iCal is locking up

Question

iCal is locking up

iCal is running pretty poorly. Often, I open the application and my calendars are missing. If I quit and reopen, they return. If i try to add an event from Mail, Mail and iCal both lock up requiring a force quit.

It seems to me that iCal is having a hard time retrieving caledars either on iCloud, Google or Exchange. Once it hits a road block it craps out. If I let it sit and think long enough (up to 5 minutes) it catches up and seems to run somewhat smoothly.

Is this just a cluster of bugs in iCal or iCloud? Is there something I can tweak on my system to prevent this from happening?

Posted on Mar 23, 2012 8:05 AM

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Answer 1

MadisonP

Level 5

4,832 points

Mar 23, 2012 11:40 PM in response to Anthony Sbarro

Greetings Anthony,

Questions:

What version of Mac OS X are you running? (Apple Menu > About this Mac)
Did you recently copy information from another Mac to this Mac (migration), restore your information from a backup, or install a new version of the operating system (Like Lion 10.7)?
Was iCal working fine before and then suddenly stopped working? If so, what changed on your computer around the time iCal started having issues?

While you answer those questions here is some troubleshooting to try:

1. First make an iCal backup: Click on each calendar on the left hand side of iCal one at a time highlighting it's name and then going to File Export > Export and saving the resulting calendar file to a logical location for safekeeping.

2. Quit iCal and then remove the following to the trash and restart your computer:

Home > Library > Caches > com.apple.ical

Home > Library > Calendars > Calendar Cache, Cache, Cache 1, 2, 3, etc. (Do not remove Sync Cache or Theme Cache if present)

3. Launch iCal and test.

If the behavior persists:

Remove the following to the trash and restart your computer:

Home > Library > Caches > com.apple.ical

Home > Library > Calendars > Calendar Cache, Cache, Cache 1, 2, 3, etc. (Do not remove Sync Cache or Theme Cache if present)

Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.ical (There may be more than one of these. Remove them all.)

---NOTE: Removing these files may remove any shared (CalDAV and Exchange) calendars you may have access to. You will have to re-add those calendars to iCal > Preferences > Accounts.

---NOTE: To get to "Home > Library" in Lion:

Side note: I assume you need to have all 3 of these servers added to iCal at once. However, if you don't actually need access to those calendars and just have one of those servers added and never removed it, consider removing the unused servers. Calendar data is inherently complicated. Anything you can do to reduce the number of variables flying around in iCal will reduce the chance of issues a bit (Ex. Like having 3 different servers moving data in and out of iCal at the same time or having decades worth of events in iCal's memory).

Hope that helps!

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Answer 2

Feb 19, 2014 6:49 PM in response to MadisonP

I can't see the files you reference and have pretty much the same infinite loop going on.

I am running 10.9.1 - is there something like the attrib command used in DOS/windows that hides these or are they elsewhere in the newer version.

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