Shared iCloud calendar notification problems

Through trial and error, this is what I've learned:

1) If a calendar is shared using iCloud as PRIVATE, then alerts are shared, too. As so many people have noted, there appears to be no way to turn off the alerts on shared calendars when shared as PRIVATE. Note that private sharing also gives one the option of allowing the other to edit the calendar.

2) If a calendar is shared using iCloud as PUBLIC, then subscribers have control over alerts. Public sharing always give the other person read-only access.

3) A tip: if using iCal in OSX, you can subscribe to the public URL as an iCloud calendar. Your settings in OSX regarding alerts will also transfer to your iPhone via iCloud.

When sharing as public, note that only those with the URL can see the calendar, so it's up to to the owner to manage who sees the URL. Fortunately, sharing as public doesn't mean Apple publishes the URL to the world. While I prefer the additional security offered when sharing as private, I'm settling for public sharing just to get rid of the alerts.

Hi All

Can't believe this is now over a year since the issue was raised. By way of quick update: I went through Apple Support using a new AppleCare plan to avoiud being fobbed off too quickly. After way too much time of me sitting on the phone with a very helpful Support person, checking settings, creating new iCloud IDs to successfully replicate the issue and try stuff out from the iCloud engineers etc, the result was that the iCloud engineers decided they couldn't fix it and said that these spurious in Calendar app notifications (not email notifications and not the Notifications Centre notifications) are "intended behaviour".

Which is clearly bollocks, especially since (a) it never worked like this prior to iOS 6 and the updates to iCloud around that time (all was fine), (b) we managed to recreate the issue, which the Support person agreed was an issue, (c) it seems to be OK when using totally new iCloud IDs (not migrated MobileMe IDs and I suspect the issue lies in this part of it), (d) the switches to toggle these notifications on and off would be redundant surely if the issue is actually an "intended behaviour", and (e) the iCloud Engineers seemed to spend a lot of time working and looking for fixes and system log info from me before deciding it is an "intended behaviour"!

Suggest, if you can be bothered: logging support calls with iCloud Support and pester them into fixing this. Also, you will need to get them to do a screen viewing session (on a Mac or via the Calendar on iCloud.com) to show them so that they understand what the issue is. Otherwise they will think you are talking about the general notifications centre alerts that cover all alerts for email, apps etc etc. It took some time for the penny to drop until we did this.

Have to say I am well ****** off with this situation and response. And there is no way that they don't know about this issue... I am sure there are plenty of Apple staff who must be sharing calendars in this way and must have had this issue.

Good luck!

FWIW I don't seem to get my wife's alerts when I keep her calendar in my iCloud group on OS X (This is Mavericks). Then they just magically show up on my iOS devices.

That said, I only started looking at these threads because I noticed that my wife's calendar was not up to date on my iOS devices but it was on the lappy. So I removed her calendar from iCloud on my lappy and then just had her send out the subscription email and subscribed individually on each machine (iPhone, iPad, and MBP). That's when I started getting her alerts.

So, I deleted all subscriptions from my devices and moved her calendar's location from On My Mac to iCloud. I'll update if it gets rid of the alerts.

-roccit

On Mac: Calendar / Preferences / Alerts / check Turn off shared calendar messages in Notification Center

Yeah, the problems here are on iOS.

We had the problem with each others' iPhones. My solution fixed it at 'source' because this sets, via iCloud, calendar alerts on people's phones for all shared calendars, but it assumes you're on Macs.

Yeah, I have that checked, but still get notifications on iOS devices. Question: Do you have your shared calendar under your iCloud section of Calendar, or under the On My Mac section? Mine is under the iCloud section

Did you ever crack this? I haven't read the entire post, so forgive me if it's covered elsewhere, but the answer seems to be to go to your iCloud calendar on the web and changes can be made there. There is a tick box to turn on / off emails for shared calendar changes.

No, it's not about email (for me anyway). My issue is with notifications for calendars I am subscribed to on iOS devices. I subscribe to my wife's calendar and all of her myriad notifications pop up no matter what settings I turn off.

I have the same problem. A friend has shared his iCloud calendar with me and I'm receiving notitfications for all his events in the apps on my devices (iPhone, iPad and iMac)

On the iPhone and iPad, Shared Calendar Alerts are disabled. On the iMac Turn off shared calendar messages in the notification centre is selected.

On iCloud.com calendar, Email me shared calendar updates is unselected, and Receive Event invitations is set to in-app notifications.

The events of my friend I'm seeing are not invitations to me.

This was originally posted in 2013 (so it may have been solved already) but I recently got tired of the same problem and began searching for a solution. In Calendar on my Mac I noticed in the preference tab there was a tab for alerts, at the bottom there is box unchecked that states "turn off shared calendar messages in notification center". I simply checked that and solved my problem. There is also a tab for this on the iPhone (I have a 5S in settings-mail,contacts, calendars-scroll all the way to the bottom

Hope this helps someone

I have turned this off (a few years ago in fact) and it never helps.

I have precisely the same issue, and I've tried all the solutions on this extensive thread. It's very frustrating. Shared google calendar events alert on my iPhone no matter what I do or what settings I have on my iPhone.

Get constant beep notifications on my iphone when my wife adds/changes things to her calendar. Read the entire thread, but tried nothing because everyone said nothing worked. But along the way someone mentioned that on shared calendars, the person who made it controls the settings. So I went into my wife's phone:

Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> Toggle off both New Invitation Alerts (not sure this is necessary) and Shared Calendar Alerts

Then I added a bunch of new things to her calendar... and IT WORKED. No notifications to my phone. Hallefreakinglujah. Don't know if this will work for others, but it did for me.

Hi,

Do you mean go to iCloud.com through Safari? If so, in Calendar , I only see Advanced as a tab under preferences in the "Gear at the lower left of the screen. No such option regarding Notifications exists there. Maybe I misunderstood your directions.

JD