Tasker and Recurring Calendar Events

[Nigel Roy]

Hi

I have had intermittant problems with recurring calendar events
dissappearing from my calendar. Because it seems to fix itself every
so often then break again a few weeks later I had done limited
research/testing.

Last night I noticed again that my recurring events had disappeared,
so I did my usual trick of changing something in the event on the
Google online calendar - hey presto that and all other recurring
events reappeared. I didn't bother checking again last night.

This morning I noticed that the future recurring events had
dissappeared again - so I went through the same process as the
previous evening and they all came back again. However when I check a
few minutes later they had gone again. I checked using 3 different
calendar apps so I know it isn't the app that is causing the problem.

I then added a new recurring event in one of my calendar apps - and
miraculously all other future recurring events reappeared. However
again a short while later they had all dissappeared again! I could
then using the online Google calendar change the event to non-
repeating and it would appear in my calendar again after a short delay
- then making it repeating again, at which point all other recurring
events would appear as well. However again after a short while all
reccurring events dissappeared.

I did soem more research and found some discussions where "Tasker" was
mentioned as a potential culprit, although it was also noted elsewhere
that some were still seeing it after Tasker was disabled.

I duly tried disabling Tasker and now my recurring events stay put -
although probably 2 hours is not long enough to class as concrete
proof.

The trail on the Google code section http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3684
goes cold after June 20th were Stefan Sarzio thought the problem was
with Tasker.

It appears that when Tasker checks the calendar data, somehow the
recurring events get broken. I don't actually think they are being
removed (although I have no way of confirming this), just becoming
unreadable.

I suspect one solution might be to disable calendar based events in
Tasker as it would then not look at the calendar.

This may be a bug with Tasker or Android - whichever it would be kind
of nice to get a solution, so I was really wondering whether anyone
else had noticed or had a solution or any more info?

thanks

[Pent]

Hi Nigel,

You struck terror in my heart when I read that topic title :)

I thought I had managed to fix that, since neither Stefan nor myself
could reproduce it
if I delayed 40 seconds before reading the calendar after it was
synced.

Oh well, I will have to investigate further.

Could you tell me:

- is it sufficient just to remove calendar events ? (that would be
nice, takes the time pressure off)
- am I right in saying you had this before installing Tasker but less
severe ?

Thanks,

Pent

> The trail on the Google code sectionhttp://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3684

[Nigel Roy]

Hi Pent,

I have only just got around to re-enabling Tasker with no Claendar
events enabled and will report back later today as to whether I am
still getting the same problem.

I have pretty much been using Tasker since I got my phone so don't
really know if it did/would occur without Tasker.

Oddly it seems stable for a couple of weeks, then start to go wrong
again around the start of the month, i.e. I don't remember having any
problems in the last couple of weeks of July, however this week it has
been a real pain.

Not sure whether it is relevant but I did have the problem on my
"stock" Eclair ROM on my Desire as well as the custom Modaco 2.2 ROM I
am running now.

If you need me to do any logging or anything let me know.

Thanks

Nigel

[ant ton]

Hi

I have the same problem but I thought it was my Froyo update that I
received on the 2 Aug.

Never had the problem with eclair but since froyo my recurring
calendar have been disappearing/appearing.

Regards
Anthony

> > thanks- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Calvin]

I have the same problem, but so far hadn't thought about Tasker as the
reason.
Thinking about it, it's been like this for a while, but only after I
installed Tasker.

Hmm, i thought it was a problem with the Google Calendar.
I installed a calendar extension from the labs section that shows me
my next appointment, that's sometimes doesn't show my next (repeating)
appointment either....

However, i tried a few things already and everything is fine now. If
and when they disappear again I'll let you know. Maybe i can help
finding the problem.

On Aug 4, 2:44 pm, Pent <tas...@dinglisch.net> wrote:

[Pete Scott]

I've noticed this with the Exchange Calendar as well (Droid, stock 2.1
(though hopefully 2.2 rather soon!). I had thought recurring events
were simply not showing in the calendar widget, but now that I've seen
this thread I've realized that I haven't been getting reminders on my
phone for them either.

Trying various things to get them to re-appear in the widget. Will
keep an eye on them after that.

[Stefan Sarzio]

To give an update on my end: I can confirm that it's real hard to
debug, because it's not always consistent.

Currently I have to re-sync my calendar about every week, because new
recurring events don't seem to make it to the device.

Syncing works flawlessly if I have at least a half-decent network
connection. Lately it was real crappy while doing the sync and non of
my recurring events made it.

