How to Cancel a Google Calendar Event

We’ve all been there. Trying to juggle schedules and commitments only to find that we must cancel meetings. It happens constantly, but the good news is that Google Calendar can help you handle these situations.

In this article, we’ll cover the following:

• How to cancel Google Calendar events (single and recurring)
• How to notify attendees about a canceled meeting
• How to craft a cancellation message and sample template
• Best practices for canceling meetings

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How to Cancel A Google Calendar Event For Everyone (For Organizers)

Deleting a Google Calendar event as a meeting organizer will also delete it for all attendees. To proceed, follow these steps:

1. From your desktop computer or laptop, open Google Calendar.
2. Select the event you want to cancel.
3. Click the trash can icon to delete the event.

All event participants will also receive an email confirming cancellation.

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How to Cancel A Google Calendar Meeting Only For Yourself (For Attendees)

You can cancel and delete an event from your Google Calendar if you're an attendee. Here’s how:

1. From your desktop computer or laptop, open Google Calendar.
2. Select the event you want to cancel.
3. Click the trash can icon to delete the event.

Note: This action does not delete the event from the calendar of other attendees.

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How to Delete a Google Calendar Event You’re Invited To

Method 1: On Gmail

When someone invites you to an event, you will receive the invitation via email. You can delete this event by clicking “No” in the invitation:

If you’re declining a recurring event you’re invited to, you can choose to delete the following:

• Only this event
• This and the following events
• All events

Note: When you click “No,” Google Calendar informs the event organizer via email:

Method 2: On Google Calendar

You can also delete a Google Calendar event directly from Google Calendar. Here’s how:

1. From your desktop computer or laptop, open Google Calendar.
2. Select the event you want to remove.
3. Click the trash can icon to delete the event.

If you can't attend the meeting, inform the event organizer via Google Calendar’s message window and give a brief explanation.

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How to Cancel A Recurring Event in Google Calendar

A recurring event is set to repeat daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, or yearly. When you delete a repeating event, you’ll have the following options:

• This event or Only this instance - deletes this particular event. This action doesn’t delete any future events and meetings
• This and following events or All following - deletes this recurring event meeting and future meetings
• All events or All events in the series - deletes all recurring events in the series

Note: If someone else created the event, you won’t find these options.

Canceling a single event on Google Calendar affects only that specific occurrence. It leaves the rest of the event series untouched. This option can be helpful in handling isolated conflicts or changes. For example, if you have a weekly marketing call and you won’t be able to attend this week’s meeting, you only need to delete the meeting for this week—no need to delete future weekly meetings.

On the other hand, canceling the entire series removes all events. This option works great when the entire series is no longer needed or should be rescheduled. For example, if you no longer need to meet your team weekly, you can delete the entire series.

Consider thinking twice before canceling. If you delete an event, it goes to the trash bin and will remain there for 30 days, during which you can restore it. We’ll explain how this works in a little more detail later.

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How to Notify Attendees About a Canceled Event in Google Calendar

You can choose whether to notify the attendees when you cancel a Google Calendar meeting from your computer. Here are two options you will find:

1. ‘Send’ - select this to notify attendees of the cancellation. You can include a message explaining the reason for the cancellation.
2. ‘Don’t send’ - select this if you do not wish to notify anyone about the cancellation.
   

What Happens When You Delete a Google Calendar Event

If you delete a Google Calendar event as an organizer, you’ll cancel the meeting entirely. This action includes any reminder notifications. The deleted event will be in the trash bin for 30 days, and you have the option to restore it. Here’s how:

1. Go to Google Calendar.
2. Click the gear icon on the upper right to open the settings and select ‘Trash.’
3. Hover over the event and click the ‘Restore’ icon.

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Best Practices for Canceling a Google Calendar Event

Canceling a Google Calendar event requires finesse to maintain professionalism and positive relationships. Here are some suggestions for when you find yourself needing to cancel a meeting:

1. Give 24-hour notice when canceling a meeting. 
2. Provide a clear reason why you want to cancel the meeting.
3. If you need to reschedule the meeting, please provide at least three options. It's easier to keep the same time and move it to a different day, especially if you're in different time zones. 
4. If you can't attend the meeting, ask for the recording or the transcription.

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Quickly Transcribe and Summarize Your Meetings with Tactiq

If you can't attend a Google Calendar meeting, meeting transcription tool Tactiq will come in handy.

Tactiq ensures you stay updated on everything discussed by transcribing and summarizing these meetings. This way, you can quickly understand the context and contribute with participants after the event - even though you couldn’t attend.

Think of Tactiq as a virtual note-taker that helps you stay informed. It offers advanced features such as real-time transcription, speaker identification, keyword highlights, and more to make reviewing and finding important meeting information easier.

Tactiq's features include:

• Post-meeting Summaries and Action Items: Get concise summaries and automatically extracted action items from your meetings.
• Project Updates and Follow-ups: Stay updated on ongoing projects and ensure you track follow-up tasks.
• Recaps and Custom AI Prompts: Receive quick recaps of discussions and use custom AI prompts tailored to your needs.
• Team Spaces: Collaborate in dedicated team spaces.
• GPT-4 Note Taker and AI Meeting Kits: Use the powerful GPT-4 for note-taking and AI Meeting Kits for efficient meeting management.
• YouTube Transcript Generator: Transcribe YouTube videos for easy reference and accessibility.

To install Tactiq on your computer, simply follow these steps:

1. Visit the Chrome Web Store.
2. Click ‘Add to Chrome’ on the right-hand side of the page.
3. If you already use Tactiq, go to the Integrations page. Click Connect next to Google Meet to allow Tactiq to run during your meeting.

4. Go to Google Meet. The Tactiq widget will be on the right-hand side of the screen.

To learn how to send a Google Meet invite, check out this article: How to Send a Google Meet Invite.

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Canceling Google Calendar Events Made Easy

In this article, we’ve discussed the basics of canceling a Google Calendar event, from the technicalities to etiquette around cancellation.

It’s important to remember that no one will mind if you cancel a meeting politely, with good reason, and in good time. Your approach matters so much because it reflects the value you place on others’ time.

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More Resources

• "How to Create a New Google Calendar": A step-by-step guide to creating a new calendar in Google Calendar.
• "How to Share Your Google Calendar": Instructions on how to share your Google Calendar with others.
• "How to Change Google Calendar Colors": Learn how to customize your Google Calendar with different colors.
• "How to Set Working Hours in Google Calendar": A guide on setting your working hours in Google Calendar to better manage your availability.