HELP!! Calendar app alternative???

[derek4484]

Hi all. Here is my situation. We run IceWarp email server at work. Our company is too cheap to spring for the Microsoft Active Sync plugin for all the email users in the company to use active sync. So, we are using CardDav and CalDav to sync to the email server to get contacts and calendar appointments. We use IMAP to get emails to the phones. It seems to work fluid enough. HOWEVER....Since iOS 7 there seems to be some kind of glitch in iOS in regards to CalDav. It brings in double and triple appointments. Then if you edit the appointment in Outlook (which then syncs back to the email server), it brings in another duplicate entry into the iOS Calendar. I'm fairly certain this is an iOS bug, because the few people at work that use Android and Caldav app do not get double and triplicates in their calendars, only iOS users. And, this didnt happen back on iOS 6.

So, my question to all of you is this....is there an alternative Calendar app for iOS that will use CalDav? I've looked at Outlook, but it obviously only syncs with major services like GMAIL, Yahoo, Outlook.com, etc. It wont use IMAP and CalDav.

Thanks!

 

[gmintz09]

Two calendar apps I particularly love that I am fairly sure support caldav are "Sunrise Calendar" and "Fantastical 2." Beautiful interfaces and they've always worked and synced well for me.

 

[derek4484]

Thanks

I'll give them a look. I've heard of Fantastical before.

EDIT: Unfortunately, Sunrise Calendar only works with Google, iCloud, and Exchange, not CalDav. And Fantastical 2 does do CalDav, but it doesnt do it on its own. It just takes the data from the stock Calendar app and puts it into the Fantastical 2 calendar. So, if I'm getting duplicates, triplicates, and more because of the iOS bug with CalDav, then those same copies show up in Fantastical.

But thanks for the input. I need to find a Calendar app that has its own settings and own CalDav interfacing.

 

[gmintz09]

I'll give them a look. I've heard of Fantastical before.

EDIT: Unfortunately, Sunrise Calendar only works with Google, iCloud, and Exchange, not CalDav. And Fantastical 2 does do CalDav, but it doesnt do it on its own. It just takes the data from the stock Calendar app and puts it into the Fantastical 2 calendar. So, if I'm getting duplicates, triplicates, and more because of the iOS bug with CalDav, then those same copies show up in Fantastical.

But thanks for the input. I need to find a Calendar app that has its own settings and own CalDav interfacing.

Ah, okay. Sorry about that. Guess I didn't remember the Sunrise app correctly. Good luck on your search!

 

[nwmtnbiker]

I'm using informant but does same as fantastical... My work does the same as yours sorta. I opened the stock calendar app and clicked calanders and the bottom it'll let you choose which accounts you want active I deactivated the ones from iPhone so I only get 1 notification.

 

[TruthWatcher412]

I think Google just released Google Calendar for iOS, never had a problem with the desktop version before so maybe the app will be good too?

 

[C DM]

Google provides its calendar information through CalDAV as I recall, so an app that supports Google calendar should support CalDAV...I guess the trick is to be able to put that specific calendar in, since I would assume simply going to add Google calendar (using CalDAV) would ask for Google credentials.

 

[0004838]

BusyCal by BusyMac does what you want. I currently use it for calDAV syncing with OS X Server 3 (Mavericks) and it's fine.

One thing it doesn't do is propagate its events to the Notification Center, as Calendar does. You'll have to use the supplied menu bar item as an alternative. If this disappoints you, please send a feature request to BusyMac (as I have).

 

[smitt]

Derek,
You didn't mention if you have other devices involved with your calendaring account, but is it possible that you have a calendar sync/subscription loop happening? For example, you are syncing over the air on your iPhone with one account, you have another account subscribed to it, while your computer is also subscribed, which you happen to use to sync with your iPhone via iTunes.
Multiple accounts on the same device plus throwing a computer into the mix can result in an event populated multiple times in one calendar.

 

[derek4484]

Derek,
You didn't mention if you have other devices involved with your calendaring account, but is it possible that you have a calendar sync/subscription loop happening? For example, you are syncing over the air on your iPhone with one account, you have another account subscribed to it, while your computer is also subscribed, which you happen to use to sync with your iPhone via iTunes.
Multiple accounts on the same device plus throwing a computer into the mix can result in an event populated multiple times in one calendar.

I'm pretty sure that is not happening.