[Nigel Roy]

OK the plot thickens - this mornign before I disabled Tasker I could
at will get my recurring events to dissappear and reappear, within a
matyter of a few minutes!

Having re-enabled Tasker again (without and calendar events) and
waited for an hour, removed the event I had created earlier to test
the problem, I am no longer able to make the events dissappear. I have
even re-enabled calendar events and so far no effect - which is
different from this morning!

This does suggest it is something to do with Tasker but as Stefan
suggests it is very inconsistent so could be a nightmare to debug.

I am not sure if there is any other appm that is likely to check the
calendar like Tasker does in order to identify whether this is Android
or Tasker or a combination of the two??

Nigel

[Pent]

> Syncing works flawlessly if I have at least a half-decent network
> connection. Lately it was real crappy while doing the sync and non of
> my recurring events made it.

That says to me quite strongly that slow-network = slow sync =
Tasker's delay timer
expires too soon perhaps. There's something about the query I'm doing
that disturbs
it's synching somehow probably.

I would blame poor software writing on the part of google, but the
calendar isn't
supposed to be used by outside apps so they have a fair defence.

I propose to up the delay time to a minute and a half in the next beta
to give me some
time to deal with other things.

Pent

[Nigel Roy]

OK further spanners perhaps in that last night I was on a WIFI network
so network speed shouldn't affect sync.

In my efforts to eliminate things this morning I wiped my calendar
data then resynced - this did not resolve the issue but it did lose
all my PC Sync items.

I had not resynced with my PC until this afternoon, I had to uninstall
and re-install PC Sync to get it to forget about entries which had
already been synced.

After doing that and re-syncing I lost my recurring events again.

This leads me to wonder whether there is an issue related to the PC
Sync, although that may just be a coincidence.

In an effort to try and eliminate that I have now disabled PC Sync and
will not use it again - currently all recurring events are showing, I
have Tasker enabled with my Calendar events also enabled and will
leave it like that for a while ---- no more fiddling for a while as I
think I may be doing too many things too quickly to get useful
results!!

Nigel

[Pete Scott]

For what it is worth, I vaguely recall something about recurring
events working properly until the first one (more explicitly: the
first one that is actually showing up on your calendar) is finished.
After that, it seems to forget about them.

[Nigel Roy]

Further update.

Last night I lost my recurring events again.

Interestingly to get them back I added a new recurring event 5 minutes
after the first missing event should have appeared.

At the time I was connected to the Internet via WiFi BUT had
synchronisation disabled.

I added the event inside Gemini calendar and despite the fact sync was
disabled ALL the missing events popped back immediately after saving
the new event!!

I disabled the Tasker calendar events again last night and as of now I
still have not lost the recurring events again.

At present the only difference between what was running yesterday is
that Tasker calendar events are disabled, I have re-enabled the PC
Sync calendar as the recurring events still disappeared when it was
disabled last night.

The plot thickens......

[BossMan]

In case you want to capture logs from a longer period of time and your
phone is rooted you might try grab the log continously to a file:
http://groups.google.com/group/tasker/msg/5a6252b4147c4088

Maybe you can find something calendar-related in the log.

BR,
A.

[Pent]

Sugar :)

Pent

[Pent]

Luckily, I have a cunning plan.

Pent

[bobo]

I never lost any sync-ed items before, with any flavor of windows
mobile or android. I use googlesync to sync my work exchange meetings
to my google work calendar that syncs with my phone.

it happened today for the first time ever in the middle of a meeting
while quietly gtalk-ing 'under the table' with my wife. the recurring
meeting disapeared from my work calendar and the sound profile
switched from silent to loud. oops, gtalk beeps all over the place! I
had to fake a personal emergency and get out of the meeting.

back to the matter.
have you guys noticed that this issue started yesterday and continued
today? on the 4th google started activating multiple logins in
gmail.
what if this issue is related to google turning on the mutiple logins
feature in gmail?

I activated multiple signons for my gmail accounts yesterday.
But it may as well affect those that didn't do it as google change
some code globally.

all the items still show in my online google calendar, they just
disapeared from my phone and I cannot make them come back. so it may
be a sync feature that google messed up with multiple logins.


my 2c.

[kpantz]

Hey Pent,

Count me among those with wonky recurring Exchange appointment
behavior. Seems like any exceptions to recurrence patterns stay on my
calendar, but the meetings that are part of the normal recurrence
disappear.

HTC Incredible, Stock 2.1

-K

[kpantz]

Disabled Tasker, removed/re-added my ActiveSync account and they're
back.

