Google Calendar – a free time-management calendar application developed by Mountain View, California-based tech giant Google – is a tool that helps you to stay organized and makes it easy to keep track of important meetings and events all in one place.

With Google Calendar, one can create, view as well as edit their schedule on the go by accessing the service through Web and mobile app (both on Android and iOS), or it can even be synced with phone’s built-in calendar. It’s basically a digital calendar the makes scheduling and planning much more easier.

Google-calendar-on-phone
Google Calendar on Android

So as you can see, the Calendar service offers a lot of functionalities. But for about a couple of months now, Google Calendar Web client users have been reporting some issues. So lets take a look at the problems that are surfacing.

Drag and drop events not working

The drag and drop feature, as some of you may already know, allows you to edit an event or adjust its time or day in Google Calendar. It allows you to select an event and drag it using the mouse to another day or schedule it to some other time. Meaning, there’s no need to recreate the event.

But for about past two months, reports have been pouring across the official Calendar Help forum with user saying Calendar’s drag and drop feature is broken and not working anymore.

Google-Calendar-month-view-schedule
Google Calendar events

Complainants have confirmed the issue persists irrespective of the browser used, be it Google Chrome, Firefox or Safari, and regardless of the OS being used (Windows or Mac OS). Here’s how one of affected users explained the problem behavior across the help forum:

Drag and drop stopped working and that’s a dealbreaker for me. I can’t adjust the duration or move events to other days anymore. The arrow cursor just turns into a “no” symbol while I’m dragging, and when I drop it turns into a “move” symbol that doesn’t actually move anything. Is there something I can do on my end? This has to be bothering other people besides me. I should add that the problem exists in both Chrome and Firefox.

Another user gave a more detailed description of how drag and drop operates by default, and how the same is acting a bit buggy.

Calendar-drag-drop-issue-user-report
User report on Calendar Help forum

A couple of affected users even shared some video clips showcasing the issue in question.

Coming to the development on the matter so far, one of Calendar forum’s product expert has been actively addressing the problem since it was first reported. Looking at the proliferating reports, in the second week of April, they informed the complainants they’ll escalate the issue.

Thanks for your replies, I will escalate this to the team for them to look at.

Following that, they asked the complainants to share some video proofs for the concerned team to take a look at. After sharing the user-submitted videos with the team, the same products expert said:

I have shared it with the escalation team, and they will take a look at it. @all others, the team will look at it and I will post any updates I get here ASAP!

As for their latest update on the matter, on other threads discussing the same problem, the same product expert recently acknowledged the issue saying:

This is a known issue, and I think it has been reported and is being looked at right now.

Calendar-drag-drop-issue-expert-response
Calendar Help forum product expert’s response

Considering Google Calendar’s drag and drop problem has already been brought to the concerned team’s notice, we hope the same also gets fixed soon. Meanwhile, the user-shared workaround that helps at least in Firefox and can be given a try is:

click and hold until the event’s density becomes pale (about a second, but feels longer), then drag the lower edge and let go, it works, but slows you down a lot compared to previously.

Wait, we aren’t done yet. That’s not the only Google Calendar issue being reported.

Edit/add events broken

Another Google Calendar issue troubling the service’s Web client users is they aren’t able to add or change events on calendar as the functionalities are reportedly broken. The problem is being chimed since January across the official help forum.

While majority users say they can’t edit the existing calendar entries, events or reminders, a lot of them are facing issues even while adding/creating new events.

Going by user reports, this issue also shows up irrespective of the browser being used as users on Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Edge and Safari have confirmed to face the glitch. Here’s how a described the problem:

I can’t add or change events on google calendar. Sometimes I can’t move from week to week. I log out and back in again and sometimes this resolves the problem for a short while before happening again.

I have edge and I need to add things to events on my calendar but when I click the edit button like I always have, nothing happens, I can’t add anything to that date’s event. How can I fix this please????

When the issue was first reported, back in January one of the product experts acknowledged the issue and suggested users to switch to Chrome or Firefox until the problem gets resolved.

Are you using Edge or IE? If so, our teams are aware and investigating the issue, but they need more information in order to get to a fix.

Here’s their complete statement:

Google-calendar-edit-add-issue
Calendar Help forum product expert’s statement

But nothing came after that, and users continue complaining. FYI as already mentioned above, the issue isn’t specific to Internet Explorer and Edge, as users also face the same issue on other browsers. Hoping this issue also gets addressed soon.

In the meantime, like always, we are keeping an active tab on all related developments and will update the story as and when any new information comes to our sight. And just in case you are also facing the problems discussed here, comment below.

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Dr. Aparajita Sharma
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Currently, I am pursuing Ph.D (Psychology), and have been teaching the same for past four years. Coming to PiunikaWeb, I know it was a complete switch over, but the idea was appealing enough to put in all the effort it called for. My work primarily involves research. Oh, and yes, some of the photographs you see here are clicked by me. Overall, I am enjoying whatever I am doing, and hoping you’ll also feel the same reading all my articles. You can find me on LinkedIN.

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