With the Calendar, Contacts and Tasks apps, Nextcloud brings a full personal information management suite — comparable to Outlook or iCloud. All of it syncs to smartphones, mail clients and desktop apps via open standards (CalDAV, CardDAV).
Calendar — appointments
Click the calendar icon in the top navigation.
First steps
By default you have a personal calendar. You can create as many more as you like — say “Family”, “Work”, “Club”.
New calendar: in the left sidebar, click the + next to “Calendars” → set a name and color.
Creating an appointment
Double-click a day or a time slot. In the event dialog:
- Title, location, start/end, description
- Repetition (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, custom)
- Reminder (before the event, as push or mail)
- Attendees (internal users or external mail addresses — they get an ICS invitation)
- Attachments (files from your Nextcloud)
Save, done.
Sharing calendars
Right-click a calendar → Share. Same as with files: with other users, groups, or external people via a public link.
Permissions: read / write.
Practical example — a family calendar: one calendar, all family members with write access. Or a club calendar: board members with write access, members read.
CalDAV — sync to smartphone and mail client
The calendar is accessible via CalDAV. Server URL:
https://<deine-nextcloud-url>/remote.php/dav/calendars/<deinusername>/Configuration per platform:
- iOS: Settings → Calendar → Add account → Other → CalDAV. Enter URL, username, password (or app password).
- macOS: Apple Calendar → Settings → Accounts →
+→ Other CalDAV account. - Android: via DAVx⁵ (F-Droid or Google Play). Create an account, URL + login.
- Thunderbird: Lightning → new network calendar → CalDAV.
- Outlook: needs a plugin (CalDav Synchronizer).
More detail in the respective mail client articles — it works analogously.
Subscribing to external calendars
In the sidebar, + → New subscription → enter the URL of an ICS calendar. Handy for public holidays, sports fixtures, your employer’s work calendar.
Contacts — address book
Click the contacts icon in the top navigation.
Creating contacts
+ New contact. Fill in the fields:
- First name, last name
- Email, phone, address
- Birthday (syncs with the calendar, if enabled)
- Notes
- Profile picture
Save. The contact is immediately available via mail autocomplete in Nextcloud Mail or via CardDAV in mail clients.
Address books
Same as calendars — create multiple address books, share them individually, sync them separately.
Default: personal address book. Any number of additional ones possible.
CardDAV — sync
Server URL:
https://<deine-nextcloud-url>/remote.php/dav/addressbooks/users/<deinusername>/On iOS, macOS, Android, Thunderbird identical to CalDAV — see above.
Import from other sources
Import (top right) → upload a vCard file (.vcf). The standard format of all modern address book apps.
From Outlook: export as CSV, convert to vCard with an online tool, then import into Nextcloud.
Tasks
Click the tasks icon in the top navigation (small checklist).
If the app isn’t active: search and install it in Administration settings → Apps.
Creating a task
Click +. Fields:
- Title, description
- Due date (also shows in the calendar, if enabled)
- Priority (low, medium, high)
- Status (open, in progress, done)
- List (which list the task belongs to)
- Tags (categories)
Tasks are synced via CalDAV (tasks are part of the CalDAV standard). On iPhone in the Reminders app, on Android in DAVx⁵-compatible apps like OpenTasks or Tasks.org.
Organizing lists
Lists correspond to projects or topics. Examples:
- “Personal”
- “Club – board”
- “Shopping list” (with a sub-list “weekly shop”)
Lists can be shared; tasks are then worked on together.
Birthdays automatically in the calendar
If contacts have a birthday field, Nextcloud can automatically show a birthday calendar — all-day events on each birthday.
Enable in Personal settings → Calendar: “Show birthdays of contacts”.
Very popular — no more forgotten birthdays.
Sharing with other users
Calendars and address books are both shareable (via the same sharing dialog as files). Tasks are shared at the list level.
Sharing use cases:
- Family: shared family calendar
- Club: board address book
- Self-employed: appointment calendar shared with an assistant
- Medical practice: staff calendar for shift planning
Frequently asked questions
Do calendars / contacts sync in real time? In the web browser, immediately. On smartphones: depends on the app’s sync interval, typically 5–15 minutes or on push.
Can I import appointments from Outlook? Yes. Outlook → export as ICS → import into Nextcloud Calendar. Per calendar, separately.
Conflicts when syncing between multiple devices? Nextcloud is server-centric — whoever syncs last, writes. With frequent parallel edits: be careful, or use one source as the master.
Do ICS invitations to external addresses work? Yes. If you add attendees with a mail address, Nextcloud sends an ICS invitation by mail (via the configured mail server). Recipients can accept or decline.
How many contacts can Nextcloud handle? We’ve seen setups with 10,000+ contacts, performance-wise fine. The first sync to a smartphone can take 5–15 minutes with large amounts.
Contacts with photos? Yes. vCard supports a profile picture as an attachment.
Birthdays show on the wrong day — timezone problem?
Known issue with some sync setups. Solution: in the contact edit, save the birthday as a no-year date (--MM-DD instead of YYYY-MM-DD) — Nextcloud then skips timezone calculations.
What does “task is done” mean?
In CalDAV: status set to COMPLETED. On iPhone in Reminders the task gets checked off — sync to Nextcloud shows the same task as done.
Can I create tasks with sub-tasks? Yes. Tasks supports nested sub-tasks.
What’s next
First login as a Nextcloud admin
What to do after your Nextcloud is provisioned — login, profile, the important first settings, what we handle and what you handle.
Admin GUI overview — what you'll find where
Nextcloud's administration settings are big. Here's a tour of the sections that matter and what they do.
Creating users and groups
Create users for family, club or team, organize groups, set quotas, control login behavior.
Sharing — files with others, internally and externally
Sharing files in Nextcloud — within your cloud with other users, with groups, or externally via sharing link.