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Imported .ics file not syncing to iCloud

Good morning,


I have tried to ssearch the forums for this question but to no avail.


I have imported a .ics file to my iCloud calendar on my iPad. The calendar has multiple events per day. However after importing, the events show up on my iPad but no other device that I have signed in to my iCloud account. If I go into an individual event and edit any property of it then click 'done', the event will then immediately show up on all my iCloud devices.


As you can imagine that's quite time consuming. Am I right in thinking imported events should upload straight to iCloud without me needing to edit a property of it to 'refresh' it?


I have tried all the troubleshooting steps in this article: iCloud: Troubleshooting iCloud Calendar


Thanks for any help.


KInd regards,

Tom

Posted on Oct 8, 2014 12:10 AM

Reply
65 replies

Jan 30, 2015 3:42 AM in response to ParseCool

ParseCool wrote:


whats the point to argue this?

thank you very much and since now you know what we are talking about, do you have any suggestions or you can join us and wait together.

Why don't you actually say what you want, the subject of this thread is how to sync an ics calendar via iCloud on an iPad, and I have answered that. I can't answer secret questions, so tell me what you want.

Jan 30, 2015 3:54 AM in response to Csound1

I read about your answer by clicking the link in your post. Thank you, but,

here I quote the first post in this thread:

Good morning,


I have tried to ssearch the forums for this question but to no avail.


I have imported a .ics file to my iCloud calendar on my iPad. The calendar has multiple events per day. However after importing, the events show up on my iPad but no other device that I have signed in to my iCloud account. If I go into an individual event and edit any property of it then click 'done', the event will then immediately show up on all my iCloud devices.


As you can imagine that's quite time consuming. Am I right in thinking imported events should upload straight to iCloud without me needing to edit a property of it to 'refresh' it?


I have tried all the troubleshooting steps in this article: iCloud: Troubleshooting iCloud Calendar


Thanks for any help.


KInd regards,

Tom

Let me paraphrase it using simple English. What we are suffering now is:

we can import events from .ics files, but however these events not sync to iCloud (which means I can only see these events on my iPhone, but not on iCloud.com). Unless we did what Chris Beeson 2 posts, let me quote here again:


I imported an .ics file to my iPad (iOS 8.1) with an entry for every day of the coming year, and while it loaded ok on the iPad it wouldn't sync to iCloud or my iPhone 4s. With that number of entries, I couldn't go through editing each one. However, the following workaround has worked for me.


Go to Settings/iCloud, and turn off Calendars. When asked, choose to keep the calendars on the iPad. This will establish all your entries in local calendars, including those from the new .ics file.


Turn Calendars back on in iCloud, and let the iPad sync with iCloud. After a short while this will sync all your entries, including the new ones, with iCloud.


For some reason, as well as recreating my old calendars on iCloud, I found a new one called 'Calendar', which was empty. I've deleted that without any ill effects.


I'm no expert, so if you try this it's at your own risk. Good luck!

Fixing it is what we want, if you have answer, I will appreciate that.

Jan 30, 2015 4:11 AM in response to ParseCool

Well done, that is one way, but if you had taken the time to read the article at my link you would know why this happens, and how to avoid it.


The cause is importing rather than subscribing to a calendar. If you import it you get a copy of it AS IT IS, it does not update, but if you subscribe yo get an active version linked to the original.


The article shows you the correct way, but your method will also get there.

User uploaded file

It's wise to read the whole page linked to, not just the first few lines.

To subscribe to a .ics calendar follow these steps.


On the Home screen, tap Settings.

Tap Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

Tap Add Account→Other.

Choose either Add CalDAV Account or Add Subscribed Calendar.

Enter the URL of the calendar you want to subscribe to.

If prompted, enter a username, password, and optional description.

The Description field can be modified to include any description you would like.

Tap Next to advance.

After you subscribe to a calendar, it appears just like any another calendar on your iPad.

Jan 30, 2015 4:34 AM in response to ParseCool

It's perfectly straightforward (especially if you remember that there is a difference between importing and subscribing). They are 2 different things and are done differently.


There are so many ways of using an external calendar (sharing, subscribing, using a secondary account etc) you chose the only method that does not give you a calendar that updates when 3 methods of doing what you want exist.


I am glad you persevered and found a method (FYI, by turning iCloud off temporarily and saving the content you put all data in the local calendar, turning iCloud back on transfers local to iCloud)


Anything you put in the local calendar (or contacts) will be local, if you want it on iCloud, put it on iCloud, there is no sync.


If in future you import calendars you will face the same issue, subscribe to them in future (read-only) or take a share. (read-write)

Jan 30, 2015 4:40 AM in response to Csound1

Sometimes when somebody sends me an email with an .ics file attached, this is the only method I can to add it to my calendar. And Google calendar has "export" function to export to .ics file.


If I import the events, just looks no difference with other events, but it just not sync to iCloud, while other events do. This is not what I think it should be.

BTW, I just switch to iCloud calendar from Google calendar last month, google calendar deals with this situation quite seamlessly, I believe Apple will fix it in the future, but needs some push.

Jan 30, 2015 4:52 AM in response to Csound1

I respect your opinion on Google.

But I still think this is a bug. There is no visual difference between the events I create by hand and events imported from .ics. While one sync one not. How could Apple make this so confusing, if you once import 100 events along with other events, how can you know which of them are sync to iCloud which not. Apple way is simple, all on or all off, this is not Apple way.

Imported .ics file not syncing to iCloud

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