ICal, Google Calendar, syncing problems and duplicate entries

Hi everyone:
I could use some help. Oy.
At work, we use Google calendar, and that hosts my appointments. I find the Google web-interface impossible, and would like to use iCal to access the data on the Google servers. I have no problem doing that with iOS--my iPhone and iPad manage to sync up fine, and syncing works in both directions; i can add and delete either on Google or on the iOS devices and everything is fine.
But on my desktop machine, I have problems of two sorts. First, once I follow the steps to add a calendar, the syncing seems broken; I can add and delete from the Google web interface, but nothing deleted from the desktop gets passed to Google. Second, I have many duplicate entries that show up on my desktop and some very old appointments that no longer should be on the calendar show up out of no where.
What I'd love to do is a full reboot, eliminating all calendar data everywhere (except on the Google servers, of course, where the work stuff is stored) and start from scratch. Any ideas?
Thanks in advance--
Roger

Keith Murlless wrote:
My issue is that when I follow directions and go to iCal/prefs/accounts, and click the "add" button.... I don't get (anything). No pop-up windows in which to enter my google account information.
Have you tried rebooted your Mac? (Not needed often, so we Mac users often forget to try this. ) Are you logged on with an admin account or a standard account? (Or one with Parental Controls enabled.)
Sometimes I'll find the dialog window "behind" my other windows. Try not to click or move your mouse after you click the plus button. Or try moving windows around or minimizing them so that any windows that are hidden behind other windows are then shown. (In fact try closing all apps and Finder windows to reduce the possibility of this issue in the first place.)
(BTW, your question really is separate from the original question, since the OP already has their Google account added to iCal and you are having trouble adding the account. In the future you'll want to start your own thread so that you can also mark posts answered or helpful.)

Similar Messages

  • Strange errors with iCal - Google calendar syncing.

    I use iCal and have it sync to my Google calendar. Recently, when creating a new event, the default alert has been coming up as a random number of minutes (eg. 1540, 1100) before the event. It used to just default to 15mins before the event and you could change the alert easily to something else. Now, when I try to change this strange large number it reverts back to how it started as soon as iCal syncs with google.
    This is strange and really annoying. Any ideas?

    If I hadn't been using iCal/Google Calendar for over 18 months, with reminders from both systems playing nicely over that period, I'd happily agree with you. The issue with Reminders only began (for me, at least) in February this year. I agree that there's potential for conflict, and maybe both sets of developers finally threw in the towel. This is a pity, because I like both systems, but I feel slightly irritated at being effectively told by Google or Apple that I have to choose sides.

  • ICal/Google Calendar no longer sync since April 23 2011

    In the last week of April iCal/Google calendar sync has quit working.  When trying to sync the iCal and the Google.  The message I get is that  "iCal found the CalDAV server 'www.google.com', but couldn't log in with the user name "XXXXXX". Make sure the user name and password you entered are correct, then try again.  I originally noticed the bouncing iCal icon about April 23-24 and at the time it said that the account [email protected] could not update. I re-entered the information for the account and it still ddid not update.  I deleted the account on iCal hoping that a re-enter of all the information would get things up and running and it has not.
    I have looked over the available responses to similar problems and none of them have made any difference.
    Please always include:
    Mac OS X 10.6.7
    Program and version you use to access Google Calendar (e.g. Internet Explorer 7 or Outlook 2003):  Safari 5.0.5 (6533.21.1) and Google Chrome 11.0.696.57 and iCal Version 4.0.4 (1395.7)
    I also cannot set up the account on the iPad (I was hoping to do so as a work around).  Interestingly enough, my wife who subscribes to my Google Calendar as a delegate still gets the updates and things are working for her on her iMac using iCal.

