Forced to upgrade to new Mobileme Calendar and lose iCal calendar groups

Question

Level 1

11 points

Forced to upgrade to new Mobileme Calendar and lose iCal calendar groups

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email saying that all MobileMe members MUST upgrade to the new calendar by 5 May, 2011.

Up until now, I have deliberately held off from upgrading to avoid losing the calendar groups function on iCal.

Now, not only is Apple forcing me to upgrade, they also don't seem to address the issue of current users who rely on calendar groups in iCal to organize our calendars. Why is Apple doing this?

I have sent them email on this issue. But as usual, no reply from anybody. How do I reach someone there to tell me what to do?

Macbook Pro, Mac Mini, Macbook, iPhone4, iPad, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 15, 2011 11:01 AM

Reply

Answer 1

csanden

Level 1

2 points

Mar 16, 2011 3:01 AM in response to MacKyver

the same happened to me today.

I used Ical with my personal email address, having MobileMe as a back-up and sync functionality. Basically my ICal on my computer was my main and the cloud was a copy.
Now that I have 'upgraded' to this new ical/mobileMe, the calendar is based around my mobileMe (cloud) account. Not only that but now if I send out invitations, they are sent out of my mobileMe email account (which I never use). People are starting to send me emails to this address.
My impression is that Apple is making us dependant on MobileMe.
What would happen if I don't renew my MobileMe account? Would I loose all of my calendar?
How do I send out ICal invitations out of another email address?
How do I return to the old setting, whereas MobileMe is only a copy of my Mac?

I am sorry, but Apple is becoming like Microsoft

Reply

Answer 2

Mar 16, 2011 8:31 AM in response to MacKyver

Just go to preferences and then sign in with your MobileMe username and password. The old calendars should reappear.

Personally, the new set up is a lot better because the sync system has been very buggy for a long time. The new version is like imap for email - it all becomes automatic and easier to share diaries at work or with your family.

The standard is not an Apple creation but a standard used by Microsoft.

Reply

Answer 3

MacKyver Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 16, 2011 10:12 AM in response to csanden

@csanden, sorry to hear about your woes.

Now I know there are additional issues aside from losing calendar groups.

Reply

Answer 4

boro

Level 1

9 points

Mar 17, 2011 7:05 AM in response to csanden

I have the same issue. My Work calendar in iCal on my iMac at work has gone and now Work is only in the MobileMe list. I cannot send invitations because these are sent using my MobileMe email address not my work email address.

I can create a new Work calendar which appears under the heading ON MY MAC and can I can drag this to the top to make the default calendar (this also correctly uses my work email address for invites) but this will not sync, how stupid.

I thought the point of Work and Home calendars was to manage the 2 separately but MobileMe seems to want to stop this and force use of a MobileMe email address. There should at least an option to link a default email address for invites to each calendar if it has to be this way.

I agree with csanden MobileMe should be the copy not the default (especially at work).

What does happen if you cancel MobileMe, looks like everything will be deleted.

Reply

Answer 5

MacKyver Author

Level 1

11 points

Mar 17, 2011 12:38 PM in response to boro

boro, thanks for sharing your experience, that helps me decide to not upgrade to the latest Mobileme for now, until Apple addresses these issues, which I don't know if they ever will.

I still don't quite understand how the invitations feature work, but forcing users to send invitations using mobileme is a sneaky move, if it is true.

I am surprised some of these woes are not featured on major sites yet.

Reply

Answer 6

Mr. KT

Level 1

4 points

Mar 17, 2011 5:08 PM in response to MacKyver

I'm disappointed also with the new Mobileme calendar behavior changes.. I'm also experiencing the same issue with the inability to change the email account used in new invites and acceptances of invites.

I too was able to get my work email account to work once I exported/imported into a new local 'on my mac' calendar but obviously this did not sync with mobileme. Main purpose for me to sync with mobileme was so I could get my cal updated on my iphone... I did find a temporary workaround by publishing my 'on my mac' cal onto mobileme then having my iphone subscribe to this publish cal to get the cal syncs...

Reply

Answer 7

DariPro

Level 1

84 points

Apr 12, 2011 5:53 PM in response to Mr. KT

How can this be?!! My iCal is organized into about 15 groups with 5-20 calendars in each of these groups. I think it's time to find an alternative.

Where can I send an email to protest this lack of feature?

Reply

Answer 8

rach86

Level 1

0 points

Apr 12, 2011 9:04 PM in response to MacKyver

I've been having the same issue. I use iCal as my main "hub" for calendars and use MobileMe as a backup and to sync to my iPhone. I updated to the new MobileMe today and lost ALL of my calendars in iCal. Everything. Fortunately, all of my calendars are still in MobileMe and on my phone, but I want them back on my computer in iCal!

I found this information today and I think it's what I need to solve my issue (hopefully it can help some of you as well)

Important: Do not follow these steps until you have successfully joined the new MobileMe Calendar. For more information about joining the new MobileMe Calendar, see this article.

1) Open iCal Preferences.
2) Click Accounts.
3) Click the plus button at the bottom of the page.
4) For both Description and Username, enter your full MobileMe email address, including @me.com or @mac.com. If you don't include @me.com or @mac.com, the setup will not be successful.
5) Enter your MobileMe password.
6) Click the disclosure triangle next to Server Options.
7) For Account URL, enter the following without quotes: "https://cal.me.com". Be sure to include the full URL, including the "https://". Note that you do not need to include a closing "/" at the end of the url.
8) Click Add.

Now that your MobileMe account is set up, iCal will begin downloading the data from the new MobileMe Calendar servers.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4330

So all of this seems like what I need, but I'm still having an issue adding my calendar. When I go to add my MobileMe account into iCal, a Login Failed message pops up that says "Your password was rejected by the server cal.me.com for the login Rachael" Does that mean my password is incorrect? Because it's not. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

Reply

Answer 9

misso1

Level 1

0 points

Apr 13, 2011 2:35 AM in response to John Walker1

That doesn't work.
I have lost ALL my iCal data because Mobile me insisted that I upgrade. I have 10.5 6 and there was no warning that 10.6 would wipe everything. F ****g Apple has done this to me before and I an NOT HAPPY!

Reply

Answer 10

misso1

Level 1

0 points

Apr 13, 2011 3:23 AM in response to rach86

No! Won't connect to mobileme.
I'm feeling sick. I've lost ALL my calenders and all me appointments and work details both past present and future.

Reply

Answer 11

misso1

Level 1

0 points

Apr 13, 2011 3:43 AM in response to rach86

Oops. Missed the "s" in https.

EUREKA! It works.

Thanks a million rach86! I'm glad there is someone out there who knows how things work.

Reply

Answer 12

qwert qwe

Level 2

270 points

Apr 13, 2011 2:42 PM in response to MacKyver

I'm really reluctant to go down this route again. Last time I tried the beta I lost all my calendars and everyone got cancellation messages. http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2521896&tstart=0

This plus the fact the calendars no longer live on MY device and time machine doesn't back them up, just seems like Apple have lost the plot!

Not good work. Stop tittin about with iOS and focus on OS X!!

Reply

Answer 13

Apr 13, 2011 2:56 PM in response to qwert qwe

After the conversion to the required iCal I lost my groups. The Group Titles remain with the triangles, but no calendars show within those titled groups. The Groups appear within "ON MY MAC" but there is no content, nor can I uncheck them nor can I drag calendars into the Groups.

The Help topic "Organizing your calendars within groups" is empty.

Does the converted iCal have Group capability?

Reply