Use calendar and reminders without iCloud

Question

Use calendar and reminders without iCloud

I have Calendar, Reminders and Contacts on my MBP set to sync with iCloud. I have now decided I would prefer to use the apps independently from iCloud, i.e. with the data stored locally on my computer and not sent to iCloud. The trouble is when I deselect each application from iCloud in system preferences, all my events etc disappear from the applications, only reappearing when I tick the box again for iCloud syncronisation. I have even tried backing up to archives before 'unsyncing', then restoring from said archives, but the archives seem to be blank without any events etc.

Any ideas? How can I get the data from iCloud onto my computer and then stop my computer syncing with iCloud?

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch,Early 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Mar 3, 2016 9:08 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Eric Root

Level 10

684,033 points

Mar 4, 2016 3:18 PM in response to samuelfromaberdeen

Reminders - in the Reminders application, drag the item into the On My Mac section. To drag multiple items at once, hold down the shift key after selecting the first reminder.

Contacts and Calendar - File/Export and choose your Desktop. Turn off iCloud syncing. Then File/Import the appropriate file from your Desktop.

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Answer 2

Mar 3, 2016 2:56 PM in response to Eric Root

Thanks very much Eric Root. This worked for reminders. I should add that 'On My Mac' was not visible and I had to follow advice elsewhere on this forum to get it back - I deselected Reminders in all the lists of internet accounts and iCloud in System Preferences, then clicked 'Add List' at the bottom left of Reminders. This appeared under 'On My Mac', and I was able to re-create all the lists and drag the items into them as you said.

For calendar, however, I could not get it to work. When I imported the file from my desktop no events or calendars were created. I tried following your instructions for Reminders, only in Calendar. But when I re-selected iCloud, my new calendar in 'On My Mac' was moved to the iCloud section, and On My Mac disappeared!

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Answer 3

Eric Root

Level 10

684,033 points

Mar 4, 2016 3:18 PM in response to samuelfromaberdeen

You are welcome. Did you sign out of iCloud before importing the Calendar file? If so, try disconnecting from the Internet, sign out of iCloud, and then do the import.

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Answer 4

Mar 4, 2016 3:15 PM in response to Eric Root

Thanks again. I had unticked the box for using iCloud with Calendar, but not actually signed right out of iCloud. I seem to have sorted it now using the following steps:

Steps to get calendars from iCloud to On My Mac:

1. Secondary click a calendar under ‘Other’ and click ‘New Calendar’. This caused ‘On My Mac’ to become visible.

2. Create a new calendar under ‘On My Mac’ by clicking ‘File’, then going to ‘New Calendar’ and clicking ‘On My Mac’.

3. Rename this by clicking it and pressing enter.

4. Click one of the calendars under ‘iCloud’.

5. Click ‘File’, go to ‘Export’ and click ‘Export…’ NOT ‘Calendar Archive…’. Complete the dialog and click ‘Export’.

6. Click the new calendar just created. Click ‘File’ then ‘Import’. Select the .ics file created in step 5 and the destination calendar created in step 2. Confirm the import.

7. Repeat steps 2 - 6 for each calendar.

These steps do not appear to remove anything from iCloud - they just create local copies on your Mac to which you can add events. These new events will not be synced to iCloud.

I have actually left the use Reminders and Calendar with iCloud boxes ticked - so I can use the applications with iCloud if I want. But my regular calendars and lists are local ('On My Mac') and not synced with iCloud.

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Answer 5

Eric Root

Level 10

684,033 points

Mar 4, 2016 4:22 PM in response to samuelfromaberdeen

You are welcome. Glad you figured it out and got what you want.

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