maintaining subscriptions to a calendar

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Level 2

257 points

maintaining subscriptions to a calendar

I am having trouble figuring out how to keep people subscribed to a calendar. I established an iCal calendar for my club and sent invitations to each of the members. Most subscribed, and many lost their subscriptions. I could not figure out why.

A couple days ago I was looking at an iOS device that should have been subscribed to this particular calendar. When I got back to a Mac, I opened that calendar. I pulled down the "iCloud" menu and clicked on the broadcast symbol. Doing so brought up the "share with" window. In that window was the address of one of the club members. I removed that address and wrote in the Apple ID of the iOS device that needs to subscribe to my club calendar.

Within a few minutes I got back an email from the club member whose address I had removed from the "share with" windown. So I sent him another invitation, and he has re-subscribed to my calendar, but I do not know where that leaves the iOS device in question.

And, I have to wonder, if putting only one Apple ID in the "share with" window removes all the other Apple IDs that I want to share my calendar with. If it does, how do I manage the subscriptions to my calendar so that I do not log off everyone any time I need to adjust the list of my subscribers?

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.6.8), 4 gig RAM

Posted on Jun 9, 2014 1:42 PM

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Answer 1

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Jun 9, 2014 7:02 PM in response to R_55a

I don't think you are doing this right.

This type of sharing (invitations through iCloud) is intended for letting family members access stuff on your calendar etc. This has limitations, for example both parties need an Apple ID/ iCloud account. I suspect there are limits to the number of users too (search for the iCloud calendar terms of service).

I think what you actually want is a calendar that is hosted on a website or publicly accessible calendar server.

Here is an example…

webcal://ical.mac.com/ical/UK32Holidays.ics

If you install that to your Calendars app you won't be able to edit it - is that what you want for your club calendar? Obviously the owner can edit it, but everyone who subscribes cannot decide to make you all meet on another day 🙂

Open the iCloud website, login & look at your calendars. Click the 'broadcast symbol' for the club calendar in the lefthand list. Enable the 'Public calendar'. Copy the ugly looking link & email that to anyone who needs to subscribe.

Now they should all be able to see event's but you control the master. You can share the calendar via the invites if you want to allow others to edit the calendar.

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Answer 2

R_55a Author

Level 2

257 points

Jun 11, 2014 1:28 PM in response to Drew Reece

I am not sure how it makes a difference whether my correspondents are related to me.

The calendar in question is for my Macintosh user group, so everyone has an Apple ID.

I am familiar with the Holidays calendar; it was one of the first I subscribed to.

I have not chosen the "public calendar" option, because the window says that that option allows anyone to subscribe. I don't want that option.

It would seem unlikely that Apple imposes any significant limit on the number of subscribers to a calendar. For example, the St. Louis Cardinals have their own calendar: http://mlb.mlb.com/soa/ical/schedule.ics?team_id=138&season=2014. I would think that that calendar would have way more subscribers than would my calendar in my little user group.

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Answer 3

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,660 points

Jun 11, 2014 2:28 PM in response to R_55a

You are right it isn't relevant if the calendar sharers are related to you. However that iCloud feature has limits …

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4489

If you can live with up to 100 users do that, however it is a real nightmare to maintain, frankly it's far simpler to share the calendar publicly so you don't have to deal with usernames passwords & unique URL's, members who forgot the password, or want to configure it on iOS & Mac OS… It doens't make for happy users.

You don't have to use Apple at all for this, the format is standardized. Another mac user group has a shared calendar that is distributed from thier site. Making a public calendar does the same basic thing.

http://mmug.org.uk/events

I hope your group fairs better than this one, there hasn't been a meeting for a while 😟

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