Even the most well-informed user of Apple’s Calendar and Reminders can sometimes run into trouble, whether it’s duplicate calendar events or disappearing reminders. Here’s how to solve some common conundrums.
If you find your calendar littered with duplicate events, choose View > Refresh Calendars (or press ⌘-R).
If that doesn’t work, check whether you have an On My Mac calendar that is identical to one of your iCloud calendars. Hide it by deselecting it in the Calendars list and see whether duplicates disappear.
If they do, you can either keep this calendar hidden or delete the calendar altogether by Control-clicking (right-clicking) its name in the Calendars list and choosing Delete.
If the special Birthdays calendar, discussed in Tap into Special Calendars, shows a birthday more than once, you can remove the extras.
First, choose Calendar > Preferences/Settings > General. Deselect the Show Birthdays Calendar checkbox and select it again. If that doesn’t work, duplicate contacts are probably to blame. Open the Contacts app and choose Card > Look for Duplicates. If the app finds them, choose Merge (Figure 105). You may need to repeat this step.
If some duplicate birthdays still appear in Calendar, go into Contacts and manually delete the stubborn duplicates.
If identical iCloud calendars appear to be multiplying like bunnies, first try launching Calendar and choosing View > Refresh Calendars.
If that doesn’t work, log in to iCloud.com, click Calendar, and see whether the duplicate calendars appear in the list there. Then:
If duplicates appear on the iCloud website: To be safe, go back to your Calendar app and make a backup of each of the affected calendars by selecting them in turn and choosing File > Export > Export to create calendar (.ics
) files labeled with their names.
Once that’s done, go to iCloud.com to delete the duplicate calendar by clicking Edit at the bottom of the calendar list and then clicking the Remove icon next to a calendar. A warning asks you if you’re sure. If you are, click Delete. Now, return to the app and refresh your calendars by pressing ⌘-R. Duplicates should disappear.
Here’s the beauty of cloud accounts such as iCloud or Google: your calendars show up on any other device that’s connected to that account, no effort required. If you use local On My Mac calendars, though, and want to move one to another computer or make a backup, you must export a copy and then import it elsewhere.
To export a calendar to move to another computer or share with someone else:
Select the calendar’s name in the Calendars list.
Choose File > Export > Export.
Choose a location and then click Export. The events are exported to a calendar (.ics
) file.
Sometimes you might want to export all your calendars, for example, to back them up:
Choose File > Export > Calendar Archive.
Choose a location and then click Save. Depending on how many calendars you have, saving make take a while.
It’s helpful to know how to import a calendar if you want to move a local calendar to another computer, add events from someone else’s calendar to one of your own, or consolidate two calendars. (You also have the option to merge two calendars if they’re from the same account. See What If I Made Too Many Calendars?.)
Here’s how to import a calendar (.ics
) file:
Create a new calendar to hold this file’s events, or choose an existing calendar you want to add its events to. Make sure your choice is selected in the Calendars list.
Choose File > Import.
Select the calendar file and then click Import.
Alternatively, drag a calendar file from the Finder to the Calendar window to add its events to whichever calendar is selected in the Calendars list.
If you were overenthusiastic about making calendars, so long as they are stored in the same account, you can merge them after the fact. Select one of the calendars in the Calendars list and choose Edit > Merge Calendar. Calendars that you can add events to appear in the submenu (Figure 106).
If you can’t merge the two calendars you want, instead consolidate them by exporting the contents of one and then importing it into another. (See How Do I Move a Calendar to Another Computer?.)
To see travel time related to a calendar event, you must turn on Location Services on the device where you are working with the event:
macOS (Monterey and earlier): Go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy. Click Location Services, and then click the lock icon and enter your administrator name and password at the prompt. Then, in the list to the right, select the checkbox next to Calendar (Figure 107).
macOS (Ventura): Go to System Settings > Privacy & Security. Click Location Services. Enable Calendar. Enter your administrator name and password if prompted.
iPhones and iPads: Open the Settings app, tap Privacy > Location Services, and turn on the Location Services switch. Still on the Location Services screen, tap Calendar and ensure that While Using the App is selected (Figure 108).
With these settings on, Calendar can determine your approximate location using information from Wi-Fi networks, and if your device has cellular data turned on, from the cellular network. Apple asserts that this is collected in a way that won’t personally identify you. For more about Location Services and your privacy, see Apple’s Location Services & Privacy page.
You’re out of luck if you delete a calendar stored on your Mac without a Time Machine or other backup. However, you might be able to restore an iCloud calendar using iCloud.com:
Log in at iCloud.com.
Click your name in the upper-right corner and choose Account Settings.
Under the Advanced heading, click Restore Calendars.
A dialog appears with a list of your most recent archives (Figure 109). If one of them covers the time when your list existed, you might be able to save it.