iCal sync not working - Mountain Lion

Discussions about the Calendar Tool at lds.org. Questions about the calendar on the classic site should be posted in the LUWS forum.
kyleq
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Posts: 288
Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2010 2:28 pm
Location: US

#21

Post by kyleq »

Thank you everyone for supporting each other and getting clarification on this issue. From this thread it has become quite evident that we need to review the allowed sync interval. We'll be discussing it today. If the decision is to change then it will go out with our next update which will be coming very soon.

Just for conversation what interval do y'all feel would be reasonable and useful?
boliviakid
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Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:49 pm
Location: Colorado Springs, CO, USA

Update to previous post

#22

Post by boliviakid »

As an update to my post yesterday, I turned off all subscriptions to my LDS calendar on all my devices last night. Like "marshallcl" mentioned in a previous post, when I was getting the error I deleted the LDS calendar entry in my MacBook Pro and couldn't add it back in. So this morning I was able to add it back successfully (no error message), but none of the calendar entries have appeared yet.

Interestingly, when I added it, it did give me the option of "Once a day", which was different than going into the settings for an existing calendar.

So, still no LDS calendar entries, but I'll give it an hour and do a manual refresh to see if it will pull them in.
MarshallCL
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Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 12:36 pm

#23

Post by MarshallCL »

kyleq wrote:Just for conversation what interval do y'all feel would be reasonable and useful?

It's hard to say. In my case the one-hour sync limit is only a problem with multiple devices since one can prevent others from updating, otherwise it would be okay. In fact, now I am aware of the issue it isn't really a problem. Perhaps 15 minutes or possibly 30 minutes minimum - with a default setting of daily?

[Moderator note: This post originally also raised a separate subject, which is now in the separate thread Sync only goes back 30 days.]
boliviakid
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Joined: Thu Sep 20, 2012 10:49 pm
Location: Colorado Springs, CO, USA

#24

Post by boliviakid »

kyleq wrote:
Just for conversation what interval do y'all feel would be reasonable and useful?

I not 100% sure but the behavior I seem to be seeing is that in just trying to subscribe with Apple's iCal on my MacBook Pro, as soon as you enter the URL in the subscribe process it seems to "ping" the calendar server to make sure it's there. When I go to the calendar there are no entries - perhaps because it's then trying to pull the data but since it's not been an hour since the last query it can't do it?

I can understand the load that may be placed unnecessarily on the servers by people checking their calendars every minute or every five minutes (which, for a church calendar, is certainly unnecessary for nearly everyone) but the side effects are painful and not user friendly, especially for those who subscribe directly from multiple devices. I still don't have my calendar back on my MBP, only on the iPhone and iPad at the moment. It's a mess trying to figure out how to sync and when to do it to avoid the access limitation.

Please give serious consideration to lifting the timeout period all together with some strong recommendations on the Sync page that users set the frequency to once a day or at a minimum once an hour.

I've spent a lot of time on this since the change, just trying to get it to work again. Mandatory limits on the connection frequency don't work well with the tools we have today and makes for a very frustrating and confusing experience - compared to what was a totally successful and uneventful process before.
justinrudd
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Joined: Tue May 29, 2012 12:46 pm

#25

Post by justinrudd »

RussellHltn wrote:One of the big changes is that the updated system only allows one sync per hour.
Please document this information on the Calendar sync page.
kyleq
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Posts: 288
Joined: Mon Aug 16, 2010 2:28 pm
Location: US

#26

Post by kyleq »

Based on the feedback in this thread we've adjusted the request period to a minimum of 9 mins. We feel like we'll still get the performance protections we need with this interval and hopefully provide users with the flexibility needed. You guys are spectacular! Thank you very much for your feedback and willingness to help us out. It means a lot and carries a lot of weight in our discussions about how to improve the product.
justinrudd
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Posts: 3
Joined: Tue May 29, 2012 12:46 pm

#27

Post by justinrudd »

RussellHltn wrote:One of the big changes is that the updated system only allows one sync per hour.
So what happens if I have, for example, 2 GMail accounts each with their own calendar and each having imported by URL my LDS calendar? Won't they both try to sync and only one succeeds per hour? Or if I want to sync my LDS calendar with Outlook and my iTouch, wouldn't that conflict as well?

