I can't sync iCal to iPhone through iTunes in Mountain Lion (I don't want to use iCloud)

This is what worked for me too: "deleting the Calendar cache AND Email Cache.plist files" and restarting the MacBookPro, as well as the iphone and the ipad.

Also, I did not find the Calendar cache and Email.plist fines in the Preferences folder (as indicated by graemecod), but in the Calendars folder (within the Library folder).

Many thanks to both graemecod and CSMatMV

Thanks, worked for me and ended several days of frustration!

I don't have these files either. Frustrating.

Outstanding. worked for me. Thanks !!

Yep. Worked. Thanks.

Calendars other than my primary google calendar did not appear in my iphone calendars; only the primary gmail calendar was visible, the "delegate" calendars shared with that account were not.

To sync delegated calendars from your google calendars do it from the website provided by GOOGLE:

https://www.google.com/calendar/syncselect.

Simply choose the calendars you want to appear and restart iphone and you will see them in the calendar settings.

iPhone Sync Settings GMAIL

Worked perfectly! Thank you so much!

Thanks graemecod - this solution worked; My new iphone 5 showed all my calendar events but my Macbook Pro lost them all !! After removing caches as described it all syncs . Yeah and thanks

Freebass

This worked for me although my issue didn't involve my iphone. Each time I opened iCal it wanted to update itself but would freeze at the very start. I took a chance and followed your procedure after exiting from iCal, restarted iCal and it updated itself just like old times.

Mille grazie from Rome, the Eternal City

Removing various cache and plist files finally worked for me, as well. But it's very important to find all of them, even the cache file that non-intuitively has "Email" rather than "Calendar" or "iCal" in the filename. I'd missed that one, and could have saved hours of troubleshooting and stress otherwise.

All the files are already listed in various places throughout the thread, but to collate all the files that need to be removed, with their location:

~/Library/Calendars/

Calendar Cache

Email Cache.plist

~/Library/Preferences/

com.apple.CalendarAgent.plist

com.apple.iCal.helper.plist

com.apple.iCal.plist

com.apple.iCalExternalSync.plist

com.apple.syncserver.plist

Reminder: Finder > Go menu while holding down option key --> gets you to your Library in both Lions.

Also, if some of the listed files are already missing, that's ok. You can't remove what's not there. After you sync, the OS will replace all of them, or at least the ones it needs presently.

I'd explored so many unhelpful threads before reaching this one. Very grateful for the help.

And please please please make a backup first. If not, don't come here whining.

I solved 🙂 thanks

Thank you for this tip. I finally solved this mystery.