Here is how we work...We have Icewarp mail server. I have Outlook on my desktop PC at work. When I create an event in Outlook, that appointment is then saved/sync'ed to Icewarp mail server. Then my iPhone connects to our Icewarp server, via the internet and CalDav, and downloads the appointments. Problem is, if I create an 8 week recurring appointment, it looks right in Outlook, it looks right in Icewarp when I log into my account via the web browser, yet in my iphone calendar, I get one appointment for 8 weeks, but on the second week, I have two appointments, on the third week 3 appointments, and so on up to the 8th week there will be 8 appointments.

Also, if I create an one time appointment and save it. It'll end up on my Calendar in iphone. But if I go in and edit that appointment in outlook, and save it, I'll get a double appointment on my iphone. If I edit it again in Outlook, I'll get a third appointment on my iphone.

It's pretty clear that apple has some serious CalDav bugs in their calendar app. It only started with iOS 7 (when they rewrote the calendar app for the new flatter UI), and continued on with iOS8. My iPhone used to work perfectly back in iOS 6.

What I ended up doing to fix it, was I had to stop using CalDav and talked the company into buying a group of Microsoft Exchange Active Sync licenses from Icewarp for our server. I turned that feature on in Icewarp and configured it, and then connected my phone via Active Sync and it works flawlessly. iOS just sucks at CalDav. Everyone here at work was having the same issues and even the few people here that work with Macbooks, were having the same issue in their iCal app in OSX. Howver, people who worked with Android and used it's CalDav app to sync to our server, their devices worked perfectly. Same with BlackBerries. So, its pretty clear its an Apple issue. And I'm sure they really dont care as not that many people use Icewarp and CalDav. Most people use Exchange and ActiveSync.

 

[technosix]

I'm pretty sure that is not happening.

Here is how we work...We have Icewarp mail server. I have Outlook on my desktop PC at work. When I create an event in Outlook, that appointment is then saved/sync'ed to Icewarp mail server. Then my iPhone connects to our Icewarp server, via the internet and CalDav, and downloads the appointments. Problem is, if I create an 8 week recurring appointment, it looks right in Outlook, it looks right in Icewarp when I log into my account via the web browser, yet in my iphone calendar, I get one appointment for 8 weeks, but on the second week, I have two appointments, on the third week 3 appointments, and so on up to the 8th week there will be 8 appointments.

Also, if I create an one time appointment and save it. It'll end up on my Calendar in iphone. But if I go in and edit that appointment in outlook, and save it, I'll get a double appointment on my iphone. If I edit it again in Outlook, I'll get a third appointment on my iphone.

It's pretty clear that apple has some serious CalDav bugs in their calendar app. It only started with iOS 7 (when they rewrote the calendar app for the new flatter UI), and continued on with iOS8. My iPhone used to work perfectly back in iOS 6.

What I ended up doing to fix it, was I had to stop using CalDav and talked the company into buying a group of Microsoft Exchange Active Sync licenses from Icewarp for our server. I turned that feature on in Icewarp and configured it, and then connected my phone via Active Sync and it works flawlessly. iOS just sucks at CalDav. Everyone here at work was having the same issues and even the few people here that work with Macbooks, were having the same issue in their iCal app in OSX. Howver, people who worked with Android and used it's CalDav app to sync to our server, their devices worked perfectly. Same with BlackBerries. So, its pretty clear its an Apple issue. And I'm sure they really dont care as not that many people use Icewarp and CalDav. Most people use Exchange and ActiveSync.

Yes it's an old issue with Apple. We are cross platform at work and Android is flexible, fast smooth and open. I love my iPhones, but the truth is Android is able to do so much more. Apple's proprietary lock in is very limited in what we're allowed to do.

 

[derek4484]

Yes it's an old issue with Apple. We are cross platform at work and Android is flexible, fast smooth and open. I love my iPhones, but the truth is Android is able to do so much more. Apple's proprietary lock in is very limited in what we're allowed to do.

I'm not trying to say that Apple or Android is better. It's just with this one area (CalDav), the new Apple Calendar App, has serious CalDav syncing issues. The Contacts app works great with CardDav, the email app works perfectly fine with IMAP and POP3. Even before Apple re-wrote the Calendar app for iOS7 to make it flatter and modify it, CalDav worked perfectly back then too. It's just they have a bug, and I guess they're not willing to fix it because it doesnt affect many people. I'm willing to bet 95%+ of company users use Exchange ActiveSync for mail, calendars, contacts.