Calendar Sync

I am trying to import the church calendar into my Apple Ical calendar.

Here are the instructions given-

To one-way sync your Church calendar to your Apple iCal calendar:

1. Copy the following iCal URL:


This URL is provided for your own personal use. It should not be shared with anyone else.

2. In iCal, select Calendar and then Subscribe...
3. Paste the URL into the given field.
4. Click Subscribe.

After completing all these steps I get an error message which reads-

There was an error subscribing to the calendar.

Can anyone please explain why the calendar will not sync after following the instructions?

I'm having the same problem...but with Google calendar. If you have your calendar syncing is this what your link from https://lds.org/church-calendar/export.jsp looks like?

http://lds.org/church-calendar/services ... subscribe/[19 digit number]

Thanks

DirtPoki,

I've been having the same problems for about a month now. I imagine they haven't quite got the bugs worked out yet.

Scott.

aarastas wrote:I'm having the same problem...but with Google calendar. If you have your calendar syncing is this what your link from https://lds.org/church-calendar/export.jsp looks like?

http://lds.org/church-calendar/services ... subscribe/[19 digit number]

Thanks

Yes, that's exactly what my link looks like, and my Google calendar syncs correctly. So the problem is clearly not universal.

I updated the calendar subscription URL in iCal and in my iPhone from http://new.lds.org/[...] to http://lds.org/[...] and had no problems in either case getting the subscription to work/update/sync.

This was using Mac OS 10.6.5 with iCal 4.0.4 on an Intel MacMini, and iOS 4.2.1 and iOS 4.1 on the iPhone 3G.

I'm getting a similar problem. Trying to import
http://new.lds.org/church-calendar/serv ... be/<number>
and nothing appears on my Google calendar although there are items on the ward calendar.
Just tried
http://lds.org/church-calendar/services ... be/<number>
with no luck yet.

I am also unable to sync in either Google/ICAL/Outlook. The URL provided when entered in a browser either returns XML error or nothing at all.

Is someone aware of this bug and working on fixing?

We need to know this information in order to advise our Stake Members since we have fully converted over to the new calendar.

JedWare wrote:I am also unable to sync in either Google/ICAL/Outlook. The URL provided when entered in a browser either returns XML error or nothing at all.

Is someone aware of this bug and working on fixing?

Have you reported the bug using the Feedback link? The calendar sync works fine for me, so I have felt no need to report anything. But those who need to know will hear about it if you use the Feedback link. It's by no means certain that anyone who needs to know will see these forum posts.

After updating my links to http://lds.org/church-calendar/services ... be/<number> I added an event to the new ward calendar to see if iCal and my iPhones really were updating/syncing correctly with the new ward calendar. The newly added event showed up almost instantaneously both upon opening iCal and the calendar app on my iPhone.

Could there possibly be some firewall settings or other types of internet filtering interfering with the processing of the URL?

EDIT:
I tried following the instructions to add the one-way ward calendar sync to my Google calendar, and got no results--no error messages, no events, nothing except a new calendar listing that has no events.

I couldn't get Outlook (2003) to add the calendar either, but my version of Outlook is not connected to an Exchange server. I don't know if that makes a difference. I only got an error message stating that Windows didn't know how to process the link; it never gave me an option to open it with any app, let alone Outlook.

Alan_Brown wrote:Have you reported the bug using the Feedback link? The calendar sync works fine for me, so I have felt no need to report anything. But those who need to know will hear about it if you use the Feedback link. It's by no means certain that anyone who needs to know will see these forum posts.

Since we asked about 20 people in our stake to test and they all reported the same problem I figured it was a more wide spread problem that they should already be investigating.

I submitted feedback, under category of Other since there was no category for website or calendar. Given the other feedback in this thread I would say I am not alone.

Sync is still down for me. I checked this morning and it is interesting that the 19 digit number is changing. I am now seeing the third different number when selecting the sync options.

I would of thought that number would be unique to members and not changing.

