Triplicate/Duplicate events in Calendar

jlay1975, please let us know if you have an answer, cause I have the same issue!!

And from yesterday on, since I updated the iPhone with the 5.0.1. version, I can't create events on my iPhone anymore!!! Such a pain!!!

We all bought Mac cause you always could trust on it and it was so userfriendly, but it is getting the same sh... than Microsoft!!! So so frustrating!!!

Thanks!

Don't use iCloud! I have 2 iPhones an iMand a MacPro...I thought what a great idea to have all your calendars up-to-date between devices...now I have a duplicate entry for each device in my iCal. If you were smarter than me you would have exported all you calendars before making this change. I have been trying to figure out how to remove all those duplicate entries in my calendar with no luck. I have so much important information in my calendar and if I lose it all I am scre$%d!

My problem started with the message I received on my devices saying that if I moved to iCloud all my calednar events would be deleted. I didn't want that, so now I have several copies of everything across 8 calendars for about the last 5 years!

So frustrating!!! This is what I would expect from a PC not a Mac.

I will be working at this until I figure it out. If I come up with any solutions I will let you know.

Update...So I have turned off iCloud on all my devices, and I am now in the process of reimporting all my calendars that I exported (duplicates and all). Only solution I have been able to find is to delete them manually. Well, I thought that would be a solution...until I went back to check on the next calendar I imported only to find that all those events I just deleted are right back in the calendar again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have so far been unable to find a solution. I hope Apple reads these forums and can come up with a solution.

Update 2...Resigned to the fact that I will not be able to remove the duplicates. Disabled automatic sync in iTunes...selected replace information on iPhone with calendar checked...now I have some entries that have been duplicated 17 times!!!!

Events that do not even show up as duplicates in my iCal are showing up duplicated several times on my iPhone.

Going to try with my wife's iPhone...well, finishe the sync on my wife's iPhone and it also has duplicated events on it as well!!! To make it even more fun, it has not duplicated the events in the same way as my iPhone.

AAARRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My devices are doing the same thing. This is embarassing for Apple! They need to fix this ASAP!! Such a pain. We shouldn't have to go through and spend all this time on something that wasn't a problem before the iOS upgrade and iCould. They should have thought of this. How did this slip through the cracks?

Well, I talked to Apple support about 2 weeks ago. I sepnt the better part of an hour on hold. I had given my phone number in the event that we got disconnected..and we did...and Apple still has not called me back about this issue.

Just installed the iOS update today hoping that the bug fixes with iCloud might fix this...no such luck.

I hope to have enough time to call Apple back again tomorrow as it would appear they have no interest in calling me back.

I need this issue fixed...Now!!!

So Frustrating!

Here is what I have found and done. It seems that the cloud and devices aren't truly merging data. For calendars, I was getting duplicates and what I have done is create the calendar in icloud and then use the cloud for all devices. I also do not sync any calenders on my mac except for subscriptions, which the cloud evidently cannot do yet. Next, when I turned on the cloud for contacts, I merged them but had duplicates because it syncs with my mac and ios devices. It seems it can't differentiate between where the contacts came from. So I made sure the cloud had what I wanted, then deleted everything I didnt want while in the cloud. Then I did a resync from the cloud and all is well. The most important things I have noticed: make the cloud the master entries at first, and sync from there. I have found that it keeps things in perfect sync if you start with only one device and go from there. Backup to the mac, not the cloud. Once you have things sorted you can sync correctly from there.

Ok, so Apple still has not called me back, and I haven't had the cahnce to call the either.

I may have fixed my issue though. Everything appears to be showing up correctly in all my calendars (iMac, iCloud, and 2 iPhone 4's). Here is what I did... oh and BTW I was only having issues with my calendar so what I am about to share is for calendars only and worked for me (who knows if there are additional issues and if it will work for you as well). For my situation iCal was already showing all my calendar events correctly and had no duplicate entries.

1a. MOST IMPORTANT STEP!!! the calendar on my iMac, which has always been my main one, was showing all the events correctly. I saved EVEYTHING by exporting each calendar to my desktop.

