Tech Forum

The sync to Google Calendar does not appear to be working. I noticed this on 1/12/14. I went through the steps to restart the sync by initiating and copying the new URL, however Google says it is unable to communicate with the URL. This appears to be on the Church side, as my other calendars are working and syncing correctly.

brucejay wrote:The sync to Google Calendar does not appear to be working. I noticed this on 1/12/14. I went through the steps to restart the sync by initiating and copying the new URL, however Google says it is unable to communicate with the URL. This appears to be on the Church side, as my other calendars are working and syncing correctly.

The sync to my Google Calendar is working just fine from my LDS.org calendar.

Are you aware that there is a 9-minute throttle on the sync service for LDS.org calendars? That means that after accessing your personal sync URL in any way (on any device, or application, or directly accessing the URL in a browser to download the iCal file), you will not be successful in accessing it again until at least 9 minutes later.

Is there any chance your unsuccessful sync attempt was less than 9 minutes after some other sync attempt?

I waited at least nine minutes. I went to the calendar sync page and generated a new sync URL. I then copied the new sync URL and then signed out of the calendar.
I then signed on to Google calendar and added the URL per the instructions. (I have done this before.) Google calendar showed the calendar was importing. The importing message then disappeared and loading flashed for about 10 minutes. The URL was visible in the other calendars section.
"Loading" then stopped flashing and the error message below appeared. The URL also disappeared from the other calendars section. (The address in the error message showed the full sync URL from LDS.org sync page).

Settings Error
Failed to import calendar from "http://www.lds.org/church-calendar/serv ... subscribe/..."

There is an obvious communication issue, either on the Church servers or on Google's. I assume it is on the Church's side because my other calendars (work, etc.) seem to be syncing fine. However, it is possible it is a Google Sync issue.

I'm not sure what affect creating a new URL has on the 9 minute timer. It may start over.

I was looking at my calendar on my Android device (which syncs via Google calendar), and can see that there must have been a successful sync today as I have new events added.

brucejay wrote:There is an obvious communication issue, either on the Church servers or on Google's. I assume it is on the Church's side because my other calendars (work, etc.) seem to be syncing fine. However, it is possible it is a Google Sync issue.

It's not necessarily a communication issue. It's easy enough to verify whether the Church's sync servers are producing content -- just take the sync URL and paste it into your browser's address bar. If the sync service is producing the iCal feed, then that action will result in your browser prompting you to download a file. You can then save that file on your computer.

There have been reports in the past where particular content in one or more events was not accepted by Google Calendar. Generating the iCal file can help you narrow down where the problem lies.

This appears to be a problem in Google. I have tried this with two different GCAL accounts (both mine). I receive a failed to fetch URL error. I did some searching and found this has been an intermittent problem with GCAL for some time. I have validated the file from the Church and am able to import it into a private calendar in GCAL. It just won't sync as an other calendar via the add by URL option. Strange issue.

I appear to be running into the exact same problem that brucejay described, beginning at about the same time earlier this week (on or about 1/12/2014). My calendar no longer reflects updates or additions I make through lds.org to my ward's calendar, even after waiting a couple of days for it to trickle down. I followed the troubleshooting steps in the Calendar Help, and encountered the same "failed to import calendar" error when I attempted to re-add the ward calendar URL back to Google Calendar.

Are there any additional steps we can try?

If the breakdown is truly on Google's end, does the Church have a relationship with them through which to inquire further?

Are you able to get a iCal file when you paste the URL into your browser?

Yes, I can.

I am also having the same problem with my calendars as well. My recent additions in the lds.org calendar are not showing up on my google calendar but it is not showing up on my lds tools calendar also.