Calendar Failure

[Cougurr]

I have been using Calendar for years. All my events are iCloud based now. Currently on M1 OS Big Sur (as it was shipped with). Calendar old content was migrated from Time Machine backup during setup. Now about 4 months later and daily Calendar use has slowed down and sometimes the colour spinning wheel is almost every time I touch the calendar. Usually a close down Calendar and open up again resolves it for a couple of hours. Then it begins again. Most annoying is using duplicate for a previous event. Then when you try to move it to the next day its like a rubber band and bounces back to the original yesterday location where I duplicated it. Some times selecting the original will allow me to move that one instead, but often it just sit there and finally allows me to delete.

I usually work in week view and today I scrolled back to the third week in January ( Thurs. 20th) to check on something. That week was full of blanks, 2 or 3 spread into different times each day. Since the end of that week days all appears normal but only on the M1 computer. Went back onto my older MBP 2015 (High Sierra by necessity) and opened Calendar on it to see what was missed or lost from those blanks on the M1. The Calendar on that device is virtually empty since the January 20 date except for auto entires like VMUG meetings. Everything prior is present. Now I have Just checked on my iPhone 7 (IOS 15.2.1) Calendar and it also has stopped on the same day in January and blank since then up to and including today.

I have checked under iCloud in System preference settings and Calendar is check marked on both computers. What am I missing here? Has anyone else experienced recent issues??

 

[chas_m]

Try rebuilding the Spotlight index, that may help. You’ll find this under System Preferences -> Spotlight.

 

[Cougurr]

Checked M1 (assumed you meant rebuilding on new iMac) system preferences/spotlight. The window that opens only show top button options of Search Results Window and Privacy Window. How buttons only for Keyboard Shortcuts on left and About Search & Privacy on the right bottom. No option evident for rebuilding Spotlight index evident this location?
Also confirmed the same situation for Spotlight under System Preferences on my 2015 MBP noted in my original posting.

 

[DaveWT]

Rebuild the Spotlight index on your Mac - Apple Support

If you get unexpected results when searching your Mac, rebuilding the Spotlight index might help.

support.apple.com

 

[Cougurr]

Dave
Thank you for this link. I have navigated to it and read directions. Since I am dealing with the Calendar for problems are you suggesting then that I would locate the Calendar folder in Library and drop it into this Privacy area? Does this then process the spotlight indexing for that folders content? Once competed do I then remove it from this privacy area? I am also assuming that I a only doing this on my M1 iMac as this is where I am entering all my daily info and its the only device that currently will show me my events despite the fact I am using iCloud entry option and my two other devices are not showing the events at all that I am entering on the M1. Sorry it seems like a lot of questions here before I press go on this!! Thanks/Colin

 

[chas_m]

Before doing this, let’s address the larger issue of not syncing.

First, ensure that all your devices are using the same Apple ID email address. Second, ensure that all devices have Calendar syncing turned on.

If that doesn’t resolve the problem, try turning Calendar syncing OFF on the devices not receiving the updated events. You may be asked if you want to keep existing events stored locally or delete them; store them locally.

Then turn back ON calendar syncing on those devices. You may be asked if you want to merge data; you do. That should fix it almost instantly.

 

[Cougurr]

Thanks for this suggestion Chas. Bottom line answer is, it did not work. For clarity I will say I did not touch the primary new M1 iMac computer with the full calendar I am using as input device (slow as noted before and restarting it often). Also I have not done the previous suggestion on the Rebuilding of the Spotlight Index on any device based on your suggestion to resolve the not syncing first.
(Please see separate email to you for further info via screen shots I could not manage to add here)

 

[Cougurr]

Thanks to Chas for all his behind the scenes directions and help on this problem. Calendar totally locked up this morning so spent 2 hours with Apple Support. Bottom line was "I exceeded the maximum 50,000 allowable events on a single Calendar". Mine had been collecting events since 2009. Currently going through the process of "reducing the load" so as not to loose my most recent years. Learned something new today. Apple support was almost as good as Charles !

 

[DaveWT]

Colin, could you expand on the process of "reducing the load". I have been using Calendar for much longer than since 2009. I wonder if I am close to an issue?

Dave

 

[Cougurr]

Dave
My use of the Calendar turned into more like a journal of each day over time so each day developed into 20++ events and I had added as well as 12 different colour coded calendars inside that one, including a few subscriptions for garbage days and recycle schedules. Turns out my basic "blue home" Calendar had the lions share of events at over 20,000 alone. Perhaps your calendar use has not been as prolific on a daily level and not become an issue.

So for "reducing the load" -Apple directed me to take the check marks off certain iCloud calendars that I probably had repeating events set up for, like Birthdays and Anniversaries. They suggested to eliminate my two subscriptions(CRD recycle and local garbage) and then put them back in place when everything finally synced properly. Then on my main computer I used for most of the entrees (my M1 iMac) to open Calendar and go to Monthly View and move back to the earliest heavily occupied January. For me this was 2009. In month view and screen sized to accommodate only the month do a "Select All key command" followed by hitting the delete key then on the window that followed to put mouse over the "Delete Selected Items" option. For some reason some of the months did not give me that window with the three choice option so had to select the "Delete All" in those cases. Patience at this point as often in excess of 500+ entries was to be removed and the colour wheel even on the M1 was spinning for a short period before you saw all the events start to blink off the calendar. I was cautioned by Apple to probably not exceed a year removal in one sitting and to give the system time to process all this from itself and also then populate into iCloud (in my case which was totally empty) all the recent items from the current months that did not previously have a chance to go from my M1 up to iCloud. So at the beginning it was a lot of place swapping still near the Max of my 50,000 events. Took two year of removals before things started to flow better then continued to improve. Apple Support remained on the line with me until their end showed my events into the low 49,000's) Now 24 hours later (as they suggested would be the case) and 10 years of calendars removed I can have all devices open and enter and event and see it instantly populate as it should everywhere. I have also subscribed agin to my two previously noted items. I will probably do a yearly removal each new year from now on to play it safe. Unfortunate, we the user, do not have some counter access to indicate this limit and where we are with it.

Hope this is clear enough Dave. Happy to answer any other questions you may have. We covered a lot of ground during the 2 hour support call beyond these directions.

 

[DaveWT]

Great description, Colin. You are correct in that my Calendar use isn't nearly as heavy as yours, but it is great to see the procedure to keep it in check in any case. I sure don't have much need to keep Calendar events going back in time, the way I use it.