[kpantz]

Re-enabled Tasker, disabling my only profile that dealt with a
Calendar context. Modified one instance of a recurrence and the rest
disappeared. Problem still exists even though the Calendar context is
disabled.

[kpantz]

BUG ISOLATED?

Final test:

1. Disabled Tasker
2. Deleted Profile with Calendar Event State context.
3. Removed ActiveSync account and cleared Calendar Storage
4. Re-added ActiveSync account.
5. Modified one instance of a recurring appointment. Rest of
recurrence REMAINS on device.
6. Re-enabled Tasker.
7. Modified one instance of a recurring appointment. Rest of
recurrence REMAINS on device. Huzzah!

So it seems that I'm not even able to have a profile with a calendar
event state context. Not even if it's disabled.

[Pent]

Right, thanks, the problem is not good but it's especially bad if you
can't
just disable Calendary Entry states to avoid it.

Don't suppose you could send me a log of your test with a Calendar
Entry state disabled
but Tasker enabled ? (make sure Menu / Prefs / More / Debug To System
Log is enabled)

Thanks,

Pent

p.s. I promised you some wallpaper improvements for this next version
and I feel bad that
I couldn't follow through. Unfortunately two things happened
inbetween: lifehacker reviews
and google's new order validation system. NEXT TIME, DEFINITELY!

[kpantz]

Understood re: Wallpaper, and I'll take what I can get there.
Definitely appreciate that you remember. For now, I've just got a
"Reset Wallpaper" task that I call on profile exit. Works fairly well
as a stopgap. But yeah, I'd love to see Wallpaper treated as a
setting as well as the ability to control just how the wallpaper is
applied (the zoom/crop interface you get through the native
interface).

As far as the calendar issue and a log is concerned, I should be able
to get something together later tonight (US East Coast time). Can you
tell me exactly what activity it is you want me to monitor? The
action of modifying one instance of a recurring appointment while
Tasker is enabled and the profile is disabled (culminating with the
calendar sync that reveals the problem)? Sounds like that would be
what you want (since that's what results in the disappearing act), but
I wanted to be sure.

-K

[Henk]

I seam to have the same calendar bug...

[Pent]

> As far as the calendar issue and a log is concerned, I should be able
> to get something together later tonight (US East Coast time).  Can you
> tell me exactly what activity it is you want me to monitor?  The
> action of modifying one instance of a recurring appointment while
> Tasker is enabled and the profile is disabled (culminating with the
> calendar sync that reveals the problem)?  Sounds like that would be
> what you want (since that's what results in the disappearing act), but
> I wanted to be sure.

Yes, sounds good, I want to know what is happening that would cause
Tasker to do
something with the calendar when there are not calendar entries.

You'll have to make the log straight after though or it won't all fit.

Pent

[Nigel Roy]

I have been carefully monitoring my phone since I disabled both my
calendar events on Wednesday evening!

So far the recurring events stay there so it looks as though just
disabling them on my phone has stabilised it but I will leave it like
this for a few more days to see what happens.

The probem here is that as has been said before, it can be stable for
quite a while and then all of a sudden the events start to disappear.

For me it always seems to have been around the beginning of the month
when it happens, after a week or two it stabilises for the rest of
that month!!!

Nigel

[Pent]

I just noticed that it's still monitoring the calendar even if all
calendar entries are disabled.

I'll push out a fix for that tomorrow.

Pent

[Pent]

No, I'm wrong again, should be checking without an enabled calendar
entry.

Will keep my big mouth shut till I've gotten somewhere :)

Pent

[kpantz]

Log file sent. Here's hoping it helps. Pretty solid in terms of
reproducibility, especially when I create the Calendar Event Context
Profile as enabled. Always need to remove the ActiveSync account AND
delete Calendar Storage Data before I can get a clean sync when re-
adding the account.

[Calvin]

FYI
it happens to me quite regularly now. In general I don't do anything
to get them back, they just reappear after some time, just as they
disappear.
Hope you can find a way to fix this.

[Pent]

In the new release I avoid doing anything with the calendar when
Android says it's busy syncing.

That seemed to improve things in testing, though it's all so nebuluous
it's hard to tell.

I'm not confident, but let's see.

Pent

[kpantz]

New release...as in try it out now?? If so, I'll give it a whirl and
report my results.

[Calvin]

Sad news,
I'm running the latest version (1.0.7) and last night my recurring
events disappeared again.
I'll try for a while with my calendar events disabled.