1b. MOST IMPORTANT STEP #2!!!...ok so I forgot a step and had to come back and add a 1b...good thing I re read my post before submitting... Make sure you disable the automatic sync between your iPhone and iTunes. If you do not you will have to start from the beginning as this process will not work.

2. I logged on to iCloud using Safari (like I was accessing it away from home) and created a new blank calendar. Once I had created the new blank calendar I deleted every other calendar that was there. The reason for this is that iCloud will not let you have no calendars (neither will iCal for that matter). You need to get iCloud back to the beginning when there were no calendar entries and this is the only way to do it.

3. With all the information deleted I turned on iCloud from my System Preferences panel on my iMac. This asks me to Merge all my data. I wanted to merge all my calendar data because I have just finished deleting everything in step 2 above.

4. With everything merged into iCloud I verified that there were no duplicates...there were no duplicated in the cloud or on my Mac...so far so good.

5. With that step completed I logged out of iCloud (in Safari) and I broke the connection to iCloud by logging out in the System Preferences panel. Merging you data with iCloud will delete all the resident calendars on your mac and make the iCloud the #1 location so when you log out from your Mac in System Preference it will delete all your data from iCal on your Mac. This is ok for 2 reasons...1 you made a back up of all your calendars in step 1a above and 2 all your calendar info will still reside in the cloud. Check to make sure all you calendar info is gone (Birthdays will still be in there is you have enabled that subscription...that seemed not to matter in my case)

6. With all your calendars removed connect your iPhone to you Mac. Once connected check off the option to replace your calendars on your iPhone with the calendars on your Mac. This will overwrite all the calendar information on your phone with nothing. This is good.

7. Once the sync has completed check you iPhone and iCal to make sure that they are both blank. Both might have a calendar showing up in the list as they have to have 1 calendar...this is ok as long as it is blank.

8. Disconnect your iPhone from the Mac and go into Settings on your iPhone. Select the iCloud option and log into iCloud. IMPORTANT STEP!!! When your iPhone asks you to Merge your calendar data DON"T!!!!! The calendars located in iCloud will still populate on your iPhone (it just may take a few minutes depending on how much info you have)

9. If you have more than 1 iPhone this is where you repeat steps 6-8 with your other iPhones. My wife has an iPhone 4 with the same issue as me so I completed steps 6-8 on her phone and the calendars displayed correctly.

10. Once all your iPhones have been synced to iCloud and are not showing any duplicates you can go back to your Mac and in the System Preferences log back into iCloud. For some reason iCloud on the Mac only lets you Merge or do nothing at all, so you will have to merge your data. After I merged my Mac back to iCloud all my devices appeared to be showing no duplicate calendar entries.

YIPPEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope this helps anyone with the same issues as me resolve them. If you don't have the sae exact issue I hope it gives you some ideas to try and fix your problem. It doesn't appear that Apple really cares.

Hopefully Apple will read this thread and make change so this does not happen to other users in the future. At the very least provide some step by step instructions so users know where to start and how to avoid this issue.

Just for fun (because I love wasting my time messing around with harward and software that doesn't work properly) I decided to disable iCloud on my iPhone, and wouldn't you know it all my duplicates reappeared like magic. Either a huge oversight on the part of Apple or a brilliant play to force everyone to keep iCloud. I am going to go with the latter because Apple has some really intelligent people working for them.

Take this post as a warning...I did not have any issues with my calendar, using iOS 5, until I tried to use iCloud! It wasn't until I enabled iCloud that I ran into problems. And it appears that once you have iCloud you can't get rid of it...so the lesson in this.......Make sure you want to use iCloud before you enable it!

Nice job. I found all that you said to be most if what I ended up doing, but I was in no order at all. Now that I am using the cloud I find the seamless syncing of my three devices to be great. The mini, iPad and iPhone all in harmony. It wasn't easy to grasp, and as you say, may be very difficult to go back from. I am happy for now though.