Open ICS File

Invite.ICS File

Invite.ICS file is generated by calendar management programs to distribute invitation for an event to invited parties. That means if you receive an invite.csv file in e-mail then you were invited to a certain event by a person who sent the invite.

Forwarding invite.ICS files

You need to be cautions when forwarding invite.ics file which was sent to you. Typically invite.ics file contains information about the meeting including links and PINs to join online video conferences. Forwarding invite.ics file may compromise the security of your meeting if the file gets into wrong hands. Thus only forward the invite.ics file to the people who need to be present at the event.

How to Open Invite.ICS File

Typically Invite.ICS is parsed automatically by e-mail software such as Google Gmail, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Calendar. But some software may not parse it correctly. In this case you can try to import it into your calendar directly by following instructions in our Import into Google Calendar manual or Import into Apple Calendar manual. If you want to first look into the file to understand what is inside you can download the Invite.ICS file and convert it to CSV with ICS Online Conversion Tool. If you do not want to use any of the methods described above you can still download the file to your computer and open invite.ICS as a text file. Invite.ICS file is based on ICalendar format which in its turn is based on XML. Typically invite.ics only contains one event in it so it will not be very hard to understand the contents of it.

Below is a list of software capable of opening invite.ics file.

• Yahoo! Calendar
• Google Calendar
• Apple Calendar
• Microsoft Outlook
• Mozilla Thunderbird

Below is an example of calendar data file stored in invite.ics file:
BEGIN:VCALENDAR
PRODID:-//Google Inc//Google Calendar 70.9054//EN
VERSION:2.0
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:REQUEST
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:19700308T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:19701101T020000
RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230125T110000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230125T113000
DTSTAMP:20230117T135251Z
ORGANIZER;CN= [email protected]:mailto:[email protected]
UID:[email protected]
ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=ACCEPTED;RSVP=TRUE
;CN= [email protected];X-NUM-GUESTS=0:mailto:[email protected]
ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=INDIVIDUAL;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=ACCEPTED;RSVP=TRUE
;CN= [email protected];X-NUM-GUESTS=0:mailto: [email protected]
ATTENDEE;CUTYPE=RESOURCE;ROLE=REQ-PARTICIPANT;PARTSTAT=NEEDS-ACTION;RSVP=TR
UE;CN=US-NYC-Location-Of-Invite (4) [GVC];X-NUM-GUESTS=0:mailto:room_locator
[email protected]
X-GOOGLE-CONFERENCE:https://meet.google.com/IDIDID
X-MICROSOFT-CDO-OWNERAPPTID:12345678
CREATED:20230117T132551Z
DESCRIPTION:-::~:~::~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~
:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~::~:~::-\nJoin with Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/..
...........................................................................
Do not edit this section.\n-::~:~::~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:
~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~:~::~:~::-
LAST-MODIFIED:20230117T135249Z
LOCATION:US-NYC-Event-Location (4) [GVC]
SEQUENCE:0
STATUS:CONFIRMED
SUMMARY:Invite.ICS Title (Here you place a description of the invite)
TRANSP:OPAQUE
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR


Open Invite.ICS File on Windows OS

• Try double clicking on an invite.ICS file in Windows File Explorer.
• If the ICS reading software is associated correctly then the file will open
• If the file did not open you should install Microsoft Outlook software
• To open Invite.ICS file in Microsoft Outlook you need to launch it, go to the default calendar and then select File->Import/Export in the main menu
• In the Import/Export dialog select "Import an iCalendar" file, select the file and click "Import"

Open Invite.ICS File on Mac OS

• Double click on a downloaded invite.ICS File in Mac OS Finder.
• If Invite.ICS file was generated correctly by the sender then Apple Calendar software will open.
• Select calendar to which you want to add the event (typically it will be Home or Work calendars)
• You will see your Apple calendar opened at the specific date with an event details diplayed. If needed you can click on the event details and copy information about the event. You can also send an email to the event creator.

Invite.ICS files are transferred over e-mail or internet using text/calendar multipurpose internet mail extensions (MIME) type.