Severe bug when syncing Google Calendars to iOS 6.x devices

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Level 1

9 points

Severe bug when syncing Google Calendars to iOS 6.x devices

Just posted this to Apple Support:

Error: Recurring events appear multiple (ie several hundred) times on the iOS 6 device until eventually all free memory of the device is eaten up and it stops working.

Device: Any iDevice with iOS 6.x (6.0 and 6.01). iOS 5.x not affected.

Software: iOS Calendar app synced with Google Calendar (either as part of a synced GMail account or individually as CardDAV account). Google Calendar (either GMail or Google Apps account) with subscribed Birthdays and Anniversaries Calendar (i.e. calendar showing birthdays and anniversaries from all contacts stored in Google Contacts). "Ordinary" calendar events, including repeating / annual events entered manually in the calendar, fo not cause the bug.

The bug *may* affect other types of calendars, but as I do not use any, I did not check (e.g. iCloud, Yahoo, etc.).

Symptom: Recurring events (from the Birthday Calendar only) appear multiple times in the iOS calendar app. They do not show the colored dot next to them indicating the calendar they belong to until the event is opened in iOS Calendar. Disabling the respective calendar in Mail&Calendar settings does not always remove these calendar entries. Eventually, calendar entries are multiplied so many times that all the iOS device's memory is eaten up (i.e. several gigabytes) until an Out of memory error message appears. Sometimes memory apparently gets so corrupted that the device cannot be synced with iTunes any more and has to be reset to factory state.

It is yet unclear what causes the multiplication of events, as often the events are shown only twice or a few times for extended periods of time and only days later they multiply to the hundreds. The actual calendar on google.com remains unaffected.

Remedy: None (other than stop syncing the calendar).

Bug Status: I was able to recreate the bug with different GMail and Google Apps accounts on my iPhone 3GS and iPhone 5 as well as several iPad mini's in the local Apple Store.

Extensively discussed the bug with Apple Care (Germany). Apple Care could not help as they cannot use non-Apple products, in particular have no access to GMail accounts and therefore cannot recreate the bug.

iOS 6.0.1, any iOS6 device; GMail or GApps Cal

Posted on Nov 15, 2012 1:45 AM

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Answer 1

Jlevicki

Level 1

0 points

Nov 15, 2012 6:01 AM in response to Vaiofan

I'm having the same issues I'm afraid. For whatever reason, my iPhone is converting all my subcalendar entries into invitations, and they can't be edited. Yesterday, I noticed duplicate entries being made ... One from the subcalendar and one with my main account. I haven't had any of these problems before the latest update ... Is this Apple's way of forcing us to not use Google? The sync issues with my contacts was crazy enough, now this? Come one Apple, grow up!

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Answer 2

Chemgod

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Nov 19, 2012 2:36 PM in response to Jlevicki

Not sure this is apple. I have not updated. I have an iPhone 4 on iOS 5.1.1. No issues until a few days ago. Now getting duplicate posts. I added a birthdate and selected yearly. It shows up on this date and the one after. If you advance one year, it shows up on the second date - the incorrect one. I log into my gmail on my laptop and all is fine!

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Answer 3

Vaiofan Author

Level 1

9 points

Nov 19, 2012 2:48 PM in response to Chemgod

@chemgod:

If the birthday shows up on two subsequent days, this is usally a time zone issue. I.e. if you enter it in GMail on Nov 19 Pacific time zone, then it will show up on Nov 19 and 20 Eastern if you have your iPhone set that way. This someimes happens inadvertedly when travelling or due to bugs.

In any case, your issue does not appear to be related to the one discussed here at all.

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Answer 4

Top_Monk

Level 1

0 points

Nov 23, 2012 3:48 PM in response to Vaiofan

I too have this problem. I have an iPad with IOS 6 that has the same problem as Vaiofan has described--one birthday from Google Contacts now appears over 50 times in the iPad with IOS 6. I also have an iPod Touch with IOS 5. There are no problems with the iPod Touch on IOS 5 and the Calendar. I made sure all the settings were the same on both the iPod and iPad, so I know it is an IOS 6 problem. I turned iCloud off, deleted the calendar from the iPad. When I turned iCloud back on the Birthdays started steadily growing again to now over 50 times per each birthday. Still searching for a solution. Have found None.

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Answer 5

Dec 6, 2012 9:19 AM in response to Vaiofan

I have same issues on two different iPad 4's.

However for me it's the calendar showing duplicate entries from the "US holiday" calendar I'm subscribed too. The odd thing about this bug, is the issue comes and goes if I disable/renable calendars randomly.

At the moment the only work around I have (and I'm not sure it's permanent) is I have had to leave the local Apple "Birthdays" calendar disabled. When it's disabled it doesn't show dupicate "US holidays".

However when the issue is present. Hitting refresh will create even more duplicates every time I click it! I've had my ipad4 for three days, I was hoping it would take longer than this to find any major bugs.

Seems like they are not interpreting some data correctly and assuming it's new. Also of note sometimes when I hit refresh some calndars wouldn't show. Sometimes they would.

I hope they fix this. It makes the calendar app pretty useless for me.

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