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iCal not importing to computer or phone despite correct URL

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 7:22 am
by lukepatrickmoran
I have lost all the events that come from my stake and ward calendar and all my subscriptions- as such i checked lds.org calendar - all seemed in order so i did a new sync and got a new URL and still not working- so now the only way i can see the events is to sign into lads.org instead of how i use to use my computer and smartphone through ical with the calendar linked to devices via iCloud, incidentally the iCloud is working fine- it is the lads calendar that is not working at all.. help pls

thanks

Re: iCal not importing to computer or phone despite correct

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 10:19 am
by russellhltn
I did a quick check by pasting the URL into the browser and got a iCal file, so it seems to be working - now. But it's also late enough on a Utah workday that any failed server would have been reset.

Are you only using the URL in one place (the iCloud) and the refresh is set to longer than 9 minutes?

Re: iCal not importing to computer or phone despite correct

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 3:40 pm
by lukepatrickmoran
i have checked this morning and the calendar is now working on my computer but on my phone and the iPad the calendars (which is the same linked calendar all on iCloud) are not working- though i can edit the name in the computer and it will change on the devices- there are still no events displayed on the devices

the refresh rate on the computer is ever 15 mins- i don't know what is is on the devices- i would assume the same as its using the iCloud calendar ??

Re: iCal not importing to computer or phone despite correct

Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 4:17 pm
by aebrown
lukepatrickmoran wrote:i have checked this morning and the calendar is now working on my computer but on my phone and the iPad the calendars (which is the same linked calendar all on iCloud) are not working- though i can edit the name in the computer and it will change on the devices- there are still no events displayed on the devices

the refresh rate on the computer is ever 15 mins- i don't know what is is on the devices- i would assume the same as its using the iCloud calendar ??
When you are using more than one device (and it sounds like you are using 3 devices), 15 minutes is way too fast. It's possible that everything is working completely correctly, and yet you get no data on your devices. Suppose that the computer refreshes at 1:00, 1:15, 1:30, etc. Then the phone tries at 1:03, 1:18, 1:33, etc., and the iPad tries at 1:06, 1:21, 1:36, etc. Then in each 15 minute interval, the computer is going to hit the sync URL successfully, then 3 minutes later the phone tries (and fails, because it's less than 9 minutes after the computer accessed the sync URL), then the iPad tries again 3 minutes after that (and fails, because it still hasn't been 9 minutes). Then at 1:15, the computer tries and succeeds, followed by the phone and iPad failing, in an endless cycle.

To make this reliable, you need to be able to control both the interval and the starting time. To give yourself a safety margin, you could have each device try at one-hour intervals, with the computer hitting the sync URL on the hour, the phone 20 minutes later, and the iPad 20 minutes after that. I don't know if you have that much control over the refresh settings, but doing 3 devices on overlapping 15 minute cycles just won't work.

Re: iCal not importing to computer or phone despite correct

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 7:47 am
by lukepatrickmoran
i have changed this setting of the ical on the computer this still has not changed anything :( i still can't get my calendar on the other devices

Re: iCal not importing to computer or phone despite correct

Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2015 6:25 pm
by danielsbrown
I'm having the same issues as lukepatrickmoran. I have lost the calendar in spite of issuing a new URL and setting all devices to check no more frequently than an hour. This has been an issue for other apple users attempting to sync to iCal. Can tech support provide any guidance to leaders on this issue? It's very unreliable.

Re: iCal not importing to computer or phone despite correct

Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2015 6:33 pm
by danielsbrown
If all my devices are receiving the lds calendar via iCloud as submitted by the calendar on my Apple desktop computer, the refresh rate on the devices is not pertinent, correct? So, how can I get the LDS.org server to feed the calendar to my desktop version. I have subscribed with a new URL, but it still is not showing in my calendar. I'm using Yosemite. Thanks so much for your help.

--
aebrown wrote:
lukepatrickmoran wrote:i have checked this morning and the calendar is now working on my computer but on my phone and the iPad the calendars (which is the same linked calendar all on iCloud) are not working- though i can edit the name in the computer and it will change on the devices- there are still no events displayed on the devices

the refresh rate on the computer is ever 15 mins- i don't know what is is on the devices- i would assume the same as its using the iCloud calendar ??
When you are using more than one device (and it sounds like you are using 3 devices), 15 minutes is way too fast. It's possible that everything is working completely correctly, and yet you get no data on your devices. Suppose that the computer refreshes at 1:00, 1:15, 1:30, etc. Then the phone tries at 1:03, 1:18, 1:33, etc., and the iPad tries at 1:06, 1:21, 1:36, etc. Then in each 15 minute interval, the computer is going to hit the sync URL successfully, then 3 minutes later the phone tries (and fails, because it's less than 9 minutes after the computer accessed the sync URL), then the iPad tries again 3 minutes after that (and fails, because it still hasn't been 9 minutes). Then at 1:15, the computer tries and succeeds, followed by the phone and iPad failing, in an endless cycle.

To make this reliable, you need to be able to control both the interval and the starting time. To give yourself a safety margin, you could have each device try at one-hour intervals, with the computer hitting the sync URL on the hour, the phone 20 minutes later, and the iPad 20 minutes after that. I don't know if you have that much control over the refresh settings, but doing 3 devices on overlapping 15 minute cycles just won't work.

Re: iCal not importing to computer or phone despite correct

Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2015 6:45 pm
by russellhltn
danielsbrown wrote:If all my devices are receiving the lds calendar via iCloud as submitted by the calendar on my Apple desktop computer, the refresh rate on the devices is not pertinent, correct?
I don't know Apple well enough to know. Are you putting in the URL in only one place?

Is the sync happening on your desktop, or is it happening in the iCloud and only inputted via the desktop?

Re: iCal not importing to computer or phone despite correct

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2015 12:12 pm
by cboling
I think the calendar server is having a problem.

I just tried to view my lds.org calendar in Thunderbird (It's always there, but I keep it invisible most of the time) and nothing showed up, so I used wget to retrieve the file:
and this is the document I got:
<html><body><center><h1><b>Not Available</b></h1><i>This page is unavailable. Error code: 2-1919</i></center></body></html>

Re: iCal not importing to computer or phone despite correct

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2015 1:31 pm
by russellhltn
It's working OK for me now. Note that if you run into the 9 minute throttle, you won't get anything. I think there's supposed to be a http error code, but I don't think most browsers pass that on.