Why do I get duplicate notifications of most birthdays?

[Howard Brazee]

This morning I got three notifications on my Mac. Two of them were for my nephew's birthday and one was for Mother's Day.

My nephew is in my contacts. My contacts don't show anybody on my iCloud. Everybody is on my Google account shared with my wife's contacts.

If I open my calendar app, I see two places with "Birthdays" check boxes. One of these is on my Google account, and the other is on "Other". If I check both of those off, I see the birthday twice on my Calendar app. So I only have one checked off.

Where does it get its "Other"? I believe I have gotten some birthday notifications very occasionally only once.

 

[lclev]

Easiest way to see what is causing the doubling up of dates etc try unchecking everything then check one, look at your calendar and see what you get. You can always re-check it and notices will reappear. I suspect the reason for duplicates is because you are sharing with other people who are also showing the same events so you get twice the notice.



Lisa

 

[Howard Brazee]

I can't figure out what to uncheck. I used that method to get rid of the duplicate in my calendar. And my next test will be the next time someone in my contacts has a birthday.

I suspect I need to find out what "other" looks like in my calendar. Maybe notifications looks at the same thing. Or maybe not.

 

[MacInWin]

I can't figure out what to uncheck.

Uncheck all of them. ALL. Then check one at a time to see which have the birthday, then check the ones that show the birthday to see if what you end up with is what you are seeing now. Once you know which are providing the birthday, you can decide what to do. Sometimes duplicates just have to exist if they are on two calendars and you want both, even if some data is duplicated. For example, because I travel to UK often, I have a calendar with UK holidays. But that means that some holidays are duplicated from my US holiday calendar (New Years, Easter, Christmas, etc.). I live with it.

 

[Howard Brazee]

Uncheck the calendars? So I should wait until someone's birthday, don't close the duplicate notifications of birthdays, but open the calendar app, uncheck everything, and then reboot? If notifications come up again, check one, and reboot again?

So you believe that my notifications have to be coming from my calendar, not my contacts or anything else.

 

[MacInWin]

Yes, notifications about birthdays come from Calendar. So if you have duplicate entries for birthdays in Calendar, you will get duplicate notifications of those same birthdays.

Contacts doesn't send notifications. Calendar does, if authorized in System Settings.

I strongly suggest, looking at your list of calendars you display, that the birthdays are duplicated.

You don't have to wait for a birthday, just look in Calendar for a day with duplicate birthdays. Find what calendars you have turned on are creating that duplicate and decide what to do.

Alternatively, you can turn notifications OFF for Calendar at System Settings>Notifications. But doing so means you won't get notifications for anything in Calendar. You'll need to make a decision what is important to you.

 

[Howard Brazee]

I did "get info" on the "Other" contacts "This calendar automatically displays birthdays listed in your contacts".

"Get info" on the Google calendar shows: "Displays birthdays, anniversaries, and other event dates of people in Google Contacts."

 

[MacInWin]

I did "get info" on the "Other" contacts "This calendar automatically displays birthdays listed in your contacts".

"Get info" on the Google calendar shows: "Displays birthdays, anniversaries, and other event dates of people in Google Contacts."

I'm sorry, I thought we were talking about Apple's Calendar, not Google. I don't use Google at all.

Good luck with it. I'm out.

 

[ferrarr]

Did you uncheck "other"?

 

[Slydude]

At one time I had triplicates of my "Birthdays" calendar as well as one or two others showing in the Calendar app. It turns out that I had a copy of the Calendar on my Mac, iPhone, and iCloud. I ended up turning off Calendars and leaving only one turned on.

I suspect the same thing is happening here.

 

[Howard Brazee]

Other has been unchecked, resulting in not getting duplicates on my calendar. But I still get duplicates in my notifications.