Google Calendar – Associate Two Email Addresses for Invitations

email-forwardinggmailgoogle-calendarnotifications

I have a Gmail account a@gmail.com that is set up to send mails out of my work email account a@example.com. This works legitimately with Gmail's feature to Send mail as:
(Use Gmail to send from your other email addresses) in the Accounts and Import settings in Gmail.

Problem: sometimes people invite me to meetings via Google Calendar with the a@example.com account, whereas my Google Calendar (Google account) is set up in my a@gmail.com. I'm using Gmail features again (no forwarding): invitations sent there are fetched from a@example.com, that is, using the Check email from other accounts: feature to my Google mail (Gmail) account.

When I try to accept them, they give the following error:

Google Calendar invitations cannot be forwarded via email. This event belongs to a@example.com and you are logged in as a@gmail.com. Please ask the meeting organiser to add you to the event from Google Calendar.

If Google is making it easy for me to fetch emails and send them from other aliases, how do I integrate that into the Calendar app?

One of the official answers at https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/calendar/NZKP-Toxz-U indicates I should create a separate account for a@example.com, which defeats the purpose (I think) of the Gmail fetch and send email as features. Is this just an example of inconsistency with feature-creep in Google's products?

Note: this question Invitations to different Google Calendars within one account is not the same one I'm asking.

Best Answer

The instructions at http://www.tekgrl.com/accepting-google-calendar-invites-to-a-non-gmail-account/ worked for me, taking into the account the comments at the end. Here's a summary:

Google has finally fixed this, all you have to do is enable a setting in your Google Calendar to be able to respond to any calendar invite sent to any of your Gmail alternate addresses. Here’s how you do it:

  1. [from the comments] Set up the alternate email address a@example.com for your Google account. The option in Google Calendar below may not show up unless you have. Here is Google’s help article for setting up alternate addresses.
  2. [from the comments] Wait some necessary time for the Google Calendar to recognize you've added the Alternate Email from step above.
  3. In Google Calendar (on a@gmail.com account`) click the gear icon and choose Settings.
  4. Select your primary calendar in the Calendars Configuration menu item on the left pane.
  5. In the “General Notifications” section for your primary calendar, check the box “Allow me to respond to event invitations forwarded from these addresses.”

Note that invitations already sent before you set this up won't work. Only new invitations will work properly.

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