How to attach a file to a calendar event on a Mac

In Calendar, double-click the event, click Add Notes, URL, or Attachments, then Add Attachment…, and choose the file. You can also drag the file from Finder straight onto the event in the calendar. Whether the file stays attached depends on the account the calendar belongs to: iCloud calendars keep attachments, and other accounts vary. And attaching a file does not guarantee that every invitee gets a copy, so it is worth checking before the meeting rather than during it.

Attach a file in Calendar

1. Open Calendar and find the event.
2. Double-click it (or force click on a trackpad) to open its info window.
3. Click Add Notes, URL, or Attachments. If the event already has notes, those fields are already showing.
4. Click Add Attachment…, select the file, and click Open.
5. Click away from the window to close it.

The drag version is quicker when the file is already on screen. Arrange a Finder window so the event is still visible in Calendar, then drag the file onto the event itself. Day or Week view gives you the biggest target. If nothing attaches, check whether the event’s calendar accepts attachments at all (see the next section).

Once a file is attached, you can select it and press Space to preview it with Quick Look, or press Delete to remove it.

One behavior catches people out with repeating events. Calendar applies attachment changes to every occurrence of a repeating event, not just the one you clicked. Attach this week’s agenda to a weekly team meeting and it appears on every week of that meeting, past and future. For a file that belongs to one meeting only, a one-off event is the cleaner home, or put a link to the file in the URL field instead.

Which calendars keep the file

Calendar on the Mac shows events from several kinds of accounts side by side, but the file is stored by whichever account owns the event. Open the event and look at the calendar it belongs to (the colored calendar menu in the event window shows it) before you attach anything important.

• iCloud calendars support attachments. The file is uploaded with the event and stored with your account, so it shows up on your other devices too. If the upload fails, Calendar can report that the attachment is too large, or that the server rejected it because of insufficient storage space. A full iCloud storage plan is the usual cause of the second one.
• Exchange calendars usually support attachments, though what your organization’s server allows is up to the people who run it.
• Other accounts (web calendar services and other calendar servers added through Internet Accounts) vary. On some, the option to add an attachment does not appear. On others, the file seems to attach and then is gone after the event syncs, because the server never kept it.

If you need a file on an event in an account that will not keep it, the dependable fallback is a link: put the address of a shared copy in the URL field. If you have not invited anyone yet, you can usually move the event to an iCloud calendar from the calendar menu in its info window before attaching.

What invitees actually receive

This is the part that is hard to predict, because it depends on both ends of the invitation.

When the invitee uses the same kind of account as you (two iCloud users, or two people on the same Exchange system), the attachment usually appears in the event on their side and they can open it from there. In Calendar, an attached file on an incoming invitation may show a Download step before it opens.

When the invitee is on a different service, they typically receive the invitation by email, and what comes with it is up to their calendar. The file might arrive as an attachment, as a link, or not at all. You cannot see which from your side.

Two more things worth knowing:

• The attachment is a copy. Edit the original PDF on your Mac after attaching it and the event still holds the old version. Attach the final version, or remove the attachment and add the new one after every change.
• Attachments are not a delivery method. If an invitee needs the file before the meeting, send it to them as well. Attaching a file to an email in one drag covers the quickest way. Or ask one invitee whether the file showed up on their end.

Gather the files before you open the event

The fiddly part of attaching several files is that they rarely live together. The agenda PDF is in Downloads, the slides are in a project folder, last quarter’s numbers are somewhere in Documents. Each one means another Finder window, and each window you open tends to cover the event you are aiming for.

Finder alone can handle this. Make a temporary folder, put copies of the files in it, then drag them across together. How to gather files from different folders in one spot covers the built-in options.

Ledge does the gathering at the top of the screen instead. As you come across each file, drag it up to the notch and let go; it lands on a shelf that drops from the notch and stays there until you take it somewhere. Collect the agenda, the slides and the spreadsheet from their three folders without opening the event at all. Then bring Calendar forward, press Option-Space to open the shelf, and drag each file from the shelf onto the event. Calendar can stay full size, because the shelf opens above it rather than beside it, and the files are already found.

On a Mac without a notch, the shelf sits at the top center of the screen and works the same way. Ledge only holds the files and hands them over; Calendar does the attaching and the calendar account does the storing. Ledge itself sends nothing anywhere and has no account.

Questions

Why is there no way to add an attachment to this event?

Most often the event is on a calendar whose server does not store attachments, which is common outside iCloud and Exchange. The other usual reason is that the event is an invitation from someone else; you cannot change what the organizer attached. Check the calendar the event belongs to in its info window.

Does an attachment on a repeating event appear on every occurrence?

Yes. Calendar applies attachment changes to all occurrences of a repeating event. Use a one-off event, or a link in the URL field, when a file belongs to a single meeting.

If I update the file on my Mac, does the event get the new version?

No. The event holds the copy it was given. Remove the old attachment and attach the updated file, and tell invitees if they already downloaded the first one.

Does Ledge attach the file to the event for me?

No. Ledge is a shelf that holds files while you collect them. You still drag each file into the event, and Calendar attaches it in the usual way.