PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CAN SOMEONE HELP ME!!! iCal keeps shutting down.

Question

I have posted twice already, but am getting no replies at all. I really am at a loss what to do as I am not very experienced at all with computer problems.
I hooked my iPhone up to computer and when sync-ing iCal it came up with some conflicts that made no sense - such as Monday 22 June conflicted with Monday 23 June. I clicked on sync according to the correct date and since then iCal just closes every time I try to open it up on my computer. iCal on my iPhone is still ok. I have sent 'report problem to Apple' but this doesn't really help me.
I am hoping that there must be something I can do to try and resolve this. And I am really really hoping someone can advise me.
Thank you . Linda

Answer 1

I think I have the answer. At the least, it did solve MY problem.
To restate, iCal somehow got corrupted on one of my machines. My iPhone and MobileMe calendars were fine. Over time, however, it became apparent that the corruption must have been on MobileMe and I eventually screwed up iCal on my three computers. I tried everything I could think of, including calling AppleCare, but nothing worked. I could delete everything related to iCal on the computer, and it would still end up crashing on restart. (Eventually I even screwed up MobileMe - I must have accidentally let one of the corrupt computers resync the calendar, which messed up the "good" one on the server.)
Finally, I went to the Apple Store and duplicated the process. I deleted everything and we watched it crash anyway. Curiously, the source files in the ApplicationSupport folder regenerated themselves out of nowhere. This gave the support guy an idea - he figured that the corrupted files must be stuck in the SyncServices folder/system. We reset that system, deleted everything, and now iCal cold start and not crash and not regenerate crap. Fortunately, I had a not too old backup of my calendar database, so it wasn't THAT hard to get current again.
Here is what I did (on 10.4 - 10.5 is a different process - look here http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1627)
1) Turn off .Mac syncing in .Mac prefs if active
2) Backup or export Address Book (just in case). I'd tell you to backup your iCal database, but since it is crashing, I don't know if that is possible.
3) Open the Terminal and execute this command:
killall SyncServer syncuid SystemIUServer
4) Remove the ~/Library/Application Support/SyncServices folder
5) I'd also remove all the iCal related materials. It is up to you if you want to delete them. Delete anything iCal related from the ~/Library/Caches, ~/Library/Application Support and ~/Library/Preferences folders
6) Reboot
Now try to launch iCal. If it stays alive and you have a backup, restore the backup. If you have a good copy on MobileMe, turn .Mac syncing back on and click on the Advanced tab on the .Mac prefs page and then click on the Reset Sync Data button. Choose to Replace your Calendar data on your computer with the data on .Mac.
Again, this all worked with 10.4.11. I don't know what it looks like with 10.5. I was afraid that it would overwrite my iPhone calendar, but it synced the phone and new calendar perfectly and I am a happy camper now!
Hope this helps!!
Doug