MobileMe: Setting up iCal for MobileMe Calendar

Summary

If you were not syncing with MobileMe Sync prior to upgrading MobileMe Calendar, or you joined MobileMe after October 14, 2010, there are a few steps you need to complete in order to get your iCal data to the MobileMe servers. These steps ensure that iCal does not display duplicate information.

Products Affected

MobileMe, MobileMe Calendar

Note: The steps below do not apply to subscribed calendars. For more information on subscribed calendars and MobileMe Calendar, see this article.

Getting your iCal data into MobileMe Calendar servers:

In order for your data to sync between computers, the MobileMe website, and your iOS devices, you need to move your calendar data from your computer to the MobileMe servers.  
 
Note: If you are syncing all of your calendar data through iTunes to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 4.2 or later, set up your device before setting up iCal. After that you only need to follow the first 5 steps below, but you will still need to clean up duplicate calendar data as described in Resolving Duplicate Calendars with iCal in MobileMe Calendar.
 
To get your data onto MobileMe, you will need to export you local calendars and reimport them as MobileMe calendars.
  1. Quit iCal.
  2. Make sure that your MobileMe calendar is configured:
    • OS X Lion:
      1. Choose System Preferences from the Apple () menu and then click Mail, Contacts, & Calendars.
      2. Select your MobileMe account from the Accounts sidebar. If you don't see your MobileMe Account listed, click the plus sign, select MobileMe, and enter your MobileMe membername and password.
      3. Make sure that "Calendars & Reminders" is enabled in your MobileMe account settings.
    • Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard
      1. Choose System Preferences from the Apple () menu and then click MobileMe.
      2. Verify that you are signed in to the MobileMe Preference Pane in the Account section. Basic account details will be displayed if you are signed in, otherwise you'll see a Sign In field.
  3. Quit System Preferences.
  4. Open iCal. You should notice a new section in the iCal calendar list with your MobileMe member name as the name. If you don't see the new section, see Troubleshooting upgrading MobileMe Calendar. Your current calendars should appear under the On My Mac section:
     
  5. Select one of the calendars in the On My Mac section that you want to move to MobileMe Calendar. Choose File > Export > Export and save the file to a safe place.   
  6. In the MobileMe section of iCal, create a new calendar that matches the name one of the calendar you exported. Do this by choosing File > New Calendar > membername@me.com. The calendar should appear under your MobileMe member name in iCal:
  7. In the Finder, double-click the calendar you exported from iCal.
  8. When prompted, choose to import the calendar data into the newly created calendar in the MobileMe section.
  9. Repeat steps 6-9 for each calendar that is listed under On My Mac that you would like to migrate.
  10. When done, wait for the progress indicator to stop spinning. When this is complete, your data should be successfully uploaded to the MobileMe servers.
 
Verifying your data is on the MobileMe servers
 
To verify that your calendar data has been successfully merged from an iOS 4 device or uploaded from iCal to the MobileMe servers, simply visit me.com/calendar. Any data that appears there exists on the MobileMe servers. 
 
Removing duplicates from iCal
 
Now that the data exists on the MobileMe servers, you will need to remove the duplicate calendars from iCal. For more information, see Resolving Duplicate Calendars with iCal in the MobileMe Calendar.

Additional Information

If you receive alerts while importing your calendars, you should try again and limit the number of ways you are accessing MobileMe Calendar during the import process. Importing calendars is resource intensive, especially if the calendars contain many events and year's worth of data. Having multiple Calendar applications access your calendars during import may result in a resource contention issue and subsequent alerts.
 
To avoid import issues, temporarily limit your access to MobileMe Calendar during the duration of the import. Here's some guidelines:
  • Only access MobileMe Calendar from the single instance of the application that is importing calendar data. Quit any other CalDAV applications which could be accessing your MobileMe calendars on other computers or users. For example: if you are importing in iCal on your Mac, you should quit iCal, Outlook, or any other CalDAV client (as well as on any other computers or users).
  • Do not access MobileMe Calendar at me.com/calendar while you are importing calendar data.
  • Do not open, view, or edit your Calendar app on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch while you are importing calendar data.
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