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Alf2002 Author

Level 1

10 points

iCal corrupted with white screen

I’m running OS10.5.6 on two mac pro’s and using MobileMe to sync my calendars. Last night, I noticed that the iCal screen was entirely white and frozen on my home MacPro and had to force quit. I restarted the Mac. It seemed ok last night but today it is having the same problem as my office MacPro: Today I got the white screen on opening iCal. I tried some obvious things like repair privileges and the like, but finally unsubscribed to MobileMe and then resubscribed. That didn’t fix it so I trashed whatever I could from my user Library preferences folder that contained iCal in title, and unsubscribed to MobileMe and then resubscribed. That didn’t work, so I then trashed my Calenders folder in my library and iCal files in my Preferences folder; and unsubscribed to MobileMe and then resubscribed. Every time I resubscribed I restored data from MobileMe site to local computer. I’m still having the same problem:
1. iCal screen is incomplete and sometimes goes blank
2. To Do Items are not visible.
3. If I open iCal preferences, and then try to close by clicking red ball, it won’t close. I then have to quit or force quit iCal to get rid of the preference window.

Something is obviously corrupted but it’s strange that it’s occurring on 2 separate computers. The only think in common is MobileMe.

Suggestions appreciated.

thanks

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Apr 1, 2009 10:41 AM

23 replies

Jun 25, 2009 9:19 AM in response to Lonnie Robinson

Here is info from the console when attempting to use the To Do List:

6/25/09 9:17:19 AM iCal[1730] * Assertion failure in -[CoreTaskOutlineView _uncachedRectHeightOfRow:], /SourceCache/AppKit/AppKit-949.46/TableView.subproj/NSTableView.m:1574
6/25/09 9:17:19 AM iCal[1730] rowHeight must be > 0

Jun 25, 2009 9:21 AM in response to Lonnie Robinson

I have also applied the 10.5.7 combo update with no help. It did not fix the problem.

Jun 25, 2009 11:22 AM in response to Lonnie Robinson

I have figured out what happened in our office. We are using a group calendar with all users able to make changes to the particular group calendar. When someone created a "to do" item while in the group calendar, this caused the problem. I went and deleted the "to do" item on the group calendar and now the "to do" button and list works on all users computers.

This was blocking the to do list for all subscribed users of the group calendar.

Alf2002 Author

Level 1

10 points

Aug 8, 2009 6:50 AM in response to Lonnie Robinson

I updated to OS10.58 and still have the same problem in that iCal freezes on drawing the calendar either on opening or soon thereafter. As far as my "pseudo-fix", I enter new events via Safari directly into MobileMe and then sync with my macs. This will give me reminder-alarms and allows syncing with iPhone. Every so often (maybe 1-2x per week), I log into a new user account, sync with MobileMe, and then add alarms to needed events in iCal. This is happening on 3 macs that access this account (2 Mac Pro's and a MacBook Air). I also use a G5 Mac that is running a pretty simple startup set and it works fine. A stripped-down new user account works fine on any of the macs. I thought it might be Quickeys but quitting doesn't help and the new Qucikeys (which works OK) didn't help. Obviously, something is conflicting with iCal and I hope Snow Leopard fixes this conflict/bug. Curiously, iCal reminders, syncing with MobileMe, and address book work fine. Seems like the iCal screen just freezes on drawing the calendar on the screen. I have not deleted my To Do's and I doubt that is the problem since iCal works fine on a new user account on any of the macs. Problem occurred a few months ago 'out of the blue' and previously was stable.

surfmonk

Level 1

5 points

Aug 19, 2009 11:25 AM in response to Alf2002

I also had this problem out of the blue and it acted different on different accounts and different computers. Although the iCal window would have display issues (and error "rowHeight must be > 0" in the logs) it was immediately apparent when I opened the ToDo list. After wiping all calendars, cache, sync, pref's and waving a dead chicken I was ready to give up.

Solution I found - After unchecking every calendar and one-by-one enable them and checking the if the todo list worked, I found the guilty calendar. With only that calendar checked, in the search window I typed "" to bring up all events and todo's. I found a bland todo (likely the corrupted culprit). I deleted this todo item and all is fixed.

Alf2002 Author

Level 1

10 points

Sep 26, 2009 9:42 PM in response to surfmonk

Thanks for the hint but I thought this wouldn’t fix my problem since iCal works on a Mac running 10.4 and will work in a new user with nothing added when downloading iCal info from MobileMe on the Mac Pro’s where iCal is frozen in the regular user account. Anyway, I did what you suggested and got the calendar to work if the To Do list was hidden. If the To Do list is shown, then iCal is frozen as far as adding events to calendar or trying to scroll to a different month.

To fix the above problem, I went to the new user account and opened iCal, where it works fine, and deleted ALL items in my To Do list. I then moved iCal/Contacts to MobileMe. On my regular user account, I then restored everything from MoblieMe. Curiously, the problem persists even with an empty To Do list. Any suggestions on what needs to be deleted in preferences or elsewhere?

thanks

Alf2002 Author

Level 1

10 points

Dec 19, 2009 9:48 PM in response to Alf2002

problem disappeared in OS 10.6 which probably reflects a quiet fix by AAPL

GRAMH

Level 1

0 points

Dec 31, 2009 11:06 PM in response to rainerrainer

I had all the iCal problems too right after I installed Hyperspaces and in my outright panic I wrongly accused Tony of Cocoabots of selling a faulty program. Tony, sorry for that. Same as a few lucky devils I got iCal working by deleting a blank TODO in Mail. Changed some mail preferences too, like creating notes and to do's in 'On my Mac'. There is still one mysterious problem that may or may not have anything to do with the iCal problems. The translation widget stopped working the same time iCal got it's fit. Since the problems with iCal are really old I would have expected Apple to have solved this qietly. But no, the problem must be bigger than we imagine. Maybe the widget problem shines a new light.

iCal corrupted with white screen