    There is a big discussion on this topic on the google calendar forum: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Calendar/thread?tid=7f08411ae09ca8da&hl=en
    As I wrote there:
    I'm suffering the same, but I have some more information about it.  I have multiple delegates, so I have had the "good fortune" to be able to have some of them go bad and still have others to experiment with. 
    The ones that have gone bad are those where I made a change in iCal and then tried to refresh. 
    When I made changes on my google calendars I was still able to refresh in iCal and have the change show up.  But as soon as I made a change in iCal, the refresh gave that error message.
    Also, I just downloaded the newest OS (OS 5) for my iPod touch (gen. 3).  That was yesterday afternoon.. and yesterday evening is when I first noticed this problem.  I can't imagine it's simply coincidence.
    I just discovered one more thing.  Even the calendars that don't work both ways continue to work one way; changes made on Google Calendar continue to show up in iCal, even though the error message shows up that it can't contact the server or has the wrong address.  It's almost like the relationship has turned into "subscriptions" rather than "delegates".
    I have restarted my iMac and repaired permissions with no success.
    iMac running 10.6.8
    Accessing Google Calendar with Safari.

  • ICal - google calendar no SMS or Message with sound

    Hello,
    few weeks ago I found that I could not add "Message with sound" alert to my iCal's Google calendar which brings me to no SMS alerts.
    Is it anything wrong with my iCal, Google calendars (I can add Message with sound to iCloud calendars) or it is something Apple/Google recently changed?
    If I add Message with sound alert using iCal - it automatically disappears. However, if I add SMS alert on Google side I have SMS alerts even if it does not reflect anyhow on the corresponding iCal entry.

    There is a big discussion on this topic on the google calendar forum: http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Calendar/thread?tid=7f08411ae09ca8da&hl=en
    As I wrote there:
    I'm suffering the same, but I have some more information about it.  I have multiple delegates, so I have had the "good fortune" to be able to have some of them go bad and still have others to experiment with. 
    The ones that have gone bad are those where I made a change in iCal and then tried to refresh. 
    When I made changes on my google calendars I was still able to refresh in iCal and have the change show up.  But as soon as I made a change in iCal, the refresh gave that error message.
    Also, I just downloaded the newest OS (OS 5) for my iPod touch (gen. 3).  That was yesterday afternoon.. and yesterday evening is when I first noticed this problem.  I can't imagine it's simply coincidence.
    I just discovered one more thing.  Even the calendars that don't work both ways continue to work one way; changes made on Google Calendar continue to show up in iCal, even though the error message shows up that it can't contact the server or has the wrong address.  It's almost like the relationship has turned into "subscriptions" rather than "delegates".
    I have restarted my iMac and repaired permissions with no success.
    iMac running 10.6.8
    Accessing Google Calendar with Safari.

  • ICal & Google calendar

    Hello,
    I read on this discussion about people trying to get ical & google calendars subscribing to each other. I tried what was suggested.
    In ical I copied and pasted the address in the subscribe box. The address I wanted starts with "https." Ical responds with it doesn't recognize addresses that start with "https." Why not? Does anyone know why? Is there a way around this?
    Thanks!

    Update: 
    I think I've got a solution I can live with for getting my Toodledo tasks into my iCal calendar.  First of all, I turned on Toodledo calendar subscription and subscribed to the event calendar (Tasks with a date) in iCal.
    It's a one-way sync from Toodledo to iCal, but if you want to move the events over to a local calendar in iCal you can shuffle them around.  The iCal events keep the url of the task, so you can easily jump to the task in Toodledo to mark it complete or change details.  If you create a local calendar, you can copy the event from the Toodledo subscript calendar, highlight the local calendar, right click back on the calendar and select paste.  Also, you can use the following Applecript to copy over the events from the Toodledo iCal calendar to your local iCal calendar:
    iCal: Duplicate/Move items between calendars
    http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20110110144312255
    Each time you run the duplicate/move script you build up duplicate items in your local calendar, but you can run this script to cut out the dupes:
    http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20051217000214536&lsrc=osxh
    or http://www.nhoj.co.uk/icaldupedeleter
    If you turn on the script menu (in Applescript Editor settings), and drop these in User/Library/Scripts/Applications/iCal (create if needed), they are accessible from iCal with a click of the mouse.  Also, you can edit the scripts to go directly to the "Toodledo iCal" and "Local Toodledo" calendars so the scripts won't prompt you each time.
    Good luck & post back with an update if you get it working how you like it!
    Cheers

