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Only old calendars appearing in iTunes #

This post is for the scattered few who still sync calendars between their Mac and iOS device via USB, and find deleted calendars appearing in iTunes, despite those calendars not appearing in iCal / Calendar. Backup before proceeding. The iOS calendar(s) will be overwritten.

1. Disregarding the absence of desired calendars or presence of undesired calendars within iTunes, select Sync Calendars > All calendars, check "Replace information on this iPhone" next to Calendars, sync, then quit iTunes.
2. Open iCal/Calendar on the Mac and delete any unwanted calendars that appeared after syncing (yes, despite having selected to overwrite the iOS device, old, deleted calendars may reappear).
3. Even if you've never used it, open Reminders.app on the Mac and delete any old, unwanted calendars.
4. Open iTunes and head back to Info > Sync Calendars - only current calendars should appear.

Similar reports

• how can i delete calendars from iTunes (thanks to alastairm's answer for step 1)
• deleted calendars keep coming back (thanks to Derryl S's answer for step 3)
• Deleted Calendars Still Showing in iTunes and on iPhone
• iTunes keeps remembering old calendars in the Info pane
• I have DELETED calendars showing in my iTunes Sync Calendars List!?

Related

• These steps from Linc Davis restored calendar syncing via USB under Mojave:
  1. Backup your calendars
  2. Quit Calendar/iCal
  3. Move or delete the following 3 files from ~/Library/Calendars/:
     • Calendar Cache
     • Calendar Cache-shm
     • Calendar Cache-wal
  4. Restart Mac
  5. If that does not avail, Linc also mentions these potential culprits:
     • Containers/com.apple.CalendarAgent (and any others with a name beginning in "com.apple.Calendar")
     • Containers/com.apple.iCal (and any others with a name beginning in "com.apple.iCal")
     • Preferences/com.apple.CalendarAgent.plist
     • Preferences/com.apple.iCal.plist
• How To Reset Sync Services
  • OS X Mavericks 10.9.3 and later: run defaults delete com.apple.SyncServer SyncServicesResetWorldRunOnce and reboot
  • Earlier versions: run /System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/resetsync.pl full
• How To Reset Calendar, iTunes USB Sync suggests these steps for Mountain Lion:
  1. Delete ~/Library/Calendars/Calendar Cache and ~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iCal (if present) then sync. If unsuccessful, try:
  2. Delete ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.plist and ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.helper.plist then sync. If unsuccessful, try:
  3. /System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/resetsync.pl full
• いつの間にか iCal と iPhone5 が同期できなくなってた。 describes a scenario in which events from an iPhone do not get written to iCal on a Mac during syncing, though events from iCal, music, photos, etc on the Mac do get written to the iPhone. The author resolved the issue by:
  1. cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/SyncServices/
  2. rm -r Local.*
  3. cd Local
  4. mv conflicts _conflicts_
  Keep in mind Apple's official guidance: "As if it were a swarm of bees, you should stay away from the SyncServices folder. Removing or modifying anything in the SyncServices folder--or in any subfolders within it--may cause unexpected issues. (This folder is located in your Application Support folder, in your Library folder, in your Home folder)." However, renaming or deleting the SyncServices folder has reportedly worked for some:
  1. Disconnect iOS device
  2. Restart computer
  3. Rename or delete the SyncServices folder
• Archiving Calendar.app events as plain text

Update

In January of 2023, bidirectional calendar sync over USB stopped working between an iPhone SE (3rd generation) running iOS 16.2 and a MacBook Air (M2, 2022) running macOS 13.1; only unidirectional overwriting of the iPhone by the MacBook via Finder → iPhone → Info → "Replace Calendars" would work.

None of the above approaches nor a number of others (resetting network settings on the iPhone, erasing and restoring the iPhone, deleting the contents of ~/Library/Calendars/Pending\ Events/ (or, indeed, the entire contents of ~/Library/Calendars as suggested by Apple support), etc.) availed.

Despite the iPhone syncing normally with another Mac running the same version of macOS (and slightly better under a new user account on the affected MacBook Air - only new events would sync bidirectionally), the fix was ultimately to wait for then install iOS 16.3 and macOS 13.2 (thanks Dmitry!).

The updates also brought an end to the SyncServer (/System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SyncServer.app/Contents/MacOS/SyncServer) and Mingler (/System/Library/Frameworks/SyncServices.framework/Versions/A/Resources/SyncServer.app/Contents/Resources/Mingler) crash reports in Console ("EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGBUS)" and "EXC_GUARD (SIGKILL)", respectively).

/mac | Apr 08, 2018

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