iOS 6.0.1 thinks all calendar events are invitations

Dear medicchop28,

I don't really understand your first question and I can only half answer your second question.

I am not sure how often the calendar update itself. It seems to me that if you have very recently use it, then it won't update again. But if you kill the calendar app from the background or have not been using it for some time, it will update itself when you launch the app. I am keen to know if it will update itself IN BACKGROUND if the calendar is not used for a few hours.

Let me know if you find out anything.

mrlawrencelam,

So I figured sleep wasn't important as I have been hoping a fix for this would come. I am happy to reort I just tested and the iOS calendar app updates within a few seconds once it is launched. Any change to a synced calendar through google updates that fast. Also if you were to add or edit an event it immediately pushes to the google account associated with the calendar you are syncing with and the new event added or current event edited is updated immediately. No need to manually hit the calendars refresh button. Simply launching the iOS calendar app will update all the events.

In regards to my first question. In have only been an iOS user for about 14 months. When I first got my iPhone and tried to sync all the google calendars I subscribe to it was my experience that in iOS 5 it would only give you the option to see the calendar you had set up associated with the gmail account you set up in your iOS devices accounts. For example I set up my account name@gmail.com. I turn the radio buttons on for mail and calendar. I then go into the calendar app on iPhone and them click the calendars tab. Under there it showed my gmail account but only the calendar associated with that account. The other calendars I sync with my gmail didn't show up as an option to be visible in my iOS calendar app. That is why google has printed instructions on how to set up an exchange account to you google account. Then once that is set up go to safari and to the site m.google.com/sync. Then log in and finally select your iOS device in the list. Once there u see the calendar which is associated with the account which is checked on by default with no option to uncheck but then u have the option to add the ones you want to sync to your iOS device. Click save and exit out. Hen launch your iOS cal app and boom all your calendars are syncing through exchange. U would then have to go into your accounts and open gmail and tell it not to sync calendar because your default calendar would be syncing twice since you have it set up with exchange already. This is why I say I am pretty sure in the past that setting up ones gmail account and turning calendars on. Then going into iOS calendars and clicking the calendars tab would never show all the calendars your gmail account syncs with. It should have done it all along but that is why there was this stupid work around that everyone has been using for years with creating an exchange account and then going through the sync web site to tell the exchange account what info you wanted it to grab when it contacted the server.

It personally appears to work now just like it did using exchange. Except now I am using the google account set up on my device instead of exchange. A change is made to one of the calendars I sync with. I launch the calendar app it looks for changes and then updates any events that have changed and adds or deletes if any have been added or deleted.

So I have to wonder why Apple didn't say that now all the calendars you sync with will show up so long as they are turned on in your gmail account on your iOS device. All of us that are having problems have our gmail calendars syncing via exchange. But since iOS 6.0.1 all the events show up as invites with no option to edit. I know apple had trouble when 6.0 released because people who actually use true MS Exchange server were not able to send invites anymore. So it appears to me when they fixed that they broke the way all if us were syncing google calendars via an exchange account.

So for anyone reading this there is a fix which Apple evidently did not decide to publicize. My guess because they hate google.

My suggestion. Don't delete your exchange account just yet. Launch your calendar app tap calendars in the top left. Uncheck all the calendars syncing with your exchange account. Go to your home screen then to settings then to mail,accounts,calendars. If you already have your gmail account tap on it. (If not create it by adding an account). Then turn your calendars on. ( for most of us it was turned off if using an exchange account to sync calendars because main calendar events would show twice if you left it on). Once done exit out. Launch your iOS calendar again. Go tap on the calendars tab in the upper left. Now your gmail account shows up and you can see all calendars associated with your gmail account ( those u own and those u sync with). You can choose to make them visible or not by checking or in checking. This should have been the way all along. But I am almost positive it has not been because we all did this exchange set up.

Again it appears to me to work just as it did before this update to iOS 6.0.1 that screwed us all up. Big thanks to mrlawrencela for figuring this out and sharing!!!! Thank u!

Now that you have your calendars syncing correctly as events instead of invites you can most likely delete that exchange account if you want.

APPLE, READ THIS AND POST SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE SYNCING GOOGLE CALENDARS SO THEY AREN'T BEATING THEIR HEADS AGAINST THE WALL!!!!

Now i am seeing a really weird problem.

So i am using an iphone 5 with sprint. Last night when I posted about this all i did was uncheck the calendars the exchange account was syncing with. Went into settings, then tapped on the calendars/contacts/settings. Went to my gmail account and turned my calendars on. Then went back to the ios calendar app and went to the calendars tab and all my calendars i sync through gmail showed up. Once back in the calendar they show up correctly and are not invitations and I can edit them just like i did before ios 6.0.1 came out. I ultimately then deleted the exchange account i had set up to sync my gmail calendar with all my subscriptions.

