Deleting recurring events

[Thomas Claffy]

Hopefully a very quick and easy question on recurring events. I first had my setting to 24 months for the recurring event creation but this looks really silly since we only have one recurring event right now. So I trimmed this setting down to 2 months which is really much more reasonable. Can I now safely delete those events that have been created beyond this new 2 month limit and then will they get recreated again as required? I have edited one occurrence because they changed the time due to election day so it is outside of the group and this leads me to thin that you have this in the table still and linked to this event chain but marked as an exception so another will not get created with the original time. That makes me wonder if you will keep these other occurrences hidden but marked as deleted and I will not get the new occurrences created when they actually should be. This is a really complex set of rules and would be a real PITA to lose and have have to start over but I need to tidy things up a bit. Thanks.

[Geoff]

Hi Thomas,

Great question!

Changing the recurrence creation setting will only have an impact on events that have been created after the change in setting. In other words, the changed setting will have no impact on your existing recurring event. As such, I would not recommend deleting event instances from the series because they will not be recreated later.

Sorry, I know that’s not likely what you were hoping to hear, but I do think re-creating the event with the new settings in place is the way to go. You could use a post duplicator plugin (like this one) to at least quickly duplicate the post content for the series, though it will carry over the recurrence settings.

Does this help answer your question? Please let me know.

Thanks,
Geoff

[Thomas Claffy]

Wow. That plugin crashed my events. It deleted everything past December 13th and my calendar just locks up when I try to browse to December. Having my hosting provider restore last nights data as we speak. I would say you should not recommend that plugin to anyone. period.

So it looks like after the restore, I should create a new event, redo the complex reoccurrence rules and then delete the old series?

[Thomas Claffy]

whew. I edited one event and it magically fixed everything but the recurring event was set up into 2018 (24 months) and now stops in Dec. I changed my settings to 3 months a couple of hours ago to see if it would generate January and still nothing. How long should this take? Can I force it?

[Geoff]

Hey Thomas,

I’m certainly sorry to hear that duplicator plugin was not effective for you. I have used it quite extensively on a number of sites with no problems, but it’s definitely helpful to know that isn’t always the case.

I changed my settings to 3 months a couple of hours ago to see if it would generate January and still nothing. How long should this take? Can I force it?

I mentioned it in my last reply, but the change in recurrence settings should not affect events that have already been published before the settings were changed. In other words, I do not believe there is a way to force it and your confirmation to recreate the event after the restore and then delete the original event is the sound way to go:

So it looks like after the restore, I should create a new event, redo the complex reoccurrence rules and then delete the old series?

Cheers,
Geoff

[Thomas Claffy]

I guess it did but it somehow created a new instance and simultaneously removed all of the old instances. they are just gone. I expected to have to manually delete them. They existed all the way to 2018 and poof gone. I had 2 months as expected from my setting. I changed it to 3 and several minutes later was notified by email (my security plugin) that the January events had been added. So no harm, no foul, just a few moments of dismay when it locked me up. I was getting prepared to restore last nights backup…I do love my hosting providers services. Always a safety net. So we can mark this closed and move on to fun things! Cheers.

[Geoff]

Right on and cheers right back at ya!

Geoff

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