Q: Stop iCal Autocomplete in location field when creating an appointment?
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Apr 27, 2014 9:41 AMby fisherKing,this IS really annoying; i've been trying to figure out how to disable it as well. i use that space for simple notes related to a scheduled event (and have since forever). so...hate that addresses pop up...from anywhere, that have no bearing on where i am or where i'm going!
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Nov 18, 2014 4:44 AMby schmidtl,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?
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Dec 1, 2014 8:47 PMby Eyeballer001,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. :-)
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Dec 12, 2014 7:19 AMby Don H.,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?!?
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Jan 5, 2015 10:20 AMby ErykG,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.
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Feb 12, 2015 8:12 AMby Tyrrell McAllister,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.
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Mar 6, 2015 12:41 PMby Bison2000,I have the same problem and find it very annoying. Most of the time I'm using the box as intended - to insert the location of the meeting. But my meeting locations aren't addresses, usually, but names of buildings and room numbers in those buildings. You should be able to turn off the auto-fill.
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Apr 8, 2015 7:38 AMby MacDThinker,Does anyone have any better ideas? I'm 10 second from leaving iCal entirely just because of this problem. It is so frustrating and poorly done. I've tried ESC, but it doesn't seem to work if I'm re-editting. However, if I blow out the address, entirely, and then enter it anew, ESC works.
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May 25, 2015 11:27 PMby BrandonMBP,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
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May 26, 2015 2:49 PMby Stephyod,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
