iPhone Calendar List View Extends Back Only One Year

Question

Level 1

33 points

iPhone Calendar List View Extends Back Only One Year

My iPhone calendar List view extends back approximately one year despite the fact that I have calendar entries extending back to 1999 and that older data is visible under the Day and Month views. This is a problem because the only search mechanism in iPhone calendar is through the List view. Therefore, any search I conduct extends back only to the data in the List view ... which means back only one year.

Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on how I could change this such that the List view extends to include ALL of my calendar entries and is in conformity with the Day and Month views? (I wanted to ask if anyone knows how to "correct" this, but perhaps Apple has designed it this way to speed-up the searching in List view ... I'm not certain.)

I am currently running the most recent iOS update, am syncing my iPhone calendar via MobileMe, have upgraded to the new version of the MobileMe calendar, and have ALREADY reset my sync. history, deleted my iPhone calendar and re-synced it, etc. These don't resolve the problem.

MacBook Pro, iOS 4

Posted on Jan 18, 2011 1:47 AM

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Answer 1

Simon201

Level 2

298 points

Jan 21, 2011 4:21 AM in response to DATElliott

Yes same here - my list view only goes back to 9 Dec 2009 (don't whether around that date is significant as far as some kind of upgrades to software etc) but I'm pretty sure it's some kind of bug. The iPhone search definitely doesn't find events before this date even though they show fine in 'month view'. Incidently if I add an event before this date, on the iPhone, it then shows up in list view..??

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Answer 2

MattKorn

Level 1

0 points

Jan 28, 2011 3:23 PM in response to DATElliott

Same here. I have 6 years of calendar synced from iCal down to Calendar on iPhone. But in "List View" I can only see entries back to 1/1/2010....even though the entries show up on "Day" or "Month" view.

Worst part of this bug is that the Search function (in List View) also only goes back 1 year to 1/1/2010. So my calendars are no longer searchable going back more than just 1 year.

This is a real bug. Anyone from Apple have this on their radar?

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Answer 3

DATElliott Author

Level 1

33 points

Jan 29, 2011 3:01 AM in response to DATElliott

I've noticed that the date to which the List View will "look back" will change depending on software updates or syncs.

For instance, a few weeks ago my List View went back to December 2009 ... now it goes back to Jan. 2010 (i.e. I lost a month of "look back"). I do not specifically recall what triggered this change, but I reset my sync. log during this period.

If you make no changes to the sync. log or update the software, the List View start date will stay constant I believe. For instance, if the List View goes back to Jan. 1, 2010 right now it should stay that way until you reset the sync. log or update the iPhone software. Theoretically then the List View can "look back" much longer than 12 months assuming you make no changes to the sync. log or update the software. Of course, this doesn't address our issue here, but I thought I would point out that there seems to be a consistent pattern here and not some random bug screwing things up.

I'm still thinking that this is the way Apple intended it to work. In other words, that Apple felt it necessary to limit the calendar search feature to approximately 12 months worth of calendars. I hope I'm wrong.

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Answer 4

Bhose

Level 1

19 points

Feb 11, 2011 8:06 AM in response to DATElliott

I have this problem too. It has only cropped up recently. In the past I was able to see my calendar on list view going back to about 2002. Then that stopped and it only goes back a year in list view. This is inconvenient and annoying. I'd love a solution. Anyone ?

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Answer 5

Feb 11, 2011 8:36 AM in response to DATElliott

This is one of the reasons I am switching to Week Calendar ($1.99 in the iTunes App Store). It seems to go back as far as I want in all views, it gives a week view, and it also has a "Go to a date" function that makes jumping back or forward to a specific date much easier than in the built-in calendar.

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Answer 6

Simon201

Level 2

298 points

Feb 28, 2011 1:49 AM in response to DATElliott

Some kind of solution to this seems to work. I've turned off the syncing with mobile me of calendars in the settings on the phone and let the phone delete the calendars. Then turning the sync back on brings back the full list view entries. The only thing is the problem seems to return after a day or two so it really must be a bug.

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Answer 7

nycms

Level 1

4 points

Mar 3, 2011 5:34 PM in response to DATElliott

This was never a problem before AND NOW IT IS A BIG ONE. I depend on past calendars to look up useful data while on the road.

Sure seems like a deliberate, recent setting by apple not to allow mobile sync beyond a year AND FOR $100 A YEAR, IT'S PRETTY ANNOYING.

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Answer 8

Jul 13, 2011 9:02 AM in response to nycms

Exact same issue here; iPhone 4 Verizon CDMA. Calendar List View goes back only one year, while the Day/Month Views show all events. And cannot search because of that.

It seems as though this issue has been around for a while. I have seen it posted in archives dating back to 2008. And no apparent posted solution. I guess it's not as big on their priority list. Perhaps in another 3 years?

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Answer 9

chcn

Level 1

75 points

Jul 24, 2011 11:46 AM in response to DATElliott

Indeed, not only is there an annoying restriction on the amount of data displayed, but the search feature is horribly broken too. See also https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2667000

I sure hope this is overhauled in iOS 5. In the meantime, while they're beta testing, maybe now is a good time to send (more) feedback on this to http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

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Answer 10

chcn

Level 1

75 points

Oct 14, 2011 4:58 PM in response to chcn

Bump.

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Answer 11

Oct 14, 2011 6:59 PM in response to chcn

So is this fixed in iOS5? Did anyone care to check? I have not upgraded yet.

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Answer 12

chcn

Level 1

75 points

Oct 14, 2011 7:42 PM in response to bobbyfromsandiego

Yes, I checked. No, it still seems to be limited to about a year.

I hesitate to use the word "fixed", because I suspect this was a design choice, not an unintentional defect.

Still, I keep more than 10 years of history in there and would like to search it. My old Palm PDAs could do this for crying out loud!

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Answer 13

Oct 15, 2011 9:44 AM in response to chcn

Yes, it definitely *****. I guess these devices are more about bells and whistles, as opposed to real business solutions, catering to a sector with the most population. I just recently switched from Win mobile to iPhone. As much as I like the bells and whistles, I may have to switch back on my next phone.

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Answer 14

mycre

Level 1

4 points

Oct 15, 2011 3:06 PM in response to DATElliott

I have been complaining about this since search first came to the iPhone, and discovered to my disbelief that my calendar entries built since the original phone could not all be found. I've been on official Apple Feedback, these forums, etc., to no avail. Once again, no fix with iOS 5.

At one point a couple of years ago a third party app was in the works, but according to the developers, Apple killed it. If the perceived problem (according to what some folks believe to be Apple's thinking) would be grindingly slow searching with other functions compromised, there still is a solution. Simply let us turn the function on and off and accept the degraded perforrmance while we search! I'd even buy the next bigger memory device if that would help solve the problem.

It's incredibly annoying and just plain stupid to have to go to my desktop and search the synced files to find entries older than one year. This elementary search limitation remains the greatest deficiency of the iPhone.

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Answer 15

chcn

Level 1

75 points

Oct 15, 2011 4:38 PM in response to mycre

I think any concern about performance is hooey. My old Palm PDAs did full text searching of all items over many years with no problem. Of course the results were not instantaneous, but the UI made it clear that the device was still searching and it gave results as it found them. Apple could do the same thing easily. The only performance problem, I think, comes as a result of the search as you type function. Instead they might have to make you type the whole search term and tap a "Search" button to begin the search. Big deal.

Let's all submit Feedback again, okay?

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