How can I get rid of duplicate calendar events?
While manually maintaining separate copies, it's easy to have created duplicate and/or slightly different copies of what were meant to be the same entries. There are also scenarios where a corrupted OS X's Sync Services can result in duplicate iCal entries which can then get sync'd to other information sources.
There are 3 strategies for removing duplicates:
- manually delete the duplicate entries in one information source and those deletions will then be sync'd (subject to your setup options) with the other information source(s) during the next sync
- if applicable, use one of the resources mentioned at
http://www.nhoj.co.uk/icaldupedeleter/ or
http://www.hawkwings.net/2006/05/16/ical-de-dupe-kill-ical-duplicates/
- for advanced users: if all the information exists without duplicates in one of the information sources, you can do the following:
- if you're not familiar with the Advanced Setup, you'll need to download and watch the tutorial video
- check/enable the "Show Advanced Sync Setup" option via the "Preferences" tab in the Sync'Em preferences
- to be able to recover from any problem, make a backup of each source that contains all the entries and, for extra "insurance," of all the other information sources
- via the Advanced Setup, for each of the other Sync Sources (i.e., the ones with duplicate entries):
- in that information source, delete all the entries
- make note of that source's "Sync Source" and "Access Sync Source Prefs" settings
- delete then re-create both that source's "Sync Source" and "Access Sync Source Prefs" settings
- at the next sync, those reconfigured sources will be sync'd as initial/full syncs (subject to your setup options) with the contents of the other/full/non-duplicate source(s)
You may also want to see the FAQ about duplicate contact entries.