Q: How can I search in my calendar for events more than 1 year back.  I have 14 years of calendar!

settings>mail contacts calendars> Under Calendars tap sync> all events

In addition to syncing all events to search more than about 2 years back with the built in calendar you need to GoTo a date in the distant past before starting the search.

iamnew2this wrote:

 

I looked at this answer  "settings>mail contacts calendars> Under Calendars tap sync> all events" and got as far as CALANDARS.  The only options available are 1 -New invitation alerts (on of off)  2 - Time zone support  # - default aleart times , 4- Start week on.  Wher do I find the option "sync all events?"

It shows up on mine between Time Zone Support and Default Alert Times. My calendar is iCloud.

If you are not syncing calendars through iCloud then the setting will be in the specific calendar that you have configured.

With Outlook the setting is in Outlook itself. If you have all of the events for 14 years on the phone then it is already set.

You don't need to know the date of the event. Just set the current date to the 14 years ago, and it will search all events forward. Or get a better 3rd party calendar program such as Pocket Informant or Week Calendar.

Go to Year view (tap the month at the top, then tap the year). You can scroll down to get to previous years. Then just tap any date. Although I don't know how well this works with the built in calendar. I use Week Cal, which does it quite nicely. And it has a "go to date" function that lets you select any date.

I'm a long long time user of apple products, and regarding your post, which I agree with:

iamnew2this wrote:

"It seems to me that a phone with all the horsepower the 4s has should be able to search calendar information that it has in its memory without resorting to have to use someone else’s program to do that.  What is Apple thinking? My Palm unit with nowhere near the horsepower did it with no problem!  It seems that Apple is NOT SERIOUS about providing a really useful PDA function for its owners."

end quote.

My answer was to switch to Android.

I posted on apple suggestions site many times, asking them to fix this issue, from the very first iPhone to the iPhone 4s which was my last apple phone.

I believe the problem is due to the fact that they have the search system set up to start a search as soon as you start typing the first letter of a word. The same on the desktop Apple.

This is supposed to make it faster or easier to find things.

But, on an iPhone, if you have 14 years of notes in CALENDAR or on the phone like you and I have, it WOULD slow down to a crawl IF it's trying to search data that large on a phone. Especially if you type slowly where it starts searching for 'Arthur' at 'Ar' it starts the search, freezing the phone.

They also don't highlight the search string we are looking for, instead (up to the time I quit using iPhones) they take you to the DOCUMENT the strings are in, but don't show them to you IN those documents. Palm PDA did MUCH better.

They don't seem to be willing to change this 'feature'. So, we are stuck with their unilateral choices, if we stick with Apple phones.

BTW I also used Palm PDA's. I bought an apple II computer when it first came out, a Mac when it first became available, STILL have a Mac (but can't upgrade my 2009 Mac Desktop Pro, since they don't make it any longer. Instead they make a limited super expensive Mac Pro designed for a narrow user group of potential buyers.

It is not right that we have to try to find 'work arounds' to these limits on such basic search features.

PDA makers competed with each other to increase power and features and USABILITY, of their devices.

But since the iPhone they are all gone. and the direction now is for distracting ENTERTAINMENT, gaming, reading or watching gossip.

So where is the word processor, spread sheet, database ability?

and SEARCH ability?

iPhones are toys now, and unfortunately their direction is copied by the competition.

At least in Android there are easy work arounds to the search back one year limit, that Android also adopted.

Fortunately they didn't adopt the instant search 'feature' .

I found the solution - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pocketlife-calendar/id352743549?mt=8

PocketLife derives all events from iOS (iPhone 6s). It enable to search all events to all years back, not just 1 year limit by iPhone.