Calendar not syncing

[Dave-in-Decatur]

In the past few days, I've noticed several occasions when an event that I added or changed in my Google calendar has not synced to the calendar on my Stratosphere. I have not changed any settings on the phone; the calendar is set to sync automatically to my Google Calendars and to no other accounts. In the Calendar app, I do Menu > Settings > Calendar sync. Auto-sync remains checked; unchecking it and checking it again does not cause the Calendar app to sync. On that same page, tapping my Gmail account under Manage accounts brings up a screen with 5 items to sync: Books, Contacts, Gmail, Picasa, Calendar. I have Picasa unchecked, all the rest checked. The last sync date for Calendar is reported there as 2/18; the other items (except Picasa) all report more recent sync dates/times consistent with auto-syncing. Unchecking and rechecking Calendar causes the little "arrow-wheel" to spin for awhile, but no sync takes place.

The only things that seem to cause the Calendar to sync are: (1) powering down the phone and restarting it; and (2) from the Home screen doing Menu > Settings > Accounts & sync > tap the Gmail account under Manage accounts, which also brings up the screen with the 5 items to sync, then Menu > Sync now. This forces all the 4 checked items (Picasa being unchecked) to sync (their little "arrow-wheels" spin one after the other), apparently including Calendar, since events are updated, although the most recent reported sync date is not updated (still 2/18).

I've previously reported a problem with specific changes to events in Google Calendar (changing only the reminder time) not syncing here. Now it appears that the sync capability is degrading further. I suspect a problem with the stock Calendar app on this phone, which I plan to replace, but don't have time to right now.

This is a disaster, or at least a major inconvenience, waiting to happen, since I can never be sure that events I manage on Google will update to my phone, which is where I need the alarms to go off. So: (1) Has anybody else experienced this? (2) Is there perhaps a way to reinstall the stock Calendar app to see if that jogs the sync function back into proper activity? (3) Any recommendations on a replacement calendar app? I've looked at Business Calendar, Touch Calendar, and Calendar Pad as possibilities.

 

[Rtobler]

I have identical problem in samsung mesmerize. Uggggh. This is ridiculous

 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

How long have you had the problem? For me, it just started to show up recently, after having had the phone since the end of November.

Also, what version of Android does your Mesmerize have?

 

[sn315on]

Dave, it recently started with me as well, last week. I've had my phone since November as well. I'm glad it's just not me having issues. I wonder if it's something with Google.

 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

My feeling is that there may be something wrong with the stock Calendar app on the phone. I believe that Google is doing its bit. At any rate, other things that should sync (such as contacts) do sync; it's just calendar events. And it is possible to force a sync using Settings > Accounts & sync from the Home page. This suggests that the phone can access the data from Google, it's just not doing it.

There's also this: I have the phone near my desktop computer when I'm working on the Google online Calendar, and when the phone sends or receives data I hear a little static on my computer's speakers (as expected). Right after I edit an event in Google Calendar there is a short burst of static. I can't absolutely prove that this is Google Calendar syncing to the phone (there are lots of reasons for the phone to send or receive data, causing the static), but I believe I can make a reasonable coordination. So, when I create or edit a Calendar event online, I hear the static, but the event is not synced to the phone. This leads me to suspect that Google sends the data to the phone, but the Calendar app does not process it correctly.

As I say, that's not really proof that the app is at fault, but that's what I suspect.

 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

Problem solved!

Following the advice here and here, I did Home > Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage applications > All, and then selected Calendar storage (not Calendar). I then tapped Clear data (which was at 0.95MB), and did a Power button Power off, then powered back on.

When the device finished its power-on routine, the Calendar synced remarkably quickly. I did several tests, and found that events added or edited in Google Calendar online were synced almost instantly to the phone.

Two warnings: (1) There is a possibility of losing some settings in Calendar when you do this, so note them down beforehand. Most of my settings were preserved intact. However, for some reason the only calendars listed for syncing were the ones I already had selected for sync before the data clear. One of my Google calendars that I was not syncing has disappeared from the list, as has Contacts' birthdays and events. I don't need to sync those, but I don't know why they disappeared.

(2) There is one big caveat about this process: as advertised at the links above, events more than 30 days before the present date and 1 year after it are no longer synced to the phone. They remain present in the online Google Calendar, just not on the phone. Recurring events seem to be something of an exception to this. They seemed to be preserved backwards about 12 weeks and forwards indefinitely. Events on calendars that I sync to that are not my own calendars (such as US Holidays) stop syncing slightly less than a year in advance (Lincoln's birthday, Feb. 12, 2013, is synced, Valentine's Day 2013 is not). I hope those will be picked up moving forward in time, but I don't know.