  • Google Calendar Sync

    I saw that another user previously reported an issue with Google Calendar Sync and that you then closed the thread stating that the issue was "solved" by knowledge base article 19691.  That article states that the TouchPad only syncs Google Calendar entries 1 month back and 2 months forward.  I believe this Knowledgebase article is incorrect and that you do have a bug that needs to be resolved.
    In my Google Calendar, I have entered a number of eents related to a vacation planned for late December/Early January.  On the TouchPad, I found that all the events that I had entered into the calendar prior to the initial set-up are missing.  Several events (in January) that I added to the calendar (not using the TouchPad) since the initial set-up of the TouchPad were all present.  In addition, all of the events are present on my Palm Pre running WebOS 1.4.5.
    I then tried removing the calendar and re-adding it on the TouchPad.  The result of this was that the January events that were previously present disappeared.  It now is clear to me that the Google Sync on the TouchPad works as follows:
    1. During the initial sync (when the Google account is first added), events are only added to the calendar using the 1 month back/2 months ahead rule as stated in the KB article.
    2. Any events added to the calendar (either on the TouchPad or elsewhere) after the initial sync are synchronized to the TouchPad regardless of how far in the future they occur.
    Obviously, the Google API does allow syncing of all entries in the calendar, not just a 3-month period.  WebOS clearly should synchronize all future events (as it did on the older, pre-HP versions) as doing anything else is a serious limitation on the usability of the calendar.
    -Jeff
    Post relates to: HP TouchPad (WiFi)

    I have also added items to my Google Calender in Feb 2012. I then went to the calender app on the Touchpad. From the menu in the Calender app selected Sync Now. The item appeared on the Touchpad.

  • Has anyone started having trouble with google calendar syncing / showing up on their iPhone 4s or iPad? As of today my google calendar not longer appears on either device.

    Has anyone started having trouble with google calendar syncing / showing up on their iPhone 4s or iPad 2? As of today it no longer shows up. Thanks.

    Let me re-qualify my issue. Under my Google Calendar account I have the main calendar I originally set up when setting up my account. I then set up several other calendars under this same account such as events, work, family and so on. All the calendars showed up on my iPhone and iPad with no problem and worked great for a year and a half now until yesterday. My main calendar does still show up but the others no longer appear on my devices. Going on line to look at my Google calendar/calendars everything is fine with all of them. Any thoughts as to why they no longer show up on my iPhone or iPad? Thanks again.   

  • ICal + google calendar + iPod touch

    Hi,
    I use iCal to update my events to my Google calendar (using CalDAV) and then use iTunes to update my iPod touch. But the problem is that, the timings from the google calendar is all messed up. The other calendars (the default ones or the ones created within iCal) seem to be okay! Does anyone have an idea how to solve this?
    Thank you.

    Is anyone else having this problem?

  • ICloud for PC not compatible with Google calendar sync?

    I have a PC (Win7), a MacBook Pro, an iPhone and an iPad 2. Since MobileMe stopped their calendar sync, I have used 2-way Google calendar sync between all of my devices successfully to keep my calendar updated on all devices.  I continued to use MobileMe to keep my contacts synced, but that option is ending this week, so I purchased CodeTwo to sync my contacts via iCloud. I installed Code Two and the iCloud control panel on my PC, and set them to sync only contacts, and blam ... my PC calendar no longer syncs to my Google calendar. All of the other calendars are syncing to Google and each other.
    My PC calendar is the most important one and I need it to sync to all devices. I use Google calendar sync since it handles the Outlook group meeting invitations I receive & send through my workplace seamlessly (and iCloud does not).  So using iCloud for my calendar is not an option.
    How do I fix this?