[Calvin]

FYI
I tried a manual sync to get my events back (worked), and timed the
sync. It takes 4 minutes to sync my calendar (!).

[Pent]

Well I hope it will at least work with the entries disabled now.

I will wait a few days and see if people report any improvement at all
with the dont-touch-calendar-when-syncing-code.

Pent

[Pete Scott]

Pent,

I disabled my profile that contained the "calendar entry" context,
upgraded to 1.0.7, created a new calendar entry on my work computer
(corporate calendar, not google), synchronized and noted that the
calendar entry appeared on my calendar. I then edited the event
(again, on my computer, not my phone) to make it a recurring event.
Saved it and waited a while (about 1/2 hour). The calendar entry has
disappeared from my phone's calendar.

Any thoughts? Should I try this with a google calendar?

[Pent]

> I disabled my profile that contained the "calendar entry" context,
> upgraded to 1.0.7, created a new calendar entry on my work computer
> (corporate calendar, not google), synchronized and noted that the
> calendar entry appeared on my calendar. I then edited the event
> (again, on my computer, not my phone) to make it a recurring event.
> Saved it and waited a while (about 1/2 hour). The calendar entry has
> disappeared from my phone's calendar.
>
> Any thoughts? Should I try this with a google calendar?

No, it seems not to be helping :(

At least disabling of the contexts works now (always look on the
bright side :))

Pent

[Pete Scott]

Good news (I think):

I re-enabled my meeting profile earlier today. Didn't pay any more
attention to it until about five minutes ago, when I went to look at
my meetings for tomorrow on my phone. Recurring events are showing up
on my calendar! I'll keep an eye on it for a while and let you know if
they disappear again. Strangest thing.

[Pent]

Hey Pete,

is that with, enabled, disabled or no calendar entry states ? :)

Pent

[Pete Scott]

Tasker is running with an ENABLED calender entry state (running
against 2 google calendars and a corporate calendar). That all seems
to be working as expected (correctly detected the enter and exit of a
meeting late yesterday afternoon). All recurring events appear to be
showing up in my calendar and have been there for close to 20 hours
now... let me manually sync and see if they are still there... Yep!

Stock Froyo on a Droid, Tasker 1.0.7.

[BossMan]

How about another test: try adding a meeting from the web and see if
it is caught by Tasker. Since 1.0.7 this does not seem to work for me,
as Tasker is postponing syncing...

BR,
A.

[Calvin]

Not to spoil the party or anything :)

Before I disabled my calendar events my recurring events disappeared
and reappeared a lot, it was kinda an on and off thing.

Now that is disabled those calendar events, no problems for two days
now. But i'd like to have my calendar events back! :)

[Pete Scott]

It was not. I added a recurring meeting that would start in about an
hour. Checked Accounts&Sync for my gmail account and it was indeed
syncing calendars, but the event did not appear on my phone calendar.
I then created a NON recurring meeting that would start in about 2
hours and it immediately synced AND showed up on my calendar. HOWEVER,
what was interesting was that (unlike previous incidents), all of my
other recurring meeting are STILL on my phone calendar. They used to
disappear.

[BossMan]

Ok, but I was asking whether Tasker got info about that event, i.e.
did your "silence when in meeting" profile started after those 2hrs?

BR,
A.

[Pete Scott]

Ah. Interesting question. I'll test.

[Pent]

OK, so it seems the not-during-syncing helps some people, sometimes :)

Next beta I will just avoid an ACTIVE sync instead of a pending one.

Pent

[Pete Scott]

OK, adding recurring events to the calendars are not picked up by the
phone at all. Tasker does not know they exist, the phone calendar does
not know they exist. NON-recurring events, however, are working fine
for me (both in the phone calendar and in Tasker).

And recurring events that were added... I don't know when the last one
was added, maybe 1.5 months ago... are (as of some magical time
yesterday) showing up in my phone calendar and being acted on by
Tasker.

So I guess the problem (at least, MY problem) at this point is getting
NEW recurring events to sync.

[kpantz]

Also, try modifying one instance of your recurrence in your Gmail
calendar. My experience to date has been that once you do that, the
modified instance is correctly synced to your phone, but all other
instances of the recurrence go missing.

[Pent]

It's been a long road but I think I've found the problem <wipes sweat
from brow>.

In any case, please don't send me any calendar entry logs at this
time.

Pent

[Pent]

Oh, and we're back to a good old 5 second delay before Tasker reacts
to the calendar.

Pent

[Pent]

Seems to work, closing this topic.

Pent