Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

iCal EVENTS DUPLICATE and can't delete them

Events that I enter once are duplicating both on the same day and even onto other days! No matter what I do to try and delete the extras, they pop back within seconds! The duplicates also have random times, different from the original. I sync my iPhone and the events are duplicated there as well. Please help!

macbook pro, Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Posted on Mar 1, 2010 8:48 AM

Reply
31 replies

Apr 3, 2010 11:30 AM in response to dhemmert

Yes, I have same problem. One event keeps repeating its reminder 10x a day, even though I say don't remind me until tomorrow.
What's worse though, is that when I delete the event it comes back in about 10 seconds. Yes, it re-appears on the screen automatically in iCal. This is ridiculous because if you search the 'net for this error, its been happening to iCal for several years, and Apple has yet to fix it. You can delete the cache files, and plist, and yet still comes back. You cannot delete these items. And i have the latest OS/X 10.6.3! If you drag even to a new day, then you have two, each repeating on different days. Its terrible.
I've spent hours and hours researching this and it is maddening and I demand a fix.

Apr 3, 2010 1:19 PM in response to skibunnie

I just found a solution: Go into iSync, (use macintosh HD, applications), then go to Preferences. Turn off iSync (uncheck enable syncing on this computer). Then Reset Sync History (be sure to push Reset Sync History on second screen too). Then logoff/logon or reboot. Then you can delete calendar events or calendars or whatever you need. If you need to sync again, just go into iSync and re-enable syncing. The problem does not seem to come back. I tried all the other solutions posted and none worked except for this one.

Apr 8, 2010 9:38 PM in response to NMMacGuy

I have spent hours and hours on this both recently and in the past. I can hardly believe apple have let this go on so long.
I avoided it for a while by using BusyCal, but then the moment I opened iCal to back up old calendars the fun started all over again.
Thanks for the way through - I will try it now, once iSync decides to ope for me.
Has anyone a solution to deleting the duplicates Cal invents other than spending hours clicking through then one by one? I tried to use automator but it did not seem to work.
Thanks again anyway,
Crispin

May 13, 2010 7:10 AM in response to rockydog

Hey all - had the same problem. Lots of duplicated events, alarms, and even started getting duplicate calendars. At one point I had over 500 copies of my "home" calendar that would keep replicating even after I deleted them. I chatted with a MM rep and after no luck and the issue was escalated to a senior MobileMe rep who exchanged a few emails with me and helped solve the problem. I've summarized the steps taken to resolve my issue below...

Just a fyi... The duplication problem, while the root cause was not entirely identifed, appears to lie somewhere in your Mac's user account and the iSync application.


To fix the duplication problem, do the following: (needless to say, proceed at your own risk and backup).


1. First, go to MobileMe settings within system preferences and log out of MobileMe.
2. Attempt logging back into MM within system preferences by entering a false user id and false password (this will return a invalid login response but it will clear out any bad metadata).
3. Go to iCal and clean up everything you can, delete duplicates and any other problem items. Get it looking like you want.
4. (Temporarily) remove any subscribed calendars
5. Once iCal looks like it should, *perform a backup*.
6. Now, export a .ics backup file *for each* of your cleaned up calendars (File > Export > Export).
7. Delete all the calendars from iCal (after you have successfully exported backups).
8. In Finder, go to your home directory > library > calendars
9. Delete the Calendar Cache file. If you feel comfortable with it, go ahead and delete everything else in this directory. These are the calendars within iCal. (If you have exported backups of what you want, this should not be an issue).
10. Return to system preferences and go to Accounts
11. Create a new administrator level account (call it test or whatever you like)
12. Log out of your primary user account and log into this new test account
13. Launch iCal.
14. Verify that you should have two blank calendars, home & work.
15. Go to system preferences and launch MobileMe settings
16. Login to MobileMe
17. Go to the sync tab, and for now, choose sync manually (adjust this to automatically or whatever you like after the fix is in).
You should get a prompt to sync using data from either iCal on your Mac or from Mobile Me. Select "from Mac (iCal)." Because you are in this new user account with blank calendars in iCal, this will remove any and all calendars currently on MobileMe. You can verify this by logging into me.com after the sync is completed.
18. Once verified that your MobileMe calendars are cleared, return to Mobile Me system preferences and log out of MobileMe.
19. Now, log out of this test level user account and log back in to your primary account.
20. Launch iCal and import your .ics backups and verify that your iCal looks the way you want it.
21. Go to system preferences (yet again), and log into MobileMe. This time, go to "advanced settings" and +reset sync history+. When prompted, replace info on MobileMe with data "from this computer".
22. Log back into me.com and verify that your MobileMe calendar should look good now and include the correct calendar items.
23. Re-subscribe to any caldav calendars you need (see notes about subcription calendars at bottom)

