Double Birthdays in Calendar

[macpeach55]

Hi,

After the upgrade to Mountain Lion, I have all Birthdays showing twice in Calendar.

In Contacts all my cards show that there are linked cards on my mac and in iCloud, so I wonder if this is the cause - but if the cards are linked it seems strange that they would produce two entries.

I did an upgrade, not a clean install by the way.

Any thoughts anyone?

 

[Weaselboy]

Click on the Calendars button in my screen cap and what do you see there? Is Birthdays there more than once?

 

[GGJstudios]

After the upgrade to Mountain Lion, I have all Birthdays showing twice in Calendar.

iCloud: Resolving duplicate calendars after setting up your calendar application for iCloud Calendar

 

[macpeach55]

Click on the Calendars button in my screen cap and what do you see there? Is Birthdays there more than once?

Image

No, just the one.

 

[macpeach55]

iCloud: Resolving duplicate calendars after setting up your calendar application for iCloud Calendar

This is in the "Subscriptions" section as Weaselboy showed on his posting. No Calendars are duplicated, just this single Birthday subscription shows everything twice

 

[Weaselboy]

In Contacts all my cards show that there are linked cards on my mac and in iCloud, so I wonder if this is the cause - but if the cards are linked it seems strange that they would produce two entries.

I think this is the issue. You don't want those both there, you normally would just want the iCloud contacts there (assuming they are the same).

Before you start monkeying around, start contacts and do a command-a to select all contacts, then go to the File menu and Export and export to VCard as a backup. Don't want you to lose any data.

 

[macpeach55]

I think this is the issue. You don't want those both there, you normally would just want the iCloud contacts there (assuming they are the same).

Before you start monkeying around, start contacts and do a command-a to select all contacts, then go to the File menu and Export and export to VCard as a backup. Don't want you to lose any data.

Ok, thanks - export is done and safely on my desktop

 

[Weaselboy]

Ok, thanks - export is done and safely on my desktop

Okay, now delete all contacts from both iCloud and On My Mac so the entire address book is empty. Then import that Vcard file and when it asks where to import point it to iCloud. That should get all your contacts in just iCloud.

 

[macpeach55]

Okay, now delete all contacts from both iCloud and On My Mac so the entire address book is empty. Then import that Vcard file and when it asks where to import point it to iCloud. That should get all your contacts in just iCloud.

I just deleted all the contacts from On my Mac, but stopped there to ask - all the groups are now empty. The Groups in iCloud are still there online, but they don't show up in the address book - the only item above On My Mac is "All Contacts"
I am concerned about losing all the Groups if I delete the iCloud contacts as well, and wonder how to get the iCloud Groups to show in my Address Book

 

[Weaselboy]

I just deleted all the contacts from On my Mac, but stopped there to ask - all the groups are now empty. The Groups in iCloud are still there online, but they don't show up in the address book - the only item above On My Mac is "All Contacts"
I am concerned about losing all the Groups if I delete the iCloud contacts as well, and wonder how to get the iCloud Groups to show in my Address Book

The VCard format does not remember groups, so you will lose that. The problem is the second export format on the export menu gives you a .ABBU format that does remember groups, but can't be imported to iCloud. Catch 22. I went through this myself when iCloud first came out. It is mentioned in the below Apple Support article.

I suspect the reason you are still seeing groups at iCloud.com is the Address Book sync just has not caught up yet.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4910

 

[macpeach55]

The VCard format does not remember groups, so you will lose that. The problem is the second export format on the export menu gives you a .ABBU format that does remember groups, but can't be imported to iCloud. Catch 22. I went through this myself when iCloud first came out. It is mentioned in the below Apple Support article.

I suspect the reason you are still seeing groups at iCloud.com is the Address Book sync just has not caught up yet.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4910

Ok, thank you all understood. Then I will try and do a roll back for now as my groups are more important to me than the doubled-up Birthdays

Thank you for all the help - very much appreciated!!

 

[macpeach55]

The VCard format does not remember groups, so you will lose that. The problem is the second export format on the export menu gives you a .ABBU format that does remember groups, but can't be imported to iCloud. Catch 22. I went through this myself when iCloud first came out. It is mentioned in the below Apple Support article.

I suspect the reason you are still seeing groups at iCloud.com is the Address Book sync just has not caught up yet.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4910

A Happy ending! rolled back the Address Book On My Mac so all my Groups are working again, but the duplicate Birthdays are gone! Fantastic!

 

[Weaselboy]

A Happy ending! rolled back the Address Book On My Mac so all my Groups are working again, but the duplicate Birthdays are gone! Fantastic!

Excellent!

 

[macpeach55]

Excellent!

Ah, spoke too soon; the double entries are back this morning - I thought it was too good to be true!

 

[Weaselboy]

Ah, spoke too soon; the double entries are back this morning - I thought it was too good to be true!

Can you move the On my Mac entries over into the iCloud section, then remove duplicates? If you look under the Card menu there is a remove duplicates command. It does look like having On my Mac and iCloud both is causing this.

 

[tkermit]

Have you tried to remove and add again this checkmark. Solved it for me...

 

[macpeach55]

Can you move the On my Mac entries over into the iCloud section, then remove duplicates? If you look under the Card menu there is a remove duplicates command. It does look like having On my Mac and iCloud both is causing this.

The two sets of Contacts are identical, and if I look at any card, they all say

Linked Card On My Mac
iCloud

But if I remove the On My Mac Cards, the Groups in my Address Book remain, but are all empty. The Groups in iCloud (looked at online or on my iPad for example) remain populated.

