a group chat and don't paste it into a service you don't trust.
The export page won't let me continue. What do I do?
Check the time period field first. It's required, so if the buttons at the bottom of the page don't respond, make sure an option is selected. Pick the widest one you see, because the option stays in the URL.
My institution isn't on Focusity's list. Can I still connect?
In the phone app, yes — the phone pulls the file directly from your institution, so any Moodle works. In the browser the connection goes through our server and currently supports only listed institutions; there you can upload an ICS file manually.
From deadlines to a plan
Once the deadlines are in a calendar, the question the calendar doesn't answer remains: when do you actually sit down for each of them.
Focusity takes that same export URL, pulls the assignments and exams from it, and schedules study blocks into the free time you genuinely have left — by deadline, difficulty and the hours when you're sharpest. Whatever gets missed moves to the catch-up board with a newly suggested hour.
Build my plan — free