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Chrisdac Author

Level 1

41 points

Birthday calendar duplicated hundreds of times on iOS 10

Having recently upgraded to iOS 10, I see that my calendar app has duplicated the birthdays calendar hundreds of times - both on the Facebook calendar group and my default home calendar group. It has also duplicated my default calendar hundreds of times (See pictures below).

The default home Calendar is easy enough to get rid of. I simply hit 'Edit' and delete each one one by one (which is annoyingly slow and tedious, but possible). However the 'Birthdays' calendars cannot be removed or deleted this way. There is no option to delete or merge them.

I've restored my phone's iOS on iTunes, hoping it would remove (or at least merge) the hundreds of Birthday calendar duplicates. However, after restoring my phone's software with a recent iCloud backup, the duplicates were still there.

Is this an iOS 10 bug? If not, is there a way to fix this?

iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 10

Posted on Sep 18, 2016 1:54 AM

150 replies

Mar 31, 2017 2:46 PM in response to devalias

I have been going crazy trying to get rid of the hundred's of birthdays listed! Found this thread, updated my iphone, iPad and Mac to 10.3 as the Calendar on all three had the same multiple birthday problem and it's SOLVED!! Unreal that I was tearing my hair out for weeks over this. Thank you!!

Jun 5, 2017 12:31 PM in response to Chrisdac

I am not using Facebook or google accounts but birthdays in my husbands iPhone contacts (we share calendars but not contacts) are showing six times on my MacBook calendar for each year. It only shows up once on my iPad which also shares the calendar. It also shows only once on my husbands iPhone. My system is 10.12.5.

Sep 19, 2016 2:23 PM in response to Chrisdac

I have the exact same issue.

sberman

Level 10

268,251 points

Sep 19, 2016 2:28 PM in response to Chrisdac

Both of you above (Chrisdac and AlfromQLD) are showing in your screen shots that you are using Facebook calendars.

I am not using Facebook calendars and have no issue with multiple Birthday calendars. I have exactly one.

I strongly suspect the Facebook calendar tie-in is related to the issue.

Chrisdac Author

Level 1

41 points

Sep 20, 2016 1:22 AM in response to sberman

Sberman, it's not only the Facebook calendars. It's also duplicating the Birthday calendars under the calendar group named 'Other'. This suggests it's an Apple problem too.

Also, I've deleted Facebook, re-installed it. Likewise, I've turned off all my Calendars and Contacts multiple times. None of this helps. The two groups of Birthday calendars still remain (both Facebook's and Apple's). It seems like they're copied somewhere that iOS can't change/delete/merge.

Sep 20, 2016 3:25 AM in response to Chrisdac

I Have around 180 instances of "Birthday" calendars under a group called "Other". I have checked my iMac and these birthday calendar instances (duplicates) do not appear there. It is only on my iPhone. My wife has the same issue on her phone as well.

Chrisdac Author

Level 1

41 points

Sep 20, 2016 3:41 AM in response to AIfromQLD

Yep, AlfromQLD, that's exactly what's happening on my phone.

Out of interest, have you and your wife ever installed the Google Calendar app and/or Fantastical app on your phones? I was wondering if any of these were the culprits.

Jackee1

Level 1

4 points

Sep 21, 2016 10:36 PM in response to Chrisdac

I have the same issue. I just noticed it today. I do not have a FB acct so, it isn't that. I uninstalled the calendar app a few times and nothing has fixed this issue. When I access the calendar settings, it freezes.

orivor

Level 1

4 points

Oct 21, 2016 1:52 PM in response to Chrisdac

I have the same issue. I've removed all calendars and contacts yet still have hundreds of birthday calendars under Facebook and Other. It's making me crazy. Has anyone figured out how to delete these?

Oct 25, 2016 10:05 AM in response to Chrisdac

same here, this basically made the whole phone slow and not useable when I launch any task about calendar, I already went through all troubleshooting steps I could think of, I even logged out and deleted all iCloud and email accounts, these birthday calendars still show up "locally" on the phone alone with probably the same number of "Calendars". They definitely do not come from any could account, or Facebook (I have signed in to Facebook in iOS, but I never allowed it to access my calendars.), they are local to the device.

This is very annoying and we need Apple to fix this !!

Oct 28, 2016 12:50 AM in response to Chrisdac

I also have this problem on iPhone 5S. The phone is very slow, Calendar app crashes after few minutes of use. It also stopped syncing events from phone to iCloud, but backwards sync works fine.

I think I have few hundreds of these "Birthday" calendars. No Facebook, only birthdays from my contacts.

They are duplicated, I see each person appearing 5-6 times.

Moreover, battery is draining. I left iPhone in the evening on the table with 100% battery and in the morning it had 3% with Calendar 6.6 hrs background activity and Mail 1.4 hrs background activity. Widgets are off, I thought it was the problem in the beginning.

I noticed this bug before iOS 10.1 and hoped it would fix the bug, but no. It didn't.

What I managed to do, is to disable Calendars on all Accounts and right now I only have calendars "On this phone" and Birthdays somehow transferred to regular Calendars, which I can delete. Like 400 times and app crashing after each 5 calendars.

Oct 29, 2016 11:59 AM in response to Chrisdac

I'm having the same problem on a 6s Plus running iOS 10.1

I do not use Facebook and have tried removing all internet accounts and restoring from backup. Still hundreds of Birthday calendars. It no longer drains my battery non-stop, but does cause Calendar to sometimes unexpectedly quit. Hey Apple, fix this please!

snsc

Level 1

4 points

Nov 2, 2016 12:41 PM in response to Chrisdac

Same issue here. Phone is also running very hot and battery life is almost nothing. Battery consumption for calendar is at 30% just from background services.

Scott

Matt-WB

Level 1

4 points

Nov 2, 2016 6:49 PM in response to snsc

Same issue here... got 100s of birthday calendars showing up.

Nov 5, 2016 3:08 PM in response to Chrisdac

Same here. I

finally went to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store and was told it was a Facebook settings issue and not an Apple issue. Even with the numerous Other birthdays. They checked my Facebook settings and nothing is supposed to be syncing, but it is. I have tried turning the birthday calendars off, but a few days later they reappear. They said there was nothing they could do.

Birthday calendar duplicated hundreds of times on iOS 10