It seems like you could limit the sync per hour to a particular device, or requester. It would be nice for developers like me who want to integrate the calendar sync into 3rd party apps to at least be able to sync with different browsers each once in the same hour. Even better would be to reduce the hour limit to 20-30 minutes. Thanks.
MarshallCL
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Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 12:36 pm

#28

Post by MarshallCL »

aebrown wrote:For me personally, I have no problem with the 30 day limit. I am constantly looking forward, but rarely looking back. I can see why you might want more than 30 days, but a full year seems overly generous. In any case, the developers need to strike the right balance between usability and performance -- it's a tricky problem.
I suppose for many users this is true; not everyone needs to look back more than a month or so; but sit in a planning meeting for next year's ward or stake calendar and in five minutes the need to look back at least a full year is obvious. Indeed, in a multitude of leadership roles the need to check the date of a previous event or meeting occurs frequently. Of course, one can always check online, where all past events are still available, but that requires an internet connection which is not always available and is less convenient. I suppose it is tricky striking the right balance, but for my personal needs the minimum is a full year of back entries; though ideally I would prefer the current year plus the previous year.
MarshallCL
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Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 12:36 pm

Calendar Sync Still Not Working

#29

Post by MarshallCL »

I have followed this and related threads carefully and contributed a few times. Last week I decided to delete my subscriptions and start from scratch including a new URL. What a frustrating and perplexing experience! My household setup: my wife's MacBook Pro, my own MacBook Pro, iPhone and iPad - four devices in all. We share our calendar which is hosted in iCloud. We use OS X 10.8.2 (Mountain Lion) and iOS 6.0. The system was smooth and flawless until calendar version 2.2 appeared in August. Note in the following account that I carefully monitored calendar use on all devices to avoid the 1-hour sync limit since I didn't know when this would be changed to 9 minutes (this was a painstaking chore). My experience:

1. I could not get the Apple calendar on my laptop to accept an LDS calendar subscription - after pasting the URL it attempted to connect but gave an error message. After 8 or 9 attempts over most of a day it suddenly, inexplicably worked and the subscribed calendar was set up (I didn't do anything different from previous attempts).
2. Although the subscription was now set up, it would not sync any events - it was an empty calendar. I continued to attempt syncing for two full days, then like the subscription it suddenly worked and my stake and ward events appeared.
3. The subscription was finally successful on my wife's laptop, but the calendar is still empty after three or four days of trying! We just get a message saying the LDS calendar can't be refreshed.
4. The iPad and iPhone sync more easily than the MBPs - so even while the calendar was empty on my laptop the iPad and iPhone picked up the events. They also seem to refresh more easily - test events I insert in the ward calendar appear quickly in the iPad but take hours if not days to appear in my laptop.
5. Even though the sync limit is now 9 minutes, most of the time, including when using my laptop in the morning after all devices have been switched off overnight, there is an exclamation triangle next to the subscribed calendar, indicating that a refresh is not possible. Manual syncing appears to work randomly and is certainly not possible at 9 minute intervals.
6. Thinking the problem might be something to do with using iCloud as host, I removed the subscriptions from iCloud, and located them on the local device, but the same issues persisted.
7. All our other calendars sync without difficulty and almost instantly - the problems ONLY occur with LDS calendar.

HELP!!! For my family at present LDS calendar is a time consuming challenge - yet it used to be an easy, helpful and time-saving tool.
MarshallCL
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Posts: 13
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 12:36 pm

Calendar Sync Still Not Working - Update

#30

Post by MarshallCL »

marshallcl wrote: 3. The subscription was finally successful on my wife's laptop, but the calendar is still empty after three or four days of trying! We just get a message saying the LDS calendar can't be refreshed.
Update: First thing this morning I opened Calendar on my wife's laptop, and all the LDS calendar entries appeared - five days after the subscription was set up! I did the same thing on previous mornings, and periodically during each day - I did nothing different this morning, simply switched on the computer and opened Calendar.

I opened Calendar on my own laptop (more than 9 minutes after turning my wife's off) and test entries which I inserted in our ward calendar yesterday morning, which have appeared in my wife's calendar do not appear in mine. "Info" in my Calendar informs me that the last update for LDS calendar on my computer was two days ago, on Tuesday, even though I have it set for "daily" automatic updates and have attempted several manual updates as well.

Our stake calendar changes month by month and sometimes week by week so this unpredictability is a major issue; I can never be quite sure if I have the latest information or not.
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