I come to work and my employees also sync one of the gmail calendars that I use. So far the steps above when using a created gmail account to sync calendars is not working on any other device. I have tried to set this up on an iphone 4 with att, iphone 5 with verizon an iphone 4s and 3gs with att. I simply does not show the subscribed calendars when using only the created gmail account. Here is what i believe the problem is............. All the calendars I sync with i also have write permissions on in the google calendars they were created with. My employees who are trying to access it with their gmail account only have read permissions. If they go to their calendar at calendar.google.com and log in the work calendar shows up as a 'other' calendar where as their gmail calender shows up as 'my calendars'. If i log into mine from the web i note all the calendars are listed under the 'my calendars' tab which tells me this is accurate. You will only be to sync calendars with the ios device using the gmail account created if the user has admin rights on all the calendars. However I still am not completely confident that there isn't somethig else going on. I think it should have worked this way all the time. if it is going to sync calendars it should sync all of them attached to the account whether you have write permissions or not. But instead we all had to create this exchange accounts and set up google sync that way. Which was fine becuase once it was set up it never failed. Now everything is so messed up that it is crazy.

I wish apple would hurry up and come up with a fix for this. Anyone who uses google calendar and shares it with others on ios devices should be having huge issues. For some reason turning my calendars back on in my gmail account set up on my ios device fixed mine but i have not been able to get it to work on any other ios device's of my employees. The only link between them and me is that they do not have write permissions on that calendar.

Think i may try to call Apple today and see if they are aware of the problem and if there will be a fix coming. Anyone else tried calling them?

Update: I have found out why my iphone 5 works as expected when turning on calendars through the gmail account. I have read, write and make changes to sharing as permissions within the google calendar being shared. When one has this access it will allow the calendar to be seen when syncing calendars as described above because in your calendar account the calendars how up under the 'my calendars' tab becuase since you have that level off access it treats it as yours. if you have any less access than that you still have to use an exchange account with google sync to be able to see and sync the calendars. Again anyone who just has read or read and write permissions will still not be able to edit them because currently when sycning calendars with google sync and an exchange account they all show up as invites with no option to edit even for those who have permission. This needs to be fixed quickly so that syncing google calendars with an exchange account and google sync is fixed. Still going to call apple about this.

Medicchop28's answer is not accurate. I have full privileges (read, write, manage sharing) on all of the gmail calendars that appear in my iOS calendar, yet all but my main calendar appear as invitations and cannot be edited.

David,

Are you syncing them with your gmail account set up on the ios device or with an exchange account? If you are using exchange then that is what I would expect to see becuase that is what has been happening no matter what permissions you have.

If you have them set up to sync with your gmail account and no exchange then only calendars you have full permission on will you be able to see, if you don't have full permission you won't even be able to see them or at least I have yet to see it work after testing on all the devices below except for mine. I have tested this multiple times today on an iPhone 5 (not mine another one), 4s, 4 and 3gs. Currently out of all of them my iPhone 5 is sycning all calendars (no exchange account becuase i deleted it) with my gmail account set up on my iPhone. All calendars are visible and I can edit them just like I did before the iOS update to 6.0.1. However I have full permissions on all three calendars, my gmail calendar and the two I have that are shared with me.

It makes no since that it works for me but not for everyone else.

The problem you describe above has been consistant with someone who is synicing their google calendars with an exchange account which has been the problem since iOS was updated to 6.0.1. You say my answer is not accurate but don't describe your set up. I have been testing this for a few hours today to come up with the results i posted. As you can tell this is really upsetting me because one day it worked (for the last few years it worked) then all of a sudden without warning it stops. I really wish this thread would gain some traction because Apple needs to fix this. I don't care wether I have to set up an exchange account to make it work (like it had been) or simply use my google account set up in accounts but one way or another it needs to work correctly.

UPDATE:

I just got off the phone with Apple support. Here is there official position on why calendar events show up as invites when sycning using an exchange account with google sync.

"I spoke with a Senior Advisor "Well adding their Google account as an Exchange Server in order to see Shared Calendars is a workaround." It currently is not supported at this time, but posting feedback will help us improve our products to try to make this a a possible release in a update."

So it appears to me that it was supported and since 6.0.1 is now not supported and using exchange and google sync are now considered workarounds. Everyone who can needs to voice their opinion on this matter. I don't think it will change if you don't especially with the hate relationship Google and Apple now seem to have for each other. I suggest using both ways to do so. And also here is their 800 number. Not sure if it will work for all iOS devices or not but it's worth a shot. Bottom line this needs to be fixed.