JedWare wrote:Sync is still down for me. I checked this morning and it is interesting that the 19 digit number is changing. I am now seeing the third different number when selecting the sync options.

I would of thought that number would be unique to members and not changing.

That is indeed interesting -- I think you might be on to something. I have never had any sync problems, but my 19-digit number has remained constant (or at least the last 4 digits have remained constant -- that's all I've paid sufficient attention to).

If somehow your calendar ID is not consistent, then there could clearly be problems with the syncing application getting your calendar data. Has anyone else who is having sync problems noticed this inconsistency?

Yes, I get a new unique number every time I open the sync utility.

JedWare wrote:I checked this morning and it is interesting that the 19 digit number is changing.

aarastas wrote:Yes, I get a new unique number every time I open the sync utility.

This should not be happening, so you should report the problem using the Feedback link.

Under new.lds.org, I was able to successfully sync my LDS calendar with my Google calendar, but at (or around) the time of the change, I am now unable to do so. The same address (with webcals instead of http) works Outlook.

Is this issue being addressed?

I also am having this problem and get a new id every time I try and sync. I am unsuccessful with outlook or google.

I see from the chorus of replies on the forum that there are numerous people still unable to sync.

I submitted a ticket over a week ago and still no response. I suspect the only people that are syncing are those that initiated the sync before the cut over on Nov 30th.

This issue looks to go beyond just isolated users or stakes and still no one has even responded with acknowledgement of the issue.

Is anyone listening?

JedWare wrote:I submitted a ticket over a week ago and still no response.
...
Is anyone listening?

How did you submit a "ticket"? I know of no way to do that. The only way I know of for submitting feedback explicitly says that you can't count on any response. So I wouldn't call that a "ticket." I have submitted many issues and never received a response.

But the lack of response does not mean that no one is listening. My experience is that many of the issues I've raised do get addressed within a few weeks. It does take time to reproduce a problem, analyze it, fix it, test it, and deploy it -- usually with several other fixes and enhancements.

Sorry it was "Feedback" and not a ticket. Either way I am need of some confirmation that the issue is being addressed and ideally some timeline when it should be fixed.

I have our stake presidency needing this information to coordinate our stake calendar release. Is there someone I need to call on this issue?

JedWare wrote:Is anyone listening?

It takes valuable time to write up a response. The programmers working on the issues and bugs would more than likely be the ones to respond to a forum issue or website feedback. What is more productive, responding to an issue or website feedback or actually working on the issue or bug?

While I am one who would like to see a response, I would rather see the issue or bug fixed rather than get a response and the work effort be delayed. When we see or hear about an issue that has been fixed or implemented we know they are listening and working.

There are some Church employees who participate in these forums and give some timely information. That is voluntary on their part and does take some of their personal time. I congratulate them.

JedWare wrote:I have our stake presidency needing this information to coordinate our stake calendar release.

I would suggest abandoning this line of thinking. We frequently don't get feedback until it's fixed. On rare occasions when time lines are given, they slip.

My personal recommendation is that you wait until enough bugs have been removed from the calendar that you feel it's ready for prime time and THEN plan a cut over. Cutting over too soon is worse then cutting over too late.

I'm sure the SP would like information now so he can plan, but I think that approach is just going to lead to frustration.

JedWare wrote:I am need of some confirmation that the issue is being addressed and ideally some timeline when it should be fixed.

I have our stake presidency needing this information to coordinate our stake calendar release. Is there someone I need to call on this issue?

Unfortunately there is nobody you can call that is authorized to give you the information you want. We seldom, if ever, get a timeline for technology projects. We have heard from Church employees that the internal time lines will not be released to the public. All too often when a timeline is set there are issues that may delay it.

The only timeline related to the new calendar is sometime in February for a new look that will be simplified and more intuitive. That timeline and description of what to come is vague for those wanting more precision and detail.

In the last 2 weeks there have been 424 responses submitted about the calendar and directory. I try to skim them to note trends with problems. From that list and from forums posts I've created the Known Limitations page (which unfortunately keeps growing).

