Birthdays duplicated in iCal, but not in iCloud.com

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Level 1

55 points

Birthdays duplicated in iCal, but not in iCloud.com

Have just noticed that birthdays in iCal on my Mac are duplicated. Deselecting 'Birthdays' (Subscription calendar) in iCal removes ALL occurences of birthdays. The iCloud.com #calendar shows no duplicate and all birthdays seem to be on display; however, selective birthdays are not appearing in Calendar on my iPhone 4S (but, otherwise, there are no duplicates!).

Anyone any ideas on what has gone wrong? The fault(s) are certainly recent, as I know all was in order on Friday last (24/2/2012).

Mac mini (Early 2009), Mac OS X (10.7.3), 2GHz 8GB

Posted on Feb 27, 2012 4:14 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 1, 2017 9:21 AM in response to Jan C

The most probable issue is that you have Icloud and another calendar setup in your calendar preferences on your mac. If you have google calendar and Icloud both turned on, turn off the google calendar in preference under your calendar application. You will find the duplicates disappear from your mac.

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Answer 2

Jan C Author

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55 points

Feb 27, 2012 7:36 AM in response to Jan C

The problem on my iPhone was sorted out by deleting the date of birth of the individual from Contacts (on the iPhone), saving the contact, then reinstating the individual's date of birth ... which brought back the entry in Calendar (iPhone and iCloud) and (duplicated) in iCal's Birthdays calendar. The problem, then, is 'merely' the duplication of all birthdays in iCal.

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Answer 3

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Feb 27, 2012 10:19 AM in response to Jan C

Look in your address book (on your mac), do you have iCloud as well as On My Mac accounts? if you do that is where the dupes are coming from.

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Answer 4

Jan C Author

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55 points

Feb 27, 2012 12:26 PM in response to Csound1

I was about to reply that I hadn't any contacts in the 'On My Mac' account, as that was the way I set it up when I went on to iCloud some weeks ago. However, before making the assumption that all was as before, I checked ... and there were all my contacts duplicated on my Mac!! How frustrating is that?! All those contacts now deleted, contacts in iCloud confirmed as existing and duplicates miraculously removed from iCal! Good call, Csound1, but the reason for the problem is now staring me in the face: the duplicates were ONLY on the Mac, so the fault had to lie with something on the Mac Thank you!

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Answer 5

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Feb 27, 2012 12:47 PM in response to Jan C

During the transition to iCloud you were given a chance to delete or leave intact your On My Mac contacts, I guess you chose not to delete, hence 2 address books, it's a fairly common error.

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Answer 6

Jan C Author

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55 points

Feb 27, 2012 2:26 PM in response to Csound1

Perhaps I didn't make it clear enough in my earlier reply: when moving to iCloud, all the contacts in the 'On My Mac' account were deleted and - until a couple of days ago - I had no problems with duplicate (Birthday) entries in iCal. As that account cannot be deleted (I tried again this evening, to no avail), deleting all its contacts is all that can be done. So, there was no error on my part (in the first instance), but something put the contacts back in there!!

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Answer 7

Csound1

Level 9

59,973 points

Feb 27, 2012 2:30 PM in response to Jan C

Jan C wrote:

Perhaps I didn't make it clear enough in my earlier reply: when moving to iCloud, all the contacts in the 'On My Mac' account were deleted and - until a couple of days ago - I had no problems with duplicate (Birthday) entries in iCal. As that account cannot be deleted (I tried again this evening, to no avail), deleting all its contacts is all that can be done. So, there was no error on my part (in the first instance), but something put the contacts back in there!!

OK, not your error, but it is very very common (read around this forum), you're not synchronizing via iTunes or any other method? (iCloud is not a sync system so exclude that)

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Answer 8

Jan C Author

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55 points

Feb 27, 2012 2:39 PM in response to Csound1

In iTunes, everything but 'Notes' is deselected for syncing. I sync my iPhone (over wifi) for Apps and Music and backup to iCloud - but that shouldn't have any bearing on my problem with iCal and Address Book. Anyway, it no longer matters, as the problem has been resolved and, if it happens again, I know where to look first; I will also be more conscious of what I am doing leading up to a reoccurence so will either be able to put it down to something I have done (or not, in which case I'll be complaining to Apple!!).

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Answer 9

klein_m

Level 1

0 points

Nov 11, 2012 4:27 AM in response to Jan C

similar problem here: duplicate birthdays in icloud.com birthday calendar. birthdays even remain when deleting associated contacts.

filed abug report.

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Answer 10

tkbalt

Level 1

12 points

Aug 14, 2013 9:50 AM in response to Jan C

I have the same thing happening, and I definitely don't have any contacts On My Mac. I only have contacts in iCloud. If I delete the birthday for a contact, both birthdays in my iCal calendar disappear. If I add a birthday for a contact, only one birthday appears in my iCal calendar. But for all the contacts that were in my iCloud contact list when I recently switched laptops (and used the Migration Assistant to do so), I have two birthdays junking up my calendar. I really don't want to go through and delete and re-add every single birthday in my contact list. Argh.

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Answer 11

tkbalt

Level 1

12 points

Aug 14, 2013 9:56 AM in response to tkbalt

Oh wow, just fixed my problem. Turned off the birthdays calendar through preferences (not by just unchecking it from the calendars I can see, which didn't help). Then turned it back on through preferences. Voila! Single birthdays instead of duplicate birthdays.

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Answer 12

Nov 21, 2013 2:02 AM in response to tkbalt

Yes! Finally, a solution to my problem. Thank you 🙂

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Answer 13

Ross H

Level 2

378 points

Dec 30, 2013 4:12 PM in response to tkbalt

I'm now seeing some...not all birthdays...duplicated. I don't recall seeing this until today. I'm still on 10.6.8 and don't see any iCloud sync options. Mine still has a MobileMe option. 😁

Turning off birthdays in preferences didn't solve it for me.

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