Imported Events Duplicating

[mccicreates]

Hello,

The Aggregator has suddenly started duplicating events imported from an Outlook calendar. (ics link below)

This has worked for months and now suddenly has started duplicating all of the events in the month of May.

We have 2 calendar imports running daily. The other import (a Google calendar) is not creating duplicate events.

I have deactivated all of the plugins and switched to the WP 2017 theme and the problem prissiest.

I have changed the import to “on demand” to prevent this from happening until a resolution is found.

This is now the 5th issue we’ve had with this plugin in the last 2 months! Very frustrating.

https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/[email protected]/f2c43e0cf24b49c1a1d6b294a21fb7183609809219147055479/calendar.ics

[Jaime Marchwinski]

Hi Terrence,

Thanks so much for reaching out again, and sorry that you have had so many issues with this plugin!

I can replicate the issue that you are referring to, as I see events duplicated upon each import.

If these are recurring events, you can use the following tool to help you delete duplicated events:

https://theeventscalendar.com/extensions/recurring-event-cleanup-tool/

You can also change your Event Update Authority (under Events Settings < Imports) to Do not reimport events.

Let me know if that helps!

 

Thanks,

Jaime

[mccicreates]

Thanks Jamie,

3 questions regarding your suggestions.

1) Why is this happening now when it has never happened and we didn’t change any settings?
2) These event do reoccur but not necessarily on the same day of the week or at the same time. Will this tool work for that?
3) Re: The update authority setting. So if I change it to “do not reimport” if there is a change to one of the events on my other calendar import, those changes would not be updated or is that just for changes made to events in WordPress?

Thanks

[Jaime Marchwinski]

Hi Terrence,

1. To be honest, I’m not quite sure why this is happening all of a sudden.  It could be a theme, plugin, or customization conflict causing the issue.  You can run through our testing for conflicts procedure and see if you get the same results.
2. This tool should work on all recurrences, regardless of whether the recurrence is the same day/time each week.
3. If you change it to “Do not re-import” then events that have been imported to your site will not be duplicated or altered when your scheduled import runs again.  Only new events will be added to your site.  You can read more about that here: https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/event-aggregator-import-settings/#update-authority

Let me know how that goes and if you have any other questions along the way!

 

Thanks,

Jaime

[mccicreates]

Hi Jamie,

1) I’ve followed all the steps outlined in your “testing for conflicts” and the issue is still happening.

2) Perhaps you missed a link in item 2? What tool?

3) I’ve changed the setting to “Do not re-import”. When I run the import it skips all the event prior to May but keeps duplicating the May events and now it’s duplicating the June events as well. I’m testing this with the theme on Twenty-seventeen with ALL plugins disabled except The Events Calendar.

[Jaime Marchwinski]

Hi Terrence,

I’m sorry to hear that you are still experiencing this issue.

The tool I was referring to was the one I had linked to previously.  Here it is again:

https://theeventscalendar.com/extensions/recurring-event-cleanup-tool/

The events may be duplicating since changing the setting because they were set up that way before the setting change was made.  Can you try deleting the import and starting over?

Let me know if that helps!

 

Thanks,

Jaime

[mccicreates]

Hi Jamie,

So I ran the follow test:

I created a fresh WP install, with the Twenty-seventeen theme activated. Installed TEC and activated the aggregator add-on.

I then created a brand new import using the Outlook ics link in question (below). I ran the import multiple times and every time I run the import, it duplicates the events.

Additionally, I changed the import setting to “Do not re-import events.” and it is STILL duplicating the events.

Also, I installed your “Recurring Event Cleanup Tool”, however, I can’t test it out without purchasing another PRO license. That’s very frustrating since I need to test this out before I run it on my live site.

Finally, after some extensive Googling I found this TEC support thread from last year that appears to may have an answer to what it going on here. Is my issue related to this? Can I speak with Andras? – https://theeventscalendar.com/support/forums/topic/duplicate-ical-import-still-a-problem/

https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/[email protected]/f2c43e0cf24b49c1a1d6b294a21fb7183609809219147055479/calendar.ics

[Jaime Marchwinski]

Hi Terrence,

Thank you for your response.

Also, I installed your “Recurring Event Cleanup Tool”, however, I can’t test it out without purchasing another PRO license.

You can test it out by temporarily moving your license to the site where the recurring events have been created.

https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/moving-your-license-keys/

As for your issue with events duplicating, as you may have read in the forum thread that you linked to, the unique identifier created for each event is changing each time your feed is imported,  which is why you are seeing your events duplicated.

Basically, Event Aggregator does not recognize that your events have been imported previously, so it imports them again.  This does not occur with every source, but it does occur with Outlook, and some other sources as well.

Unfortunately, I do not have a solution for this issue, as it is actually an issue with the way that Outlook 365 creates their feed.  You can opt to use a different calendar service, like Google Calendar, or to contact Outlook 365 with this issue and see if they can assist in any way.

Sorry that I do not have a better solution for you here.  Let me know if you have any other questions on this issue!

 

Thanks,

Jaime

[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

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