Calendar Sync Problems on iOS 8 Family Sharing

Question

Level 1

2 points

Calendar Sync Problems on iOS 8 Family Sharing

Before I upgraded my iPhone 5S and my wife's iPad Air to iOS 8, the iPad Air was using my iCloud account so my iCloud calendar was shared with my wife; we only need one mutual calendar that we can both read and write to.

After I had downloaded iOS 8, I read about the new Family Sharing feature of iCloud, which seemed ideal for us, in particular to share apps that one of us has bought which the other would like to use, and also to share a "Family" calendar.

So I deleted MY iCloud account from my wife's iPad and added HER iCloud account, merging the existing data with the new account, switched on iCloud Drive on both devices and then set up Family Sharing from the iPhone with me as the "organiser".

Now the apps and music sharing seems to work, each device can display the purchased items on the others device and download them if required. Very useful!

Unfortunately I can't get the calendar sharing to work on the iPad Air.

Calendars called "Family" have appeared on iPhone and on my "Desktop" Mac Mini (running OSX 10.8.5) and changes are shared. But items entered into the iCloud calendar from iPhone or Mac appear on each other but do not appear on the iPad Air. The iPad Air has no "Family" calendar. The "Notes" app behaves similarly.

I've since learned that I should not have switched on iCloud Drive since this reconfigures iCloud servers and prevents sharing if one of the devices does not have OSX 10.10 Yosemite.

Also the Support Profile at https://supportprofile.apple.com/ shows the iPad Air under MY Apple ID and password, not my wife's. Should I change this?

I've tried switching off iCloud Drive on both iPhone 5S and iPad - this made no difference.

Do I have any course of action other than waiting for the release of OSX 10.10 Yosemite?

iPad Air Wi-Fi, Cellular, iOS 8

Posted on Sep 23, 2014 7:02 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Kristopher4Mac

Level 1

40 points

Sep 23, 2014 7:05 AM in response to Tessel Bas

Hello Tessel, I don't think that Yosemite is going to fix your problem with syncing. I would try backup your device to iCloud and then see what happens.

Reply

Answer 2

Tessel Bas Author

Level 1

2 points

Sep 23, 2014 8:23 AM in response to Kristopher4Mac

Thank you, Kristopher. I backed up the iPad Air to iCloud twice, via Wi-Fi and via a separate iTunes profile on my Mac which I created for my wife's devices.

There was no change in the situation.

While I was in that separate Mac profile I noticed that her iCloud calendar is showing inputs from my iCloud calendar correctly, including the "Family" calendar.

I conclude that there is a disconnect between her iCloud calendar and her iPad Air, presumably because of the reconfigured servers.

Reply

Answer 3

Sep 23, 2014 12:48 PM in response to Tessel Bas

My wife and I, like you, shared a single cloud calendar which was and still is, under her ID

slight difference in that we each have ipad, iPhone and Windows PC ( calendar appears in MS Outlook) and we didn't invoke cloud drive.

i Don't know if you achieved it, but I'd love to transfer all the events from the original shared calendar to the new family one, as the original still has some ownership issues. Did you transfer your events?

Reply

Answer 4

Tessel Bas Author

Level 1

2 points

Sep 23, 2014 1:08 PM in response to duckndilly

Hi Duckndilly,

When I deleted MY iCloud account on HER iPad I merged the data, so there is the old shared calendar data. If I could sync my new iPhone/Mac Family calendar items then they could be overlaid on the old - I'd choose a different colour to differentiate them.

regards,

Ian

Reply

Answer 5

Sep 23, 2014 1:42 PM in response to Tessel Bas

Hi Ian

thanks for that. I thought it might be possible to import all the events from the old calendar into the new family one But I'm reaching the conclusion that it isn't.

i Think that the new family calendar is essentially no different to any other shared cloud calendar.

despite my MS Outlook being linked to my Apple ID, if I update the calendar there, the notification says my wife made the update!

all other devices give the right notifications. I think I will have to live with it,

regards

Pete

Reply

Answer 6

Tessel Bas Author

Level 1

2 points

Sep 23, 2014 1:51 PM in response to Tessel Bas

There's a discussion here (it's still the Apple support forum) that ends with a solution which apparently works (see second page). I haven't tried it yet.

Reply

Answer 7

Tessel Bas Author

Level 1

2 points

Sep 24, 2014 6:29 AM in response to Tessel Bas

I'm pleased to report the fix outlined by Randers4 works. Here's an edited version of his instructions which I followed:

Sign out of iCloud on your iPhone/iPad and sign back in:

Go to Settings>iCloud, tap Sign Out, choose Delete from My iPhone/iPad and provide your password when prompted (your data will still be in iCloud). Then reset your phone (hold the power and home buttons at the same time until you see the Apple logo, then release); when it restarts go back to Settings>iCloud and sign back in (your data will download back to your phone. Then try syncing to your Mac (and vice versa) again and see if it works properly now.

I'm now a happy bunny!

Reply

Answer 8

Stacy M.

Level 1

4 points

Sep 28, 2014 1:58 PM in response to Tessel Bas

I too, shared an iCloud with my husband. I just put us into separate iClouds and the family sharing program. We like to use the notes app to write grocery lists and camping lists etc. I noticed when I switched to family sharing that they would not now share acrossed all 4 of our devices. What I did to work around all of that was I now use my yahoo notes and contacts lists like I did the iCloud when we had the same iCloud. I put the default account on both notes and contacts as Yahoo. That way it would share acrossed all four devices like it used to when it was in iCloud. If I want to share a note or contact with just my phone and iPad then I write it in the iCloud and it just shares between my two devices. Gmail also has the notes and contacts list function. I didn't have any issues with the Calendar I just set the default calendar to family calendar.This worked really well for us, I hope it works for other people as well.

Reply

Answer 9

merlady

Level 1

25 points

Oct 25, 2014 4:57 PM in response to Tessel Bas

I don't understand why we have to do all this! One of the reasons I love (used to?) Apple is because everything works. Well this doesn't without going to a LOT of trouble. I mean, really? I'm supposed to delete my iCould account on my iPad, reboot, and then sign back in to get the Family Share calendar to work? It's supposed to work when you sent up Family Sharing. No hassle. Hassles are why I gave up on PC's, Microsoft, Windows, Android.......... Just saying!

Reply

Answer 10

Nov 13, 2014 5:10 AM in response to Tessel Bas

it worked for me too.. thx!

Reply

Answer 11

Sep 12, 2016 2:04 PM in response to Tessel Bas

Rather than sign out of iCloud, I was able to solve the issue by turning off and then on the Calendar sync in Settings/iCloud.

Reply