Event calendar category settings keep getting lost/reset

[Stephanie]

Hello all,

I’ve got TEC and TEC pro (current versions) installed on my WP site being populated by a daily feed from a google calendar.

I’ve created a widget showing events with a specific category attached, and added that category to my relevant events inside the events list in wordpress.
Everything seems fine at first, but within a day or so it seems the events are losing the category settings.

I can’t use “Default category” since I don’t have that kind of use case.

I know know if I’ve got my settings wrong or if I need to use tags instead of categories.
I’ve attached a screen shot of my settings, please let me know if there are questions or if I need to provide additional information.

Thanks in advance for the help!

[Hunter]

Hi and welcome 🙂

Sorry to see you’re having troubles! Is there a possibility that the widget is somehow losing the event category each time the scheduled import runs? We did have a logged bug resembling what you’ve shared with me, but it was patched in recent release.

I understand this is not ideal, but it might be best you set up a fresh WordPress installation where you can fully troubleshoot the issue. Make sure you have only the default WordPress theme and The Events Calendar installed and activated on the test site. Please review our Using One License for Live and Dev Sites and Testing for conflicts guide for more information.

Please let me know what you find and if the issue is still occurring, I’ll attempt to reproduce the behavior. If I experience the same issues, I’ll gladly get a bug report written up. Thanks and have a wonderful rest of your day!

[Stephanie]

Hello Hunter,

Thank you for your feedback, I agree that it looks like the automatic import is wiping my changes.
I’ll set up another site instance to test for that.

Can you tell me if the settings I’ve shared in my screen shot are correct?
Thanks,
Stephanie

[Hunter]

Hey Stephanie,

Thank you for setting up the test site and let me know what you find. I went ahead and created a scheduled import and created and assigned a category titled Stephanie to the import. I also added an Event List widget and set the filter to the ‘Stephanie’ category. After the import ran for the second time, the widget retained the ‘Stephanie’ category and everything else seemed to go well too.

Screenshot was taken after the second import ran:

Please let me know what you find from your testing and if you think you’ve ran into a bug, please send over the exact step-by-step instructions needed to reproduce the behavior. If I get the same results, I’ll take the appropriate actions.

Thanks again and have a good evening 🙂

[Stephanie]

Hello Hunter,
Thank you for setting up that test however it does not match my criteria.

The feed coming in does not get a category applied to all posts, only select posts.

My issue still exists.
On my local site I set the import to run daily, which claims to run when I visit the site based on the runtime.
The auto-import tells me that no new items were imported/updated, if I then manually trigger the import I get a correct import/update of 81 items.

After the import is run, I filter the events for a specific title (“worship”) then check to see if the correct category (also “worship”) is still on events I know exsisted before the import.
Past events maintain their categories, and some future events do but most notably events in the current month (January) do not.

I don’t know what other troubleshooting details to give, please let me know if you have any questions.

I’ve attached a screenshot of the “Scheduled Imports” after I’ve manually triggered a run showing a count discrepancy.

Thanks,
Stephanie

[Hunter]

Hey Stephanie,

We just released a version which included a fix for scheduled imports. Can you possibly attempt to reproduce the behavior after updating to the most recent versions? As always, make sure you have just the default WordPress theme and our plugins active during testing. It’s best you do this on a test site so you can fully troubleshoot the issue.

If you do still experience troubles, please send over the exact steps needed to reproduce the behavior (including Google Calendar URLs) and I’d be happy to further troubleshoot. Thanks and have a great weekend ahead!

[Stephanie]

Hello Hunter,
Thanks for your continued help on this issue.
I did apply the update and my issue persists.

Here are the exact steps to follow to recreate my issue:

Google Calendar Feed:
[redacted by admin, provided in private reply below for MT support staff]

Manual VS automatic doesn’t matter, the issue presents in both settings.
I’ve been using manual until this is resolved.

Settings:
Clean up recurring events after – 1 month
Create recurring events in advance for – 6 months

Event Categories:
Special Event
Worship

Event Update Authority – Preserve the most recent change in each event field, whether that change occurred on my site or at the original source.

other settings are default.

The important thing to note is that event categories get applied to specific events only, blanket application will not work in my use case.

Steps to follow:

1. Run the import of the calendar
2. In the events list page, filter for “worship” (screenshot attached)
3. Edit all “worship” events to have “worship” event category.

note: I only run the import weekly, I recommend waiting till at least the next day to simulate more accurately.

1. re-run the import of the calendar
2. filter events for “worship”

result: past events maintain their “worship” category tag, the current month loses their category and future events have mixed results.

Please let me know if you have any questions about settings or how I do this import.

[Hunter]

This reply is private.

[Alan]

Can you please make the responses here public? I’m having a related issue, but don’t want to report a new one until I see how this is/was resolved.

[Stephanie]

Hi Alan,
The only reason I made that post private was to protect my client’s calendar feed.
I have to follow up on this ticket today and will make the response public.

Thanks,
Stephanie

[Alan]

Thanks!

Spelling by iPhone
____
alan armstrong, founder & ceo, eigenworks inc.
m: 647.822.4834 p: 226-780-0047 e: [email protected]

[Stephanie]

Hello Hunter,
Please let me know if there is an update.
You also mentioned having issues, if I can help please let me know.

Thanks,
Stephanie

[Hunter]

This reply is private.

[Hunter]

The post marked ‘Private’ in my last response contains the feed provided by Stephanie in this response so other users can follow along with this thread.

@Stephanie, I’ve attempted a few times to import the feed from the calendar URL provided but run into issues. I believe it’s due to the amount of events in the feed. Last attempt was over 2,000 events. Do you possibly have another feed you can test with? I was going to set up a test feed myself but am afraid I’m going to miss something which may result in differing outcomes.

Please let me know if this is manageable and if not I’ll go ahead with a feed I’ve created for this particular issue and let you know the results. Thanks for your continued patience while we work to identify any possible conflicts. Cheers!

[Hunter]

Cancel that – I was able to successfully import all 2,000+ events! I’ve filtered by Worship and assigned them all to the category “Worship” I’ve created for this test. Once the import runs again, I’ll report back with what I find out! I have it set to run every 30 minutes so I should be able to respond before you even read this.

Thanks again for your patience!

[Author]

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