Do you see someones birthday you want to remove from your iPhone Calendar? Is your iPhone Calendar full of birthdays that you don’t care about or don’t care to see? Want to delete these birthdays from your iPhone or iPad Calendar and are perplexed that there’s no obvious way to do so? Are you wondering why you can’t delete birthdays from the Calendar app? Fear not, we will walk you through how to clean up your calendar and get rid of birthdays you do not want to see on your iPhone or iPad, and changes made there will also impact the Mac.
The way Calendar app handles birthdays on iPhone, iPad, and Mac for that matter, is a little curious. Birthdays are added to the Calendar through the Contacts app. Yes you read that correctly, the Contacts app controls what birthdays show up in the Calendar on iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Thus, if you want to remove a birthday from the Calendar app, you have to go to Contacts, and edit the contact to remove the birthday. This is because the Calendar app only gives you the option to either show all birthdays or none of them, and any birthday attached to a contact shows up in Calendar. Yes that means if some coworker or random person shared a contact card with you and they attached a birthday, you’ll get alerts and notifications that their birthday is arriving and here – even if you couldn’t care any less. Fun right? Ok let’s get rid of this nuisance.
How to Delete Birthdays from Calendar on iPhone & iPad
Wondering how you can remove a birthday from Calendar? Curious why you can’t delete birthday events from your calendar? Here’s how to do this:
- Open the Contacts app on the iPhone or iPad (yes seriously, open Contacts to get rid of birthdays in Calendars)
- Locate the name of the contact of the birthday showing up in your Calendar and tap on them
- Tap on “Edit”
- Scroll down and locate ‘birthday’ and tap the red (-) minus button to delete their birthday from the contact, confirm by tapping Delete
- Repeat with other contacts birthdays you want to remove from the Calendar
- Return to Calendar app to find their birthdays no longer clogging up your calendar
Your Calendar app is now free from the unwanted birthdays.
There is currently no way to to keep birthdays in a contacts card and not show their particular birthday in the Calendar app.
How to Hide All Birthdays from Calendar on iPhone, iPad
Another option is to hide all birthdays from the Calendars app. Again, you can not hide specific birthdays, it’s all or nothing.
- Open the Calendar app
- Tap on “Calendars”
- Scroll down and uncheck the box next to “Birthdays” to hide all birthdays from Calendars
This method does not remove the birthdays, it just hides them all. Any birthday stored in a contact card will continue to be there, ready to see again if you re-enable the Birthdays Calendar.
That you can only see all birthdays or none is kind of like how you can hide all Holidays from Calendars on the iPhone or iPad but not only some of them that you don’t celebrate or care to see.
It’s unclear why Calendars is so restrictive and all-or-nothing, but that’s what we have to work with on iPhone and iPad (and again, Mac) for the time being.
Perhaps a future version of Calendars will allow hiding specific birthdays (and holidays) from the Calendar app without removing them from the Contacts app, but for now you’ll have to follow the two options detailed above.
Let us know your thoughts and experiences with removing or hiding birthdays from the Calendar on your iPhone or iPad in the comments below.
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Are you concerned your device has an iPhone calendar virus? The more likely answer is that you've accidentally subscribed to a spam calendar on your iPhone. If unknown (and unwanted) events are suddenly appearing in your iPhone calendar that are not a part of the standard holidays and memorials displayed, these can be easily removed. Let's cover how to get rid of calendar spam.
Jump To:
- What You Need to Know about iOS Calendar Spam
- How to Delete Calendar Spam with iOS 14.6 or Later
- How to Remove Spam from iPhone Calendar with Earlier iOS Versions
What You Need to Know about iOS Calendar Spam
Unfortunately, it's all too easy to subscribe to a spam calendar. Spam calendars can be sent via email, appear as pop-ups on shady websites, or be listed on hacked websites. In any of these cases, you will likely see a seemingly harmless calendar invitation, urging you to click the link or download a file to add a sale or other event date to your iOS calendar. Although it might seem convenient, you should avoid doing this! If you have any doubts about the source, do NOT click the link and simply add the event to your iOS Calendar manually. This is the best way to prevent iOS Calendar spam.
A few important notes about getting rid of calendar spam:
- Never click any files or links embedded in Apple calendar spam events. These can lead to viruses on your phone.
- Never remove a spam event invitation by clicking "Accept" or "Decline." This interaction can signal a valid email address and lead to further spam later on.
Below, we'll cover how to get rid of calendar spam by showing you how to unsubscribe from a spam calendar. Once you unsubscribe, all spam events associated with that calendar will be removed.
How to Delete Calendar Spam with iOS 14.6 or Later
If you have iOS 14.6 or later, you can actually use both this option and the one below to remove iOS Calendar spam. The steps are very similar for both options, so it comes down to preference. For more helpful tips, consider subscribing to our free Tip of the Day. Now, here's how to remove calendar spam on your iPhone.
- Open the Calendar app.
- Tap an unwanted Calendar event.
- Tap Unsubscribe from this Calendar at the bottom of the screen.
- Tap Unsubscribe to remove an unwanted calendar.
- If you feel this calendar is spam, make sure to tap Unsubscribe and Report Junk.
Related: Is Your iPhone Spying on You?
How to Remove Spam from iPhone Calendar with Earlier iOS Versions
If you have iOS 14.6 or earlier, you will need to follow the steps below to remove spam iPhone calendars. Here's how to delete calendar spam on your iPhone.
- Open the Calendar app.
- Tap Calendars.
- Check the calendars marked as Subscribed for an unfamiliar calendar.
- Tap the More Info button next to the unwanted calendar.
- Tap Unsubscribe.
- Tap Unsubscribe to remove an unwanted calendar.
- If you feel this calendar is spam, make sure to tap Unsubscribe and Report Junk.
Once you've removed unwanted and spam calendars, you should only be left with the iPhone calendar events you actually want and need!
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