How to set up Diary Sync

Diary Sync connects your HealthTrack diary to an external calendar - iOS, Android, Google Calendar, or Outlook - so you can view appointments on the go.

This article is about syncing your diary to an external calendar app. The Doctor Portal Diary app is a different feature that shows your bookings inside the HealthTrack Doctor Portal. Both are set up from the same Admin > Maintenance > Diary Sync Configuration screen, which can cause confusion. If you want to view appointments in the Doctor Portal app, see How to view your appointments remotely instead.

What Diary Sync does

Diary Sync is one-way. HealthTrack publishes your diary to a HealthTrack cloud calendar, and your calendar app subscribes to it.

Bookings created or changed in HealthTrack appear on your external calendar after the next sync and calendar refresh.
Changes made on your external calendar do not flow back to HealthTrack. Editing, moving or deleting an event on your phone or in Google Calendar has no effect on the HealthTrack diary. To change a booking, change it in HealthTrack.

Each configuration publishes a rolling window of bookings around today's date. Bookings well in the past or far in the future may sit outside this window, so it is expected that they do not appear on the external calendar.

Patient privacy

Synced calendar events include patient details. The patient's name appears in the event title, and the event notes include the patient ID and phone numbers. There is no option to hide or mask patient identity in the synced calendar.

This means patient information will be visible on the provider's personal device and in their personal calendar account. Before setting up Diary Sync, consider:

The device should have a passcode or biometric lock.
The calendar should not be shared with family members or delegated to others, as they would see patient details.
The Calendar Access URL must be treated like a password. Anyone who has the URL can view the synced diary.

If the practice is not comfortable with patient names appearing on personal calendars, the Doctor Portal Diary app may be a better fit, as it shows bookings inside an authenticated app rather than a subscribed calendar.

Before you start

Diary Sync must be enabled on your HealthTrack site licence before it can be configured. Contact your HealthTrack account manager to enable the service.

The licence caps how many Diary Sync configurations can be enabled at once. If you cannot enable a new configuration, check whether the site has reached its licensed limit.

Configure Diary Sync in HealthTrack

Each user who needs Diary Sync requires a separate configuration entry. This step is completed by a HealthTrack administrator.

Go to Admin > Maintenance > Diary Sync Configuration.
Click New to create a configuration entry for the user.
Enter a Description to identify this configuration (for example, the user's name).
Select the Enabled checkbox to activate the configuration.
Select Sync Bookings and/or Sync Diary Templates as required.
Under Location/Room, select one or more locations and rooms to include in the sync.
Under Booking Type, select which booking types to sync, or leave all selected to sync everything.
Under Booked Doctor, select the doctor or doctors whose bookings should sync.
Under Status, select the booking statuses to include.
Copy the Calendar Access URL. This URL - which includes the username and password - is required to complete setup on each device.
1. The SMS and QR buttons can also be used to provide the link.

The Calendar Access URL contains credentials. Do not share it publicly.

Set up Diary Sync on your Device

Setting up Diary Sync will be different depending on the device. Follow the instructions below to configure the subscription calendar for the relevant device.

If the calendar stops updating

External calendars refresh on their own schedule, so a short delay is normal. If the calendar has stopped updating altogether, work through these causes in order:

Check the configuration is still enabled. In Admin > Maintenance > Diary Sync Configuration, confirm the user's configuration exists and Enabled is selected. A configuration that has been disabled or deleted stops publishing without any message on the device.
Check the user is still linked to the configuration. Each provider must be attached to a Diary Sync configuration. If the user's link was removed (for example, after a user record change), their calendar stops receiving updates.
Check the device's refresh settings. On iOS, check the fetch interval under Settings > Passwords & Accounts > Fetch New Data. On Android, check the sync interval in the calendar app. Google Calendar refreshes subscribed calendars on its own schedule and this can take many hours.
Check the subscription still exists on the device. If the subscribed calendar was removed or the Calendar Access URL changed, the device needs to be subscribed again with the current URL.
Contact HealthTrack support if none of the above resolves it. If HealthTrack cannot reach the calendar server, failed updates are not retried or flagged in the practice, so the calendar can stall silently. Support can check whether the sync service is running and publishing for your site.

Remember the sync is one-way. If the question is "I changed something on my phone and it is not in HealthTrack", that is expected behaviour, not a fault.