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Brook,
Please see https://theeventscalendar.com/support/forums/topic/import-made-duplicate-events/#post-1117976
It appears that the problem Donna and I reported on 05/18/16 is a bug in the v4.1.x release of iCal Importer. A static declaration of UTC -X is not an option for those of us in the US for the reasons stated in that thread. We are awaiting an update of the Importer that resolves this issue.
Donna, like you our client (a REALTORS Association) also uses the calendar in Office 365 as their primary calendar. While the settings for Office 365 do say “Eastern Time,” it also shows at UTC -05:00. Digging into the the .ics file also shows that the file itself provides the timezone definitions in relation to UTC. Setting the timezone to a UTC-only relationship in the US is not feasible unless the underlying calendar takes in consideration Daylight Savings time. During a portion of the year, those of us on the East coast are UTC -05:00 and during a portion of the year we are UTC -04:00.
I do not know what timezone rules were changed in the underlying code of v. 4.1.2, but they obviously broke whatever had been working for those of us who use the plugin in the US and also use Office 365. Our client will not stop using Office 365, and Microsoft is highly unlikely to change their coding.
Brook,
As I noted in the thread Donna started, reverting back to 4.1.1 resolves the issue. Cliff’s explanation that Eastern Standard Time is not a valid time format doesn’t seem to hold water or reverting back to 4.1.1 shouldn’t fix the problem. While the Microsoft Exchange .ics calendar format does give a timezone of Eastern Standard Time, it also defines the timezone in an offset against UTC, with rules for daylight savings time clearly defined. All previous versions of iCal Importer have seemed to handle this timezone definition just fine. I will attach my client’s ics URL in a separate private reply.
There are similar WP Engine related issues in the forums. See https://theeventscalendar.com/support/forums/topic/deleted-google-calendar-events-still-showing-up/#post-1054883
I have gone ’round and ’round with both WP Engine and Modern Tribe support to see if there were any way to resolve the issue, but it appears a resolution isn’t in sight. We have narrowed it down to a problem with the WP Engine cache, as when sites are in the WP Engine staging environment with cache disabled, events that have changed in the client’s Office 365 calendar import properly with no duplication.
Thanks for your help!
Who is your host and do you have a backup copy of your site (from a few days ago) that you could revert to?
Reading through the forum threads, I’m not sure some of the duplicate event problems will ever be resolved for imported iCal calendars. My client’s duplicates are created when an event on their Office 365 calendar is moved to a new day. Upon import into The Events Calendar, the new date is added as a duplicate event and the old date is not deleted.
It also appears that this problem mainly arises on hosting platforms that have a strong caching program. I recommend WP Engine for most of my clients and their cache cannot be turned off.
Have you made sure that the “Overwrite Recurring” box was checked in your import settings? That may help and shouldn’t hurt.
Same problem. It appears that it is a problem in iCal Importer v. 4.1.2
To test theory, back back up of current sit. Switched to TwentySixteen theme. Deactivated all plugins except Events Calendar related. Imported events from iCal. Still wrong times. Deleted all events. Cleaned up database (cleared all transients, etc) and re-imported iCal. STILL wrong time. Deleted iCal Importer 4.1.2; downloaded and reinstalled iCal Importer 4.1.1; EVENT TIMES ARE NOW CORRECT
Nico,
It appears that part of the problem may be a caching issue with my host, WP Engine. When working with the site in our staging area where caching is disabled, the importer works fine. In live area and caching enabled, doesn’t update existing events. If I were going to have WP Engine exclude The Event Calendar and the iCal Importer from caching, what paths/cookies should I have them exclude?
I am sure that this is a problem for anyone who hosts with WP Engine. Figuring this out will help many of your purchasers.
Thanks!
