.ics files - outlook meeting.ics attachment won't open

i share the frustration of this group - have been trying to use your fix but keep getting an error message that "safari cannot download this file" when i click on the ics file in my gmail message...what am I doing wrong

I used the sa opinion that you to send a feedback but changing Pre and Blackberry to the Evil Android :-P

Does not work for me nor anyone else I know. How is it that it works for you?

Hey dufus, replies like that only serve to get this thread deleted. That helps no-one. It means that any useful info posted by people trying to find a solution or workaround will be taken off the board and nobody benefits.
If you are annoyed - take it out somewhere else, don't hinder the efforts of the people trying to help.

jna1508 wrote:
How is it that it works for you?

I have one Mail account which is with a Hosted Exchange mail server - that means all the ics files get interpreted correctly.

No Exchange, no understanding.

Hi all,
i don't get this workaround.
I have an Outlook Exchange account at work, and a Outlook with a pop3 server account at home.
When I try to open a meeting on my iphone sent from both those accounts, all i see is a ics mime attachment, not openable. This happens on both my emailaccounts on my iphone: my pop3 account, and my gmail one.
How can i work around/improve this, until apple solves the issue (it is unbelievable, such a great device, such a huge feature missing. Fortunately i do have a blackberry at work).

What I know is this. To FIX the ICS files generated by outlook, download the ICS file, open it in TextEdit.

Delete the space after "BEGIN: VCALENDAR" so it looks like "BEGIN:VCALENDAR"
Then, the space after "BEGIN: VEVENT" to "BEGIN:VEVENT"
Then, for the lines "DTSTART:", "DTEND", and "DCREATED", delete any timezone info after the "-". For example, "DTSTART:20100323T073000-0800" becomes "DTSTART:20100323T073000".

Save, and open it. It will be in iCal.
My IT guy is working on a script that automagically does this. Hopefully, I can add it as a rule to my inbox. I will let you all know.

GOOD LUCK
This will at least make it readable for iCal

Sorry, this forum is iPhone. But this does fix it for Laptops, too!

Hey guys, any news about this? seriously, it'd be great to have ics meetings being recognized on iphone.

I tried to use this workaround but discovered that my ics file contained no spaces after colons and used a different DT format which in any case contained no hyphens.

Any other ideas? If I can't find an answer I will have to resort to using Outlook.

Note: I need to be able not only to see the calendar invitations in iCal but also to accept them - or else I will miss any updates sent to the attendee list.

Regards,

Jane Ann

I am still struggling with this for 2 years now (Like many of you I was dumbfounded when I learned that this functionality was not included.). I love the iPhone and my new iPad, but I am really struggling with the fact that .ics files are not recognized.

I want to be able to roll out the iPad 3G to some of my technicians, but this feature has got to be available. I can't have them logging into some web email every time they need to see a meeting invite.

Do we have an ETA on when Apple will make this functionality available. Will they ever? Does anyone know? How do we find out? I don't want to switch to another device.

Now iOS4 is out and yet the new iPhone is not supporting ics invitation mail. I'm beginning to find this totally pathetic. How difficult can it be to integrate this to the OS? I mean all the other platforms seem to support it out of the box without having a MSExchange account. I would rather have this feature mighty important to smart phones than some futile move editor.

Message was edited by: NoxDiurna

I can not believe this either. I've filled out the Apple feedback several times and also tried sending a message direct to Steve Jobs' email. I hear that iOS4 will allow third party apps to open attachments so maybe this is an avenue that could fix this - as long as the app is allowed to open it and add it to the calendar and allow you to respond etc. This is still the only thing that is keeping me from buying an iPhone.

If you use mac book or have ical then import .ics file into ical on my mac (Create a new calendar) once it is done. Sync the calendar you created to iphone. I did this and it worked.

Hope this helps.

This is the ONLY reason why I do not purchase an iPhone, and an absolute showstopper as far as I am concerned in terms of the viability of an iPhone for business as well as personal use. Wake up Apple, the world is standardized on Outlook, and I should be able to view, accept, decline, etc. an Outlook Calendar invitation on an iPhone just like I would on any Windows Mobile device or the like. This is so simple and obvious, I am just shocked as to why Apple would not provide for this functionality. I've read through years of messages on this topic, plenty of outstanding requests for this, my only conclusion is that Apple just doesn't want to do it. So for now, I'll leave the iPhone to the teenyboppers and soccer moms, and continue using a substandard Windows Mobile device that I can see my Outlook Calendar invites on. Pathetic.