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Q: El Capitan Macbook Pro - iCloud - Duplicate Calendars & Reminders

OS X El Capitan

Version 10.11

MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2009)

Processor: 2.53 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo

Memory: 4GB 10677 MHz DDR3

After upgrading from Mavericks to El Capitan, I'm not getting duplicate calendars and reminders showing on my Mac through iCloud.

The process of deleting the duplicates off the Macbook is pretty tedious. Once they're all gone, they also disappear from my iOS (iPad Air, 5S) devices. If I try to re-add either a calendar or reminder via my iOS device and I close/re-open the Mac's calendar app, the duplicates reappear.

 

I've read of this happening to others and that its an "easy fix", but I don't know what the fix is.

 

Help?  Thanks.

 

Screen Shot 2015-10-04 at 11.32.46 AM.pngScreen Shot 2015-10-04 at 11.34.48 AM.png

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2009), Other OS

Posted on Oct 4, 2015 9:39 AM

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Q: El Capitan Macbook Pro - iCloud - Duplicate Calendars & Reminders

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  • by jhcovert,

    jhcovert jhcovert Oct 12, 2015 10:34 AM in response to Andyathome
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 12, 2015 10:34 AM in response to Andyathome

    Andy,

     

    All online CALENDARs (and all other online app's data) is working just as expected. Also the same on all machines too.

     

    I am only using iCloud for my calendars and at this point for everything else as well.

     

    I have been refreshing the calendars often since the beginning of this fiasco.

     

     

    Jason

  • by Andyathome,

    Andyathome Andyathome Oct 12, 2015 10:37 AM in response to jhcovert
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 12, 2015 10:37 AM in response to jhcovert

    Really?  You're all good now?!? 

  • by jhcovert,

    jhcovert jhcovert Oct 12, 2015 10:39 AM in response to Andyathome
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 12, 2015 10:39 AM in response to Andyathome

    Oh, I'm so sorry... in re-reading my last post I could see how you may have interpreted it that way.

     

    I should have said, "All online CALENDARs (and all other online app's data) is working just as expected. Also the same on all machines too, EXCEPT FOR MY DESKTOP WHICH IS STILL SHOWING 3 CALENDARS AND SETS OF REMINDERS."

     

    Sorry for the confusion.

     

     

    J

  • by Andyathome,

    Andyathome Andyathome Oct 12, 2015 10:41 AM in response to jhcovert
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 12, 2015 10:41 AM in response to jhcovert

    HAHAHAHAHA!!!!   Now Jason, did you read my question about what groups you have in your Calendar app on your Mac?  I know you'll have the "iCloud" now but do you have a group heading that says "On my Mac"? 

  • by jhcovert,

    jhcovert jhcovert Oct 12, 2015 11:29 AM in response to Andyathome
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 12, 2015 11:29 AM in response to Andyathome

    Sorry, Andy… I only have iCloud listed as working calendars. (I have a google calendar in there as well, but that was added only recently, well after the issues were occurring).

  • by Andyathome,

    Andyathome Andyathome Oct 12, 2015 11:43 AM in response to jhcovert
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 12, 2015 11:43 AM in response to jhcovert

    Hey Jason, just found something so try this (if you haven't already!):

    1.  Open Calendars

    2.  Go up to "Calendar", then open "Preferences", then click on Accounts 

    Which accounts are in there?  I have iCloud, Facebook then an alternate Mac email address.  iCloud and Facebook are both "Enabled" under "Account information"  My alternate address is not. 

     

    Take a look and see what you've got in there.  You may have more than you need!  Let's hope!

     

    Having said that, will be sorry when you're fixed.  I like puzzles!!  (O:  

  • by jhcovert,

    jhcovert jhcovert Oct 12, 2015 1:22 PM in response to Andyathome
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 12, 2015 1:22 PM in response to Andyathome

    Andy,

     

    I have...

     

    iCloud > enabled

    Gmail Account 1 > enabled

    Gmail Account 2 > not enabled

     

    As I said, the gmail accounts were added after the kerfuffle began so are not part of the issue. They are both working properly.

     

    I am so glad that you enjoy a mystery, as I do too. This one is proving particularly troublesome. Where are those two other sources of data?!?

  • by jhcovert,

    jhcovert jhcovert Oct 12, 2015 5:35 PM in response to Andyathome
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 12, 2015 5:35 PM in response to Andyathome

    An interesting twist has presented itself.

     

    Today, my wife invited me to join a calendar that she created. I joined and the calendar presented properly on all devices, save for my desktop, where it... yep, you guessed it: showed up 3 times.

