iCal Alerts Disappear (synching with Google Calendar)

I'm synching three Google Calendars to iCal: two work accounts and a personal account, all running on Google apps. These calendars are all synched to my iPhone as well. I have the default alert setting in iCal set at 10 minutes. The problem is that the alerts don't seem to be synching up to Google calendar.

I noticed that none of my alerts were happening. After being late for a couple meetings as a result of this, I investigated. Here's what I've gathered.

The default alert don't seem to stick.
Additional alerts created in iCal don't stick either.
Alerts created on my iPhone stick and synch up to Google Apps just fine - they show up in the Google Apps web interface as expected. However, these alerts dont' synch down to iCal.
The problem is universal across all three accounts.
Unlike the ongoing "can't delete events via iCal" issue that's well documented (and incredibly still not fixed) there's no mention of an alerts synch issue on the CalDAV known issues page.

I had originally set up the Google accounts to have no default reminders added, so I wouldn't have to deal with the extra email/SMS reminders. I have now added a ten minute reminder to all these accounts as a workaround. Now, when I create events in iCal, the ten minute reminder sticks. I have no real idea how this works, but it's as if when synching, iCal sees that Google Apps has a ten minute reminder as well, and there's no conflict. However, if I change the reminder interval, it just disappears. Also if I add a second reminder, say 40 minutes to remind me to leave to drive somewhere, those simply disappear as well. It seems like the correct behavior would be to pass up whatever reminder is set in iCal to Google Apps - that's not happening.

This is happening in iCal 5.01, running on OS X 10.7.2. Really frustrating - anyone have any ideas on how to fix or further troubleshoot? Thanks!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.2)

Posted on Jan 9, 2012 11:50 AM

Nov 25, 2014 4:49 AM in response to FunkyDemagogue

I have similar problem with Calendar. I don't interface with Google; however, Calendar alerts won't always 'stick' after I close the dialog window, and will never allow repeats; setting repeats guarantees that the alert is lost, even in the original event. My practice is to set alerts to open a file, and it often works in the original event, but the setting won't survive a move (drag and drop OR cut and paste) to another day/time. The above has been the behavior through the last several system software versions; it happens on both of my machines (iMac and Air). Does anyone else see this? Will Mac ever address it? It renders Calendar pretty useless to me.