Merge/import older iCal files to newer iCal?

Hi,

Are the calendars in .ics files?

Best wishes

John M

Hi MrMur,

The .icalevent files are 'metadata' files used to help Spotlight index your data in OSX 10.4. They do not contain enough data to give you any more than basic information for an event. For example they do not store the repeat pattern of an event. The information could be extracted (I did it using Applescript), but it would never have held the full event information, just what Spotlight needed.

The better files to get from the old OSX 10.4 backup are in ~/Library/Application Support/iCal (where ~ is the path to the old User's Home folder). Buried in there would have been one corestorage.ics file for each calendar. Do you still have the contents of that folder?

Best wishes

John M

Hi,

Try the script below and let me know how it goes.

Open Applescript Editor (Applications/Utilities/Applescript Editor) copy the script below into a new window and press the Run button. A window to select the folder where the files are stored will appear. Navigate and select the folder containing your files.

As mentioned above you will only recover the title, notes and time of the events from the .icalevent files.

Best wishes

John M

----------------------------------------------
-- John Maisey -- www.nhoj.co.uk -- 21 Feb 2012  --
----------------------------------------------
set {myList, myCount, myFailures, calName} to {{}, 0, 0, "Recovered Events"}
tell application "Finder" to set myPath to choose folder default location (path to desktop)
set theFolders to my getSubFolders(myPath, {myPath})

tell application "System Events"
          repeat with myFolder in theFolders
                    set myFiles to (files of myFolder whose type identifier is "com.apple.ical.bookmark")
                    repeat with thisFile in myFiles
                              set end of myList to (value of property list file (POSIX path of thisFile))
                    end repeat
          end repeat
end tell

tell application "iCal"
  activate
          if name of calendars does not contain calName then make new calendar with properties {name:calName}
          repeat with myEvent in myList
                    try
                              make new event at the end of events of calendar calName with properties {summary: (|summary| of myEvent), start date: (dueDate of myEvent), end date: ((dueDate of myEvent) + 1 * hours), description: (comment of myEvent), allday event: (fullDay of myEvent)}
                              set myCount to myCount + 1
                    on error theErr
                              set myFailures to myFailures + 1
  display dialog theErr
                    end try
          end repeat
          display dialog (myCount & " of " & (myCount + myFailures) & " events recovered to iCal") as text buttons {"OK"} default button "OK" with title "data recovery" with icon 1
end tell

on getSubFolders(myPath, mySet)
          tell application "System Events"
                    set myArray to folders of myPath
                    repeat with myItem in myArray
                              set mySet to my getSubFolders(myItem, mySet)
                              set end of mySet to (path of myItem) as alias
                    end repeat
          end tell
          return mySet
end getSubFolders

Hi,

In that case it looks like it didn't find the files by type identifier.

Try replacing the line:

set myFiles to (files of myFolder whose type identifier is "com.apple.ical.bookmark")

with:

set myFiles to (files of myFolder whose name extension is "icalevent")

Let me know how it goes.

John M

Hi,

I cannot see the image you posted. Did it find any of the items?

Best wishes

John M

Sorry, still cannot see it. What did the error message say?

MrMur wrote:

The error message started with "Can’t get comment of {entityID"...

I see. Try this one and let me know how you get on.

----------------------------------------
-- John Maisey -- www.nhoj.co.uk -- 21 Feb 2012
-- Modified 1 Mar 2012 
----------------------------------------
set {myList, myCount, myFailures, calName} to {{}, 0, 0, "Recovered Events"}
tell application "Finder" to set myPath to choose folder default location (path to desktop)
set theFolders to my getSubFolders(myPath, {myPath})

tell application "System Events"
          repeat with myFolder in theFolders
                    set myFiles to (files of myFolder whose name extension is "icalevent")
                    repeat with thisFile in myFiles
                              set end of myList to (value of property list file (POSIX path of thisFile))
                    end repeat
          end repeat
end tell

tell application "iCal"
  activate
          if name of calendars does not contain calName then make new calendar with properties {name:calName}
          repeat with myEvent in myList
                    try
                              set thisEvent to make new event at the end of events of calendar calName with properties {start datedueDate of myEvent), end date:((dueDate of myEvent) + 1 * hours)}
                              try
                                        set summary of thisEvent to |summary| of myEvent
                              end try
                              try
                                        set description of thisEvent to comment of myEvent
                              end try
                              try
                                        set allday event of thisEvent to fullDay of myEvent
                              end try
                              set myCount to myCount + 1
                    on error theErr
                              set myFailures to myFailures + 1
  display dialog theErr
                    end try
          end repeat
          display dialog (myCount & " of " & (myCount + myFailures) & " events recovered to iCal") as text buttons {"OK"} default button "OK" with title "data recovery" with icon 1
end tell

on getSubFolders(myPath, mySet)
          tell application "System Events"
                    set myArray to folders of myPath
                    repeat with myItem in myArray
                              set mySet to my getSubFolders(myItem, mySet)
                              set end of mySet to (path of myItem) as alias
                    end repeat
          end tell
          return mySet
end getSubFolders

The forum's greedy emoticons stole a :( from the script. 🙂

Try:

----------------------------------------
-- John Maisey -- www.nhoj.co.uk -- 21 Feb 2012
-- Modified 1 Mar 2012 
----------------------------------------
set {myList, myCount, myFailures, calName} to {{}, 0, 0, "Recovered Events"}
tell application "Finder" to set myPath to choose folder default location (path to desktop)
set theFolders to my getSubFolders(myPath, {myPath})

tell application "System Events"
          repeat with myFolder in theFolders
                    set myFiles to (files of myFolder whose name extension is "icalevent")
                    repeat with thisFile in myFiles
                              set end of myList to (value of property list file (POSIX path of thisFile))
                    end repeat
          end repeat
end tell

tell application "iCal"
  activate
          if name of calendars does not contain calName then make new calendar with properties {name:calName}
          repeat with myEvent in myList
                    try
                              set thisEvent to make new event at the end of events of calendar calName with properties {start date: (dueDate of myEvent), end date: ((dueDate of myEvent) + 1 * hours)}
                              try
                                        set summary of thisEvent to |summary| of myEvent
                              end try
                              try
                                        set description of thisEvent to comment of myEvent
                              end try
                              try
                                        set allday event of thisEvent to fullDay of myEvent
                              end try
                              set myCount to myCount + 1
                    on error theErr
                              set myFailures to myFailures + 1
  display dialog theErr
                    end try
          end repeat
          display dialog (myCount & " of " & (myCount + myFailures) & " events recovered to iCal") as text buttons {"OK"} default button "OK" with title "data recovery" with icon 1
end tell

on getSubFolders(myPath, mySet)
          tell application "System Events"
                    set myArray to folders of myPath
                    repeat with myItem in myArray
                              set mySet to my getSubFolders(myItem, mySet)
                              set end of mySet to (path of myItem) as alias
                    end repeat
          end tell
          return mySet
end getSubFolders