iCal restore from Time Machine backup

Very, Very Helpful!!!

Thanks for the step, by step.

I'm up and running.

When I go to the time machine external drive, go to home (or the hard drive), library, ical or calendars is not an option. Please help me! I need my calendars back asap.

You need to read the previous posts. 'Library' is hidden by default. To 'unhide' open Terminal (in your utilities folder) then enter the following command:

chflags nohidden ~/Library/

You then open Time Machine (the program NOT the folder/drive) and just follow the steps mentioned previously in this thread.

Hope that helps.

For the many, many people with this problem I want to repeat my advice that this solution : http://chasingaftermoonbeams.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/restoring-lost-ical-events-a nd.html

has worked for me where dozens of others didn't. It's as if the deletion of everything gets rid of things that otherwise cause trouble. I don't think this course of action is any more complicated or difficult than any other, but its comprehensiveness seems to get rid of all the rubbish that's sending the system crazy.

I've posted this before.

Madison, and Others...

Thanks for the guide... By being a little careless, I had ended up importing my daughters extensive Calendar (1,000's of events, for herself, two children, and a husband) from her HotMail account over the top of my personal Calendar. I was able to recover my self, following your guide.

However: there is are a few more key steps needed for those using iCloud to sync multiple iThingies.

I have added these steps to your guide [and updated iCal to Calendar] as follows...

Key steps for those synced to iCloud. Recognise that iCloud is the master, and will keep all devices synced.

So if you mess up Calendar on one device, it will be messed up on all.

Restoring Calendar from Time Machine [when Calendar syned with iCloud],

When you restore your calendars from Time Machine you are restoring the entire set of calendars.

There isn't an easy way to pick and choose specific events as all the events live together.

1. Open Calendar on iMac, and identify the offending Calendar [Robert], or Calendars, and quit Calendar.
2. Go to https://www.icloud.com/#calendar, select the Calendar [Robert], and delete it.
   It will be deleted from all iPhone, iPod, iPad devices. Log off and quit from iCloud.
3. Physically disconnect the Mac from Internet [I removed Ethernet cable from the ADSL Router]
4. Restore Calendars folder from Time Machine from ~Library, Calendars from an appropriate point in time.
   Be aware that any data added after that point in time will be lost.
5. Open Calendar, and highlight each calendar one at a time on the left hand side and
   select File, Export, Export and save the resulting calendar .ics file to the desktop.
6. Reconnect the iMac to Internet [plug Ethernet cable back into the ADSL Router]
7. iCloud will delete the restored Calendar(s) [since it is the master].
   Re-import them from the Calendar .ics files on the desktop.

Hope this clarifies the situation, for Others...

And I hope Apple makes this a bit easier in furture.

For example, Contacts .vcf files [groups of contacts] can be imported directly into iCloud Contacts,

But Calendar .ics files cannot, so moving over from HotMail to iCloud is just that bit more awkward.

Robert

Thanks so much for this solution. I have just suffered a loss of all events after an upgrade to 10.8.3. None of the osolution I have read previously explained how to find the Calendars folder, and I was panicking!

However I found this, and hey presto!!

This is a brilliant solution, and worked straight away.

A thousand thanks.

Heres a way i figured out if you only want to restore only a single item from your calendar. Hope it works fine.

With icloud

1. Open terminal

2. chflags nohidden ~/Library/

3. Disable icloud syncing for the calendar in the settings

4. Delete from mac? Yes

5. Disable connection from internet

6. Open "Library" in finder in your "Username" directory on HDD

7. Now open time machine (folder should open)

8. Select useful time for recovery

9. Restore the "Calendar" folder

10. Replace files? Yes!

11. Open ical and save the needed Calender item on HDD (on x)

12. Connect to Internet

13. Open Calender

14. Add the saved and needed file from your HDD (from x)

Without icloud

1. Open terminal

2. chflags nohidden ~/Library/

3. Open ical and export all calenders onto your HDD

6. Open "Library" in finder in your "Username" directory on HDD

7. Now open time machine (folder should open)

8. Select useful time for recovery

9. Restore the "Calendar" folder

10. Replace files? Yes!

11. Open ical and save the needed Calender item on HDD (on x)

12. Reimport your calender from point. 3.

14. Add the saved and needed file from your HDD (from x)

Greetings

Fkuhn

Check out Daniel Ebeck's solution, helped me a lot

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3441407?start=0&tstart=0

thankyou appleguy514 - this worked PERFECTLY, you saved me and made me happy : )

instructions followed exactly, i went back one day in time, and BANG, its all back as it was.

so happy.

