Multiple event entries in Calendar

[The Mighty Blaze]

I run macOS Catalina on MacBook Air v10.15.3
I have a yearly event that just keeps multiplying. It is obviously corrupt but I can't remove it.
If I go back to 1850 it is there on several dates in September over 2000 times.
In September 2020 I moved all entries to a dummy iCloud calendar then deleted the calendar. All disappeared for 2020 but they are still there in 2019, thousands of them - all ONE event!!
They do NOT appear in iCloud, but do appear on my iPhone.
How do I delete this event for ever?

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

A few troubleshooting questions for you:
-Do you sync your Mac and iPhone Calendars to iCloud?
-Or, do you sync your iPhone directly to your Mac?
-When you say, "They do NOT appear in iCloud", do you mean if you login with your account to icloud.com using Safari on your Mac?
-Do you really mean if you go back to the year 1850?

This may a bit involved and require a lot of interaction, to make sure we determing the cause and don't delete any of your other calendar events. I suggest having a current Time Machine or other backup of your Mac, and have a current Mac or iCloud Backup of your iPhone.

C

 

[The Mighty Blaze]

Hi Cory,
Thanks for the interest, much appreciated. I'm John.
In response:
Sorry but I have made dozens of changes since posting, and did take a couple of backups.
Both Mac & iPhoneX sync to iCloud.
When I login to iCloud.com and select Calendar the rouge entries do NOT appear in iCloud but are all present on Mac Calendar and on iPhone.
To delete a repeating event totally you need reach the source so I went back to 1850 and there they all were.
I have two problem entries, both repeating events, both Birthdays. Let's call him John Smith, who tells me his birthday is on 7th October. So I enter on 7th October 2018 a yearly repeating all day event 'John Smith's Birthday'.
Now I have over 500 events on 7th October saying John Smith's Birthday, they actually are now 7th to 9th October!!
Then over 1,000 on 8th October (these are 8th to 9th October), and over 1,500 identical events for just 9th October saying John Smith's Birthday.
Remember these were entered in 2018 but if I go back to 1850 they are all there.
In Mac Calendar I created a new Calendar called 'Delete" and moved every one to it, then deleted the Calendar.
I then broke the iPhone to iCloud connection and deleted every iPhone Calendar entry, it was blank.
When I reconnected, they all came back. I deduce they must be corruptly held in iCloud?
NOW:
I have created a new iCloud account and linked Mac Calendar to it; then entered many events starting at January 2020; iPhone is disconnected from iCloud with Calendar still loaded with old data.
I then plan to connect iPhone to old iCloud; disconnect and delete all entries; then connect to new iCloud account. Hopefully I will then have just the new Calendar on all three devices, Mac, iCloud, & iPhone.
Any better ideas Cory.
Thanks again, John.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello,

Looks like you did a lot of troubleshooting. It is a strange issue.

One thing to try - create another user on your Mac, login to it and open the Calendar app. Wait a few mins and see if those events show up. If not, quit the Calendar app and setup iCloud and see if they appear. If they do, then they are definitely "in" iCloud somewhere.

Let us know how that goes.

C

 

[The Mighty Blaze]

Hi Cory,
I'm not too confident on mac yet so creating another user was a step too far, sorry.
By then I was so frustrated I deleted all the calendars in iCloud, and created a new ones, basically started again from 2020.
Now all is well.
I've also tidied up Contacts whilst having so much time on my hands!
Thanks for the interest.
Stay safe,
John.

 

[Cory Cooper]

No worries...sorry you had to delete and start over, but at least the issue is resolved.

Stay healthy and safe,

C