Apple calendar suddenly missing data
May 8, 2022 8:41 AM Subscribe
The Apple calendar on my macbook air has suddenly gone blank.
There are only standardized entries (ie Mothers Day) and, oddly, a few random things remaining on a few months from 2021. This is a disaster for me.
I have noticed entries now and then vanishing from my Apple calendar and I always *start* using a hard paper calendar as a backup, but life gets busy and I revert to my laptop.
Now suddenly -NOTHING I've entered for the next few months is there. I use the calendar heavily. Like, I know I had about 6 entries for things I need to do and meetings I need to attend tomorrow.
It was all there yesterday.
What I've done: Went to advanced settings on icloud. com and tried to restore the archive calendar. It said "No Archive Available."
It's not synched to my phone. There is nothing in the calendar on my phone.
I do not know if this is related to my creating a new Google account so I could access google docs, which is the subject of my last Askme question. But that was a while ago and the same calendar appears, blank, no matter which account I'm logged into.
I didn't do anything to the calendar directly that might have caused this.
I really, really need to get these entries back. Any suggestions much appreciated.
I have noticed entries now and then vanishing from my Apple calendar and I always *start* using a hard paper calendar as a backup, but life gets busy and I revert to my laptop.
Now suddenly -NOTHING I've entered for the next few months is there. I use the calendar heavily. Like, I know I had about 6 entries for things I need to do and meetings I need to attend tomorrow.
It was all there yesterday.
What I've done: Went to advanced settings on icloud. com and tried to restore the archive calendar. It said "No Archive Available."
It's not synched to my phone. There is nothing in the calendar on my phone.
I do not know if this is related to my creating a new Google account so I could access google docs, which is the subject of my last Askme question. But that was a while ago and the same calendar appears, blank, no matter which account I'm logged into.
I didn't do anything to the calendar directly that might have caused this.
I really, really need to get these entries back. Any suggestions much appreciated.
Just to double check, you’ve done the usual things of quitting and restarting calendar, and rebooting your computer?
posted by leahwrenn at 9:08 AM on May 8, 2022
posted by leahwrenn at 9:08 AM on May 8, 2022
I once had a similar issue: Sign out of your iCloud every where, quit everything, restart the main device. Sign back into iCloud. Check calendar. Then check and see for any old devices are still connected to your iCloud and delete the old cruft.
posted by zenon at 9:15 AM on May 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by zenon at 9:15 AM on May 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Just to double check, you’ve done the usual things of quitting and restarting calendar, and rebooting your computer?
Yes.
posted by nantucket at 9:22 AM on May 8, 2022
Yes.
posted by nantucket at 9:22 AM on May 8, 2022
It could be an iCloud outage, though I'm not seeing anything reported (yet) on DownDetector.
posted by heatherlogan at 9:39 AM on May 8, 2022
posted by heatherlogan at 9:39 AM on May 8, 2022
Were all your entries stored in the same calendar? Or several calendars (like “Work”, “Social” or whatever) When you look in the Calendar list do you see all your calendars and is there a checkmark beside them?
posted by miles1972 at 10:07 AM on May 8, 2022
posted by miles1972 at 10:07 AM on May 8, 2022
Response by poster: I had all my entries on one calendar.
Right now I'm checking calendars via icloud, mac and google. The Mac calendar shows some old recurring events I had not been seeing in the last few months, but not more recent entries, which i suppose I automatically did on Icloud calendar.
Normally I don't even notice if I'm using icloud or the mac version -- I just open the calendar on the laptop and type in an entry. Now, as with so many things, there are multiple versions from multiple venues and I guess they have not synched.
posted by nantucket at 10:12 AM on May 8, 2022
Right now I'm checking calendars via icloud, mac and google. The Mac calendar shows some old recurring events I had not been seeing in the last few months, but not more recent entries, which i suppose I automatically did on Icloud calendar.
Normally I don't even notice if I'm using icloud or the mac version -- I just open the calendar on the laptop and type in an entry. Now, as with so many things, there are multiple versions from multiple venues and I guess they have not synched.
posted by nantucket at 10:12 AM on May 8, 2022
What do you see on the calendar app on iCloud.com?
posted by Geckwoistmeinauto at 10:38 AM on May 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by Geckwoistmeinauto at 10:38 AM on May 8, 2022 [1 favorite]
Do you have any other calendars syncing in your Apple calendar that somehow might not be working? For example, I have google calendar and outlook (via exchange) being pulled into my calendar for Reasons, and on a couple of occasions password changes and other security measures or url changes have caused them to unsync and have been a pita to troubleshoot but resulted in a full calendar suddenly being empty.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:00 AM on May 8, 2022
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:00 AM on May 8, 2022
Response by poster: In another episode of "I've looked at ICloud from both sides now, " the calendar events have mysteriously restored themselves. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions.
posted by nantucket at 12:52 PM on May 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by nantucket at 12:52 PM on May 8, 2022 [2 favorites]
I had this happen to me last week. All my calendar events disappeared from my calendars on my Mac. They were still visible on my iPhone and in iCloud.
The following process brought them back. I mention this in case the problem comes back, or someone else runs into it.
Quit the Calendar app.
Open the folder ~/Library/Calendars/ and use Time Machine to restore the previous day's copies of the files "Calendar Cache", "Calendar Cache-wal", and "Calendar Cache-shm".
Restart the Calendar app.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:22 PM on May 8, 2022
The following process brought them back. I mention this in case the problem comes back, or someone else runs into it.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 5:22 PM on May 8, 2022
Can you export your calendar? Often this creates a file in Internet Calendar Standard format, which usually has an ".ics" file extension. It's a text file in a standardized format which can, because it's standardized, be imported into many calendar programs (although it may have some Apple-specific X-components in the file which might not be useful to something else). I'd do this now, and maybe regularly.
With the .ics file you can migrate to another calendar application if you decide to, or you can load a copy into a Google calendar "just in case", or e-mail it to yourself and open it on your phone which should open in the default calendar app on the phone.
posted by TimHare at 6:38 PM on May 8, 2022
With the .ics file you can migrate to another calendar application if you decide to, or you can load a copy into a Google calendar "just in case", or e-mail it to yourself and open it on your phone which should open in the default calendar app on the phone.
posted by TimHare at 6:38 PM on May 8, 2022
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posted by nantucket at 8:45 AM on May 8, 2022