For those of you who don't want to mess with Terminal, here's a simple trick that will allow you to look into your Home/Library folder without permanently "revealing" it via Terminal.

1. Hold down your "Option" key while clicking on your "Go" menu item. As mentioned in other posts, this will temporarily expose your Library folder in the drop-down menu. Slide down to select "Library".

2. This move should open up a Finder window with the contents of your Library folder in view.

3. Now drag and drop your "Library" folder over onto the left Sidebar of your open Finder window. You'll have to drop it somewhere within the "Favorites" llst.

This move should create a shortcut to your invisible Library folder. If you'd like to remove the shortcut to your Library folder from your Sidebar, simply Control-click the shortcut, and then choose "Remove from Sidebar".

Grampa Doodie.

Thank you so much! After wading through a whole bunch of stuff, this was the thing that finally got me to restoring my calendar. (Stupid iCloud, grumble, grumble, was just trying to turn it off cause it was interrupting everything and then lost my whole calendar, grumble, grumble.)

ANYWAY - it still took me a while, even with this completely accurate, helpful advice -

so I thought I'd add:

The thing that I couldn't work out for a while was that I needed to (once I got the Library in my Finder through the ALT/Option key)

Open Time Machine

Then open the Library/Calendar in Time Machine in the Finder for the Current moment (i.e. the one that now has the Library choice)

and THEN go back in time to the version before the iCloud destruction.

Then once everything was back, I printed my calendar. Just for quadruple surety.

Hi all - Hope someone can help:

I've lost all ical entries and need to backup from Time Machine. I've been through the posts above, which suggest I need to find the "Calendar" folder within Library - first on my mac to clear it, then on my hard drive to replace it.

I'm stuck at the first hurdle - I can't see a calendar folder in Library - and have searched to no avail.

Simple question from simple non tech apple newbie!

Thanks.

Helen, you have probably got your self sorted out by now, but just in case you have not...

To access your Calendar files in OS X...

a) Open Finder, then, from the Top Menu Bar, while holding down the Option Key, select Go, Library

b) open Time Machine, it will find and display archived version of the entire Library, select the Calendars folder...

c) Move backwards to a time when you are confident your Calendars were OK [before you lost all of your Calendars],

d) when you are ready [refering and following steps 01 to 07 below], select Calendars, and Restore from Time Machine.

Note: For simplicity, in Apple technical terms, the file path name "Hard Drive, Users, Your User Name" is abreviated to a single ~ character.

Robert.

Restoring Calendar from Time Machine [when Calendar synced with iCloud],

When you restore your calendars from Time Machine you are restoring the entire set of calendars.

There isn't an easy way to pick and choose specific events as all the events live together.

1. Open Calendar on iMac, and identify the offending Calendar [Robert], or Calendars, and quit Calendar.
2. Go to https://www.icloud.com/#calendar, select the Calendar [Robert], and delete it.
   It will be deleted from all iPhone, iPod, iPad devices. Log off and quit from iCloud.
3. Physically disconnect the Mac from Internet [I removed Ethernet cable from the ADSL Router]
4. Restore Calendars folder from Time Machine from ~Library, Calendars from an appropriate point in time.
   Be aware that any data added after that point in time will be lost.
5. Open Calendar, and highlight each calendar one at a time on the left hand side and
   select File, Export, Export and save the resulting calendar .ics file to the desktop.
6. Reconnect the iMac to Internet [plug Ethernet cable back into the ADSL Router]
7. iCloud will delete the restored Calendar(s) [since it is the master].
   Re-import them from the Calendar .ics files on the desktop.

Helen, I hope this helps you sort out your situation...

Thanks so much for your help, but I had to quit when I got to Step 2 because there is no option under Calendars to go "offline." Think of me as a pre-schooler. Altho you gave me step-by-step instructions, I need those instructions broken down even further. So what does one do when they open iCal, go to Calendars but don't know how to go offline?

For those unable to "Go Offline" - this is what worked for me. Easier for me to understand than any other instructions. Be sure to read through all the instructions before proceeding:

https://www.gcsdstaff.org/roodhouse/?p=3289&cpage=1#comment-469414

Restore iCal Calendars from Time Machine Backup in OS X 10.8 or 10.9

Time Machine is a great backup tool and usually works pretty flawlessly. One area that could be improved is in recovering iCal Calendars. To recover your iCal Calendars from a specific time you have to jump through a few hoops and do a few steps that may not seem very intuitive. Here is how: