how do I recover data from my iCal?

Hi,

This depends on various things.

Are you running Time Machine or another file backup system?

Are you syncing your calendars to a server? If so is it iCloud or another?

What changes if any happen recently that may have affected the calendar data?

Best wishes

John M

Hi Pam,

I suggest you purchase an external drive and set Time Machine up on your comnputer. That way you have an option of getting your data back if this sort of thing happens again.

Do you still have the calendars that you used to, or have they defaulted to "Work" and "Home"?

Best wishes

John M

Are you syncing to a server (like iCloud)?

In that case I suggest you try the following. Your data has in all likelyhood been lost and this is in the off chance that it is still there.

First:

1. Quit iCal.
2. Choose Home from the Finder's Go menu.
3. Open the Library folder. (If you are using OS X Lion, you will need to hold the Option key while clicking the Go menu in order to access the Library folder.)
4. Open the Calendars folder.
5. In the Finder, delete the Calendar Cache files, including any that also display a -1 (or -2, -3, and so forth) directly after their filename.
6. Choose Go To Folder from the Finder's Go menu, then go to this location:
   /Library/Caches
   
7. Drag the files located inside the "Caches" folder to the Trash (do not move the "Caches" folder itself, only its contents).

Then:

1. If you see the Sync menu in the menu bar, skip to step 4:
2. If you do not see the Sync menu in your menu bar and you are not a MobileMe member, skip to step 7 below.
3. If you do not see the Sync menu in your menu bar and you are a MobileMe member, you will need to enable Sync status in System Preferences. Follow these four steps to enable the Sync menu and then proceed with the subsequent troubleshooting steps as necessary:
   1. From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
   2. From the View menu, choose MobileMe.
   3. Click the Sync tab.
   4. Enable the option to "Show Sync status in menu bar."
4. Hold the Option key on your keyboard, then click the Sync menu in the menu bar. If you see the Sync menu but you are unable to open it, skip below to step 7.
5. Choose Reset Sync Services.
6. Click Reset Sync History.

Once you have done this, open iCal. It will try to rebuild your calendars.

Let me know how this goes.

Best wishes

John M

I missed point 7.

7. Test for the original issue. If the issue persists, or if you are unable to open the Sync menu, follow these steps:

1. In the Finder, choose Utilities from the Go menu. Open Terminal.
2. In the Terminal window, type or paste the following command on a single line:
   /System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/resetsync .pl full

Hello John:

Looks like I lucked out! You shud be able to solve my problem.

Only some events have disappeared from my Calendar. I have iPhone4, iPad2 and iMac all synced via iCloud. I also have an external HD for Time Machine. How can I restore to the calendars from 2 days ago when all was fine? I am running Lion.

Thanks.

Naresh

Hi Naresh,

Turn off all syncing in iCal. This can be done by selecting the "Go Offline" item in iCal's Calendar menu. Then quit iCal.

The data for iCal is stored in ~/Library/Calendars (where ~ is the path to your Home folder). If you are using OS X Lion, you will need to hold the Option key while clicking the Go menu in order to access the Library folder. Restore the entire Calendars folder using Time Machine.

Open iCal and backup the Calendars in iCal using the instructions here. The instructions are for MobileMe, but are the same for iCloud.

Select "Go Online" from the Calendars menu.

Restore the Calendars in iCal using the instructions here.

Best wishes

John M

I'm in similar boat. iCal in MBP lost all events, and even the calendars on left are all gone. The entire window has nothing.

Several days later, I decided to go from MobileMe to iCloud in iPhone 4S; that did and still works fine. The calendar in iCloud.com syncs with iPhone, but still not the iCal in MBP.

There are times when using MBP that I want to view iCal but no data is there, when I might not have access to internet.

Very troubling; I was and still am backing up to an external with Backup.