Restoring Lost Calendars

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Restoring Lost Calendars

This may not be the most appropriate forum to deal with this issue, but I don't know where else to start. It's not a sync or OS problem per se.

Earlier today I posted that I had managed to lose all the events in all but the Home calendar in iCal, on MM, and in Calendar on several iPads, iPhones, etc. At the time I thought I had a reasonable current copy of all my calendars on my MacBook, but as soon as I turned it on this morning it synced with the now-empty MM calendar and it too became empty. I thought I was screwed.

Then I remembered that I made a disk image of my iMac hard drive a couple of weeks ago, so there is at least one more copy of my calendar database with which I can work. I have deleted all of the MobileMe calendars from MM and from iCal on my computers, so all that remains are a half dozen "On My Mac" calendars and a dozen or so subscribed calendars.

I need to know what to do next. I thought about copying the Calendars folder from the disk image to my personal library on one of the computers and rebuilding the MM calendar from there. I'm not sure that that is a viable option - I may need to move the iCal pref file and maybe some others to get everything to mesh correctly on the computer I want to do this on. I sincerely hope that I don't have to individually import each one of those calendars from the disk image Calendars folder into iCal.

iMac, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 24" model, July 2009

Posted on Apr 9, 2012 6:55 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

MadisonP

Level 5

4,832 points

Apr 9, 2012 9:00 PM in response to Mike Strohmeyer

Greetings Mike,

It sounds like you've started the process I mentioned in your other post.

There isn't an easy way to blend existing calendars with calendars from a backup. Its one or the other.

So in your case here is what I would suggest:

Backup the calendars you have currently in iCal:
1. 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 the desktop.
2. For the subscriptions, click on each one one at a time and go to Edit > Get info and copy and paste the URL into a sticky or a Text Edit document for safekeeping.
Go to Calendars > Go Offline (if present).
Go to iCal > Quit iCal.
Get the User > Library > Calendar folder from the image you have and copy it to your desktop.
Make a brand new folder on your desktop and put that Calendar folder inside it.
Highlight the folder on your desktop and go to File > Get Info.
Go down to Sharing and Permissions and click the padlock to unlock.
Click the little gear at the bottom and choose apply to enclosed items.
Go to your current Users > Library folder and rename the existing Calendars folder to Calendars.old.
Move the Calendars folder from the folder on your desktop to the Library folder.
Restart the computer.
Launch iCal.
Assuming your data shows up, immediately export fresh copies of all the calendars to a new folder on your desktop by clicking 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.
Go to Calendar > Go Online.
- If your data remains and pushes to MobileMe you are done.
- If your data vanishes, you can re-import the calendars from the copies you exported in step 13.

Side Note:

-- I'm glad you had an image of your system as a backup. You might want to include and automated incremental backup in your backup routine as well: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427. I clone my drive in addition to using Time Machine so that I have a static backup (clone) and a rolling incrimental backup which is always up to date (Time Machine).

Hope that helps!

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Answer 2

Apr 10, 2012 5:41 AM in response to MadisonP

MadisonP,

Thanks for both of your responses. I'm sorry I missed the first one until you mentioned it - yesterday didn't include my finest hours :). Your latest response validates what I'd been thinking - you added a couple of useful steps to the process that I had envisioned. Now I can proceed with some confidence that I'll get back somewhere close to where I was, and I've got papers to help me fill in the latest events. I am a much happier person today!! :)

Mike

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Answer 3

Apr 11, 2012 8:51 PM in response to MadisonP

Well, maybe I cheered too soon. I got all the way through Step 12 and then started iCal. The calendar data showed up as expected and then promptly disappeared. Then, probably for each calendar, I got several error messages (from MM?) that read: "The server responded with an error. The calendar https://cal.me.com:8443/principals/users/1.54805364/ was not found on the server. Make sure the URL is correct." I checked the path in the accounts section of iCal preferences and found that the path indicated was the same as above. I deleted the account from iCal and recreated it, with same result when i tried to load a fresh copy of the calendars from the disk image. I can get a dummy calendar that I created in iCal to sync to MM and vice versa, so iCal seems to be communicating with MM. I'm not at all sure where to go from here. Hope you can find something I might have missed.

Thanks

Mike

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Answer 4

MadisonP

Level 5

4,832 points

Apr 14, 2012 9:27 AM in response to Mike Strohmeyer

Hi Mike,

Sounds like sync services is having issues.

SafeBoot your computer: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455 (This disables all syncing)
Disconnect your computer from the Internet by going to the Airport Menu > Turn Airport Off / Unplug the ethernet cable.
Make a brand new folder on your desktop and put the Calendar folder from your backup inside it.
Highlight the folder on your desktop and go to File > Get Info.
Go down to Sharing and Permissions and click the padlock to unlock.
Click the little gear at the bottom and choose apply to enclosed items.
Go to your current Users > Library folder and rename the existing Calendars folder to Calendars.old.
Move the Calendars folder from the folder on your desktop to the Library folder.
Remove the following to the trash:
- Home > Library > Caches > com.apple.ical and/or just ical
- Home > Library > Preferences > com.apple.ical (There may be more than one of these. Remove them all.)
Restart the computer. (This takes you out of SafeBoot)
Launch iCal.
Assuming your data shows up, immediately export fresh copies of all the calendars to a new folder on your desktop by clicking 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.
Restore your Internet connection
- If your data remains and pushes to MobileMe you are done.
- If your data vanishes, you can re-import the calendars from the copies you exported in step 12.

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Answer 5

Apr 14, 2012 10:55 AM in response to MadisonP

Thanks again. Hoping that the Safeboot and file removals you suggest will do the job. I can almost do this whole thing in my sleep :).

Mike

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Answer 6

Apr 14, 2012 6:06 PM in response to Mike Strohmeyer

I finally managed to export the calendars before they disappeared in the sync with MM. I'm importing them now - slow process but it appears to be working. Thank you so much for all your help - I really feared that I wouldn't be able to recover. There are a few events missing - the latest, of course - but I should be able to recreate them pretty readily.

Cheers

Mike

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