    After about an hour on the phone with Apple support, we discovered that somehow there was more than one calendar - one that I generally use and two marked archive.  One was actually my Outlook archive folder, one was the Outlook default calendar (which was also marked archive) which is the one that WAS syncing with my Google calendar (but that we couldn't see), and the third calendar which is the one that I thought wasn't syncing with Google Calendar.
    So now my question has changed - where did this mystery calendar come from.  At one time I did have MobileMe installed on my computer for both calendars and contacts.  I stopped using MobileMe for my calendar when it stopped syncing automatically and I uninstalled MobileMe today as part of our troubleshooting.  Is it possible that when I installed the iCloud control panel on my PC and set it to sync contacts only, that it picked up the MobileMe calendar?  In any event, I need to get rid of the unexpected "archive" folder and start syncing Outlook's default calendar.  Any ideas how I do that?
    There are days when computers completely drain me.

  • Is it possible to have my Google calendar sync with my droid but not sync my Google email??

    I love having my google calendar sync with my phone.  However, it is pulling down my email as well with more information than I would like stored in my droid.

    Thanks for your help!  I have been fooling with this and at some point must have turned the "sync" off for email.  Glad you gave me the path to get there and see that it was actually turned off. 

  • ICal syncs Google calendar with iPad and iPhone but not MacBook Air

    Hi there,
    Sorry to post another thread about syncing issues, but the solutions posted in the ones I looked at didn't quite solve my problem, so I'm wondering if I'm having an issue that's specific to the way I've set things up with my devices?
    I created a Google account for the sole purpose of having a Google calendar that I could share with my Dad. We both access this Google calendar through iCal.
    My Dad generally checks or posts updates using iCal on his iPad and iPhone. Meanwhile, I'm using iCal on my MacBook Air, which FWIW is also running Snow Leopard. (I don't have an iPad or iPhone - this is my only means of accessing the calendar.)
    Any change he makes on the calendar will show up on both of his devices, but not mine. Any change I make will not show up on his devices.
    I logged into the Google account in a web browser (Chrome, FWIW) and checked the calendar through the same browser - all of his changes aren't showing up on it, but mine are.
    I had my Dad reload the same Google calendar in his devices (i.e. delete the account and add it back again) and confirmed he's using the right Google address and password. This doesn't do anything to solve the problem.
    What else am I missing? It's a little frustrating trying to fix this because my Dad's in another state so I don't see him that often, and even though I taught him how to use an iPad and an iPhone, he's still not the most computer literate person, so talking him through this is a little tricky.

    On the MBPro and the iMac open System Preferences > iCloud
    Switch Calendars off then back on.
    Give iCloud a few minutes to re sync the data.

  • ICloud Address Book and Calendar not syncing. Missing and duplicate entries. Help.

    I have duplicate entries in Address Book. I have missing entries on other devices. For calendar it just doesn't sync.
    What I've done to try to fix it:
    1) I signed out of all my devices from iCloud and MobileMe.
    2) I then deleted all the the cache files in Library and any iCloud folders I could
    3) I deleted all the address book and calendar entries on each device.
    4) Went back and deleted anything in Library and caches.
    5) I looked at iClould.com and confirmed they had entries in Address Book and Calendar.
    6) Signed back into iCloud on each device.
    7) All the devices then began to populate.
    Trouble began:
    1) Some Address Book entries are missing on devices.
    2) iClould has multiple entries for the very missing contacts! All cutting off the notes field at different places!
    3) It won't sync the missing contacts present on iCloud but not the device.
    Help.

    Solved it myself. What I did:
    1) I have four Lion OS and two iOS devices.
    2) I kept one computer with the complete address book I wanted to start with but disconnecting it from iCloud's Contact sync via Apple Menu > System Preferences > iCloud uncheck Contact Sync
    3) Logged into iCloud.com and deleted all the contacts and groups manually ( many keyboard shortcuts worked )
    4) On the main computer, using textedit, I replaced semicolons I was using to delimit items in the notes field with backslashes.
    5) Once I confirmed all the other computers and devices had no entries in Address Book, on the main computer I turned back on iCloud Contact syncing. It worked. Correct count of entries and no more breaking notes at the semicolons!
    6) Immediately all the other iCloud computers and devices updated to the correct notes! Finally.

  • Missing and duplicate entries in the calendar

    I'm a long time (1997) Palm user who's moved to a BB 8330 last month. I can't seem to get calendar syncing to work correctly. In some instances, I am missing items on Outlook. I often have duplicate entries on the handheld. I've searched the forums and there seem to be similar issues and the solutions appear to be around Service Books, but I'm not confident I have a clue how not to lose lots of info.I also cannot seem to find information that explains the relationship between email addresses & calendar (I don't see why there should be any!!!)
    Scenario (trying to answer up front the questions from other forum posts):
    I am using Outlook on my home computer to manage my personal calendar. I do not have an email account associated with Outlook.I have set up 2-way sync with Outlook for calendar, tasks & contacts
    My work uses Lotus Notes. I have set up one sync to the handheld only from the Lotus Notes calendar
    The only email account configured on the BB is a gmail account (which is not associated with either calendar). I originally set this up via the wizard, then removed it, but added it back (under Email settings) when I discovered I couldn't send email from the Address book without it. I actually prefer google mobile for email management since it modifies the server state as well. Not sure if the add/remove/add sequence has somehow messed up the calendar?
    I have checked under Calendar > Options and two calendars appear. Based on the color associations it appears that Device Default is associated with Outlook personal calendar & my gmail account is associated with the Lotus Notes calendar entries. As far as I know I did not create these associations. 
    Checking under Options > Advanced Options > Default Services, I see CICAL & CMIME entry and those are both the gmail account.
    Checking under Options > Advanced Options > Service Book, I see only one CICAL & CMIME entry and those are both the gmail account.
    Separately, I do have a couple of mobile apps to read email (gmail- same acct - and yahoo), but those appear to not integrate into the BB apps directly. 
    Everytime I sync with Outlook, I end up with lots of duplicate entries on the handheld. I have also noticed that I am missing entries that are on the handheld, but are not on Outlook (in one very odd case, the entry was created on Outlook and now only exists on the handheld). I may have deleted duplicate entries related to the missing items at one time... I can't be sure about that. I believe I currently have a complete calendar on the handheld, but not 100% confident I have a good calendar anywhere. 
    And as an aside, have to say I'm really bummed that I have lost easy access all my Palm historical data. It appears BB will not bring in old calendar data by design (found that in some BB documentation on their site).  Now that I will not keep up with Palm upgrades, at some point I will lose access to that data. Sigh. 
    Any, all help appreciated.  

    Hello...correction:
    RaviStrs wrote:
    Ok. In that case, try this. (That worked for me when I had similar problem. Ignore if you already tried this)
    1) Turn off the phone
    2) Remove the battary and place it again
    3) Restart your phone
    Have the BB ON (e.g., something showing on the display, the HomeScreen would be fine) when you remove the battery. That is the cleanest hard reboot method.
    Good luck!
    Occam's Razor nearly always applies when troubleshooting technology issues!
    If anyone has been helpful to you, please show your appreciation by clicking the button inside of their post. Please click here and read, along with the threads to which it links, for helpful information to guide you as you proceed. I always recommend that you treat your BlackBerry like any other computing device, including using a regular backup schedule...click here for an article with instructions.
    Join our BBM Channels
    BSCF General Channel
    PIN: C0001B7B4   Display/Scan Bar Code
    Knowledge Base Updates
    PIN: C0005A9AA   Display/Scan Bar Code

