If you live in the United Kingdom, there's a good chance you enjoyed yesterday's first official bank holiday of the year with your feet up. But if all you'd done was rely on the Calendar app on your iPhone, you may never have even known you were due a day off. That's because a persistent bug that has plagued the app for months still prevents Apple's UK bank holidays subscription option from populating the calendar view for 2022.

uk calendar
Based on the number of complaints online, many iPhone users in the UK have been aware of this issue for some time, but with 2022 now upon us, that number has risen exponentially. Apple surely knows there's a problem with its UK Holidays subscription webcal, but until it does something about it, here's an alternative way to get the full list of dates for England and Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland booked into your calendar in a few quick steps.

  • Monday, January 3 - New Year's Day
  • Friday, April 15 - Good Friday
  • Monday, April 18 - Easter Monday
  • Monday, May 2 - May Day
  • Thursday, June 2 - Spring bank holiday
  • Friday, June 3 - Platinum Jubilee bank holiday
  • Monday, August 29 - Summer bank holiday
  • Monday, December 26 - Boxing Day
  • Tuesday, December 27 - Christmas Day (substitute)

The above public holidays list is the official one for England and Wales for 2022 provided by the UK government, which helpfully provides Apple users with its own ICS calendar files that can be imported into the iPhone calendar app. Follow the steps to import the one that applies to your country into your calendar now.

  1. Tap the England and Wales link on your iPhone or iPad. (Scotland holidays link, Northern Ireland holidays link.) Alternately, paste it into Safari's address bar and hit Enter. If you're asked to open the page in Calendar, tap Open.
  2. Tap Subscribe. You can give the calendar subscription a recognizable name (and color if you want), then add it to your iCloud or iPhone account.
  3. Tap Add.

calendar
After that, the months in your chosen calendar should now be populated with all the bank holidays you're already looking forward to in the year ahead.

Update: As noted by MacRumors readers, this is also an issue in Spain, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Australia, and several other countries. Given that it might be a worldwide issue, Apple could have a fix coming in a future update.

Top Rated Comments

NightFox Avatar
40 months ago

In Ireland we have this "Christmas Dad (observed)" and "New Year's Day (observed)" two days after each day, but we don't use any such term in the country. Sounds like an American thing.
Yeah, I think 'Christmas Dad' was a film from the '80s starring Steve Martin and Chevy Chase. Probably.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
polyphenol Avatar
40 months ago

how do I delete items from US Holidays off my calendar?
As they are US holidays, don't you mean "off of"? :)

Just realised that New Year's Eve 2021 was shown as a bank holiday. Which it isn't/wasn't in the UK.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
LeeW Avatar
40 months ago

here is no 'bug in the app': there is a source file that Apple hasn't updated.
Just goes to show a $3tn company does not mean they can complete the simple things.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BanjoDudeAhoy Avatar
37 months ago
I was wondering why I still didn't have bank holidays in my region. Turns out that I use English (US) as my language but that doesn't match my region and the regional calendar is in the region's main language.
After adding the regional language, I now see bank holidays.

Also, sorry for reviving the thread but I figured this might be interesting to some.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
fivenotrump Avatar
40 months ago
There is no 'bug in the app': there is a source file that Apple hasn't updated. There may be a bug in an Apple internal app that creates this file; alternatively there may be a bug within management.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
holthaum Avatar
40 months ago
According to Apple, Germany has also had no public holidays since 2022.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Leak Reveals All-New Design

Friday January 17, 2025 2:42 pm PST by
iOS 19 is still around six months away from being announced, but a new leak has allegedly revealed a completely redesigned Camera app. Based on footage it obtained, YouTube channel Front Page Tech shared a video showing what the new Camera app will apparently look like, with the key change being translucent menus for camera controls. Overall, the design of these menus looks similar to...
2024 App Store Awards

Apple Explains Why It Removed TikTok From the App Store in the U.S.

Sunday January 19, 2025 6:58 am PST by
Apple on late Saturday removed TikTok from the App Store in the U.S., and it has now explained why it was required to take this action. Last year, the U.S. passed a law that required Chinese company ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok due to potential national security risks, or else the platform would be banned. That law went into effect today, and companies like Apple and Google...
2024 iPhone Boxes Feature

Apple Changes Trade-In Values for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and More

Thursday January 16, 2025 6:45 am PST by
Apple today adjusted estimated trade-in values for select iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch models in the U.S., according to its website. Some values increased, while others decreased. The changes were not too significant, with most values rising or dropping by $5 to $50. We have outlined some examples below: Device New Value Old Value iPhone 15 Pro Max Up to $630 U ...
Generic iOS 18

Everything New in iOS 18.3 Beta 3

Thursday January 16, 2025 12:39 pm PST by
Apple provided the third beta of iOS 18.3 to developers today, and while the betas have so far been light on new features, the third beta makes some major changes to Notification Summaries and also tweaks a few other features. Notification Summary Changes Apple made multiple changes to Notification Summaries in response to complaints about inaccurate summaries of news headlines. For...
iOS 19 Roundup Feature

iOS 19 Rumored to Be Compatible With These iPhones

Saturday January 18, 2025 10:28 am PST by
iOS 19 will not drop support for any iPhone models, according to French website iPhoneSoft.fr. The report cited a source who said iOS 19 will be compatible with any iPhone that can run iOS 18, which would mean the following models: iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Plus iPhone 16 Pro iPhone 16 Pro Max iPhone 15 iPhone 15 Plus iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 15 Pro Max iPhone 14 iPhon...
airtag 4 pack blue

AirTag 2 Launching This Year With These 3 New Features

Sunday January 19, 2025 8:11 am PST by
After a four-year wait, a new AirTag is finally expected to launch in 2025. Below, we recap rumored upgrades for the accessory. A few months ago, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said Apple was aiming to release the AirTag 2 around the middle of 2025. While he did not offer a more specific timeframe, that means the AirTag 2 could be announced by the end of June. The original AirTag was announced...
iPhone SE Dynamic Island Majin Bu

iPhone SE 4 Leak Shows Dynamic Island, Casts Doubt on Rumored 'iPhone 16E' Name

Monday January 20, 2025 9:01 am PST by
A new iPhone SE is widely rumored to launch this year, and the device has potentially been confirmed today by known leaker Evan Blass. In a private social media post, Blass shared an image of what appears to be source code mentioning an iPhone SE (4th Gen), which casts doubt on the alternative "iPhone 16E" name rumored for the device. However, the name in the source code could be a...
iPad Pro vs iPhone 17 Air Feature

Here's How Thin the iPhone 17 Air Might Be

Friday January 17, 2025 3:38 pm PST by
For the last several months, we've been hearing rumors about a redesigned version of the iPhone 17 that Apple might call the iPhone 17 "Air," or something along those lines. It's going to replace the iPhone 17 Plus as Apple's fourth iPhone option, and it will be offered alongside the iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max. We know the iPhone 17 Air is going to be super slim, but...