Wherefore art thou iCal?

March 29, 2008 8:53 PM

How can I transfer iCal items from my old Mac to my new one?

I've looked around, but maybe I've missed it: how can I transfer individual date items (or whatever they're called) to my iCal on my fancy new Leopard iCal? I did Migration Assistant, but no dice. My new iCal does not show the dates I have engagements for. Please? Help? I feel like an idiot. This must be easier than this. Surely I'm missing something obvious.

posted by killerinsideme to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

Try copying your calendar data manually. It's in "Users/yourname/Library/Application Support/iCal" -- just copy that folder from the old machine to the new one (on a cd, using target disk mode, or whatever).

If, after you do this, only the default "Home" and "Work" calendars appear when you open iCal, quit all open applications (including Mail and iCal) and move the "Users/yourname/Library/Calendars" folder to the desktop. Open iCal again. If it's fixed, throw the folder on your desktop away.

More info here.
posted by churl at 9:04 PM on March 29, 2008

Whoops, you should probably also copy the folder ""Users/yourname/Library/Calendars". Sorry I forgot that one.
posted by churl at 9:08 PM on March 29, 2008

So, to transfer an entire calendar select it in the left-hand column, choose File > Export and tell it where to save the export (your Desktop seems likely). It'll save as an .ics. After moving it to the new Leopardy Mac, double clicking the file should open it in iCal, or you could File > Import and all that.

But, you specifically asked about individual date items. Those you can drag directly off of your calendar and onto the Desktop, where they will be saved as .ics files. Move 'em to your new fancy Leopard machine and double-clickitty.

I think that should address your question, or am I missing something? And not that I think it likely, but do first make sure that you've got check marks next to all of the calendars in the left-hand column of that new iCal... you know, maybe they're there and just not shown?
posted by mumkin at 9:52 PM on March 29, 2008

File > Export.

You'll need to do each calendar individually, but this will work. Transferring the data folder from /Library seems to only work sometimes between older OS X releases because iCal 3 is quite a bit different than previous versions.
posted by cgomez at 11:06 PM on March 29, 2008

I'm popping back in here to note that I think the above two answers are going to be superior methods than my initial answer -- try mumkin's way before you try mine, I can almost guarantee it'll work as expected.
posted by churl at 2:17 AM on March 30, 2008

Here's a link to an Apple Script that should help.
posted by buriedpaul at 11:31 AM on March 30, 2008

Copying ~/Library/Calendars in its entirety has always worked for me, even when upgrading from Tiger to Leopard.
posted by svolix at 11:35 PM on March 30, 2008

As you can see, I used an amalgamation of a few answers to get where I needed to go. Thank you! Now I will definitely be able to torture my boyfriend by knowing the exact date that is the first anniversary of our deciding to be bf/gf! (In my own defense, I must assert it was his idea. And a good one.)
posted by killerinsideme at 9:27 PM on April 1, 2008