Incorrect times/dates in iCal Import

[Cameron]

I am experiencing incorrect times when events are imported from a Google Calendar iCal link. Only some of the times are affected and I cannot see an overall pattern. For example, I show an event that is listed in the Google Calendar as commencing at 3:00pm and ending at 5:30pm on February 10, 2016. This shows in The Events Calendar as starting at 23:00 on Feb 10 and ending at 01:30 on February 11 – a delta of 10 hours. My WordPress timezone is set to Los Angeles (UTC -08:00). I saw a couple of other threads with the same issue and was curious if this is known issue?

The original Google calendar can be seen embedded here.

The production calendar shows here.

Thanks for your help.

[Geoff B.]

Good evening Theresa and welcome back!

Thank you for reaching out to us. We are sorry to hear that you are experiencing incorrect times while importing from a gCal link.

We will gladly try to assist you on this topic.

I saw a couple of other threads with the same issue and was curious if this is known issue?

Actually, there were different issues with iCal imports in 2015 and the good news is that they were fixed. No bugs have been logged recently on this topic.

The original Google calendar can be seen embedded here.

Unfortunately, I get an error 404 with that link. Perhaps it is a secured Calendar.

 

That being said, I do have a question about the original Google Calendar: how are the events entered in it ? Solely by you ? By several users ?

I also have a follow-up question: Can you tell me what your setting is under Events -> General -> Timezone settings ?

Have a great day!

Geoff B.

[Theresa]

The Google calendar should be visible on the site now at http://msdsug.microsoft.com/testing-2/ – my fault, I had it set to private.

The Timezone Mode is set to: Use the local timezones for each event and the checkbox Show timezone is checked.

The calendar entries are maintained by a single user – not me. There are a couple of errors in the data but not for the example I documented. The Google Calendar embed is set to show all times in PST.

[Geoff B.]

Good afternoon Theresa,

Thank you for making the Google Calendar visible.

I have a couple of ideas of were the offset (delta might be coming from).

As a first step, could you please provide us with your system information in a private reply ?

I also have a couple of questions for you to pinpoint the issue. Could you tell me if the faulty events:

• Are recurrent events ?
• Have been deleted or edited at some point in time ?

Have a great evening!

Geoff B.

[Theresa]

This reply is private.

[Theresa]

Hi Geoff,

The events are not recurring and have never been edited/deleted. Our use of the plugin is brand new and we just implemented a recurring import.

Terry

[Geoff B.]

Good afternoon Terry,

Thank you for your replies.

Actually, I might have miscommunicated what I meant by system information. Can you follow the instructions found on the following page please ? https://theeventscalendar.com/knowledgebase/sharing-sys-info/

Unfortunately, although we appreciate the offer, we cannot log in to our clients websites for a variety of reasons (including liability). Thank you for your understanding.

Also, what might be helpful at this point is to get the iCal URL you are using for testing purposes (probably in the private reply as well).

Have a great day!

Geoff B.

 

[Theresa]

This reply is private.

[Theresa]

Did the information I sent privately help with this?

Thanks

[Geoff B.]

Good evening Terry,

Thank you for sending me the extra information requested.

I had a deeper look into your ics file and at your system information.

One thing I did notice, although it might not be related, is that you should consider updating <b>the Events Calendar Pro</b> to the latest version 4.05 as we released a security patch last week.

Other than that, I can’t see anything out of the ordinary in the ics file itself.

If you don’t mind, could you try changing your Events Calendar time zone setting to Use the site wide time-zone everywhere to see if this has an impact ?

If it doesn’t, the next logical step would be to compare events that display correctly from ones that don’t. If you could provide me with a list of examples of each (ideally not daylong ones), that would really help me troubleshoot.

Thank you for your amazing patience and cooperation.

Have a great day!

Geoff B.

[Theresa]

Thanks, Geoff.

A couple of items:

1. I did reset the Use the site wide time-zone everywhere option but I could not see how that was going to affect anything. The data is already in the database and is incorrect. Changing that setting did not change the display nor the incorrect data in the database.

2. I did some basic analysis and reviewed 22 events starting with the ICS file which I opened in Outlook. The net of this was I identified 3 records that did not import at all (for no obvious reason), 3 errors where the import incorrectly assigned dates/times and 16 events that imported correctly. I cannot find any differences between the source ICS events that imported correctly when contrasted to the ones that did not. The errors are not all at a particular time of day, nor are they “odd” times like 17:30 versus 17:00.

I’m at a loss.

I have an excel file containing the 6 errors and the differences in the data between the original organizers’ link, the ICS file from Google and the Event Calendar Event listing. I wasn’t sure how to get that to you or if it was even helpful?

[Theresa]

A couple of questions:

1. Does the iCAL importer create any kind of log for the sync tasks?
2. Does it make sense to truly delete all the events from the database and then re-sync to Google to see if the Timezone setting change will impact the import?

Other than that, I am thinking I have to find another solution to the calendar issue if we can’t get this to stabilize.

[Geoff B.]

Good afternoon Terry,

Thank you for all your answers and patience.
I understand how this can be frustrating and unsettling.

To be transparent with you, this is the first time I have seen such an issue.
Pinpointing the cause is no easy task provided the circumstance, but I would love to figure this out as much as you do.

So if you do not mind, I would totally love to get a copy of the Excel spreadsheet as well as a list of the events that failed to import properly for some odd reason. Could you place the said Excel file in a Dropbox folder or Google Drive link ?

1. I did reset the Use the site wide time-zone everywhere option but I could not see how that was going to affect anything. The data is already in the database and is incorrect. Changing that setting did not change the display nor the incorrect data in the database.

Thank you for doing this. I wasn’t aware that the information in the database itself was off. I was under the impression that only the displayed value was off.

If the information in the database is wrong then it does point out to an issue during the initial iCal import.

2. I did some basic analysis and reviewed 22 events starting with the ICS file which I opened in Outlook. The net of this was I identified 3 records that did not import at all (for no obvious reason), 3 errors where the import incorrectly assigned dates/times and 16 events that imported correctly. I cannot find any differences between the source ICS events that imported correctly when contrasted to the ones that did not. The errors are not all at a particular time of day, nor are they “odd” times like 17:30 versus 17:00.

Based on this, it also points to some kind of error during the ICS calendar import.

My best working theory is that there was a hiccup during the import where a start or end time was not processed properly, thus breaking the ensuing events times during that import.

1. Does the iCAL importer create any kind of log for the sync tasks?

Yes it does. As I am describing below.

2. Does it make sense to truly delete all the events from the database and then re-sync to Google to see if the Timezone setting change will impact the import?

The best solution would indeed be to truly delete the initial import and try it again.

However, for technical reasons, you will need to erase all trace of the log. To do so, please follow my colleague Brook’s instructions in the following post on a similar issue.

Let’s keep our fingers crossed, this might solve it!

Once again we are truly sorry for the inconvenience which is not an accurate reflection of how the plugin usually works.

If all else fails, please note that you are indeed entitled to a full refund within 30 days of your original purchase.

Have a good week-end and keep me posted.

Geoff B.

 

 

[Theresa]

This reply is private.

[Theresa]

This reply is private.

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