At this point, my problems were solved and I've been in good shape since.


Update: After I fixed my my issues, the duplication problem started to re-occur once I tried syncing "subscribed" calendars to my iPhone and iPad. Corrected this quickly... TIP: do not sync "subscribed" calendars on your devices by selecting them from the calendar sync section under the info tab in your iphone/ipad sync settings within iTunes. These will be pushed through MobileMe already and would otherwise create a duplication problem as you would be essentially syncing them through multiple methods (from your computer in addition to the cloud).

May 19, 2010 8:57 AM in response to rockydog

I had the same problem (running snow leopard 10.6.3 on Macbook Air). Events i created on non-shared, non-synced calendars could not be deleted or if they could they'd pop up again in seconds. And send me email reminders every 10 mins. VERY ANNOYING.

Tried many things but what finally worked for me is:
Open isync.
go to prefs.
uncheck "Enable syncing on this computer" (it may take a while for this to go from grey to black and let you uncheck it)
click "reset sync history"
go to ical. delete events.
click "reset sync history" again.
RESTART. This is the part that made the whole thing stick.

good luck

Sep 8, 2010 2:16 PM in response to rockydog

This has been happening to us with our iCal. Ever since we got Mobile Me, every time my wife adds an event on her iPhone it replicates like a virus about 10 times. Doesn't happen if we enter it on the computer or our iPad or my iPhone. If I delete her multiple entries they just pop back up. I'm thinking Mobile Me wasn't worth it, or is it a problem with her iPhone? We never had this problem before Mobile Me and back then we just synced manually.

Jan 12, 2011 1:11 PM in response to rosencrantz

HOWEVER.....I'm not having the same out-of-control event duplicating that seems to be haunting you folks. Instead, a FEW of my events seemed be randomly duplicating, but not even on all devices. For example, I have an event to mark the birthday of a friend who in my iPad was born three times on January 8, on my iPhone was born twice, and on my computer and MM calendars was born only once. I finally figured out that some events, especially ones that repeat periodically (birthday every year and so on) AND involve some kind of alarm, seem to get kind of lost if you make any changes to them. When I looked closely at the three instances on the iPad, I found that two of them were versions of the event that I had changed somewhere along the line (added an alarm to send me a reminder two days in advance that somehow this year got changed to send me an alarm on specific day at a specific time that was different from the original - that kind of stuff). I couldn't figure out why I'd run Dupe Deleter on the iCal calendars in my MacBook, do all the sync history resets described elsewhere in this thread, start out in the evening with four calendars on my MB, iPhone, iPad, and MM and by the next morning my friend had been cloned again. I still don't know where the problem originates, but at least now I know how to fix it - deleting all but the "correct" version of the event wherever it occurs. It seems to be turning out that MM, at which I cussed more than a few blue streaks, may not have been the cause of this problem, although I think it probably is for those of you experiencing runaway cloning.

Mar 30, 2011 9:30 AM in response to rockydog

THANK YOU! Took me five minutes to fix it after I found this discussion.
I was raging this morning when moving day by day to a new event I got huge repetitions. By going to isync and canceling sync it removed repetitions on its own and allowed me to delete a problem entry.
We'll see if the problem arises later, but for now, it fixed in two key strokes.

I switched from Entrouage to ical and imail due to complications with my University's mail protocol, and having gone through that transition this repetition problem literally had my blood boiling. I'm as docile and friendly as a customer gets, but if I could have screamed at an Apple rep, I would have.

iCal EVENTS DUPLICATE and can't delete them

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.