05-08-2010, 12:37 PM

Help! I've used iCal with no problem for years. Now, on my new MacBook Pro w/Snow Leopard it's suddenly doing weird things. I'm not using Mobile Me or any synchs or links. After using iCal on the new laptop without any problem, I am suddenly no longer able to click on a date in month view and enter an event with no time associated with it. It automatically enters the current duration (if it's 9:30, it gives me a choice of 10:00-11:00 and if I don't select a time, then automatically enters "10:00 am" before my event title). The only way around this is to check "all day" for all events, which is a mess.

Advice? If I should uninstall iCal and reinstall, how do I do it?

Many thanks.

05-08-2010, 04:20 PM

Why is "all day" a problem? All my events are set up that way, and with a time for the message. I don't know a way around it, so I doubt that reinstalling is going to change anything.

05-08-2010, 05:46 PM

I have kind of the same problem as vicmly so I was thinking I should add to this thread instead of making a new one.

Not sure if this is the same reason vicmly disklikes the "all day" checkbox but the reason I do not like it is because a lot of the time I forget to click it when adding an event.

I think the problem may be solved it there is a way to automatically have the all day box checked by default. I've looked through the settings but didn't see anything. Is there a way for it to be checked by default?

05-09-2010, 10:55 AM

Thanks for your reply, toMACsh. "All day" is a problem for me because these events are not "all day"; I would have to take the extra step of checking the "all day" box; the "all day" solid bar appears, which makes the date in monthly view look crowded; I can no longer just enter "Dentist 2:00" (without having to enter duration) and be done with it. And, it was working the correct way just a few weeks ago. I'm hoping to simply get back to the way it was functioning without having to grin and bear it.

Originally Posted by toMACsh

Why is "all day" a problem? All my events are set up that way, and with a time for the message. I don't know a way around it, so I doubt that reinstalling is going to change anything.

05-09-2010, 05:29 PM

Originally Posted by vicmly

Thanks for your reply, toMACsh. "All day" is a problem for me because these events are not "all day"; I would have to take the extra step of checking the "all day" box; the "all day" solid bar appears, which makes the date in monthly view look crowded; I can no longer just enter "Dentist 2:00" (without having to enter duration) and be done with it.

Still confused here. I just did what you said you can't do. Also tried one without "all day" checked. Time appears for the latter, but no end time was needed. No time appears if "all day" is checked. (not an onerous "extra step" really) I can put a time in the Event description. I get a bar with rounded ends with "all day" and squared off if it's not checked. No 'crowding" at all. ???

Sorry I'm not helping, but I use iCal everyday, and don't really understand the problem you have with it. Feel free to ignore this post if someone else provides the solution you're looking for.

05-10-2010, 12:52 PM

Maybe it's simpler to ask how to uninstall and reinstall iCal. Any advice on that?

Like you, toMACsh, I use iCal multiple times a day. Suddenly I can't do what I have been able to do for several years. This tells me something is wrong. I could take several extra steps, but I will probably just move to google calendar if I can't fix this. I work in monthly view most of the time, so maybe that's the difference, toMACsh. Thanks for trying.

Originally Posted by toMACsh

Still confused here. I just did what you said you can't do. Also tried one without "all day" checked. Time appears for the latter, but no end time was needed. No time appears if "all day" is checked. (not an onerous "extra step" really) I can put a time in the Event description. I get a bar with rounded ends with "all day" and squared off if it's not checked. No 'crowding" at all. ???

Sorry I'm not helping, but I use iCal everyday, and don't really understand the problem you have with it. Feel free to ignore this post if someone else provides the solution you're looking for.

05-10-2010, 01:21 PM

I wouldn't go that far, yet anyway.

Go down this path
HD/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iCal.plist
Move that plist file to your Desktop.
Now open iCal. This will make a new default plist file.
Test it out. Is it better? Back to "normal"?
If so, Trash that file from the Desktop.

If not, try using iCal after logging in under a different user account. If you only have one, make a second one!

And, if step one made things worse, you can put that plist file back where it came from. It will ask you if you want to overwrite the one it just made. You should do this if you changed a bunch of preferences. That will restore your changes.

This approach is trying to ferret out corrupt preferences or other things in your account, if that's the problem. We weren't getting anywhere looking for an answer within iCal.

08-30-2011, 07:09 PM

OK, had the same exact problem. iCal would not let me edit the time for an event. After a couple of hours of trying many different things, including restarting the app, restarting the Mac, deleting the .plist., etc., I have finally solved the problem, which I was able to duplicate (Yeah!). Time Machine was locked up. I had to physically turn off the offending external drive (not normally recommended, but nothing else would eject the volume). iCal now works perfect as it always has before. As a test, when I turn that external drive back on and Time Machine begins its work, then iCal reverts back to not allowing editing of events. So now I need to determine what the problem is with that particular external drive and/or Time Machine, but for now, I'm happy!