Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

icloud not syncing calendar with ipad

My 2 iphones have synced the calendars to icloud but my ipad 2 does not get the calendars from icloud to it. How do I do this???

iPad 2, iOS 5

Posted on Oct 30, 2011 7:02 AM

Reply
5 replies

Oct 30, 2011 9:10 AM in response to maryfromoconomowoc

I also had this problem, with syncing calendar events from my iPhone to my Mac. If I added an event on the iPhone itself, the event never showed up on either of my Mac's iCals. The reminders did not sync in that direction either. The only way to get an event to show up everywhere was to sit there and copy it off of my iPhone into my Mac when I'm sitting at the Mac. I did not realize this until I missed an appointment.


But I figured out how to fix it in my situation - looks like just another aspect of a sloppy rollout of iCloud. Once you have switched to iCloud, the iPhone now has a strictly local calendar, called "Calendar" by default. It also has another calendar with the same name "Calendar," except that one is an iCloud calendar that syncs, and is the same as your old MobileMe default Calendar. You will see this if you tap the "Calendars" button at the top of your iPhone's iCal display, which allows you to change which calendars are viewable.


But when you enter an event in iPhone, post-iCloud, the pulldown to select which calendar will contain the event defaults to the non-syncing "Calendar," because Apple has listed the local duplicate Calendar first in the hierarchy. This looked absolutely identical in the pulldown to my regular fully-functional Calendar except for a very slight difference in the color of the bubble, so I did not notice, and I can't imagine most people would notice that they're now entering all their events in an impostor "Calendar" which is basically non-functional. (What possible use is a calendar that doesn't sync to anything?) I finally noticed this when I was preparing to post the issue, and I noticed that my other two calendars (named "Diary" and "Exercise") had apparently been syncing both ways just fine. When I decided to post a new event to all three of my calendars at once, to do the test, that's when I noticed the imposter "Calendar" was overriding my Calendar of the same name. The reason events had been syncing when I entered them into the Mac, but not vice-versa, was that iCloud did not create a similar local-only Calendar in the Mac iCal app.


So to avoid having to pull down and choose the real Calendar each time I enter an event, I made the fake Calendar unviewable. (you do this in the Calendars button of iCal, not in Settings.) It is remarkably stupid to cause a rollout to change everyone's default calendar from syncing to local, without them having a ghost of a clue. Even if there might be some use for such a silly-seeming feature, it should be enabled only by conscious choice and not through a rollout.


Hope this works for you too. I assume the steps would be the same for an iPad.

Oct 30, 2011 9:32 AM in response to RM Gitzlaff

OK, on your iPhone (and I assume on your iPad too although I don't have one), go into iCal so that you are looking at the full view (not an item). Up in the top left there will be a button you can tap called "Calendars." You will see there that the fake Calendar has been added to the top of the list, and there will be a check-mark next to it. Uncheck that Calendar on all your devices and you should be back to normal.


The same problem exists in the Reminders app, except there's no simple way to make it default to the iCloud reminders list. It looks like you will just have to remember to pull down the menu and change it every single time you enter a reminder. Jeez, Apple.

icloud not syncing calendar with ipad

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.