Q: Imported .ics file not syncing to iCloud

mmade me a little embarrassed. I hope I did not make typos. I did not involve subscribed events. The events imported VS the events I created, they looks the same.

also, I said this is not guess, I am also a Mac user, and I do find they look the same.

Just to make a few things clear for the discussion:

1. The problem we have is that events which are added to the calendar by way of .ics file on iPhone or iPad do not sync with iCloud.  Events manually added do.  However, if you go into the event added via .ics and make any change, it forces the event to sync.

2.  For me anyway, this is problem only recently developed.  I can't pinpoint the time, but it certainly started occurring in at least the last 90 days. Prior to this time, all event synced fine, regardless of how they were added.

3.  This is the primary way events are added to my calendar, as I receive most of them via email (as, I gather from the discussion, many others here do).  Therefore, flippantly saying to add events via subscription instead of import is not possible for many of us and suggestions to this end are not helpful.  Plus, they don't address the fact that this is a BUG that Apple has introduced to the sync system.

4.  This is NOT the way it is supposed to work. ALL events, including imports, are supposed to synchronize, not just subscriptions.  And until relatively recently, they did.

I submitted feedback for the problem, but I also put in a support ticket.  I have a call scheduled for Monday.  And in an ironic twist, Apple sent me an email with an .ics file for the support call.  I added it to Calendar on my iPhone and guess what--of course, it did NOT sync to iCloud!!!  Gotta love it.

Love the last part, Apple gonna make this quick.

@swatkins01: Many thanks for pinpointing the issue!

swatkins01 wrote:

I submitted feedback for the problem, but I also put in a support ticket.  I have a call scheduled for Monday.  And in an ironic twist, Apple sent me an email with an .ics file for the support call.  I added it to Calendar on my iPhone and guess what--of course, it did NOT sync to iCloud!!!  Gotta love it.

Have you received any feedback from Apple or have you missed the event ;-) ?

BTW: interestingly adding an event from a QR tag using Qrafter works perfectly and gets synced to iCloud. But exporting a single event from Calendar on my iMac and trying to reimporting it on my iPhone only adds the event to the iPhone's local calendar without syncing to iCloud. Crazy.

Looks like a bug in the ics importer.

If I have many events to import it's more easy for me to create them in excel ( or I get
them in excel) and convert them with an macro in an ics file. I have tried again
to do it today but the bug is still there. IOS 8.1.3 is up to date.  Thanks Chris Beeson 2 for your workaround. I
read it to late today, so I haven’t use it but will try it in the future. There
are a few discussion members who have given feedback to Apple but it's still not
fixed!

Csound1 subscription to an received or self-made ics file is not possible and our method worked for
year in previous IOS releases. So it ‘s for sure  a bug.

He has missed the event because it doesn’t sync I think!!! 

So I had the call with Apple and, unsurprisingly, they were not able to help because there are no magical settings that can be changed or tricks that an end user can do to fix this. The tech did confirm there were other reports of this problem and that they started coming in after iOS 8 was introduced.  Unfortunately, I cannot pinpoint when my problems started, but I knew for sure it was sometime after iOS 8, so that makes sense and supports my thought that this is an introduced bug that was not always present.

He filed all the information and told me that when they received "enough" reports of a particular bug, they were sent to the developers to fix. He was not able to tell me how many constituted "enough" or how many reports of this particular bug they had received. But it seems like we need to encourage everyone to report it so it might eventually get fixed. The frustrating part is that the casual user will never experience this bug.  Only those of us trying to utilize the programs to their fullest extent and capability will.

Thank you for the explanation and your time. I think I have already report it but I
will try again. it’s Always so difficult to report a bug.

Thank goodness I found this conversation I thought I was going crazy with my calendars.  I have no choice but to import all my calendar events to my iPhone/iPad via an ics file due the computer security at work. 

This bug needs fixing asap.  I can't currently trust by diary on my apple devices.

This bug needs fixing asap. that's true but we are with 19 here! let's assume only 50%
is reporting the problem or find this conversation. Then we are wit 0,00002% of
all Icloud users. A really big problem for Apple. I hope someone inside the IOS
team has the same issue and I hope they fixed it in 2016 (in the beginning of
the year I need it the most) but I doubt they will ever fix it. Please report
it to Apple!

I have also just picked up on this and its so frustrating. Turning calendar sync on/off helps but that is not a solution. Can we assume this has still not been fixed? Can't believe Apple still has not looked into this critical bug, many business people rely on these ics invites for meetings

No still not fixed. I hope many business people rely on the ics files so it will be fixed.

I don't see an item in the changelog so i don't think it is solved in IOS 8.3. If someone already know it is solved please report it here.

Just upgraded to iOS 8.3, tried with a .ics generated from outlook and it worked, i.e. imported it to iPhone 5s and it synced to icloud.

Thank you, I haven't tested it jet but it's great news the problem is solved.