Duplicate Google Recurring Events

[Frank]

Hello,

We are importing recurring events via Google and keep getting duplicates. It’s been happening for a few versions now. Each time we clear out all the events and upgrade to the latest version of your plugin, but the duplicates eventually return (not immediately).

I’m seeing many other customers reporting the same (or at least similar) issues but the replies / solutions are marked as private.

Examples:

Some Events from Google Calender are imported everytime. Lot's of Duplicates!

Recurring event duplicates

Duplicates and Events Dropping off before the Event happens

Events dissappear from the calendar randomly

Wrong Times on Import, Still Duplicates events

CSV Imports 5 events out of more than 100, but duplicates them over and over

Duplicate entries on ICS import

Yes, we have other plugins installed and use a custom theme but all WordPress websites do. This plugin needs to be able to work properly when other plugins are used – just like all the other plugins do.

Diagnositc information is included below.

Thank you,
Frank

[Sky]

Hi Frank,

Thanks for reaching out. I’m sorry to hear that you’re having issues with your imports. I will try to help you get this sorted.

Can you share the source feed url so I can try this on my end?

Looking at the other support threads you linked to, there are several distinct issues being mentioned. Any that pertain to “recurring events” are not going to be related to issues with imports. Some of the others are due to issues with Outlook calendars, which do not follow the ical protocol standards.

Is your calendar from an Outlook source?

Thanks,
Sky

[Frank]

Hi Sky,

I appreciate the follow-up. The import URL is https://calendar.google.com/calendar/ical/richmondvbclub%40gmail.com/public/basic.ics

The one event duplication that resurfaces consistently and frequently is “Adult League – Week 1”. It’s a 6 day event (Sept. 23 – 28).

Some other information possibly worth noting for troubleshooting purposes:

1. When it duplicates, it sometimes changes the number of days away from 6.
2. There are eight other 6 day events with similar names (“Adult League – Week 2”, “Adult League – Week 3″…”Adult League – Week 9”. The duplicates appear to allows appear on the same weeks as the other “Adult League – Week #” events.

Thank you,
Frank

[Sky]

Hi again,

Thanks for the additional information.

Looking at the .ics file, I see that event is scheduled to happen for six weeks, starting on Sunday September 23rd. Each event lasts all week. (I see it as September 23 – 29, September 30 – October 6, etc )

Can you tell me exactly what you are seeing? I am not able to access your site.

Thanks,
Sky

[Frank]

Hi Sky,

Thank you again for the continued research.

I apologize for forgetting that we have HTTP Authentication enabled for the
staging site. I will send you the credentials privately.

If I understand your comments, however, you might have already uncovered
what’s triggering the issue.

“Adult League – Week 1” was created as a six event series then five of them
were updated to be “Adult League – Week 2”, “Adult League – Week 3 “, ” Adult
League – Week 4 “, ” Adult League – Week 5 “, and ” Adult League – Week 6″.
In the Google Calendar – viewed directly at
https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=richmondvbclub%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FNew_York
– they all appear correctly. However, is it possible the import is
importing both the original, unedited six event series as well as the
renamed five events in the series? Maybe that’s how we’re getting
duplicates?

Thank you,
Frank

[Sky]

Hi again,

Yeah, that sounds like it may be the issue. The events have a unique UID, and if you are just changing the titles, it may be causing problems.

Can you tell me what you have set in Events > Settings > Imports > Event Update Authority? You may be able to get better results by setting this to something different.

Thanks,
Sky

[Frank]

This reply is private.

[Frank]

Event Update Authority = Do not re-import events. Changes made locally will be preserved.

[Sky]

Hi again,

I believe the issue is that you are renaming the events after importing. The import is looking at the names in this case. If the post of that name on that date doesn’t exist, it will be imported.

What happens if you change your Update Authority setting to “Import events but preserve local changes to event fields”?

If that doesn’t work, I would recommend creating separate events on the source calendar if you want them to have different names on your website, and keep everything in sync.

Let me know how that goes.

Thanks,
Sky

[Frank]

Hi Sky,

I appreciate all your help. Hopefully plan A works. If not, plan B is an acceptable solution.

I am marking this issue as resolved.

Much appreciated,
Frank

[Sky]

Hi Frank,

Great! I’m glad I was able to help.

Please let us know if you have any questions or issues in the future.

Thanks,
Sky

[Support Droid]

Hey there! This thread has been pretty quiet for the last three weeks, so we’re going to go ahead and close it to avoid confusion with other topics. If you’re still looking for help with this, please do open a new thread, reference this one and we’d be more than happy to continue the conversation over there.

Thanks so much!
The Events Calendar Support Team

[Author]

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