Samsung Calendar app interferes with Google Calendar notifications

[DaveZiffer]

My A54 phone comes with a pre-installed default "Calendar" app that originally fooled me into thinking that it was Google Calendar (considering that Google Calendar is generally the default calendar on Android devices). Samsung's Calendar fooled me because somehow it has access to the Google Calendar data, and so it displays info that I had entered into (the real) Google Calendar using my PC. I finally realized that Samsung's Calendar was not the "real thing" when it occurred to me that Google Calendar has a new "Schedule" view that Samsung's Calendar doesn't support.

My response was to install Google Calendar on my phone, but upon doing this I suddenly had two copies of every event notification - one from Samsung Calendar and another from Google Calendar. So I tried uninstalling Samsung's Calendar but this is not allowed, so instead I disabled Samsung's Calendar. Well that fixed the problem, because NOW I RECEIVE NO EVENT NOTIFICATIONS AT ALL. I know that Samsung's Calendar is messing me up because I also have both a PC and a non-Samsung Android tablet, both of which run Google Calendar, and those devices display my notifications just fine.

So obviously Samsung's Calendar is interfering with Google Calendar's notifications; disabling Samsung Calendar apparently disables Google Calendar's notifications. This is very disturbing. I have two choices, apparently: receive two copies of each of my Google Calendar notifications, or receive none. This is completely unacceptable.

When I bought my Samsung phones (in October 2023) I thought I was just buying a phone, but apparently Samsung has a different conception. My Samsung A54s apparently also come with a Samsung Wallet that is intended to displace Google Wallet. There's also a Google messaging app (which in the A54 comes pre-installed but on the A03s doesn't) that is duplicated by what seems to be a Samsung messaging app. And then there's the Calendar. Oh yes and there's a pre-installed Samsung News app. I wonder what that's about? Samsung apparently wants to select what I read. I'm glad that Samsung News is not not forced upon me in the same way that Samsung Calendar is.

I didn't buy a Samsung phone to be forced into using Samsung's Calendar or any other Samsung apps. The whole point of using Google Calendar is that it's universally available on all devices, allowing me to share Calendar data with people who use Google Calendar on PCs, Macs, non-Samsung Android tablets and non-Samsung phones. I have no idea what the implications of my using Samsung's Calendar on just my Samsung phones are, and I doubt that Samsung's software engineers do either. On some future day when Samsung has totally displaced Google's Calendar on all devices, including non-Samsung devices, then maybe I'll take a look at it. Till then, please don't shove it down my throat.

It seems to me that Samsung has some sort of grand plan to displace Google in the Android app marketplace. Good luck with that. Google owns Android, which means Google has the power to bump off Samsung any time it wants. It's time that Samsung top management realizes this, stops trying to take over the Android app world, and returns its attention to making PHONES rather than irritating its phone customers with all this complexity and frustration.

[DaveZiffer]

OK so thanks for that. So I now discovered yet another entire notification section under Google's calendar, confusingly called "In-app notification settings Calendar". I clicked on that and ended up on a page that identified itself as "General". Under this is yet another section called "Notifications", beneath which are three sub-sections entitled:

"Calendar notifications"
"Tasks notifications"
"Tasks overdue notifications"

Under each of these sub-sections are yet more settings, one of which is "Sound", each of which implied that its default was set to "App provided sound". Upon entering each "Sound" section, I found that there was a whole list of all possible sounds, along with two top entries "Default notification sound" and "Silent", but neither of these was selected. So under each of the above three sections I set it to "Default". This caused all three to ultimately indicated (upon returning to the parent page) that each notification sound had been changed.

This is all patently insane. The degree of complexity here is beyond ridicule. I worked in software development for 42 years and have rarely seen a UI this idiotic even in systems software that was intended to be interpreted by engineers, much less in a consumer product.

None of this fixed my problem. I have a pending test event within 12 hours and a 12-hour notification lead time, and I still have no notification.

[realaud]

Oh, in re-reading you message, I noticed you were beefing about Samsung wallet/pay.  It may be intended to replace Google Wallet, but you don't have to use it if you don't want to.  You are still able to use Google Pay/Wallet.  It's just another option.  I use both, because some apps just don't take Samsung Pay but they do take Google Pay.  I use Samsung Pay as a first choice because my first watch had it installed because it was Tizen not Google OS.  Now Google Pay is on my watch & my phone, but I'm just used to and have a preference for Samsung Pay at the moment.  You are not forced into using any of Samsung's apps, they are just there as another option and for people who may be getting their first smart phone (not everyone has entered the 20th, let alone the 21st century.)  Even though Samsung Messages is pre-installed, you can still make Google Messages the default messaging app-or any other messaging app you prefer.  There are more than 2 messaging apps out there, but these two are ad-free and most people are familiar with one or the other.

I know that thing that really annoys me about Samsung phones is the 100,000 settings you have to go through to personalize your phone. That, of course, may be more due to the Android version updates, but I was used to, for example, just setting notifications for an app not categories within an app. Although, I must say I can see the value in it if I want notifications of some things but not everything an app decides to spit out.

[DaveZiffer]

Yes I realize I don't need to use Samsung Wallet. I also don't have to use Samsung's calendar, but that doesn't stop Samsung's calendar from messing up Google's calendar.

[DaveZiffer]

I'd like to summarize my findings here for Samsung's tech staff when I report this as a bug.

