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Level 1

7 points

calendar sync problem

I have an iPhone 4S, , iOS 6.1.1, and an iMac running 10.6.8. Whenever I sync my phone to my computer whatever I have added on my iMac's calendar will go to my phone's calendar, but anything new that I add to my iPhone calendar doesn't sync to my iMac. Does anyone else have this problem? I never had this problem with my old iPhone.

I have checked all my settings and everything seems to be as it should be. A few times it has added apointmets from my phone to my calendar, but I would say 90% of the time it doesn't.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

😕

Posted on Feb 11, 2013 10:45 PM

24 replies

Domovika Author

Level 1

7 points

Feb 12, 2013 3:49 AM in response to Eric Ross

It's ok, it's late! lol! I have been doing all of that already. I have tried everything, it's just weird. I just deleted two of the events off my phone, and then put them back on the calendar and when I synced it worked and they showed up on my computer. I'll have to go through everything in the morning and see if they all synced or if I have to rebook everything.

Thanks Eric Ross!

Feb 28, 2013 4:15 PM in response to Domovika

I have a similar problem.

But I also recall receiving a dialog box a few days ago indicating that I had a large number of conflicts during my last sync operation. I was too busy/tired at the time to go through the 194 that iTunes listed for me!

I have a feeling the two things are connected; however, I cannot find a way to get at that list of conflicts to resolve them. If I could, I have a feeling that it might resolve the logjam problem you and I both have.

Does anyone know how to get at the list of calendar synchronization conflicts from the last sync operation?

I've searched and searched, and Apple documentation is very thin on this topic. (Although, curiously, they seem to have more documentation oriented towards Windows users, than those of us who are completely Apple customers -- iPods, iPhones, Macbooks, iMacs, even Airport Extreme and Express).

Domovika Author

Level 1

7 points

Mar 1, 2013 2:35 PM in response to BigMacUser

Hello BigMacUser,

My problems started with the iOS6, never had a problem before that with syncing. I also got those comflict messages, randomly and more than once, but they were all for old/past appointments. I think at one time it said I had over 300 conflicts, also both sides said pretty much the same thing, in other words there really wasn't a conflic. I would pick the ones from the computer calendar and let it do it's thing, but it didn't seem to help and they would pop up randomly again. Anyway, these are the things I tried;

First I did this,

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1627

Then I did this,

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2481

Make sure to back up your calendar like they tell you to, just in case.

Neither seemed to work though, but you might want to try them and see if it helps you. In the end I spent a couple hours going back and deleting old appointments, I'm not sure how far back your calendar goes, but mine went back 6 years, with daily appointments and reminders. I just went to the search window on my calendar and searched for different things, and they show up at the bottom of the page, and deleted from there. Just kept important appointments that I might need to remember the date of.

In the end I was still having issues, but last week there was an iOS update for the iPhone, and it said it solved some kind of problem with the calendars, although I don't remember it saying anything about syncing problems. Right now the problem seems to be solved. I've booked a couple fake appointments to see if they would sync and it worked. Of course, before it would sync with no problem about 10% of the time, so it's still to be seen if the problem is really gone or not.

Let me know if any of this helps.

PS: I haven't tried using the cloud since last time when I was troubleshooting this problem, since it I don't want to deal with doubled up appointments, if it should happen again.

I just now added another fake appointment, with 2 reminder alarms, for 1 day before and 1 hr before. When I synched it showed up on my computer calendar, but with only 1 alarm for the day before. I guess it's still having some issues.

Message was edited by: Domovika

Mar 2, 2013 10:34 AM in response to Domovika

Thanks, Domovika, for your thoughts on this.

I did some more research today and discovered some Apple docs that helped. I now have it fully resolved and up & functioning again. I did lose the changes I'd made in my iPhone's calendar, since mid-week, as it defaulted back to my iMac's iCal. But it's only a few days of changes, so better that I lost that and have it working again, than not be able to sync on a daily basis.

Here's what I found via iCal Help: "Sync Services: Advanced troubleshooting for contact and calendar syncing".

I followed those instructions, and once I'd reset sync history, all I had to do was resolve the outstanding 1140 conflicts. It started with 840, which I resolved easily & quickly by selecting the checkbox that applied the same resolution to similar conflicts. Then I had a few I had to handle indiviually. Then the remainder of the 1140 showed up and I treated them like the first 840.

Hope this resolution helps someone else, too. It took me awhile to find.

Cheers, John

Mar 4, 2013 9:08 AM in response to BigMacUser

Well ... the problem started again today!

So I had 3 days when my calendar stopped syncing -- those were very bad days, as a result! Then it synced when I followed the above procedure.

Now that I'm back to work from the weekend, the problem is back!

What has caused this problem to to start? Is there a bug with the latest iOS? Or is it a bug with the latest iTunes? Maybe I should not have upgraded either until I'd heard about the fall-out!

Either way, I'm now in trouble -- if my calendars don't sync, it is a big problem for me!

Mar 4, 2013 10:15 AM in response to BigMacUser

I have further information about this.

It syncs successfully down to the (iPhone) handheld but not up to the main (iMac) computing platform.

Domovika Author

Level 1

7 points

Mar 7, 2013 11:27 PM in response to BigMacUser

I don't know, but I think the problem is with the iOS, but I have no way to know for sure. I have the same problem, whatever I put on my iMac calendar will sync to my iPhone, but when I book things on the phone they don't always sync to the imac, and when it does the alerts are different. My calendar is very important to me, so I just do the dinosaur thing, and write things down on paper, as a back up, and then put them manually on my iMac, if they don't sync. I thought these things were supposed to make life easier. Sigh!😕

Mar 8, 2013 3:37 PM in response to Domovika

Totally agree.

This business of having to manually copy items from the handheld to the desktop -- assuming you can remember which ones you added, changed or deleted, in these busy lives we lead -- is nuts!

Never had this problem with the many Palms I owned before moving to the iPod and then the iPhone. Nor with the Sharp handhelds I had before Palm made its entry into the marketplace.

Time for Apple to add quality control to its software releases, and be ready to back-out quickly when they issue a dud like this one! (Can you tell that I'm hoping some crafty Apple genuis is listening in to this channel ... )

John

P.S. I refuse to use paper. I stopped that in the mid-80s with my first Sharp handheld. And I'll only return to that, wildly kicking and screaming, and only after I drop my handhelds into deep water, in-cased in concrete!

Domovika Author

Level 1

7 points

Mar 8, 2013 6:36 PM in response to BigMacUser

I had no problems whatsover with my calendars or syncing until the iPhone's iOS 6 update, so I'm guessing that's where the problem lies. I may be going out on a limb here, and I admit that Apple updtes always had little glitches here and there, but after Steve Job's passing it seems like they just want to put something out, and they don't care if it works as it should or not.

With that said, the bulk of my appointments are made in person, so while I book them on my iPhone I let the other person or receptionist write them down on a card. When I sync I have that to go back to and see if the appointments transferred or not. It's a pain in the you know what, but I have to do what I have to do, until they fix this.

I guess another way to do it would be to write notes on the iPhone, or voice record them, instead of paper, lol! Either way, it's a pain.

😟

calendar sync problem