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.

[TimOlaf]

Hey that's awesome I'm glad to hear it.  I may even try your way, of first turning on Samsung Cal notifications, and then disabling it.  I really don't want to see Samsung Cal at all, it's really unhelpful at best, disruptive at worst, as you well know.  Good luck.

[pariskl]

Unfortunately, it is now          May 31, 2024, so going on five months since this thread began. I am obviously late to the party, but I've wondered about others before this, like why there are two identical [in title] stock phone apps and three messaging apps [Google/Samsung/my third-party app]? Part of me wants to experiment, but my majority me ain't touching that scenario with a 10-foot pole... Yet. 

I'd just like to understand this better and am still searching for help. 

This is a good thread, good details in layman's terms. 

[DaveZiffer]

I suggest you follow my comments in this thread all the way to the end of the thread, and you are likely to have your solution.

[pariskl]

Yes, that's how it should work but it doesn't. 

Therefore, I am/we are  questioning, must we have two or three of the installed calendars enabled [Samsung/ Google/ ACalendar in my instance] for ACalendar to function at all? That is with ACalendar, only, chosen to 'allow notifications'.

In other words, is a stock app (or two) required for a third-party app to function? At this point, whether it is or isn't required is a moot point since we've stopped receiving notifications, any way you look at it, and can't seem to find a way to reinstate them. 

At the point I began manipulating/disabling the stock apps and their settings, etc.... All three stopped working like I hurt their feelings or something. Now, I guess they're staging a 'grey out' or a 'sit-in' and are flat out refusing to work. 

Anyway, just sayin'... I am so frustrated!! 

BTW, my phone is an S23 Ultra and I don't feel it's a hardware problem. 

[user8FmXKmwUtC]

Yes!!!!!! What the **bleep** is the difference between a task and an event anyway? And then when you're deleting them I don't understand the difference between a completed task, and to delete all future tasks or however it's worded. It's so **bleep** confusing!!!! I feel like I just hit the pot of gold though every time I'm reading a solution or suggestion on here I could like **bleep** myself I'm so excited cuz I know I'm going to eventually find out how to fix my phone.

[pariskl]

Yep, Yep, Yep... 

[user8FmXKmwUtC]

Oh my gosh you're an angel. Thank you so much. I have had this problem for so long. I have searched and searched and searched to try and troubleshoot and fix the problem. But all of the sites are from Google or Samsung and they just confuse me even more. You made it very simple and I could understand what you were saying. I'm going to go ahead and try that. Thank you for making a complex problem simple for a simple mind like me.

[realaud]

You dont have notifications set to silent by any chance? Or no notification sound set? I found that when categories are involved, you have to set at least one notification sound, which becomes the default. I noticed that, for instance, in mine even though I have notifications enabled for the category, Tasks has a default ring tone of "silent" even though the radio button is set for sound. You might want to check each category and set different sounds for different categories. Otherwise I have one other option for you.  Allow notifications for calendar events from Samsung calendar (even though you will enter them on Google calendar) and task notifications in Google calendar, since Samsung doesn't seem to have that category--Although it may notify you of the tasks anyway just not as a separate category, just general notifications.

After that, like you, I am at a loss for other suggestions.

[DaveZiffer]

My overall system notification sound is set to "Spaceline". But I find all this preposterous. Why would a notification (a message that you see by swiping down) be dependent on whether there's a sound associated with it? Can you imagine, for example, trying to explain all this to your mom?

I suppose I could spend all day diddling with all the possible combinations of notification enablings on both apps, but this is just too ridiculous. Thanks anyway.

[realaud]

I did notice that once "categories" was added to Android notifications, you had to set the alert or silent and sound features for each category you enable.  And yes, I can imagine explaining it to my mom, although I didn't have to explain settings to her because I did all the setup. I did try explaining how to use a smart phone in the few years prior to her death, but she really couldn't even get the concept of the basic Nokia she had prior to smart phones. Once she (barely) got the hang of that, she couldn't even grasp the concept of slide to answer the call, so she just declined to use the phone.