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Google Calendar.ics Import Standards

I have a .ics file that I generate from our database, which works correctly in iCal, but on Google Calendar. Sometimes Google Calendar imports a file, but it does not accept all events.

Does anyone have any tips on REQUIRED areas that Google needs? I find it difficult here why sometimes it is not imported or why it does not like some events. Some days we have 3 events, but Google only shows 1.

Searching elsewhere on the Internet really does not help, as most others seem to have the same problem.

Here is an example of my formatting:

BEGIN:VCALENDAR METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/Los_Angeles CALSCALE:GREGORIAN VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//PUC Calendar// v2.0//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:31754826317 TZID:America/Los_Angeles DTSTART:20091001T100000 URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.puc.edu/news/calendar/events/dates/colloquy-dr-knight DTSTAMP:20091001T100000 SUMMARY:Colloquy: Heather Knight DTEND:20091001T100000 LOCATION:Sanctuary END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR

Our .ics file URL: http://www.puc.edu/news/calendar/puc.ics

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4 answers

Your TZID does not look right. You must include them in the DTSTART and DTEND lines as follows:

 DTSTART;TZID=Pacific/Honolulu:20110628T140000 DTEND;TZID=Pacific/Honolulu:20110628T140000

(Keep in mind: leave ā€œZā€ at the end of the timestamps if your time is not equal to Zulu time = GMT)

You should add SEQUENCE: xxx, where xxx is the number that increments each time ics is updated. For instance.

 SEQUENCE:0

I managed to get this to work (this is bizarre), and it had the same problem as only individual events from my file with several events that were imported. The best trick (mentioned elsewhere) is to get the exported ics file from Google and then clone it.

In the end, I created two separate ics file generators - one for iCal (simple!) And one for Google (hard). Perhaps Outlook needs a third.

Soon you should click on the next problem, which is that Google requires you to specify the time zone for the ICS file and each event that makes coding your application much more difficult. By comparison, Apple iCal allows your ad to post "floating times" that are considered local.

There are a bunch of ics file validation tools you can try, for example, that can be really useful ...

http://icalvalid.cloudapp.net/

Warning. Files that pass this verification tool still do not work with Google. Google really needs to create its own authentication tool.

[waiting to see how many down arrows I get arrows for this message!]

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I had similar problems.

Removing the UID or changing the number seems to work for me. (My entries were numbered sequentially 1,2, ...)

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i has a similar problem,

If you want to import the ics file into Google Calendar,

you must have a different UID in multiple events

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My file contained a VFREEBUSY block before the first VEVENT . Removing this block allowed me to download it.

I do not know if there was a problem inside this block or if the whole block is not supported, but the file passed the check on icalendar.org .

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