U.S. iPhone technical support:

(800) MY-IPHONE (800-694-7466)

1. go to www.apple.com/feedback fill out the short form and send type them a book on how it used to work and now it doesn't and that it needs to again.

2. If still under warranty go to www.apple.com/support . Click on the device and do an online chat or call them. You will need your apple device serial number to enter in before they will let you speak to an agent.

This isn't just Google. I have an MS Exchange account I connect to at work. I get the same problem. All my events are read only invitations unless created on my phone. No work around possible here.

Thanks to everyone for all of the suggestions about getting this issue resolved. It does sound like it is now in Apple's hands to find a satisfactory solution and, as has been said, I don't hold out much hope knowing the state of their relationship with Google.

In the meantime, I have just installed a third party app - CalenMob Pro - on 2 iphones and 2 iPads. This does exactly what I need and more! Dead simple to set up and a more flexible UI than the installed Calendar from Apple. So I'm going to give this a try for a while and see if the current issue ever gets resolved.

Just posted my complaints yesterday. I think it is ridiculous that a product as advanced as the iphone has these problems. More business people and sales people are switching to iphone, and it is a basic need to be able to sync to other calendars as well as set, change appoints and accept invitations from either source. I've also been amazed that the iphone does not come with basic programs like a task manager and that the phone cal has such limited reminder times to select from. These all seem like basic smart phone functions to me.

Well gentlemen, it looks like there's a reason for all this after all. Google is discontinuing support for ActiveStink as of January.

See:

http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/iphone-news/google-sync-shutting-down-for-new-users -on-jan-30-2013/

Alright there is a fix in place. Not actually a fix but rather a new way of syncing with google calendar. Not sure who all is familiar with CalDAV and CardDAV but they are open protocols for syncing with other accounts contacts, and calendars. Alot of people are starting to use them finally but they have been around for some time from what I can tell. For excample they have evidently been available on the iPhone since 2009. Anyway the basics are this and i will list google's link below.

This is a new way to sync your calendars via CalDAV. This is an open source type of protocol so anyone can use it. Google is moving everyone who is not a Google Apps subscriber away from "Google Sync" as we know it now because that is their protocol and only their "paid" subscribers will be using it. Fortunately there is a fix for our problem (link below). I have tested this on multiple devices and it works just as it worked before with syncing google calendars with iOS devices. You see events as events and not invites and you can edit them again (if you have permission to edit from the owner of the calendar). Setup is about the same as it was but instead of creating an Exchange account you are creating a CalDAV account. Instead of going to m.google.com/sync to set up which calendars you want to sync you are going to www.google.com/calendar/syncselect (you can access this from any computer or your iOS device) to set up which calendars you want to sync with the CalDAV account you created. I think it almost sets up easier than the exchange account did. Anyway it appears to have fixed the problem that I was having which is why i created this thread. Sure would have been nice if Google and Apple would have let everyone know what the **** was going on before they just start changing things like this. Seems like it effected quite a few people. Too bad it took so long to find the new information, but either way here you go:

http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=151674

I also wanted to add that when I set this up and tested it I did not follow the instruction in the above support link all the way. I set this up without letting the gmail account on the phone connect to calendars (just like when setting it up with an exchange account). I actually created a CalDAV account by going to settings, mail/contacts/calendars then selecting 'other account' and if you scroll toward the bottom you will see the CalDAV and CardDAV account setups which are for what we are doing. I selected CalDAV and put in the server as calendar.google.com and username and password are you gmail email and password then named it what i wanted in the bottom. It will then verify your account. You then go to the www.google.com/calendar/syncselect and set up which calendars you want to sync with.

According to the article you can also accomplish the same thing with your gmail account already set up on your phone. Just delete the exchange account created in the past for sycning. Go into your gmail account and turn your calendars on. Then go to the website www.google.com/calendar/syncselect and tell it which calendars you want to see and supposedly it will do the same thing. Not sure didn't try it but that is what those instructions tell you that you can do. Someone might want to post back if they decide to try it that way and it works. I was just happy to find a fix for the problem. Sorry i left this out of my post above. Good luck.

Are you able to send and accept event invitations with it set up that way? Seems I read somewhere that setting the cal up through gmail you lost the ability to do that? Also, does this switch the email from exchange also...so it's no longer pushed?

Not sure. I don't use invitations. Problem since iOS 6 was all calendar events showed as invitations. This fix above makes it function like it did in the past. Yes when u launch the iOS calendar app it grabs updated information from the synced calendars. Which is also the way it always worked. Google has never been push with iOS devices. Hotmail and yahoo are but not google.