MobileMe Beta syncs to iCal only when i open it

Question

MobileMe Beta syncs to iCal only when i open it

Hello,

It's some time I have switched to MobileMe Calendar Beta, and I found it very nice, but I have a really annoying problem:

On iCal, the events only sync when I open the app, not when it's closed, so If i change an appointment on my iPhone I have to manually open iCal to update the calendar on my mac.

Someone know how I can resolve this problem? Thanks a lot!!

iMac 27'' Intel Core i7 2.8, 8GB of RAM, Mac OS X (10.6.4), airport Extreme and Airport Express WDS Network

Posted on Sep 17, 2010 5:02 AM

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Answer 1

MadisonP

Level 5

4,844 points

Sep 17, 2010 10:05 AM in response to Andrea Turriziani

Greetings,

First make an iCal backup, File > Export > Archive.

Easiest fix first, go into iCal > Preferences > Accounts and remove the MobileMe CalDAV entry and then re-add it.

If the issue persists:
Remove the following to the trash and restart your computer:
Home > Library > Caches
Home > Library > Calendars > Calendar Cache, Cache, Cache 1, 2, 3, etc. (Do not remove Sync Cache or Theme Cache)
Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.ical (There may be more than one of these. Remove them all.)
__NOTE: Removing these files will remove any shared (CalDAV) calendars you may have access to. You will have to re-add those calendars to iCal > Preferences > Accounts.

Once the computer is back up and running open iCal and test.

If the issue persists reset your sync history and try again: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/26867.html

Hope that helps.

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Answer 2

Sep 17, 2010 5:33 PM in response to MadisonP

Thanks a lot for the info, i will try them and let you know!!

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Answer 3

Sep 18, 2010 4:06 PM in response to MadisonP

tried all your workaround, still no luck, the problem persist...

Really don't know what I can do, it's really annoying for me to keep iCal open only to keep my appointments updated...

Maybe you have some other workaround? It's this a common problem or is it only mine?

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Answer 4

MadisonP

Level 5

4,844 points

Sep 18, 2010 4:31 PM in response to Andrea Turriziani

Out of curiosity what happens when you setup a new user to run the Calendar Beta?
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8235.html

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Answer 5

Sep 19, 2010 2:14 AM in response to MadisonP

Just tried, still no luck. iCal update itself with the new appointments only if I open it...

I have tried also this workaround http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3397, without success...

Anything else?

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Answer 6

MadisonP

Level 5

4,844 points

Sep 19, 2010 10:59 AM in response to Andrea Turriziani

Just to make sure I'm not missing something here...how do you know that iCal is not updating? Because an event you add elsewhere (iPhone, online, etc.) does not trigger an alarm or...

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Answer 7

Sep 19, 2010 4:28 PM in response to MadisonP

Because if I add an event from my iphone, it doesn't appear on iCal until I open it and the application check the status on the server (the little wheel that spin near the CalDAV name). I'm sure the event is added on mobileme because if I go on the website it appear. It's the same thing that happen on the iPad, but there I know it's a known problem, because it still have iOS 3.x.

Hope I have explained it well, not so great with english 🙂

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Answer 8

MadisonP

Level 5

4,844 points

Sep 21, 2010 10:37 AM in response to Andrea Turriziani

CalDAV servers (like MobileMe calendar beta) only get updated / checked when iCal is opened on the Mac. Much like how Mail only gets new mail messages when you open the program. The program can't check for new messages / events if it has not been opened.

When you are not using the MobileMe calendar beta you use MobileMe syncing to get your data from MobileMe to your computer and the reverse. With MobileMe syncing the changes are made in the background to iCal so it is not necessary to launch iCal for updates to appear.

As a work around you can add your iCal as a login item, that way every time you login / turn on your computer iCal will open automatically and then get any updates (or just open it every now and then to update).

Thank you for the interesting question 🙂

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Answer 9

Sep 21, 2010 2:25 PM in response to MadisonP

Thanks a lot for your answer. I imagined that, but it seemed so strange that Apple doesn't let the customer know about this problem because the say, on the support site, that until version 4.x, the iPad doesn't sync automatically...

So, with the MobileMe Beta, the iCal syncing preferences became totally useless, right?

Hope that with the new SW update they came with some workaround for this, keeping iCal open only to update my events it's really a "waste of RAM" :-P.

Thanks a lot anyway Madison, you were very kind for trying to find a workaround for this.

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Answer 10

Oct 5, 2010 2:29 PM in response to Andrea Turriziani

Andrea,

when all of your devices are CalDAV capable you do not need to enable MobileMe’s calendar syncing anymore and you are right.

I would even say that I would recommend everyone who is in the MobileMe beta to turn off MobileMe calendar syncing, because a process called iCalExternalSync uses more than 100% CPU and what’s even worse a lot of disk IO, so the whole Mac slows down.

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Answer 11

Oct 6, 2010 6:07 AM in response to Rafael B.

Thanks a lot Rafael for your tip. I will follow it.

Have a good day.

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