Google import added hundreds of past events to current month

[Joel]

Hi,
I was having an issue with the .ical calendar feed import from Google Calendar. I updated our version of PHP and now the import is working. However, even though on the import screen it said it was importing 23 events and correctly displayed the upcoming events, when I ran the import it populated hundreds of events from the past several years onto the current dates. For example November 27th 2015 showed 45 events even though they were all events that happened on Nov 27 of previous years.

It created over 600 separate events when it said it was creating 23. So I deleted all the events page by page and then deleted the trash figuring that maybe while we were getting the malformed errors earlier, it was incorrectly importing the events. So now I have no events, but when I go to import it now tells me that there are no events in the feed.

I just tested things by adding one test event into the google calendar and it read that fine in the import, so yes-I’m sure there is just a database table or something that needs to be cleared. What do I do? I am starting from scratch, so Im not worried about losing event information from the database.

[George]

I’m sorry to hear about this Joel! This is not behavior that I can reproduce:

For example November 27th 2015 showed 45 events even though they were all events that happened on Nov 27 of previous years.

To help us investigate these issues, can you do the following things:

1. Share your .ics file or URL with us so we can use it for testing?

2. Share your “System Information” with us? Here’s how to do that → https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/sharing-sys-info/

Cheers!
George

[Joel]

Thanks. I can do that, but really all I need are instructions on how to completely remove TEC from my wordpress install-including the database info that have been created.

Then I will just reinstall.

[George]

really all I need are instructions on how to completely remove TEC from my wordpress install-including the database info that have been created.

Sorry for not picking up on this as the main question! If you “Deactivate” The Events Calendar in your wp-admin, and then “Delete” it, there will be some cleanup processes triggered by the plugin by default. If you are interested in totally wiping tables from your database or something, though, some SQL commands on your server or a plugin like this one would likely be necessary → https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-database-reset/

I hope this addresses your questions! Let me know.

— George

[Joel]

Hi George,
I’m not wanting to completely reinstall my wordpress database.

I am asking how to remove all database entries associated only with The Events Calendar.

What are the database tables created by The Events Calendar, and can I simply drop all those tables, and delete the plugin and files associated with the plugin?

Then I will reinstall The Events Calendar.

[George]

Hey Joel,

The Events Calendar does not create any of its own tables. For example, Events, Organizers, and Venues are all just stored in the default wp_posts table, with the post_type parameter set to tribe_events, tribe_organizer, and tribe_venue, respectively.

Other metadata on events like venue/organizer relationships, recurrence data, et cetera are all stored in wp_postmeta.

I hope this information helps and conveys how The Events Calendar’s data is not in any custom tables, but sticks to the standard WordPress database structures.

Cheers,
George

[Joel]

Thank you. I have completely uninstalled every “The Event Calendar” plugin and expension. I deleted them and deleted all the files associated with them (according to the little “delete all files” button when you delete a plugin).

I then reinstalled the Calendar. When I go to “Venue”, it still shows all the old venues from the previous install.

I need to clear out all that stuff because it is not allowing a correct import because the importer is seeing that stuff and thinking the event has been imported.

So-if it’s not in it’s own database table, then how do I get rid of all that stuff?

[Joel]

OK-i went in to the database and deleted those you mentioned. So now I got the import working.

One question: is the google calendar import able to update changes made in the Google Calendar to an event that has been imported? I just tested it by changing details for one of the events in the google calendar and redoing the import and it didn’t catch the change.

[George]

Hey @Joel,

Thanks for these updates! I’m sorry to admit that I’m not quite sure what you mean by “the google calendar import”.

Are you asking if the “Export to Google Calendar” link on some event views, which sends event date from the WordPress site to Google will then create some sort of connection, so that if the event date is change on Google, the changes will be sent back from Google back to the WordPress site? And then updated on the WP site accordingly?

If so, then unfortunately no, this will not happen.

If this is not what you’re asking, I’m really sorry about that – though, in which case, can you elaborate a bit more on what you mean?

Thank you!
George

[Joel]

I’m talking about your calendar import plugin. When I import an .isc file, does the plugin recognize changes that are made to events when they have already been imported.

1) Import event from Google Calendar using the calendar import plugin.
2) Event is now on my wordpress site.
3) Make change to event in Google Calendar.
4) Do another import into the wordpress site to see if the changes transfer over in the import.

When I do that, the changes to the event are not displayed in wordpress.

[George]

Thank you for clarifying @Joel! Unfortunately, no, the changes on Google in your example are not automatically reflected on WordPress; another import would be needed for that, unless you also update the individual event on WordPress.

— George

[Joel]

?

Note #4 above. I did another import.

[George]

I’m sorry about that Joel, I didn’t read your fourth item correctly!

That’s odd behavior and I’m wondering – can you share an export file that you are attempting to import? Then, change some events on Google and re-generate the export files as per the exact steps you tried in the process above.

Share this secondary export as well.

I will manually test with both export files and see if I get the same results as you.

—

Also, can you share your system information? Here’s how → https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/sharing-sys-info/

—

If you share your system information here, and share the export files (which you can do via CloudUp.com for example, or http://ge.tt or a similar service), that will provide a lot of information we can use to figure out why this is happening here.

Thanks a ton for your patience and persistence with this thread, @Joel!

Sincerely,
George

[Joel]

I don’t have time to pay you guys to be a beta tester.

I did another test and now the modified event was imported as a NEW event and the old event is still there. This is with the new 4.0 version. I will request a refund on these extensions and hopefully when you guys get this stuff sorted out I will buy it then.

[George]

Hey Joel, if you follow the steps here to we can issue a refund in full [assuming all the purchases are made recently enough for our payment processors’ refund window] → https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/refund-policy/

Thanks,
George

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