     

    Now, I had been a member of this calendar prior to my upgrading and prior to these issues, but it's been deleted from my machine through all of these various iterations of removing, deleting and adding iCloud back. It seems odd to me that it would show up anew and in a factor of three as all of the others have as well, but maybe there was a lingering instance (or two) of it on my desktop.

     

    With that in mind, I then created a brand new "Test Calendar" through the website based iCloud and sure enough it populated three times on my desktop, while populating properly online and on all other devices. This new wrinkle makes me think that whatever is happening may not be solely happening on my desktop. Is that possible? What other process could be taking place that would cause a brand new, never before seen calendar to populate 3 times on my desktop, but not the other devices in the equation? Could this be a server-side ghost in the machine? iCloud thinks it's seeing my desktop more than once? The plot thickens...

  • by Andyathome,

    Andyathome Andyathome Oct 12, 2015 6:01 PM in response to jhcovert
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 12, 2015 6:01 PM in response to jhcovert

    Sorry so long getting back.  Fell asleep, but have a couple of questions: 

     

    First, I understand you have a laptop and a desktop and now it's just the desktop that's unhappy?  If that's the case, have you made sure that your iTunes backup rules are the same across both computers? 

     

    Second, what does your Calendars list actually look like in the Calendar window?  You said you have the "iCloud" heading but what's underneath that?  Does it repeat each sub-calendar 3 times each like:

     

    iCloud

    Home

    Home

    Home

    Business

    Business

    Business

    etc...

     

    or, does it just say:

     

    iCloud

    Home

    Business

     

    ... then just triplicate the events in your actual calendar window on the right?  Again, hard when I can't see it but if you're showing calendars in triplicate in the list on the left, have you tried simply unticking 2 of the 3 to hide them?  Am sure you have, but just incase...     In fact, could you post a screenshot of what you're looking at without compromising your privacy? 

     

    Third, a couple of people have had some success just by toggling their accounts on and off in Calendar Preferences so you might try that.  As for the Google accounts, you might well be right BUT you've been messing about with the whole calendar since then so I wouldn't trust that they are entirely blameless!  It's kind of like finding an electrical problem:  You keep turning things off until you isolate the part that isn't working... (o; 

     

    And just a note:  If you're messing about with an iCloud-linked problem on one affected machine/device and get nervous about what you might be doing to your data elsewhere, i.e. anything that syncs off iCloud - switch off your wifi while you're experimenting so there's no prayer of bad data sets uploading to the Cloud then back to your other devices/computers. 

  • by Andyathome,

    Andyathome Andyathome Oct 12, 2015 6:14 PM in response to jhcovert
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 12, 2015 6:14 PM in response to jhcovert

    Just saw the post about your wife's calendar and apart from the fact that we girls feel it necessary to repeat things at least 3 times because you lot don't tend to listen, there is obviously something in your settings on your Desktop that is telling your Calendar app to copy it's data 2 more times.  Will await your response to my previous, and we can get back to work in the morning. 

     

    Before I go though, why don't you double-check that your "Accounts" in system preferences are all in order and you don't have duplicate account information? 

     

    Later, alligator! 

  • by Andyathome,

    Andyathome Andyathome Oct 12, 2015 6:27 PM in response to jhcovert
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 12, 2015 6:27 PM in response to jhcovert

    Jason - just found this so in case you haven't seen it.  It's about iCloud data being messed up BUT have a look a the section on removing duplicates.  Turns out there is a trick! 

     

    iCloud: Advanced Calendar and iCal troubleshooting - Apple Support

  • by jhcovert,

    jhcovert jhcovert Oct 13, 2015 8:51 AM in response to Andyathome
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 13, 2015 8:51 AM in response to Andyathome

    Morning Andy!

     

    I looked to confirm it, but I don't have any of my iDevices linked up with iTunes on my laptop. I use it solely as a work machine, so there were no sync settings to change.

     

    I looked on my desktop (and laptop) to confirm that the accounts in Settings were correct and they appear to be in order with no duplicates. (see pic below of desktop setup)

     

    desktop_acounts.jpg

     

    Next I looked to see if anything had changed in my calendar app, and it has not. As to what I'm seeing: there are three iterations of each account listed in the left hand column and they manifest three times on the calendar. In order to continue using my calendars I had been doing as you suggested: clicking off two of the three calendars, but it makes adding or editing anything from the desktop dicey. I've been editing and handling all events from other devices, which is a monkey wrench in my workflow for sure. (see pic below)

     

    desktop_calendars.jpg

     

    I have turned off and removed the Gmail calendar and that had no effect on the duplicated iCloud calendars.

     

    I had found the link you provided earlier yesterday (great minds think alike, or at least we're on the same trail) and will dig into it deeper this afternoon when I get some free time. What an oddity this is!