So definitely the problem is caused by the two sets of cards, but the problem is keeping the Groups populated in the Address Book - it would be a long process to manually repopulate them

----------

Have you tried to remove and add again this checkmark. Solved it for me...

Image

Just tried it - even un-ticked, closed Calendar, and re-ticked, but still double entries and double reminders

 

[Weaselboy]

The two sets of Contacts are identical, and if I look at any card, they all say

Linked Card On My Mac
iCloud

But if I remove the On My Mac Cards, the Groups in my Address Book remain, but are all empty. The Groups in iCloud (looked at online or on my iPad for example) remain populated.

So definitely the problem is caused by the two sets of cards, but the problem is keeping the Groups populated in the Address Book - it would be a long process to manually repopulate them

Look in iTunes for each iOS device and under the info tab make sure all those Sync Calendar and Sync Contacts settings are unchecked. If they are checked that will manually sync a set in iTunes and another set in iCloud.

Also, make sure you have this setting in Contacts prefs set so new entries go to iCloud.

Another thought. How many groups do you have?

You can export VCards by group. Open the third pane in the left side of Contacts so you can see all the groups. Mouse grab a group and drag it to the desktop. That will give you a VCF file with just the contacts in that group.

Do this for each group and you will have let's say five VCF files. (Also to the command-a to select all first to get all the cards in one file as a second backup, plus your normal backup so we can undo this)

Now delete all entries in the address book including iCloud and On my Mac. Give it a minute to sync and check icloud.com to make sure everything is gone.

If they are gone, recreate all your blank groups name under the iCloud section in the left pane.

Now drag the first group VCF file into Contacts. They import and be listed in the Last Import smart group on the left. Click the Last Import group and select then drag all those cards into the group you want.

Now drag the second group VCF file in. It will not be listed in the Last Import group. Do the same thing, and drag it into it's group name. Do this for each group VCF.

If you only have a few groups this will get the job done manually.

 

[macpeach55]

Look in iTunes for each iOS device and under the info tab make sure all those Sync Calendar and Sync Contacts settings are unchecked. If they are checked that will manually sync a set in iTunes and another set in iCloud.

Also, make sure you have this setting in Contacts prefs set so new entries go to iCloud.

Another thought. How many groups do you have?

You can export VCards by group. Open the third pane in the left side of Contacts so you can see all the groups. Mouse grab a group and drag it to the desktop. That will give you a VCF file with just the contacts in that group.

Do this for each group and you will have let's say five VCF files. (Also to the command-a to select all first to get all the cards in one file as a second backup, plus your normal backup so we can undo this)

Now delete all entries in the address book including iCloud and On my Mac. Give it a minute to sync and check icloud.com to make sure everything is gone.

If they are gone, recreate all your blank groups name under the iCloud section in the left pane.

Now drag the first group VCF file into Contacts. They import and be listed in the Last Import smart group on the left. Click the Last Import group and select then drag all those cards into the group you want.

Now drag the second group VCF file in. It will not be listed in the Last Import group. Do the same thing, and drag it into it's group name. Do this for each group VCF.

If you only have a few groups this will get the job done manually.

I did these settings when I moved to iCloud and all are already as you suggest, except Calendars on my iPod Touch as that does not sync with iCloud.

And unfortunately I have a lot of Groups, probably 50, all necessary for Business. So that would be a big operation. I imagine there has to be a way to "see the iCloud Groups in Address book, just need to figure out how.

 

[Weaselboy]

I did these settings when I moved to iCloud and all are already as you suggest, except Calendars on my iPod Touch as that does not sync with iCloud.

And unfortunately I have a lot of Groups, probably 50, all necessary for Business. So that would be a big operation. I imagine there has to be a way to "see the iCloud Groups in Address book, just need to figure out how.

If you have manual Contacts sync turned on in iTunes for ANY device like you do for your iPod Touch, that will create a On my Mac set in Contacts. You might try just temporarily turning that off if iTunes and see what happens.

I search some, and don't see any easy way to automate this.

 

[macpeach55]

If you have manual Contacts sync turned on in iTunes for ANY device like you do for your iPod Touch, that will create a On my Mac set in Contacts. You might try just temporarily turning that off if iTunes and see what happens.

I search some, and don't see any easy way to automate this.

Contacts are totally off in ITunes for both devices. They both sync Contacts only via iCloud, just with the Touch there is no iCloud sync option for Calendars. I have anyway temporarily turned that off but no change on Birthdays.

 

[Weaselboy]

Contacts are totally off in ITunes for both devices. They both sync Contacts only via iCloud, just with the Touch there is no iCloud sync option for Calendars. I have anyway temporarily turned that off but no change on Birthdays.

What happens when you do the Look for Duplicates command in the menu? Will that allow a merge of the two maybe?

 

[macpeach55]

What happens when you do the Look for Duplicates command in the menu? Will that allow a merge of the two maybe?

Nope - because they are "Linked" it sees them as a single card for each entry

 

[Weaselboy]

Nope - because they are "Linked" it sees them as a single card for each entry

Bah! I don't see a way around this other than a manual export and import like I described. Maybe somebody else will chime in with a better idea.

 

[macpeach55]

Bah! I don't see a way around this other than a manual export and import like I described. Maybe somebody else will chime in with a better idea.

Yeah, fingers crossed on that!
I popped a question onto the Apple USA Forum, but that is always so swamped with postings I doubt I will get a reply