  • Calendar syncing problems with outlook and iphone

    Months and months ago I had the following window pop up when I go to sync my phone:
    "synching with iphone will change more than XX% of your calendars"
    First I have to say the vagueness of Apples messages is disappointing.  This message does not convey to me exactly what its going to do if I accept the message.  This is my first apple product and I love my iphone, but itunes and everything related to the PC is disappointing!  Anyway, I have been hitting cancel because when I attempt to lookup the problem online in a Google search I don't find any quick definitive answers.  I no longer use outlook on this computer, so I want all the calendar entries in the phone to remain the same.  I've attempted to uncheck calendar syncing and get the following message:
    "Itunes will no longer sync calendars to the Iphone.  Would you like itunes to remove calendars previously synced to you iphone"
    Once again, the infamous apple user friendliness I've heard so much about doesn't seam to be true!  This message is so vague.  What calendars is it going to remove, the ones on the pc or the phone?  And why would it remove anything, I just want it to stop syncing.  Urg, frustraded.  Any help is appreciated!  Thanks.

    Originally all of Apple products were intended for use with Mac computers. Macs have default program - iCal to sync calendars. Windows default program is ironically Microsoft Outlook. There couple more options in iTunes for
    calendar sync, but those need to be chosen and not default.
    In your particular situation since you don't have outlook anymore, you don't need to make any changes. No outlook - no sync. Apple way - no user interference nessesary.
    Please do remember that everyting I write is just my opinion, nothing more or less.

  • Why does my google calendar sync perfectly to iCal on my Macbook Pro but not my iPhone 4?

    The question as title is basically my problem.  Before I got my MacBook Pro I used my iPhone 4 (with iOS 5) to use the iCal app to edit my google calendar.  Events synced perfectly.  After getting my MacBook Pro things still seemed fine as well.  I was editing my calendar on iCal on my MacBook Pro, on Google's on-line Calendar App from other computers, and also on my iPhone 4 through the iCal App.  Suddently events were not syncing any longer.  I don't know what is the problem.  Things changed on iCal on the MacBook Pro still syncs to Google's online Calendar App and vise versa, but I can't do a thing with my iPhone 4 iCal. 
    Any suggestions?  I've tried deleting and resyncing my google account to my iPhone without any success.
    Thanks in advance.
    Barry

    Hi Matt,
    I found my own solution to this problem and I think you can get it to work as well.  The thing is that you'll need to make your Google calendar your only calendar.  This means that you'll not want to have a Home or Work iCal because that stuff may not sync well with your Google calendar, but the Google Calendar data will appear within iCal on your iOS and Mac computer without any problems. 
    Before you do any thing I suggest, you must make sure that everything that you want on your calendar is on your on-line Google calendar.  If something is not there and you want it there, the thing you'll need to do is manually add it.  There is no work around that I have found for this.
    Next, on your computer:
    1. Go to System Preferences > iCloud
    2. Make sure that Calendars is not selected.  You don't want your computer or iOS devices to be confused with the iCal Home / Work, etc. calendars.  So let's not sync them.
    3.  Go to System Preferences > Mail, Contacts & Calendars
    4.  Delete Your Google account there
    5.  Go to System Preferences > Mail, Contacts & Calendars
    6.  Re-add your Google account
    Now you should be able to go into iCal on your computer and find that your Google calendar is there. 
    You will need to do a similar thing with your iOS device.
    1.  Settings > iCloud > Turn off 'Calendars'
    2.  Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Delete Gmail Account
    3.  Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Re-add Gmail Account
    This should make it so that you can use your Google calendar and it will be synced to your Mac computer, iOS device, and the Internet (Google's Calendar Website).
    You can see that this is in a sense a workaround in that you can't sync your iCal Home/Work calendars (or other calendars) created with iCloud to Google.  I'm thinking that's the problem I ran into before.  Anyway it works for me because I only need the one calendar and others are using Google that I need easy access to. 
    Let me know if you run into problems and remember you need to confirm that all your data is saved on the google calendar on-line (you can check through Google's website) before doing any of the steps above. 

Maybe you are looking for