Q: Why does ical delete my past events when all settings indicate that it should not?

Great question. Could anyone help with this please? I have the same problem, and the same setttings situation.

I am having the same problem.  My last week ical events always disapear when the week ends.  I have look at my advanced settings but nothing is checked to delete my old dates.   What can I do.  Does anyone have an answer for this?

Me too. I thought it just hadn't imported my past events when I migrated to icloud, but it definitely is deleting events now. (I needed to refer to a past event and discovered my calendar before mid November was blank.

I had the same problem a few weeks ago and called apple support.  The solution is as follows:

Most apple users have multiple devices using icloud such as an iPdad, iPhone, and other computers.  In my case, I had two computers, two iPads, and one iPhone.   After speaking to apple support, I realized that one of my ipad's setting were set to delete events older then 2 weeks.   In short, if you are expeirienceing problems with ical deleteing events, you better check all your devices.  If just one of them is set wrong in your preferences, you will lose past events.   Even check computers you gave to your cildren or other members of the family.  You will probably find out that the settings on one of these machines is causing your problems.

Thankyou. Yes, I have multiple devices. I did indeed discover that one of them (my Macbook Pro) was set to delete. (I hadn't actually been using iCal on that). We'll see if that solved the problem.

Yes, absolutely that is your problem.  Check the preferences for all your devices. 

Yes, you are welcome.   That is always the reason why you get deleted events.  Now that one of your devices is set correctly, you won't have the probelm anymore.

I have been trying to re-insert all my lost events. I've copied some old calendar files (retrieved from my time capsule) onto my desktop. When I double click on an .ics file, that event momentarily appears on my calendar. Just what I want .... but then it promptly disappears again. It happens again and again, with every .ics file.

I inserted a test event, a couple of years ago, and that's still there .... so I've solve the problem of it not deleting old posts - but how do I get my backup .ics files back into my iCal?

Where do you find settings for when to delete appointments?  I have looked everywhere and can't find any such setting.