There is a fix even for the lost prior events, however. If I go to one of them on the online Google Calendar and make a slight edit, it does then automatically sync to the phone. There will be some tedious processing to do, but not terrible.

This is a somewhat drastic fix, especially if you have lots of prior events that you want to see on your phone (not just on Google Calendar). But for the specific problem I was having, and granted the lost-events issue, it did work.

 

[sloped]

thumbs up, I have been searching for a solution to this problem for weeks. and now it's gone after following your description

 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

Glad it worked for you too! The real kudos go to the Google support forums I linked to.

 

[warcal]

I have had my phone since last Nov. The sync feature worked great until about a week ago. Nothing was changed on my phone, it just stop updating from my Google account. I use the
Same account for syncing my android tablet and it works great.
Something happen to the phone calendar sync function. Can't find anything from Samsung about the problem.
Any ideas?

 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

The only thing I can suggest is the data-clearing procedure that I linked to in my post dated 02-29-2012 above. Note the caveats there; but I and others have found that it does restore the calendar sync function.

 

[giina453]

Thank you so much. After one mth of having my note. Calendar won't work! Not saving any anything. Did clear calendar storage ansa it was syncing again. Hate that i loathing some dates tho. Ty Ty again tho.

 

[NickNack238]

I tried the advice of clear the storage data from my phone, turned the phone off, and back on. However, now my entire calendar is empty and still will not sync. It says the last sync date was June 5th ( said the same thing before I cleared the data). I try to manually press "sync now" and nothing happens. Does anyone have suggestions?

 

[acejavelin]

My first thought now would be to clear your Google account off your phone, restart and then add your Google account again.

If that fails, probably need to do a factory wipe... go into Settings - Privacy and untick "Backup my data" and "Automatic Restore" then reboot, then go back into Settings - Privacy and select "Factory data reset" and follow the prompts. Remember ALL data on the phone will be wiped out and your phone will be just as it was when it came out of the box like brand new (except SD card, anything there should be fine).

 

[paulisofi]

I'm so happy to have found this forum! I just found the answer to my main issue with my Samsung Galaxy S II Skyrocket. And all thanks to Dave-in-Decatur's posts!! Lately my default calendar app on my phone started missing some events that were still present on my google calendar. That was the first problem. But the nightmare started about two weeks ago after I installed the infamous ice cream sandwich update: my phone started to have all sorts of small issues. So, after some research online I found out the best thing to do would be a hard reset to get rid of those small software issues and stabilize the ics update on my phone. I did that two days ago and after the hard reset, all my problems with my phone disappeared but... my calendar would not sync any events prior to the present month (July) except for the recurring ones. The US holiday calendar events prior to July were all gone for good as well. Exactly the same situation as Dave-in-Decatur, even in regards to future events. As he said, in order to get all those previous months back, I had to go to my google calendar on my computer and make a slight edit to every single event (except the recurring ones). Really tedious. I only hope this is the end of my nightmares with my Skyrocket, even though I truly have my doubts. So all of you who have done/are thinking of doing the ice cream sandwich update beware!!! And thanks again, Dave-in-Decatur, for your spot on post!!

 

[paulisofi]

The real kudos go to the Google support forums I linked to.

... and yes, of course, kudos to those Google support forums!

 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

Glad it was helpful, paulisofi!

 

[SSharkawy]

My calendar never Synced to start with, and for some reason I tried this fix once along with others and none of them worked, then I gave it another try and voila!... Magic!

 

[sallywg]

I did all the above steps, plus removed and recreated my Google Account several times. Under Accounts, it says that the Google Calendar has synced. But nothing displays in my Calendar.

 

[Joe Scerbo]

when I go to setting>I don't have a tab named 'applications". I only have a tab named "Applications manager" and that does not have an option for "manage applications ', "all' or select calendar etc. I have ANDROID Version 4.1.2. I am a phone newbie. help not being able to sync my calendars is driving me crazy

 

[acejavelin]

when I go to setting>I don't have a tab named 'applications". I only have a tab named "Applications manager" and that does not have an option for "manage applications ', "all' or select calendar etc. I have ANDROID Version 4.1.2. I am a phone newbie. help not being able to sync my calendars is driving me crazy

Stupid question... what phone do you have, because the Stratosphere only has Android versions 2.3.x.? In most Android 4.1 devices, the the app management is listed as "Apps" under the Device section of settings.