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Stop iCal Autocomplete in location field when creating an appointment?

I often have teleconferences that I need to schedule on my calendar. Thus, I need to put a the teleconference number and pin into the location field of the meeting invite instead of an address. The iCal autocomplete feature does not know how to deal with this as it is searching for an address - which in itself is somewhat annoying because it's simply too slow!


It takes too long and is very annoying adversely affecting my productivity every time I schedule a teleconferene. Is there any way to disable this feature off please?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Apr 25, 2014 7:10 AM

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28 replies

Feb 3, 2017 3:55 AM in response to Loach

Agreed this is very frustrating during work. I cannot simply copy the address I have placed in the address section due to it automatically linking to a web address. Until this is fixed I have put the address in the body of the notes. But extremely frustrating if someone sends me an invite and the address is in the address box. Apple please help!

Nov 18, 2014 4:44 AM in response to Loach

Thanks for posting this. I share your frustration.


In addition to the location bar not liking phone numbers, it doesn't like detail other than what's in its suggested location. For example, I wanted to put the Suite # in with the address. But because the address was found by the auto complete, just hitting enter or clicking outside the event creation dialog auto-filled with the iCal info - minus the additional information I had added! Frustrating, because I put specifics like this in my phone/calendar to ensure that I show up at the right place at the right time!


I've combed through all the settings and Googled for a solution to no avail.


Have you come across a solution in the seven months since your last post?

Dec 1, 2014 8:47 PM in response to Loach

I also have the same problem as Schmidt. I typed in a location which the suggested location kept insisting on changing. The only workaround I found was to type additional words so that it found multiple matches. At that point, when I didn't pick one of the suggestions, it kept my original text.

In my case, I was typing in a building and room number, e.g. 2-250 Smith Tower. I found that when I changed it to: 2-250 Smith Tower Downtown, it had multiple suggestions and so it stopped choosing one. As an experiment, I typed in a street address and found I could "obscure" it by adding punctuation marks such as asterisks before and after the street number.


I know this isn't an elegant solution, or even a solution; it's just a quick and dirty workaround. :-)

Dec 12, 2014 7:19 AM in response to Loach

I tried Gharbie's suggestion of pressing "esc" but found that it does no good. iCal will briefly show the location I have typed in, but it then automatically changes it to something else. It is really annoying when I type in a room location for a meeting in my company in Boston, and iCal insists on substituting a long address in Toyoko. Nothing I have tried will get iCal to stop this -- except leaving the location space blank. How useful is that?!?

Jan 5, 2015 10:20 AM in response to Loach

This is very frustrating and random, sometimes hitting tab twice while in the location field will leave it as typed but sometimes it refuses to leave the location alone. The only way I work around this is to enter all details minus the location and then adjust it either on my iPhone or iPad. Big waste of time but so far its the only way I can get the correct location entered.

Feb 12, 2015 8:12 AM in response to Loach

Agreed that this is a ridiculous error in design.


The best solution I could find is to disconnect from the Internet while I create the calendar entry.


If iCal can't access the Internet, it doesn't assume that it can replace your location information with whatever "closest match" it finds in Apple's finite room-numberless list of All Locations in the Universe That Matter.


After creating the entry, I reconnect to the Internet. Apparently, iCal will leave the location field unmolested after the entry has been created, even after it regains Internet access.

May 25, 2015 11:27 PM in response to schmidtl

This is a frustrating problem, but I thought you all might enjoy hearing that it doesn't just happen in the UK and Canada, this is a problem for addresses <2.5 miles from Apple headquarters in Cupertino!


iCal autocorrect removes the suite number. There are hundreds (possibly thousands of suites at the medical center, and iCal autocorrect strips all the suite information). After trying a dozen times, I just pasted the suite number in the Notes section, but the real pain is that the cryptic autocorrect is difficult to catch. There is no opt out mechanism. Pressing Esc removes the suggestion popup, but the suggested address is saved anyway when you finish entering the address.


Actual address:

710 Lawrence Expwy #474

Santa Clara, CA 95051


Forced autocorrect:

710 Lawrence Expy

Santa Clara CA 95051

United States


2.5 miles to Apple Headquarters:

1 Infinite Loop

Cupertino, CA 95014

United States

May 26, 2015 2:49 PM in response to Loach

I wish I had an answer but I'm just chiming in to also express my frustration on this too... maybe *somebody* at Apple will read it.


I just spent 10 minutes and nearly threw my MacBook out the window while trying to create an event in my iCal and under location, I wanted it to read "TBD" because the other event invitees are going to all discuss where we should go for dinner. But it wanted to fill in with address for any and all places that have TBD as their name (which, surprisingly is a lot!). My work around was to finally accept one of those addresses and then go back in and delete it. But I about threw the computer out the window.


Does anyone at Apple actually USE this product? If they did, surely SOMEBODY would have discovered just how insanely maddening it is and fixed it.


Related: can someone tell me what calendar app Apple employees use? It's obviously not iCal so maybe I should use whatever THEY use instead 😉

Stop iCal Autocomplete in location field when creating an appointment?

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