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vcutag · Oct 16, 2011, 12:38 PM

I'm not sure what the appropriate forum is for this, since it combines iCloud, iCal for iOS 5 and iCal on my Macs.

Essentially, I'm seeing duplicate entries in my "work" calendar on my iPhone 4S, but only under a very specific set of conditions. These entries don't correspond to any of my current calendars (it's not as if my Work calendar got copied into another calendar, for example); I can't edit these entries to delete them, and they *only* show up if I have 9 or more calendars active (it doesn't matter which 9, I can have the Work calendar turned off and they're still there). They do not show up in iCal on my iMac or MacBook Pro, and don't show up on icloud.com in my calendars there.

Being somewhat anal retentive about organization, this is driving me batsh*t crazy. Anybody ever see this problem before, or is Siri effing with me?

Waragainstsleep · Oct 17, 2011, 06:35 AM

9 calendars? I shudder to think.

ghporter · Oct 17, 2011, 06:51 AM

The Work calendar isn't the problem, but there is another calendar that has the extra Work events lurking inside. I've had this happen after importing events from other sources-the duplicates are pretty hard to find without selecting each calendar individually and searching for the extra events. But your problem is at least a little easier, since the calendar that has the dupes is only on the phone.

For what it's worth, I have 15 calendars that are all (supposedly anyway) shared to both my iPhone and my iPad. I use different calendars to identify different kinds of events, like my pay schedule, my wife's work schedule, appointments with my doctor, etc. But I do have to winnow them down, because I'm still running a couple of calendars from school, and I graduated over 2 years ago...

vcutag · Oct 17, 2011, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep

9 calendars? I shudder to think.

I have a total of 18.

vcutag · 02:58 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

The Work calendar isn't the problem, but there is another calendar that has the extra Work events lurking inside. I've had this happen after importing events from other sources-the duplicates are pretty hard to find without selecting each calendar individually and searching for the extra events. But your problem is at least a little easier, since the calendar that has the dupes is only on the phone.

The only problem with that theory is that I checked each calendar individually, and they're not in any one calendar. They only show up when any combination of 9 of my 18 calendars are active. Further, the events aren't editable by me; I can't delete them. All of the calendars that are active on the phone are also active through iCloud on my iMac and MacBook Pro; the phone is the only place those events appear.

Originally Posted by ghporter

For what it's worth, I have 15 calendars that are all (supposedly anyway) shared to both my iPhone and my iPad. I use different calendars to identify different kinds of events, like my pay schedule, my wife's work schedule, appointments with my doctor, etc. But I do have to winnow them down, because I'm still running a couple of calendars from school, and I graduated over 2 years ago...

I have 5 for my classes, one for university wide events, one for old events to be transferred to at the end of the semester, a work calendar, a personal calendar, a miscellaneous calendar, and a calendar to keep track of when I go to the gym. I subscribe to three Google calendars (hours for the gym, classes offered, and US holidays), and I also subscribe to four of my husband's: his work/school schedule, his personal calendar, a jointly editable calendar for bills and household chores, and one he keeps with birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

Any combination of 8 of these, and the extra work entries don't appear. Add in any one extra calendar, and they appear. I checked each of those calendars separately, and they're not in any one calendar.

I'm really effing stumped by this, it makes no logical sense.

Waragainstsleep · Oct 17, 2011, 04:25 PM

Are all the calendars hosted elsewhere? Have you tried deleting them all and syncing them back?

vcutag · Oct 17, 2011, 04:36 PM

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep

Are all the calendars hosted elsewhere? Have you tried deleting them all and syncing them back?

I've got three Google calendars I subscribe to, but the rest are all hosted in iCloud. And show up fine on the other four devices they sync to (my desktop & laptop, and my husband's laptop and iPhone 4S.) I haven't tried wiping everything and resyncing, but I did wipe the work calendar and restore it from an earlier version. No dice.

ghporter · Oct 17, 2011, 08:36 PM

The jointly editable calendars are probably the place where the dupes are hiding. But with that, it's a matter of finding out who is syncing everything (versus only what they need themselves) and then re-uploading and thus propagating the extra events. Have you shared this situation with the people you share those calendars with?

vcutag · Oct 17, 2011, 08:42 PM

Originally Posted by ghporter

The jointly editable calendars are probably the place where the dupes are hiding. But with that, it's a matter of finding out who is syncing everything (versus only what they need themselves) and then re-uploading and thus propagating the extra events. Have you shared this situation with the people you share those calendars with?

Not yet, but I'll test that theory and get back to you. Worst case scenario, I back everything up, take it off of iCloud, check it on one machine, and reupload.

ghporter · Oct 17, 2011, 09:08 PM

That worst-case sounds like a solid possibility. But I hope it doesn't come to something that labor intensive.

Waragainstsleep · Oct 17, 2011, 09:22 PM

If the duplicates don't show on another machine with all 18 calendars on it, then removing and re-adding to the phone might/should do the trick. I'd add them back one or two at a time and check in between though.

vcutag · Oct 23, 2011, 07:50 PM

Turns out this problem had a super-easy fix. I went into iCloud settings, turned off Calendar syncing, dumped the stored info on the phone, then turned syncing back on again. Fixed it.

ghporter · Oct 24, 2011, 07:08 AM

I had some odd issues with going to iOS 5, including losing my computer's Address Book contents, and only being able to put a few of my custom ringtones on the phone. I recovered my Address Book from a backup, and had to de-sync then re-sync the ringtones. But that definitely is in keeping with your calendar bobble fix. I'm wondering if this sort of thing is as common as it might seem from posts here...