If you feel that submitting bugs via the feedback or through this forum is landing on deaf ears, feel free to send them to me directly at johnsonth@ldschurch.org. The calendar team is fairly small. We were pressured to cut over with the transition from new.lds.org to lds.org. We know there are bugs, esp. with sync, and there's no clear resolution for many of them. Sorry, we're working on it.

Thank you Tom. That was a good idea to put up that page.

Any update on the sync issue?

Shouldn't we be able to past the provided link into a browser and see the calendar? If I paste the link provided to me to sync with "http://lds.org/church-calendar/services ... 356023xxxx"
into a browser I get:


This page contains the following errors:

error on line 1 at column 1: Document is empty
Below is a rendering of the page up to the first error.

The instructions to use the calendar in iCal or google are very simple. It would be very difficult to make a mistake... It seem as though they just don't work.

Does anyone have suggestions?

I am having the same problem with trying to sync through Apple's iCal on my MacBook Pro. The actual messages are "There was an error subscribing to the calendar." and "There was an unexpected error with the request on subscribed calendars (error -1)."

At this point I am unsure how to get a clearer determination of why there was an unexpected error. An Apple forum may have some answers and/or be able to point to an internal log of what is occurring.

You guys should check out what Tom Johnson posted on the calendar wiki/help:

https://tech.lds.org/ldshelp/index.php5 ... imitations

I've got a different problem.

I created a calendar and added 4 events in January. I then got a sync URL and pasted it into my Google calender. Even after waiting overnight, none of the events is showing up in Google.

If I paste that URL into a web browser, I get a file that contains the events. I've verified that the URL in Google is correct and that it's set to show.

I've not pulled up the specifications for the format to see if there's something wrong with the layout.

RussellHltn wrote:I created a calendar and added 4 events in January. I then got a sync URL and pasted it into my Google calender. Even after waiting overnight, none of the events is showing up in Google.

I don't know what factors affect the delay, but I know our stake executive secretary added some events to a stake calendar on Sunday. I noticed on Wednesday that they still weren't appearing on my synced Google calendar. I didn't look yesterday, but today (Friday) they are showing up. So that's a delay of at least 3 days, possibly as much as 5.

I don't consider such a delay to be reasonable, but it's worth noting that the problem you're reporting may simply be a long delay, rather than an outright failure.

My experience isn't so much a delayed sync as it is a failure to import when set up.

RussellHltn wrote:My experience isn't so much a delayed sync as it is a failure to import when set up.

But how can you tell the difference? Does it actually give you an error message? What if your new synced calendar is set up upon import, but the events are still a few days from appearing? I certainly don't know if that is happening, but if syncing takes so long for an existing calendar, it seems plausible that the same delay could be happening for newly imported calendars as well.

Alan_Brown wrote:But how can you tell the difference?

The difference is an event that's already on the calendar when I set it up in Google and one that's added/changed later.

At this point it appears to be a Google problem. I would have expected Google to poll immediately upon setup. It doesn't seem to be doing that. I see no options to force a poll. I don't get any errors that indicate a problem. It just doesn't work.

If I import the file I get from the web browser, it work fine.

Poking around Google:

iCal feeds are not refreshing

We've received reports from users indicating that iCal feeds in Google Calendar are not updating or are experiencing delays in updating. Our team is currently investigating.

Right next to this is a button to report the issue.

I have some new information about the calendar sync. Apparently, the URL is supposed to constantly change each time you refresh the page. When the URL changes, the old URL no longer works. So if you sync'd your calendar using a URL, and then you go back to Options > Sync, the URL will be different, and your previous sync will no longer work.

Does that explain why so many people are receiving errors with the sync?

tomjohnson1492 wrote:I have some new information about the calendar sync. Apparently, the URL is supposed to constantly change each time you refresh the page. When the URL changes, the old URL no longer works. So if you sync'd your calendar using a URL, and then you go back to Options > Sync, the URL will be different, and your previous sync will no longer work.