Samsung has a pre-installed "Calendar" app that appears to be some "retro" version of Google's "Calendar". Because the Samsung app somehow accesses the data of Google's calendar, it confused me into believing that it was Google's "Calendar", which apparently is the intent. After some weeks of using it, I realize that Samsung's "Calendar" does not support two apparently new features from Google's "Calendar", namely "Schedule View" and "Tasks". 

Because Samsung's "Calendar" does not support Tasks, it obviously cannot handle Tasks that a user might enter into his Google "Calendar" on other platforms. This is a serious failing, since a primary feature of Google's "Calendar" is its cross-platform support and its users' tendency to share events and tasks with other users who would likely be unaware of the Samsung "Calendar" app's limitations.

All this would be moot if I could just install and use Google's "Calendar" in place of Samsung's "Calendar". However when using Google's "Calendar" on my Samsung A54, I receive two notifications for every calendar event: apparently one from Samsung's "Calendar" and the other from Google's "Calendar". Any attempt to suppress notifications from Samsung's "Calendar", including both disabling the entire app and also individually suppressing notifications, also suppresses the notifications from the Google "Calendar" app. There is no way to uninstall Samsung's "Calendar", so this leaves me with only two options: either receive two notifications for every Google "Calendar" event, or receive zero.

This is most definitely a BUG. Not only that, it is a bug that inflicts a huge amount of wasted time on users trying to figure out how to defeat it.

[DaveZiffer]

So I have some new info here. Yesterday I opened Google's Calendar on one of my phones, and up popped a warning that Google was sharing calendar info with other entities, and warning me that such other entities might not support all of Google's calendar features. It struck me that Google has become aware that there are now calendar apps mimicking Google's calendar. This warning then took me to the calendar app's Settings, where I saw some checkboxes that I'd never noticed before. These checkboxes gave permissions (apparently to share calendar info) to the following entities:

• "Google" (seems like a good idea to keep this one)
• "Samsung Calendar"
• "My Calendar" / On this device

I presumed the latter two to be the Samsung entities, so I unchecked both. This morning I did some tests on my calendar to see if notifications were still working, and they seem fine. So this might be a really simple way to have Google's calendar be the only entity on your phone that has access to your calendar data and/or messes with our Google calendar notifications.

[user8FmXKmwUtC]

Oh my gosh, Dave, you are speaking my language!!! I thought I was in the Twilight zone and I 100% agree with you about the Samsung calendar thing among other things. It is completely overtaken my phone to the point where is barely functional. There's a Samsung app for everything!!!! IT IS SOOOOO ANNOYING! And my notifications for some reason come up as silent notifications I will look down at my phone and I will see this little circle flashing on my front screen for hours. For hours it had been going off and I completely missed the calendar event entirely. To make matters worse I have two Samsung accounts. Somehow I have one for my Yahoo email and a second one using my Gmail. I had a funny feeling that I had duplicate accounts and I typed in the second email and I thought that it would cause some kind of glitch and would tell me that I was using the wrong email or something. But no it let me log in with the new email and it completely **bleep** up my phone beyond belief. The minute that I logged into that Samsung account that's when the problem started. It's like an infected my phone like cancer. I tried to troubleshoot the problem but after disabling the Samsung apps, I couldn't even receive phone calls anymore. I could hear the phone ringing but the screen would be black there was no way for me to even answer a call. It was annoying when Google started coming out with all of the different apps but can learn to coexist with google. I hate the Samsung / Google combo. And why is it impossible to find any information or get any kind of support? I've looked everywhere. I wish somebody would write a book or start some kind of a service where you could actually troubleshoot and solve your problem. When I search online all I find are sites from Google and from Samsung which just confuse me even more. It's like it just loops and loops and loops until your phone is so messed up I feel sorry for anybody that has to help me try and unfix it. And the worst thing is if I get a new phone, by logging into my account all of the old settings are going to be "customized" aka infected. I'm on a genius but I'm not a dummy either and you literally made my day.

[user8FmXKmwUtC]

Hallelujah.

[pariskl]

Overall, nicely said. I'm not sure how you were able to pick this issue [plus all its' facets] out of my brain in their entirety, but you certainly have.

Now the question is, Have You Found A Solution to Reinstate The Notifications?

My three are 'ACALENDAR', 'SAMSUNG' calendar & 'GOOGLE' calendar receiving double notifications between them. 

So, then, after changes and from no notifications, I reversed every action/setting initially made for the SAMSUNG CAL, with no success, then for GOOGLE CAL, again with no success.

Currently then, all three calendars are situated back in their original state, but still I  receive no notifications. I am dead without my 'ACALENDAR'. Please tell me you've had some kind of luck...? 

[DaveZiffer]

My solution is in my most recent post above yours. Everything is working reasonably well now.

[DaveZiffer]

So now it's mid-July 2024. Apparently either Samsung or Google did some sort of update to my Samsung A54, such that Google Calendar no longer produces ANY notifications whatsoever. No, I didn't change my settings; I even went back to check my Google Calendar settings, and they're still set up to notify me.
Interestingly my Samsung A03 still generates notifications for my separate calendar that I use for the different Google account associated with that phone. My A54 and A03 calendars are linked, by the way, so on each one I can see the events & tasks of the other.

I also have an ALLDOCUBE 8" tablet running Android 13, where the Google Calendar is using the same Google account as on my A54. The calendar notifications there also do not work. So I guess that Google has **bleep** the pooch with recent updates, but only for certain Android versions.