iCal picks wrong calendar for invites - how do I change that?

Today I received an email with calendar item in the form of an *ics attachment that included an invitation to several other people for a meeting. Unfortunately, my own suggestion of allowing the item to be added to the incorrect calendar and then duplicating and editing the duplicate did not work as it ended up sending a new invitation email to everybody on the list. Through some experimentation I discovered that the item is always being added to the top most calendar in my displayed list of calendars on the left margin (note: this is NOT my default calendar, but is the one displayed at the top of my long list of calendars and shared calendars). The solution was to 1) Click and drag the calendar that I wanted to add this item to so that this calendar was now at the top of the list (you can use your mouse to click and reorder the display priority in the left margin) 2) Return to the email and either "accept" the invitation normally, or drag and drop the *.ics attachment onto the Calendar App. It defaulted to the top most displayed calendar. Not ideal, but easier than the duplication steps I suggested on November 9, 2016.

Lyndy, Thank you for the suggestion of dragging/reordering the calendars to prioritize them. This got the iCloud ones I need up NEAR the top, but the problem is that I can't move the "on my mac" calendar DOWN nor can I move my iCloud calendars above it. So, even though I have default calendar set to my iCloud work, I still can't get around this problem. Does anyone know a way around this?? It doesn't make any sense whatsoever to have a default calendar if you can't make it the default!

However I THINK that if there were others invited to this event, when you create a copy of it, it will ask you to Send the invite. It then gets sent to the others on the invite I believe. Not really what you want to have happen.

So you should strip out the other invitees so that it's just you on the event.

All of this breaks the linkage to the original event so if someone changes the meeting time... you're out of luck. However at least there's a way to put it in your calendar of your choosing.

This has driven me crazy for years.

Thanks, LindyB...the solution you suggested on November 9, 2016 worked for me! Very helpful. Like Jesse Trucks said, it'd be great if it could be fixed. A work-around I had used until applying yours was that because I can change the calendar when using my iPhone (and not my computer), I'd either accept invitations with my phone, or I'd change the calendar for existing events with the phone. Thanks!

I know there are workarounds, which seem like a hassle but sounds like they work. Per my post on 2/10/17, the invites continue to default to "on my mac" since it's the first one and can't be moved down. This is very problematic because if I don't catch it and manually move it, and am not working on the Mac when the event comes up I won't see it. Has anyone run into this scenario? Thanks!

Not a solution. Still Exchange invitation cannot be accepted in the Calendar of choice. Even in High Sierra this problem remains and makes Calendar pretty much useless. I guess Apple still cannot do databases right.

Open iCal>Preferences>General. Set the default calendar as you please.

I had a similar issue, with work-related invites getting added to my personal calendar instead of the work one, with no ability to "move" once added.

I solved this by making my work calendar "primary" in iCal, by dragging it to the top of the calendar list in iCal. Now all my work meeting invites get automatically added to the work calendar. As far as personal calendar events go - I don't get many formal meeting invites on those, or I am usually the organizer anyway, so I can move them around.

In your case, sounds like your common shared meeting calendar is "primary". If you figure out how to easily move events between calendars (without having to change the default cal back and forth), please let me know.

Same thing is happening to me. I have 6 calendars in iCal:

• Two personal calendars to track birthdays and bills (under "On My Mac")
• My work calendar, which is under a Google Account
• My personal Gmail calendar
• Two subscriptions

iCal won't let me drag the Work calendar (which appears second in the list) above the "On My Mac" calendars. This didn't happen until a week or two ago, and is VERY frustrating. Anyone find a fix?

I stumbled on this thread while battling a similar problem. My answer comes late, so it includes the solution when you have your calendars shared through iCloud.

Essentially, my problem was similar or even worse as iCal would bring the invites in one of the calendars I am subscribed to but read only. This calendar was not even checked for visibility. The event would be added and I would have no way to accept or refuse or even delete it afterwards.

What I found out is that you can reorder your calendars only in the online iCloud interface, not in iCal. Once I reordered and put one of my calendars first everything was fine. Even if I want to change calendar after getting the invitation, I have the right to do so.

Ical has settings for a Default calendar in its preferences. One would think this default calendar is used for every new event, be it an event or an invitation.

This didn't help me; the online iCloud interface only shows 'iCloud' calendars. My problem is that new invitations default to calendars found "On My Mac". If I manually create an appointment, it properly defaults to my iCloud/Work calendar which is what I have configured in Preferences. Invitations seem to ignore this setting and default to the first calendar found "On My Mac."

VERY annoying. Anyone find a fix?

I have the identical problem. Haven't found the fix. Called Apple support today - they seemed surprised to hear about it.

I've researched the problem and have a workaround. I'm running 10.7.3 on two machines, each with identical behavior in regards to the iCal problem. I also set up a new user on one of my machines, synced it to my iCloud calendar, with the same results. In a nutshell, the iCal preference selection for the default calendar ONLY applies to newly created calendar events in Lion. It does NOT apply to calendar events in iCalendar ICS files that are created on another machine and clicked on or dragged into iCal.

When entering an event contained in an ICS file, whether the file arrives in Mail or some other manner, iCal defaults to the top calendar displayed after clicking on "Calendars" in the upper left corner of the app. For default configurations, that will be the "Home" calendar "On My Mac." If you want the default calendar to be an iCloud calendar, and don't have a use for calendars "On My Mac," then right click and delete the "On My Mac" calendars using the drop down window displayed when clicking "Calendar." After doing so, the calendars displayed at the top of the list will be your iCloud calendars.

In iCloud, you can order your calendars by dragging them. (Different design team, obviously.) Drag your default calendar to the top of the list, and that will also appear at top of your iCloud calendars in Lion.

Not the elegant behavior I've come to expect from Apple, but it works. Hopefully, Cupertino will wake up and one day make the default selection in iCal Preferences also apply to events created by iCalendar ICS files.

Thanks. I can't think of a time I'd ever want a calendar "on my Mac" to NOT sync with the cloud, so this works for me!

Not sure if anyone is monitoring this thread anymore, but after upgrading to Mountain Lion, I am now having this problem: incoming invitations go to the incorrect calendar.

I have no calendars on my Mac, only iCloud calendars. The calendar that shows at the top of my list in both iCal and iCloud are the same "Work." And I have iCal default calendar preference set to "Work." It seems like I've got all the bases covered, but no luck.

Has anyone run into this issue on Mountain Lion and, if so, any luck in finding a solution?