Does that explain why so many people are receiving errors with the sync?

No, because the URL doesn't change for me when I re-visit the sync page (thankfully). iCal continues to update fine, but there is a substantial delay updating events in Google if they update at all.

tomjohnson1492 wrote:I have some new information about the calendar sync. Apparently, the URL is supposed to constantly change each time you refresh the page. When the URL changes, the old URL no longer works. So if you sync'd your calendar using a URL, and then you go back to Options > Sync, the URL will be different, and your previous sync will no longer work.

Does that explain why so many people are receiving errors with the sync?

The URL isn't changing for me either. On that note, is there any way to force it to change? Google calendar has this function which can be used if you've shared a calendar with someone and you no longer wish to share it with them - you just have Google issue a new URL. It makes sense that this functionality should exist (although I would prefer to manually force it to change - not have it change every time I visit the sync page).

On a related note, I pasted the URL directly into my browser and downloaded the ical file. I then manually imported that file into Google, and it worked perfectly. Therefore, the data appears to be there, and appears to be correct.

I'll continue to follow this thread for updates.

Update: Further to my last post, I just tried setting up the URL as an internet calendar on my wife's Cozi calendar and the sync worked perfectly. Therefore, it appears that the issue may be on Google's end (for those who are having problems specifically with Google). I checked Google calendar help and found that this is a known issue. See http://www.google.com/support/calendar/ ... _issues.cs

Hopefully this will get resolved. This is one of the main functions that I was looking forward to utilizing.

The URL is not changing for me either. I can download the data ok, but Google doesn't seem to be able to. Is something blocking Google's servers?

RussellHltn wrote:The URL is not changing for me either.

Two thoughts.

1. My browser is sometimes very feisty and loads the cached page unless forced beyond measure to load an updated page, even when I press the reload button. Sometimes the only way to get a real something is to clear the cache.

2. In my Google/iPod Touch experience, Google has a little quirk in my personal calendar where it decides on occasion to wipe my iTouch calendar and relay it again from Google. This always comes, of course, at the most inopportune times, and takes about three minutes, on average. If a whole lot of changes are taking place at the calendar, this may be a causative factor.

There seem to be two times when this wipe/relay takes place.

a. About once a month, from the time I first synced the calendar to my iTouch.

b. Whenever I have made a significant number of changes to the calendar, either on the iTouch or at Google. I do not know how many is significant. I do know that Google sometimes often relays the calendar with its data, and does not pick up on all of the changes I made on my iTouch. This is tolerable for items I deleted (which have to be deleted again), and abominable for items I added (which are now totally missing).

Ah, the joys of technology.

lajackson wrote:1. My browser is sometimes very feisty and loads the cached page unless forced beyond measure to load an updated page, even when I press the reload button. Sometimes the only way to get a real something is to clear the cache.

The Reload button in Firefox's toolbar does not bypass the cache. You should, however, be able to reload the page without using the cache in a few ways (these are for Windows):

• Ctrl+Shift+R
• Ctrl+F5
• Shift+Click the Reload button

Keyboard shortcuts in Mozilla Firefox

When I have a problem with a cache, I open the browser's "private" window. Quick, easy and always works.

I am having the same problem, along with every other member of our stake. The Calendar won't sync and the subscribe code changes every time I log in.

mackayr wrote:Update: Further to my last post, I just tried setting up the URL as an internet calendar on my wife's Cozi calendar and the sync worked perfectly.

I created a Cozi calendar, used the URL and everything worked flawlessly. Definitely looks to be a Google issue.

scottjarrard wrote:I am having the same problem, along with every other member of our stake. The Calendar won't sync and the subscribe code changes every time I log in.

The sync URL changing every time is a known bug. See post #43 at https://tech.lds.org/forum/showthread.php?6303-Calendar-sync-issues/page5

As for me, mine was constantly changing until this week. So I'm not sure if they are slowing rolling out the fix or I just got lucky.