     

    J

  • by Andyathome,

    Andyathome Andyathome Oct 14, 2015 2:13 AM in response to jhcovert
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 14, 2015 2:13 AM in response to jhcovert

    Hi Jason! 

     

    Sorry for the delay.  Not online yesterday evening but thanks for the pictures.  Pictures always help!!!  (O:

     

    You may or not believe this but for some reason I have one duplicate of my own in my calendars so - probably like you - when I was tagging an event to this calendar (called 'Personal' to include things like hairdressers!) I didn't know which of the two 'Personal' calendars I was saving it to so although had the same name - and were both green! - each had different information.  I tried to merge them using instructions from someone on the web.  Followed them exactly but it really messed things up even after two tidy attempts - possibly because they were for a slightly older OS - so ended up having to restore ALL of my Calendar data from a back up at 3am yesterday, thinking about you whilst I did it! 

     

    So then after the restore, all my iCloud calendars had disappeared.  Got those back via many of the steps I'd outlined to you, then my prize for said tedium was getting my two green 'Personal' calendars back but between them, at least I had all of the data back.  So, possibly different to your situation (??), the information in my two 'Personal' calendars was not identical because they've both been in random use for awhile so are working independently.  Are yours?? 

     

    If not, what we need to figure out as a work around is how to merge them successfully.  Maybe I'll bite the bullet and call Apple today to find out how to do that in El Capitan and report back.  For now though, I've got to get back to work here but perhaps in your voluminous spare time you can play with a set of triplicates by adding an event in to each of one triplicated calendar to see if they're working independently or in concert and let me know? 

     

    Have fun!

     

    Andy

  • by jhcovert,

    jhcovert jhcovert Oct 14, 2015 10:00 AM in response to Andyathome
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 14, 2015 10:00 AM in response to Andyathome

    Andy, no need to apologize for the delay: I know your time is valuable and I appreciate any attention you give this matter. I am, after all, a stranger on the internet.

     

    Sorry to hear about your own woes with regard to Calendar Calamity 2015. Up at 3am duplicating calendars sounds delightful.

     

    I suspect that some of the issues that I (we) are having are due to the upgrade to El Capitan (though I'm assuming you're running that OS as well). I've encountered some other oddities in the transition (ie. computer renaming itself with an added number saying its name was already in use, email outgoing server settings randomly changing days after upgrade, printer preferences out the window, printers needing to be re-shared with the network, etc, etc, the list goes on). I know that these minor tweaks are normal for the transition, but boy, are they annoying.

     

    To answer your query above: if I add an event to one of the calendars it remains as a single event on my desktop calendar... until it checks in with iCloud and then it duplicates the event 2 more times. That seems to lead me to believe that this might actually be a server side event that could be worked out in time, but again, not sure, and it's unclear how I would definitively determine this. Is it possible that iCloud sees my machine as 3 separate devices that needs the info sent to it? That might explain why the iDevices are all getting it once, my laptop has gotten it once, and my desktop gets it 3 times, especially since my desktop computer has been renamed 3 times, most recently (4am this morning) to "Computer Name (3)" (though if that were the case why is there not a new iteration on my desktop calendars after this most recent renaming?!?).

     

    I too would love to contact Apple to talk to one of their techs, but I'm assuming that they charge you for that kind of help, no? And my AppleCare has long ago run out. If you find anything helpful in your journeys please do share it, and of course, I'll do the same.

     

    Good luck with your work today.

  • by Andyathome,

    Andyathome Andyathome Oct 14, 2015 10:33 AM in response to jhcovert
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Oct 14, 2015 10:33 AM in response to jhcovert

    Good Lord, Jason, am feeling like you're an old friend now!  Virtual, but old!  Life will be less interesting when this problem is finished but how dull to be sleeping through the night instead of fixing iMac glitches!  Have to say that I've not had too many issues with the upgrade, and my duplicated calendar pre-dates El Capitan so can't blame it on that! 

     

    So, back on subject.  When you tried adding an event on one of your triplicates, did you try it on each one?  Also, did you try renaming one of them and see if a new test event still copies?  It might not! 

     

    And a thought.  If I were you I'd go into accounts, turn all of them off EXCEPT iCloud and try deleting and reinstating it one more time.  That way you'll know for sure that it isn't being influenced by a charming but malevolent neighbour.  Can't imagine why the Cloud would think your computer was 3 separate devices? 

     

    Also, just had a look up in my online Cloud settings.  If you go to your main page with all the apps on it then up to the top right, under your name is Settings.  If you log in to that there is an option to replace all the data on your devices with the Cloud version.  Please do read the warnings but there is an option for replacing Calendars and Reminders.  Who knows.  That may do it?! 

     

    Andy  (O:

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